I believe I'm coming upon the third week of my stay here. Since I am stuck in suburbian Athens and cannot easily access the spots that make Greece GREECE, in order to get what I can out of the experience I have no other option than to observe people's behavior.

First and foremost, I am now incredibly depressed that I grew up in America (sorry, guys). The only Americans I know who can speak a foreign language fluently are those who have lived somewhere else. I 100% blame my lack of fluency in Spanish to middle and high school. I had a Mexican friend when I was little whom I played with almost every day after kindergarten, I SHOULD be fluent! But the importance was not emphasized enough, and by the time I finished high school I was so tired of Spanish and the scatterbrained jerks we called teachers and those stupid videos that I didn't have any desire to practice it until Spain 3 years later. Now, I'm in a very foreign country where everybody knows at least two languages, but more than likely they know four. I talked to one of my classmates and actually apologized about it. I've seen my share of international students at NAU, and they all try to speak English, and I think they do a decent job speaking it. We all know how difficult the English language is, too. I know difficult, I studied Sanskrit. It's sad, our school system, and what's even sadder is the lack of motivation in Americans because of our school system.

Anyway. Not that I get enough chances to talk to anyone anyway. The Greeks are a fairly private bunch. In the US I'm used to walking by someone on the street and nodding hello, or even saying hello. Forgive me if I return to the States and act like the rudest, prissiest woman...the Greeks will stand in the middle of the hallway and not move over if you need to get by them, so I have learned to shove my way to wherever I'm going and not feel bad about it.

But, you know, I should talk to the Greeks more, because they are very knowledgeable of subjects that barely even concern them. Not that I really know what this feels like, but sometimes I almost feel like instead of being in Europe, I'm in the Middle East. Athens looks like Europe, with it's cute streets and architecturally advanced buildings...it's the talk I'm referring to. There is a lot of talk here about Saudi Arabia, Libya, Turkey, and Egypt. Things I didn't know anything about. People get heated about this stuff. It's not just the Middle East, either, they really do know a whole lot about things outside their country, as opposed to America, who seems very America-oriented (I have to work to get information about the Middle East, but here they just know). I did a little double take the other day when my political science teacher brought up Dwight Eisenhower's military-industrial complex. I would not expect an American to know little details like that about some other country. They're so well-informed here! And they don't even have to be!

My final thought concerns my behavior now that I'm in Greece. It's starting to set in that when in Rome, be like the Romans. If you don't know about "Greek time," don't attend a school in Greece without learning about it first. Teachers are late to their own class ALL THE TIME. A couple of dance workshops I've attended have started late. Evidently in 2004, the officials at the Olympics were worried that the opening ceremony was going to run on Greek time, so the construction workers hurried into the stadium early and pretended they weren't finished, and they wound up rousing everyone to action right on time, with Greek music and everything. So I'm getting the idea that I should slow down and not expect everything to happen all at once. Another adjustment I want to make has to do with food. Some of the food I'm used to eating, like cereal and granola bars, aren't cheap here. And other foods, like dried garbanzo beans and feta, are everywhere. I have to remember that Greek salads are very dependent on tomatoes and onions, foods that I never normally buy. I'm not saying I'm going to start drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes all the time (I quote one of the Greek-Americans here: "Our economy is in a sh*thole, but we're still going to drink our coffee!"), but I understand that I can afford to change my habits a bit if I still want to feel immersed in culture.

Okay, I'm finished. :)