Ralph Esposito has read about and seen pictures of the Parthenon and other classical ruins on the Acropolis in Athens, Greece.

But the Carroll College fine arts professor had never had a chance to view those masterpieces in person.

That all changed this summer, when Esposito traveled to Greece and Bulgaria through the prestigious Fulbright scholarship program.

“We’re walking around, and you turn the corner — and there’s the Acropolis,” he said in a recent interview about his trip. “It blows you away, it really does. It’ll never leave me.”

But this was no sightseeing vacation, even if most of the costs were covered by the program. While Esposito traveled to a number of historical, cultural and religious sites in the two countries — he has hundreds of photos from the trip, including shots of cliff-top monasteries and beautiful pieces of art — those 42 days abroad were, in a big way, work.

The Fulbright program centers on cultural immersion and saturation, with the twin aim of broadening the worldview of its participants, who are educators or school administrators from all levels of schooling, and giving them gobs of information and experience to bring back to their students and colleagues.

“You just have incredible amounts of detail, of information,” Esposito said. “This thing was an amazing opportunity for me … total overload, but so wonderful.”

He will now develop two curriculum projects required by the program — essentially lesson plans for educators at the primary, secondary and collegiate levels. His work will be available to teachers and professors across the country for use.

An artist who paints and makes pottery, Esposito will focus on the pottery techniques and traditions developed over several thousand years in both Greece and Bulgaria.

While those lesson plans may help students across the nation learn those highly regarded techniques, Esposito also plans to work with Carroll students on those same traditions, adding some international flavor to his basic art classes.

He also plans a whole series of artwork based on his travels, and he’s working to put together a slideshow for fellow faculty and the public.

Though he was obviously interested in the countries’ pottery traditions and heritage, the knowledge he gained is only a sliver of the experiences he picked up across the globe.

Esposito and his group attended more than 20 formal lectures, along with classical music and traditional dance performances. The group toured art museums and countless cultural sites, from the eye-popping cliff-top monasteries to historical Greek and Roman amphitheaters, monuments and more.

The group had just two days off during the trip, but Esposito found time to swim in both the Aegean Sea and the Black Sea.

Before the trip, Esposito hadn’t left the United States in more than 20 years, and after three decades with Carroll College, along with the responsibilities of home and family, he was ready to shake things up in his life.

“I just really felt like I needed to do something different,” he said.

The gamble, it seems, worked — Esposito is still trying to make sense of all that he saw and did on the other side of the world. When he speaks about the trip, it’s a cascade of information and memories, some big and some small.

In Bulgaria, for instance, he was surprised to find a vibrant, fertile arts community that has sprung up since the country changed from communism to democracy. Artists, writers and musicians are able to tackle subjects they hadn’t in decades, and the results are inspiring in their creativity and insight, he said.

In Greece, Esposito found a culture still, understandably, tied to its past. Ancient Greece, in its time, represented the height of philosophy, art, architecture, government and civilization. At every turn, ruins of Greek and Roman sites remind residents and visitors of that history. While Bulgarian artists often use traditional methods to create original pieces, the Greeks often simply make copies of ancient pottery and art.

“Their history — they’re not quite, but almost, obsessed with it,” he said.

The little things, of course, also have a lasting impression. Skim milk and diet pop aren’t available in those countries. Bathrooms are often different in many ways than facilities in the United States. And the food, too, is much different, and not just because it’s unique — each meal is prepared with fresh ingredients, and microwaves are rare.

The whole experience, he said, opened his eyes to a world he didn’t know.

“Here we all are, living on the same planet … (Greeks and Bulgarians) have as much value as the rest of us, but they live a different way,” he said.

Reporter Larry Kline: 447-4075 or larry.kline@helenair.com