Out or in?

Strange, but the realization that I was actually in another country (continent!), living side by side with people of a different culture, didn’t really settle in until weeks after my arrival in Greece.

Perhaps this is because Athens, like Toronto, is a cosmopolitan city; most everyone speaks English, the cityscape, at first glance looks much like any other and the people seemed to wear the same type of clothes and do the same type of things. Learning Greek is not a prerequisite to live in Athens and neither does one need to make any drastic cultural or social adjustments in order to adapt to life here. At least, that is what my first impression was.

But the Mediterranean lifestyle is one that creeps up softly and settles inside your mindset. One usually cannot resist its charm (busy mornings, silent afternoons, late meals on loud patios, life at night), but those who do (i.e. silly tourists who insist on visiting the city in the stifling heat of mid-afternoon, when all the locals are comfortably napping) risk being always an outsider – a visitor of Greece. Athenians have two ways of dealing with these outsiders: the first is by exaggerated but disingenuous flattery and friendliness, in order to extract as much money out of them as possible. The second is by complete and utter indifference, and perhaps even rudeness. But the same rude Athenian will transform into a true and honest friend if they see that you yourself want to share in their world. Somewhere in the process of this transformation, you become a part of their ‘family’. And once you are, food, drink, laughs…everything is shared.