Alright, so I’m writing this from my living room in my apartment on Friday morning…About half of my classmates from the BCA program have taken off to Mykonos for another weekend in the Greek islands. I wanted to go, but felt like it wasn’t a great idea considering I have a bunch of stuff to do, the island is probably shut down for winter (even though it’s still 80 degrees) and I just wanted to decompress for a few days from a month of traveling and just going non-stop.
Anyway, I got up earlier than I wanted to because I met up with some of the girls in our program and went to an open market about 200 meters from my apartment…We’d gone before and gotten some great deals on fruit, so we went again today. It was definitely a pretty cool experience and a little overwhelming at the same time having Greek farmers yell at you from either side of the street to buy their stuff. After the market trip, I walked back and passed a Starbucks that is right down the street from my place…I’ve walked past it every day so I thought it was about time I compared Greek Starbucks to American Starbucks. I ordered a frappucino for 4.80…Euros. I’m not great at math, but when you adjust for the dollar sucking worse than the Mets this past season it comes to close to 8 bucks for a cup of coffee. I nearly told them to take it back. However, after I took my first sip of it, I realized one thing about Starbucks. They train their employees well. This Greek dude that made my frap not only spoke awesome English, but he made the drink exactly as the local BCC students would have if I ordered one at the Centerton Square Starbucks. Awesome. It was like a little taste of home. This experience prompted me to think about some of the other observations I’ve made lately after reflecting on my first month here. Here we go:
-I’ve watched some shows I never thought I would here simply because English TV is so hard to come by…some include: Oprah, E True Hollywood Stories, Ripley’s Believe it or Not (circa 1995), and some sitcoms from the 1980s. Good TV has consisted of House and CSI…Not much selection, but it makes you appreciate it at home so much more.
-Frappes (not frappucinos) need to come to America. They will change your life.
-The above statement also applies to cheese pies (basically really flakey pastries with amazing cheeses inside) siesta time, and GYROS.
-I’ve eaten approximately 30 gryos since I’ve been here.
-Greeks love club music. Doesn’t matter the time of day, either. Nothing like hearing blaring synthesizer at 8:30 in the morning.
-Crossing 4 lanes of insane Athens traffic 4 to 5 times a day gets a little old.
-I’ve decided when I retire it will be to Santorini.
-Apparently recycling trucks come at 4:45 in the morning in Athens.
-Just assume all stray dogs (and there are more than I’ve ever seen) in Athens carry tapeworm.
-Sea urchins live on rocks in the ocean just off the coast of Aegina. Be careful swimming out there.
-If you want to see baseball in Europe, find an Irish pub…they’re run by Americans.
-Pictures don’t do a justice to anything that I’ve witnessed here.
-And finally, every stereotype portrayed in My Big Fat Greek Wedding is ridiculously accurate. When they say that every word in English comes from a Greek word, they’re right. And they will be more than happy to explain it to you.
No comments:
Post a Comment