tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13460251.post1516210694960910131..comments2023-04-12T13:49:38.219+03:00Comments on My Big Fat Greek Life: The Land that Sense Forgotbollybuttonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15576835810755107181noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13460251.post-1993670628618943082008-07-14T17:28:00.000+03:002008-07-14T17:28:00.000+03:00you know, the process of learning to speak greek h...you know, the process of learning to speak greek helped me let go of a lot of inhibitions. I had to loosen up in order to speak it to the effect that in the beginning, i would speak really good greek if I was a bit merry, of course that was a razor fine balance because being anything more than merry ruins my greek. i'm not scared to try anything now, I go around on my tavels spouting bastard versions of the local language, whereas before i would never dare to even have a bash at the basics.<BR/><BR/>It'll be a million times easier for you because you already speak other languages. plus it's probably in your DNA!bollybuttonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15576835810755107181noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13460251.post-50194764109139445592008-07-14T17:14:00.000+03:002008-07-14T17:14:00.000+03:00Grammar thankfully isnt that much of a problem to ...Grammar thankfully isnt that much of a problem to me, I enjoy it. The way a sentence is structured and the vocab used, I get an insight into the minds of my grandparents and why they phrase their English in specific ways. I have just been on this intense, linguistically overloading Greek summer course on Paros. I am reeling from all the grammar they crammed into us. My major problem is speaking. I write well, but remember none of those words when I try to speak unless I see them in front of me! Its simply an excuse to go back. Though at the moment, I am taking on German as well..my boyf and I are going to Germany to visit his parents in a few weeks....StacyFhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12742783548846591940noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13460251.post-35097473464564963992008-07-14T13:10:00.000+03:002008-07-14T13:10:00.000+03:00Another fantastic and so-true post! What IS happen...Another fantastic and so-true post! What IS happening with the men, like you say? I've noticed it in Melbourne as well. They'll notice a pretty girl on the train and instead of going up to her and saying hello, they'll write in to the free commuter newspaper, hoping that she'll read it... Maybe us chicks are at fault too, we make it hard for them to not look stupid or something....<BR/><BR/>Anyway, great post! Hope you enjoy the hot hot weather back in Athina!<BR/><BR/>GG.GeekGoddesshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11452113338327303972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13460251.post-950530656138731302008-07-11T00:40:00.000+03:002008-07-11T00:40:00.000+03:00congratulations dear, now you're 100% officially m...congratulations dear, now you're 100% officially married and none can hurt/harm you with words or actions. I'm from the people who dont feel "greek", I feel like "xeni" as another commenter said, yet, every time I speak with people from the other side of the ocean or enjoy your blog, I feel that warmth for my home country and my origin and reconsider it.<BR/>Thank you for the educational info about marriage, it's interesting information. We have stuff like that here too, like when the bride leaves the house, she breaks a loaf of bread in 2, facing out, giving the one piece behind (without turning) and taking the other to the car, symbolising the breaking of her self, leaving a piece in her old home(without turning back) and taking the rest for her new life.<BR/>I can not speak much about Athens, as I am used to another city,Thessaloniki, but I know that things are a lot different from UK. <BR/>P.S. My husband belives that there are times that universe send you some not-to-miss oportunities in life and YOU FEEL IT deep inside and if you grab them by the head, it really changes your life.Psofofeggarohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07047690824143686668noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13460251.post-34769951391409022782008-07-10T19:09:00.000+03:002008-07-10T19:09:00.000+03:00ps. smaro, my Greek is still very much a project i...ps. smaro, my Greek is still very much a project in working! My grammar is the problem, but I got as far as I am with a year's worth of double sets of classes, and practice. You pick things up here and there, from TV, from songs, I often rely on lyrics to help me remember grammar because their rhythm makes them easy to remember. <BR/><BR/>Must try harder though. My pronounciation is apparently