As my frustrometer shows at the very start, I did not want to be in Athens. This is no reflection of the people or even the place. I knew nothing of either of these because I spent the first three days either in bed or dying to get back to bed. I have no idea what got me feeling so bad, a combination between jet-lag, dehydration and a tiny bit of culture shock all at once is what I’ve chalked it up to be. I have found a trend with myself on trips like these that I can also correlate to my life as a whole. I really like change and I really like a challenge but before I like anything new, I have to go through the starting process of absolutely hating it. Every trip that I have been on, move to a new place that I have made takes me much longer to adjust than everyone else. The great, positive spin on this is that because I am so down in the beginning, once I get used to the change I am on top of the world and completely in love with the decision I have made. It just always times me a little time to realize that. This realization has also helped me to become more patient. I am one of the most patient people I know when it comes to dealing with others I can keep a level head and handle difficult situations as they come at me. What I learned on this trip specifically is how to be patient with myself. When I got sick and everyone else was able to climb mountains and explore the town, I knew that it would be better to rest now to be well for the rest of the trip but it is still harder than anything to deny yourself the adventure.
What I am taking from the experience most is the realization that humans are able to communicate to simply without even using language. I am very interested in studying language and I was thrilled to be able to learn Italian at Deree while practicing Greek during the day. I always feel that I have to know exactly how to say what I want before I speak another language. I am terrified of being taken the wrong way and therefore I often avoid speaking at all. I get awful stage fright in everyday life and I freeze. What I realized here is that freezing was okay because it opened me up to a new way of communicating with non-verbal communication. I played charades with everyone and I was great at it! This is the only form of communication that is the same no matter what country you visit and that is more helpful than I could have ever imagined. When I visited Ecuador and Spain I was able to use the very little Spanish that I do know to get my point across but in Greek I was absolutely lost. I did my best in the grocery store as a literally pretended to be a cow and then act out the grinding of meat motion to let the woman know I was interested in buying ground beef. I guess I really do not have as much shame as I thought I did. The best part about “speaking” this way in Greece was that no one ever wrote me off because I didn’t know the language, they just sort of joined in on my game to help me out.
As far as what I will leave here, I am not quite sure. I think back to what I have learned from international students visiting and studying at University of North Florida and I do not think you learn as much when you are in your comfortable home compared to when you are in the unknown. Therefore, I do not know how much of an impact I have made on the Greeks but possibly I am just being modest or oblivious. I do like the fact that when I travel I am an ambassador for the country I come from so thinking more into the matter, I am sure I have left Greeks with a different opinion of American than they had before. I hope that their minds were changed for the better but it is always hard to be sure. First of all it is hard to gauge their initial opinions of Americans, while they say that they know Americans to be nice and a little naïve, I have time and again also heard the words lazy, spoiled and unhealthy. Not to say this is what they originally thought but I hope that after meeting me and the rest of our group, their opinions would be very different from this. The students in our Italian class were very impressed with the amount of work we put into school and that Erin, Jessica and I scored some of the highest grades on exams. This should have squashed at least the stereotype that we are lazy Americas.
There are things I take from Greece that I have already adapted to my own life. First I am much pickier about the foods that I eat as far as quality and freshness, so this is a good thing. I do not cook and I am not the most educated when it comes to food so shopping at local markets in Greece taught me that fruits and vegetables have a season. Who knew? I am deceived by Publix providing me with tomatoes everyday of the year and I am now realizing they are basically made of plastic. I sat down with my mom to look at when certain produce is fresh and in season and so far the plan is to only buy during the “fresh” times. I think in America we need to start demanding to have healthier food by only buying when it is in season and also buying healthy, organic food to bring the prices down. We have it backward here paying more for food that packaged, processed and is making us sick. That was one of my favorite parts about Greece: that we could buy fresh food for much cheaper than packaged and brand name.
