I've been back in Greece since Wednesday and it really feels like "summer." Georgia and my travel plans to Sparta fell through due to a family emergency so we spent the last few days in Athens rather than Sparta. We've basically seen all the tourist places in Athens so now I really feel like I'm living here: especially because Georgia's family has moved into the apartment building for the summer. The door is always open and aunts, uncles and cousins are always walking in and out. And at the same time, I'm meeting tons of new people (friends of Georgia and then their friends), and I honestly feel like I'm in the show "Sex and the City." In Madison, I'm used to going to house parties or a bar here and there. But here in Athens, the night life (as far as I've experienced) is very classy and there are beautiful people everywhere. I suppose they aren't more beautiful in the US or in any other country, but they do dress and carry themselves nicer. We go out and the bar tenders are 20-something Abercrombie and Fitch model-looking fellows wearing V-necks, and the crowd ranges from young Greek women having margaritas with their friends to older businessmen in suits having whiskey at the bar. The larger clubs have a stage for the male and female go-go dancers and open out to the beach and the Aegean Sea. Anyone who is anyone gets their own table with their own bottles of 100 Euro vodka or drink of choice. The party really starts at 1 or 2 am and "bar time" is announced by the sunrise. Rather different from the basement parties and beer kegs of Madison, WI.
I could say I'm living like a true European young person. That is, summer means no school, no work and living off parents money. The only thing is that I'm not living off my parents money. In the United States, I thought it was relatively common to be financially independent from one's parents by age 21, but meeting all these people abroad, I see its not as common as I thought for both Americans and non-Americans alike. The downside is that I have to be annoyingly frugal when out to eat with friends and I don't have an unlimited cash flow. But on the upside, I can do whatever the heck I want (no one withholding allowance if I do or don't do this or that) and I can be proud that I worked for everything that I am experiencing. It makes it kind of a double whammy that I have worked for all this money on my own (or earned it from scholarships) and then I'm using it to be able to travel the world on my own. One side of me feels guilty for not having a "productive" summer by American standards. But while I'm not working in a prestigious office building or doing an internship this semester, I still believe I'm gaining invaluable skills in accounting, decision making, leadership, problem solving, etc. (Even the clubbing and going out experiences help, I swear!). I have said this a billion times, but I truly believe that the things I'm learning in my travels are priceless lessons and vital facts that I could never learn from a book, course, conference, or lecture even at the highest regarded university.
For example, you may take a course about society in the Middle East that teaches you that some people in Islam believe that homosexuality is a mental disease and that any gays or lesbians need to seek immediate psychological help. But that's kind of hard to believe until you're sitting at a restaurant with a young Egyptian man who tells you that he feels uncomfortable around gay people because they're not normal and that they should see a psychologist in order to be "cured."
Or you read about the problems between Greece and Turkey and it doesnt seem like it should be such a big deal since it was so long ago in history. But then you go to Greece and hear daily about the bitterness towards Turks for kicking out over a million Greeks from Asia Minor over 50 years ago.
Or you learn about Turkey's desire to become part of the European Union but think it's silly because Turkey just isn't part of Europe--it's a different continent, different history, different culture. But then you go to Istanbul and feel like you haven't set a foot out of Athens if it weren't for the call to prayer being broadcast 5 times a day.
Some stuff just gets the wheels a-turnin.
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