Snow in Athens

Late Friday night (well, early Saturday morning), I was out with some of the fellows in "Gazi" (sort of like a theme park full of bars in downtown Athens). As we walked from "Soho" to "Tora" (means now in Greek, not a jewish bar), it began to snow. It came like a light rain at first, and all the flakes melted as soon as they hit the concrete. The snow continued all day yesterday, in fluffier, chunkier flakes, and now the mountain I look towards out my window is white. :)

 (There's no snow on the ground in Halandri though, because we're at a lower elevation.)

Rather than play outside in the snow, I went out to lunch with Laura, one of the teachers in my department. We had originally planned to just get coffee, and ended up getting Margaritas and Burritos instead. The whole setting kinda cracked me up: Here I am in Athens Greece, getting tipsy at 3 pm on a Saturday with my colleague, sitting in a Mexican restaurant decked out in Christmas lights, and watching the snow fall.

Laura's husband is Greek, and this got me thinking about romantic relationships between people who don't have a common mother tongue. Because his first language is Greek, I imagine that when Laura's husband thinks, he thinks in Greek first. It's well known that there are certain words or expressions that just can't be translated from language to language - (did you know there's no Greek word for Hangover?) - and I wonder how this applies to matters of the heart. Whether certain things are different in such couples, what's lost and what's gained.

(Just a thought).

The snow came quite abruptly - up until a few days ago, the weather was still in the 70s, and I was beginning to think winter in Greece didn't really exist. Last Monday I walked to work in a sleeveless dress. And then suddenly, within two days, the temperature dropped 30 degrees.

The cold and the sight of (though fleeting) snow has made me VERY excited to go home for Christmas. These last few weeks have just felt like a push til the end. I can't wait to go home, sleep, speak English without having to politely ask whether the person I'm speaking to speaks English as well, see my family and new dog, and eat home cooked North American food. I don't mean to diss Greece, but right now I'm ready to get the hell out. The inefficiencies are driving me nuts - for example, the reason I did the nearly hour long walk to school last week was due to a transport strike, which happened again today, and will happen again on Wednesday as well.

I've also realized that making Greek "friends" is not only difficult, but sometimes not much fun, either. I've met plenty of Greek people, and they've been very kind to me on the whole, but they're usually also:
a) much older than me, so I don't feel like we have much common ground
b) male, and not really that interested in just being my friend
c) not native English speakers, so I can't understand everything they're saying and they can't undesrstand me either. This totally kills the humor part, which is all I really want anyways.
d) Eager to tell me all the best things about Greece, which I've heard over and over again from all the other Greeks I've met.

So! Feeling a little dejected about making new Greek friends. I do really love my colleagues though, and am feeling closer and closer with some of the other teaching fellows.

I feel like my Greek is improving, and I'm still really enjoying learning it. Every time I sit down for a few hours and really study it I feel like I make huge progress. So I need to do more of that. Hopefully by the time I leave I'll really be able to speak it. The problem now is that because everyone speaks English, I hardly ever get to practise my Greek.

Last weekend Mandee and I went to ancient Corinth and saw the castle there. That was pretty damn cool. Inspired me to keep exploring greater Greece when I get back after Christmas.