The trip in its entirety was so successful and continued to fill my thirst for travel. We live in a bubble in America, trips and experiences like these help me to slowly burst through my bubble. And a big THANK YOU to you all for such a wonderful experience!
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While I am used to and more comfortable writing in a more narrative form, I am going to organize this reflection paper into certain points to help organize my thoughts and make my points easier to understand.
Flying High: Walking off the plane in Athens, Greece with no cell phone I was more than “freaking out” that I wouldn’t have someone waiting at baggage claim holding a sign with my name. I had already gotten used to the New York and Dusseldorf, Germany airports where I strolled on by the crowd with no one waiting for me. But here, thank goodness, I see “Thomas” written in permanent marker. I knew exactly where to go and that’s the strange thing about airports, they all seem to be the same. After the five weeks I spent in Greece and noticed the slower pace compared to the U.S., I did not see any difference in pace between ‘airport culture’ in each different country. It is a place where everything is run on a strict time schedule and there is really no room for what we’ve been calling “Greek time.” Once I stepped into the airport for my departing flight, the movement of the crowds shifted from a slow wandering through the streets to a fast paced, arms swinging, purposeful stride. Although the Greeks seemed to mix right into the flow of this fast pace, I think it must be frustrating to have to change your speed of life to such a fast one when you have always been used to taking your time. In the opposite but still same way, Americans are a very fast moving people and we get the most frustrated when we are not able to maintain this pace. A very familiar example is trying to get through the supermarket checkout line or any line for that matter when we feel that we have so many more important things to get done in our day. Imagine walking into an airport as an American and having to wait for hours in the check-in line. We would blame that on lazy workers other than realizing it is just the norm of the country we are in. It is interesting that we see faster as better when any pace at an airport would be fine, it would just require an earlier arrival and that’s when we really get frustrated: “as if two hours isn’t enough time to waste in an airport, what’s taking so long?!” –quoted from an American flying out of the Athens airport. I chalked it up to a matter of perspective; those who hate airports hate to wait. I personally, love them! It’s more time to read, people watch and journal which is all the things I always wish I had more time for. So for me, and possibly the Greeks, this time is a treat!
The Educated, The Greek: Because they have been through such hard times, Greeks are very aware of their place in the world and by Greeks I do not mean just the old men that sit in cafes and discuss politics, I mean all Greeks. I am jealous of students my age in this respect for having so much knowledge of foreign affairs and even for being educated in the current condition of their government and national affairs. We are not taught in America about these things in our school and I honestly made it to middle school believing the whole world spoke English; shame on Beachland Elementary School, shame on my parents. What I never had instilled in me was a desire to know about other people and societies different from my own. I had to cultivate that within myself, by myself. The want to know more about other cultures, I believe makes you a better person. In my class at Deree, Greek students were constantly asking questions about America and I found myself being thrilled to tell them about America but never really coming up with questions about Greece, I just did not know what questions to ask. I want to learn what the good questions are to ask but unfortunately, I don’t know many people at home that can help me with that. God Bless America, and in this instance only, I say that sarcastically.
Yum, yum, yum: The restaurant culture has been talked about with no end since we got to Greece so I will repeat the basics briefly: time spent at restaurant, music played inside, courtesy of wait staff. Now the two points that we have not gone over time and again in class that I will discuss are tipping and the food itself. Tipping in America is a necessity to supplement waiter’s paychecks and most servers try to charm customers as much as possible to guarantee a bigger tip at the conclusion of their meal. The marvelous thing about Greek restaurants is that waiters stop by your table consistently enough but also do not bombard you with “how is everything, huh, huh, how is it?” every few minutes. In a place where tipping is discouraged, I am almost wishing I could give more to these people for how perfect they are as servers. The other big difference is the food: fresh, filling, flavorful! I have never been to a restaurant where I left feeling full but not stuffed and fully satisfied with the quality of the food. I am not a food expert at all but that is a good testament to the fact that Greek food kicks butt. Food is not just a necessity in Greece but is an event. They are also very conscious of what they put in their bodies which is what keeps food in grocery stores and on their tables fresh. They are not willing to compromise their food even to speed up the restaurant experience. It is all about priorities.
