First Impressions

Anonymous Walking around Athens in a jet-lag-induced fog, my friend Katie said something that made me think. She noted how strange it was that the rest of the world seemed so similar to each other and so different from us. Scanning other posts, I see this sentiment echoed in other people- and myself as well. Landing in Athens, it was hard not for me to think of Spain... the other foreign country I was landing in for the first time exactly a year ago. It helps that Spain is also a Mediterranean and European country and so there are bound to be similarities. But Greece is not Spain. A quick tally of obvious observations can rack up as many quickly spotted differences as similarities. And that is just in the obvious. If there's one thing I've learned in all my study abroad experiences, it is that the true things which differentiate one culture from another are not always easily perceived. Culture is the sum of many, many little things... not just the visible, but also the invisible. Dress and music are easy to pick out, but attitudes, social norms, and worldviews are much more deeply imbedded both others and ourselves... making it difficult to see the differences at first glance. To us, Greece inevitably shares a certain intangible quality with other places we've visited, one that differentiates it from our home: it is not our home. But it is a mistake to say that all those other places are the same, even as they may have things in common. People smoke more in Spain than in the US, and that appears to be the case in Greece as well. Both places have olive trees and women who wear skinny jeans and boots (and have no thighs!!). But Greece and Spain are not the same, neither on the surface, nor below it. My apartment smells like Ecuador, but is not in Ecuador. I recognize advertisements for brands I buy at home, but I am not at home (even if were to buy those brands). Yes, Greece has something in common with the rest of the world from my perspective: it is not were I am from or what I am used to. It has something in common with other Mediterranean countries, and other European countries, and other Western countries. But in the end, it is Greece. And of nowhere else in the world can that be said.