Opposition or adaptation

Anonymous

Assignment: Opposition or adaptation? You have noted the distinction between American and Greek coffee; if you want coffee in the morning here, you have to adapt. To what, however, are you not willing to adapt? Further, aside from coffee, what are you intrigued by in Greek culture and life to the extend that you wish to adapt it into you American life?

Response: Being emerged within the Greek culture has not been about opposition, what so ever, but it hasn’t been about adaption either, for me it is more about acceptance and adventure. This culture is very different from the culture form home. What the Greeks eat, drink, how they drive, what type of music they listen to, the way they move and talk, their transportation systems, the work schedule, night life and their day time activities are all an extreme difference from home.

While at home, we can get “Greek” food, here, it is all Greek food with the exception of the international food supply businesses like McDonalds and Starbucks, but what developed nation are they not in? They drink red wine where you can get a two-litter bottle of good wine for 2 Euros, it is readily available and since there is no drinking age, it is socially acceptable to drink, not to get drunk while at home so many laws out a taboo on the buying and consumption of alcohol, not wonder we do it to excess.

They drive at a much faster rate; it is like being in Downtown Seattle but pushing down fast forward button. Cars and motorcycles/mopeds whisk by at a rate of speed and accuracy. They know exactly what path they are going to take and zip through traffic to get where they are going. The small cars zoom in and out of the ancient roads and the free way just like the bikes, quick and to the point. While they do watch out for pedestrians, it’s not safe to assume you have the right of way at all. At home people and cars don’t really mix in the same way they do here, yes in some areas for a few blocks, but here I have yet to see an accident or fender bender of any kind and at home, I have seen many and been in my fair share too.

The days and nights blend in a different manner too. The businesses and workers take a break mid day from about 1-5pm and then go back to work till later on in the night. They eat dinner late and go out to the clubs and bars even later, 1am is usually the starting time and they go till wee hours of the morning. So we are getting done with our 40+ hour work week and heading home to have dinner, the Greeks are going back to work for a shorter amount of time, then when we go out, they are eating dinner, and when we are coming home after the bars close at 2am, they are just getting their night started.

Everything is different, but that okay. The difference is what makes traveling worth it. I look at Greece with an open mind, try to do my best and do as the locals do, take nothing off the food when I order it, drink red wine, and while I haven’t gotten to take a mid day nap, the idea sounds great, so the part of staying out will really early the next day comes easier, we have been walking everywhere instead of getting in a car to drive a few blocks, and trying to follow the customs and respect that this culture holds is what make the trip. My five Greek phrases that I know have also come in handy too.

For me, if I were not willing to adapt myself to be in a different culture, how would I even make it through life in my home culture? Day to day everything is always changing. It may be from a 12-hour plane ride to a new place or over 10 years in the same place but everything is always changing and to be successful you have to be ready and willing for some sort of acceptance of the changes. So, ever since I got on my first international flight last J-Term, my mind has only become for of an open book, ready and willing to be molded and inspired by the places I visit, things I learn, and people I will meet, and now that Greece has been able to get its hands in there and do some shifting, I will always take a bit of Greece around me where ever I may roam from here on out.

I am not opposed to anything they do here, it is their culture and who I am to say it is right or wrong, good or bad, I am just here to learn from it and take what I like and what I experience, but not make a mark within their culture because it is what is making a mark on me. If I look at everyday I spend away form my home culture as an adventure, then how can I ever go wrong or not love it or change in someway because it happened and I was there. My own personal culture will adapt to my experience, but as for any opposition, my mind is open and that is the way it will stay. Greece is Greece for a reason and thus far I am willing to take it all back home with me, but then Washington wouldn’t be Washington. Every aspect intrigues me and if it weren’t, traveling would not nearly be as amazing and fun. I don’t need to extend Greek culture into American culture or change any part of home, because the changes it was made on me will be with me, now and forever and that’s all I desire.

But, I would love to take home some of that Greek coffee, it is amazing, well and maybe a rich, Greek man, lets be honest, what red blooded American girl would turn that down?