Living in different parts of the world opens up such new opportunities. Opportunities to learn and grow, to have new experiences, and mostly to meet new and different people. Even moving to Iowa changed my perspective. I met people who grew up on farms, that had never lived in a city, that had a more conservative attitude on things than the tree hugging liberals of Seattle. It made me realize that not everyone is exposed to diversity or thinks that vegetarian is the way to go. Our environment really does shape our perspective on things and exposure to other and different surroundings challenges the way we look at things.
Studying sociology in college allowed me to look at this phenomenon intellectually but living overseas has allowed me to look at it personally. I don’t necessarily want to be a sociologist and even two years after college its difficult to remember the details of specific theories or the contributions of famous sociologists but it is did give me an appreciation and a fascination with cultures, with people, and how societies with norms, languages, and traditions shape humans into individuals with many things in common.
As different as American and Greek culture are there are still so many commonalities between them. I think generally people want to be happy, they want to laugh, to be loved/liked, and they need to connect with other people. At first it seems you need a common language to do this but after living amongst many people I can’t communicate with I have learned that you don’t always need to speak the same language.
I found myself laughing at my dad when he was visiting because before a game as I was shooting I looked up to see him deep in conversation with our general secretary’s mother who speaks one word of English: “good”. That is so typical of my dad, to make friends with someone he doesn’t know and can’t openly communicate with. But after living over here I understand the important of unconventional communications. Its amazing how close you can get to someone with sign language and a smile. When I think about it, some of my favorite people here, the people that put a smile on my face, do not speak any English.
The general secretaries mom-
I’m not even really sure what her name is but she cooks for me and comes to all our games, to cheer for us and yell at the refs. She’s about 65 or so and I see her riding her scooter around the square occasionally. After games I give her kisses and ask how she is doing and I can see in her eyes that she is proud of me. Sometimes we go out to eat and between my limited Greek, some help from her son, and an occasional “good” from her, we bond.
Hussein the c.d. guy-
Hussein is from Syria and sells black market c.d.s for a living. Everyday I see him with a huge bag of c.d.s walking through the square, in every coffee shop stopping when people show an interest. People pretty much only buy black market c.d.s and dvds almost always sold by Africans or other immigrants. Hussein is so incredibly sweet always stopping to talk to me at Starbucks despite the fact that we don’t speak the same language. We exchange formalities and smile when we see each other which is fairly often. He asks me how I am in Greek and tells me simple things but mostly he says “good, very good” and gives me a huge thumbs up as he walks away to make a living. We’ve exchanged phone numbers and he wants me to come have a drink at his house which is hilarious because we can’t really communicate.(Which by the way is another thing I have noticed while living overseas: The fundamental difference between women and men is that men don’t seem to care if we don’t speak the same language while the thought of trying to date someone I can’t talk to hardly seems worth it.) Anyway, back to Hussein. I love that we can feel like we know each other despite the language barrier but it also makes me sad that I can’t ask him what is life is like. I mean what does a person leave behind to come to a foreign country, mostly likely alone, to sell black market cds? And how remarkable is it that he does it all with a smile on his face. Everyday he walks around selling cds for five euros and I wonder what that is like. I want to know what his story is.
Toula the cleaning lady-
Toula is this short Greek woman that mops the floors of our gym in the mornings. I see her there cleaning up and moving between the rooms of our gym, whistling and talking to people. Remarkably I speak more Greek than she speaks English which, with the amount of English movies around here you’d almost have to try to do. But I speak to her in Greek and she answers back, with a huge smile and a great big wave. She blows me kisses and sings to me in Greek, sappy love songs, as she sweeps the floor. She is cute as a button and always makes me laugh. One time during practice as our coach was talking and reprimanding someone she screamed down, “Maria, Maria” to one of my teammates completely unconcerned with my coach. Erin and I were laughing into our jerseys. I love this woman.
Vasa my teammates mom-
My teammate Eleni was the first one on my team I became close with. This is mostly due to the fact that she would pick me up in her Peugeot convertible and her mom would cook for me. They wanted to make me feel welcome and that they did. Her mom is so cute. She’s little so I tower over her and she colors her hair with red and wears tight pink clothes and jeans with rhinestones. Not so cute but I love it! She too doesn’t speak much English but she always hugs me and gives me kisses. And she can cook really well.
There are countless other people that I can’t speak to and still adore. Most young people speak some English as they all take it in school and watch a lot of American movies so its easy to rely on English most of the time. But there are still a lot of people who only speak Greek and while it is difficult to communicate with them, it doesn’t stop me from making them my friends…
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