By BETHANY SHERROW
Features Editor

(WARRENSBURG, Mo., digitalBURG) — Two weeks ago one UCM professor was enjoying 80 degree weather in sunny Cuba.

Archimidis Kalaitzidis, professor of political science, took 11 students to Cuba over the winter break.

“(Cuba) is I guess politically as far away from the United States that you can go and be in a safe country, and it was fascinating,” Kalaitzidis said.

He has found through his travels and international relations studies that the basic needs of all humans are the same all over the world. Everyone needs food, safety and basic human rights. Kalaitzidis said things get complicated in how people organize their governments, what their culture dictates, and what religions they choose to follow.

Kalaitzidis has visited over 20 countries for an extended stay and said that he never tires of learning and experiencing a new country.

“Different places, different experiences that I want to say are all equally fascinating,” Kalaitzidis said. “It’s always fascinating to go to a new country.”

Kalaitzidis said his love for politics, travel and international relations probably began growing up in his home town of Thessaloniki, Greece.

“It’s the second largest city in Greece,” he said. “Thessaloniki is about a million people. It’s got a very diverse history.”

Kalaitzidis said when he was a kid growing up in Greece, he was surrounded by politics and that it probably influenced him.

Originally, when he moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, as an undergraduate student he was studying economics. He found he took a special interest in economics that incorporated a political element or explained how government activity changed finance.

“I was better at politics anyway,” he said. “I was interested mostly in the policy and impact of things that were happening, so my second major was political science. And at the end the professors of political science said, ‘Eh, you’re more of an international relations guy, you care about these things so why don’t you do your master’s and PhD in that?’”

He earned his master’s degree and doctorate in political science at Temple University in Philadelphia and then stayed at the school to teach for 10 years.

“Then I was offered this job and I was very glad to take it,” he said. “(I) moved from Philadelphia to here. Boy that was a move, I don’t know if I would ever be able to do that now.”

While living in the Midwest was an adjustment, Kalaitzidis said it is a nice place to raise a family. He has three sons.

He still tries to travel as much as he can, especially to his hometown. He said he tries to go back every other year if possible and wants to be close to the sea often.

“For me I grew up in a city that is a harbor, I can’t tell you how much I miss it sometimes,” Kalaitzidis said. “It’s an effort all year to find myself next to the beach somewhere.”

He still has many places he’d love to see.

“There are 192 countries in the world, I’m still just making a dent,” he said.

Kalaitzidis said every trip has its own personality and that even if a country has awful politics, it probably has majestic sights and unique people. He said people often forget that there is a world out there and that for him, as a professor of international relations, he must experience the world in all of its vastness.

“Being in international relations, how do you teach a world that you haven’t traveled to?”