very good though, because I can speak an Asian language so the sounds were not unfamiliar to me.bollybuttonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15576835810755107181noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13460251.post-84066647690872883472008-07-10T19:05:00.000+03:002008-07-10T19:05:00.000+03:00Wow I am so glad I'm not the only one who feels th...Wow I am so glad I'm not the only one who feels this way. How eloquent you all are in describing it! I too miss the friendliness of people when I'm in London. People will smile and act like your best friend but the moment you turn your back they'll stab you without a second thought. It also makes you lose your own openness because if you start chatting to people like I do after 2 years in Athens, they think you're crazy and slowly shuffle away. How sick is that?<BR/><BR/>And you know who I feel really are losing the plot in the UK? THe men. They are scared to even look at a woman. I swear you'd walk down the street and not even feel like the opposite sex. There is no longing, no desire, no appreciation. Everyone, men and women, are walking along with their heads down or in a book. Look up people, there are beautiful things going on around you. So many of the guys have turned into cocky bastards because of this, and don't even get me started on the city people. I have the misfortune of working in that part of town and it's all dicks at dawn down there. <BR/><BR/>Hand on my heart I'd take a crispy melon in the Greek sunshine over any caviar, champagne or pay rise.bollybuttonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15576835810755107181noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13460251.post-91126021219391046752008-07-10T18:06:00.000+03:002008-07-10T18:06:00.000+03:00Hi Like the previous comments, I really loved this...Hi <BR/>Like the previous comments, I really loved this post. You hit the nail on the head in the eloquent way that you do. I love reading your blog and when I drove past an IKEA last week in Pireaus, I smiled thinking about your adventure walking to IKEA! <BR/><BR/>I grew up in Botswana, Africa in a society where being different and of mixed heritage was normal. I was surrounded by my Mother's Greek family with its traditions, loudness and love. I moved to Dublin 10 years ago, where Dad's from and it wasnt the same. I was always Irish, just with a romantic background, but Irish to the core. That has always irritated me and I found myself stiffled at school. I love Dublin as a city but on a recent trip to Greece, I didnt miss it. I didnt miss the familiarity. I definitely didnt miss the weather, and my palate is protesting against bland food, routine boring sandwiches for lunch and sub-standard bread! The weirdest is, I didnt miss my family either. To me, they belong in the Greek environment I was inhabiting, it felt like they lived just around the corner. Maybe I should move to Greece!!?<BR/><BR/>I do have a question though, I have struggled to learn the language spending many years on it and I would love to know how you did it? My spoken is just too bad!StacyFhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12742783548846591940noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13460251.post-64501961093439953052008-07-09T22:34:00.000+03:002008-07-09T22:34:00.000+03:00I've been reading and enjoying your blog for a whi...I've been reading and enjoying your blog for a while bollybutton, but this is the first time I've felt compelled to post - this was my favourite entry yet. <BR/><BR/>Born and bred in London to Greek parents, I've always felt torn between London and Athens, especially recently. To the neutral observer, there should be no comparison between the two - London is London, right? Epicentre of the hip and happening universe. He who is bored of London... etc. While Greece wrecks my head. <BR/><BR/>And yet, and yet... Athens has heart and soul. Beneath the surface, London is dead inside - a cold-hearted bitch of a capital. I've really had enough of its frightened and frightening teenagers, its cutthroat careerists, braying City boys, stony-faced posers, unapproachable and sullen-looking fashion victims, harrassed secretaries, and miserable, lonely oligarchs. This is surely the most socially dysfunctional city on earth and probably has the biggest concentration of utter tossers too. <BR/><BR/>Athens may have its irritating, shouty people, its self-declared anarchists, its casual racists and zealous nationalists, its rude, surly shop assistants and inconsiderate drivers, not to mention that ghastly machismo that pervades so much of Greece, but underpinning it all one does at least get the sense that people still value the things in life that matter. It has a humanity that London lacks. You can reach out to people and they will respond. In London you have to peel away layer upon layer of guardedness. It's too much like hard work. <BR/><BR/>Increasingly I'm drawn to Athens... now if they could just sort out their graffiti epidemic!