It did not take long for me to be intrigued by the impressive company that is Wargaming. I was amazed from the very beginning. Starting with their employee-driven values, organized culture, and beautiful artifacts and features, it was clear to me that this company embodied professionalism. One of the most impressive things, however, was the view, seen pictured, they had at one of the top floors that overlooked the city, it was breathtaking, yet a little scary at the same time. After getting the opportunity to see the city from the top of the building, it was time to listen in on one of the employees speaking about a surplus of topics having to do with Wargaming. I am not the biggest gamer, yet also not the smallest, so I figured I would know a lot of the information prior to the presentation. Little did I know, there was a lot of new information packed into the beautifully put together slide show. I had always been curious about how war game companies, such as Wargaming interact with their competitors, or “peers” as the employee at Wargaming put it. I found out that in terms of the relationship that Wargaming has with other war game developers such as Pixonic, the makers of a game I played when I was younger called War Robots, their relationship would not be what many expect. He told me that not only do they compare their apps to those of Pixonic and other companies to see the similarities and differences, however they also offer each other feedback. I found this to be very surprising as why would a company want to give advice to a company different than their own that is competing in the same field as them? This is still a question I have, and hopefully one day will have answered. One question I did get answered however was how Wargaming related to Supply Chain Management. There are 6 main transport modes that companies/producers use to get their products from one place to another, rail, truck, ship, plane, pipeline, and electronic. In lots of companies, more than one of these modes are used, however what is interesting about Wargaming is that the only use one, electronic. The employee said that this was for a reason, using electronic transport, there is no physical inventory/shipping, saving money and time, it involves instant delivery, and is extremely flexible. This makes a lot of sense, and makes me wonder why other types of companies do not do the same. Learning more about the gaming industry was one of the highlights of my day, and has now made me more open to gaining even more knowledge on the world that is electronic games.

The other half of the day was spent visiting Kakopetria village, and St. Nicholas of the Roof Church. Both of these excursions provided great entertainment for different reasons. Starting off with Kakopetria village, I learned that lots of people who live there produce and sell their own goods. For example, there was one lady who was selling fruits marinated in syrup on a front porch. I assume this is a way to attract the individuals willing to hike up the steep streets that consume the village to spend some money. It also came to my attention that lots of people, tourists specifically, enjoy visiting the village as there was a newly built hotel, which was gorgeous, overlooking a river that ran through the accompanying mountains. Following the walk through the village, we visited St. Nicholas of the Roof Church where I learned that many of the pieces of art that were on the walls, are from as early as the 11th century. I have been to a lot of historical buildings and churches all over the world, and I think that this church in particular held the oldest pieces of artwork I have ever seen. When it comes to the reason as to why “roof” is in the name of the church, I found out that it is because there are two roofs, and not the typical one roof. There was an original roof, however since the mountains, which is where both the village and the church are located, get a lot of rain and snow, it was necessary that the church were to have another, stronger, and better roof. After this realization, a second roof was added, and it is actually visible to those who look at the church from afar to see both the original and new roof. Being someone who can listen to the history of about any object or place all day, I thoroughly enjoyed getting to visit these two wonderful and historical sites.