I have had all of this time to look back on the differences and similarities of Greek and American culture but nothing has really hit me any harder coming back home. When I went on my first trip out of the country last year to Ecuador I was thrilled with every second but miserable when I came home. This trip was very different. I found myself having trouble adjusting to the pace and daily activities in Athens at the very start but I was just fine coming back home. Every place is different but I found myself drawn to a lot more of the culture in Greece and also Spain (my small trip afterward) than I am even to American culture. All of those ideas are mentioned in more detail in my reflection paper.
AND
I liked the way the Doorway to Greece article was arranged but for America, I thought the categories should be altered. Here is my rendition written in the same way: for someone who has never visited our country. I do not want to come across as a negative person writing this. The way I see it is that the Doorway to Greece article shined some light on the great things about Greece to help educate those who believed it was not such a great country. Most people believe that America is the land of opportunity and they relate our culture to Jersey Shore and other MTV reality shows. Other nations seem to believe that in America we have it all and everything is the way it should be. I hope to shed some light on the hidden good and bad about America the same way that Doorway to Greece has done.
Welcome to the land of the free and home of the brave.
America is proud. America is boastful.
America can be obnoxious, but she means well.
Mr. Mom is still macho: Men in America are changing roles more than ever before. While the traditional man is still working a 9-5 job to come home in time for dinner, many fathers have had to put their careers on the backburner to raise children while the wife is considered the “breadwinner” of the family bringing in most of the income. To some American men, this fact is a little humiliating so we don’t talk about it. For those who have come to terms with this switch, it is a big help for strong women looking to get a head in the workplace.
Making dough out of the kitchen: Women are also breaking out of their traditional caretaking roles to become business women, politicians and professionals in the working world. Raising children is still a big priority to those women who choose that path but in comparison, there are some “career women” who now choose to make a living building up their jobs other than building a family.
The next generation: Children in America can be separated into two groups. The first is the traditional group that grows up getting good enough grades in school to attend college at a decent university that their family can just barely afford. The other group can be called, for categorizing purposes, ‘the wanderers.’ These kids are those still thriving off the peace & love magic of the sixties; they want to live life their own way without rules and without societal expectations. Power to the people!
Recovering ‘foodies’: AMERICA LOVES FOOD. We just are not the most educated in how to enjoy food a proper way. We love to preach about eating healthy and choosing organic but also hold the most fast food burger joints per city than any other nation. There is a big push for lowering childhood obesity with programs now backed by First Lady, Michelle Obama while at the same time most women’s magazines display covers including ‘Get Thin for Summer,’ ‘Make Him Crave Your Body,’ & ‘Eat This, Not That.’ While we are working so hard to get children and teens to slim down, there is a separate culture obsessed with the idea which leads to anorexia, bulimia and negative body image. We have not yet found a balance.
“Mi casa es su casa”: Family life in America can get messy but this is one of the best things about us. While the movies paint a picture of the perfect American family having a married couple, two children and a dog living within the confines of a white picket fence, you actually have to search to find just that. Families come in all sizes, races, ages and personalities and still manage to live under one roof. Divorce is not so uncommon here with a current 50% divorce rate which can really make newlyweds cringe. What is good about divorce being an openly discussed topic is that families are able to intermingle much easier than they ever have been. Picture some version of the Brady Bunch being the norm in most American homes.
Gooooo team!: Football is king. Baseball is second. We jump on the bandwagon and cheer for soccer during the World Cup but that’s about it.
Ghana? Is that a disease?: As a nation we tend not to be so caught up on foreign affairs, some would even call us ignorant. In school geography and foreign affairs are not taught until high school and by this point, the idea is literally so foreign to students that they block out the information. We as a culture give high respect to those well versed in international affairs but it is not a necessity to be one of them.