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13460251.post-4583261232085422712008-07-09T15:13:00.000+03:002008-07-09T15:13:00.000+03:00This post really got to me, as I've been torn betw...This post really got to me, as I've been torn between going to the UK (where my father is from) and staying here. It's undeniable that life here in Greece can be difficult for a xeni like me but I've never wanted to live in England and I didn't know why. <BR/><BR/>The news lately is giving me more reasons, though - like the all-too common youth violence. I always ask friends over there if that's just what they show on the news and if things are actually better than they appear... and the answer I get is 'No, it really is like that here'. It makes me sad to know that I am justified in not wanting to go, I rather hoped I could be proved wrong.<BR/><BR/>I know Greece has more than its fair share of problems but the one thing it has that England doesn't have is my heart. I can see the harsher realities of life here alongside Ellada's beauty and warmth and I accept both. For some reason, I can't do the same with the UK.<BR/><BR/>Anyway, sorry to blabber on. I'm glad you're posting, your blog is one of my daily reads and as essential as sunshine!vultureshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17124296193677952420noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13460251.post-31370908808967888582008-07-09T11:00:00.000+03:002008-07-09T11:00:00.000+03:00Congratulations to your marriage!Of course we noti...Congratulations to your marriage!<BR/><BR/>Of course we notice when you don't write... something is missing without your excellent articles!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13460251.post-47765886777455998632008-07-08T18:35:00.000+03:002008-07-08T18:35:00.000+03:00dd- no elaboration needed, you know where i'm comi...dd- no elaboration needed, you know where i'm coming from<BR/><BR/>anon - I have a lot of optimism for Greece, and I pray you guys don't lose your human ness along the road to progress<BR/><BR/>itelli - you hit the nail on the head. You even have to pay to take a dump in most places, surely that should be free.bollybuttonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15576835810755107181noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13460251.post-85034920375469821812008-07-08T18:32:00.000+03:002008-07-08T18:32:00.000+03:00Few years ago, I had rented a car. At some point I...Few years ago, I had rented a car. At some point I parked it somewhere, but the rear overhang (behind the wheels) was on a double yellow line. That is, four fifths of the car (including all four wheels) were parked legally and the entire car did not obstruct any access to any other vehicle. <BR/><BR/>But I got a ticket. That is the common sense in the Land of the Black Cloud. They are all sheep. They are worse than the Germans, no matter how much they love laughing at the Germans. There is no scope for a law to be interpreted with the human dimension; the law is the law and everyone must follow it to the letter.<BR/><BR/>And, finally, everything has a price. Money must be exchanged even if it is for the most useless thing in the entire human history. <BR/><BR/>Do u see any room for human-ness?itellihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02374699620249142885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13460251.post-26795518098824638802008-07-08T16:20:00.000+03:002008-07-08T16:20:00.000+03:00Ooooooh congrats on your Home Land wedding!Also, y...Ooooooh congrats on your Home Land wedding!<BR/>Also, your post impressed me madly. I was one of the people living in Greece, feeling increasingly frustrated by my own country and the ways it treats me. But reading this, I reconsidered, and started thinking about what this country and its people gives me, despite the problems. <BR/>When thinking that my British friend asked my why we don't have swimming pools to go to on weekends, as a response to my saying that we go to the beach each weekend, and that he found it more fun to go get drunk instead of go swim and enjoy, I end up being rather happy with my Greek life!<BR/>By the way, thanks for the post, I may not have had company for my morning coffee, but I did for my lunch break!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13460251.post-59597155652905624842008-07-08T13:43:00.000+03:002008-07-08T13:43:00.000+03:00I feel this post ! And congratulations...Looking f...I feel this post ! <BR/><BR/>And congratulations...<BR/><BR/>Looking forward to pictures and words on the ceremony...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com