I have found with previous breaks from school, since my time overseas has commenced, my tendency is to crave time at home with my son and husband. I day dream during my busy weeks of simply enjoying the neighborhood parks, the zoo, trips to Dubai and even just lazily reading a book or catching up on my television shows. Well this is a great way to spend a break and it sort of stretches it out making it seem to last longer and it gives me the much needed rest and relaxation but I have also found that I have this unwanted company on my breaks. That company is the longing for home, missing family, missing my girls back home. I often spend at least one evening during these breaks having one to many glasses of wine and simply tearing up missing everyone. So with spring break coming I wanted to avoid this.
One thing that everyone here can share with you that comes with culture shock is the roller coaster of feelings of anxiety, depression, anger, and frustration. Each of these feelings is contrasted by feelings of enlightenment, joy, amazement, and even sometimes just a high that comes from so many new experiences. I remember once thinking that I was starting to get old enough that I had pretty much done all my firsts. First bike ride, first airplane ride, first time behind a wheel, first drink of alcohol, first time whitewater rafting, first time traveling across the states, first time in a foreign country, first kiss, first bite of sushi or curry, first time swimming in the ocean, and the list goes on and on but you get the point right? You get caught up in day to day life in America the daily grind so to speak and you hit 30 and you have your career, you give birth, you get married, and well this looming feeling of I did all life has to offer and now I just sit back and wait for things to happen to my son so I can live through him now right? Well I suppose this feeling is sort of gone for me now that I live overseas I mean I really start to see how large the world is and I know that I have so many firsts if I just travel. So I took my first trip to Athens, Greece so cross that off the bucket list.
In college I had a great roommate named Ginny and we quickly became great friends. Memories with Ginny include having a good time laughing, dancing, playing pool, traveling to Colorado, and whitewater rafting on the Amazon river. We have kept up contact over the years and when I would travel back to Iowa we would meet up for a meal or lunch. Ginny began working at this restaurant in Iowa City owned by this great Greek man named Dimitri. They fell in love and have been together ever since. She used to tell me they would move to Athens, Greece and would marry there. I remember thinking how mythical that sort of life might seem. Well just over a year ago they did, they sold their home in Iowa and were off to Athens. I have to admit feeling so distanced from our friendship I had some anxiety about showing up on her doorstep in Athens and staying in her home but it was wonderful. We didn't skip a beat from college it was like no time has passed and we found as we started to discuss that we had a lot of the same feelings living in new countries. We have similar observations of the void of culture in the United States compared to an Arab culture or Greek Culture. When Ginny and I were roommates we held one of the best cocktail parties ever. Here are a few images from that time.
Here is Ginny all dressed up.
This is my friend Julie and I at the same party all dressed up...
I had originally scheduled a cheap flight through one of those online booking agencies that give you a great deal with multiple connections and long layovers. I was a little annoyed but couldn't refute the price, around 400 USD and I could fly to Greece. Well my layover was planned to be in Bahrain and I figured it would be a great chance for me to do some reading and relaxing in the airport and from my research and from asking around Bahrain was a safe country. Well then the protests in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and Bahrain started. Bahrain was considered unsafe to fly by British authorities but unfortunately most other countries still felt it was safe enough at the airport. The country itself had declared a state of emergency, urged people to stay indoors, and schools and government buildings were closed down, but my flight was still scheduled as planned. I was going back and forth should I stay or should I go? Most likely I will be safe right? I mean if it isn't safe they would shut down the airports, right? Well as the date approached I was anxiety ridden and decided as a female alone I shouldn't take the unnecessary risk so I bit the bullet and swallowed around 60 USD in cancellation fees and booked a different flight through Etihad airways (super fancy airline and I recommend it if you can find some last minute deals because it is like first class in coach). I ended up on the same flight of my friend Julie, a teacher in Al Gharbia whom was flying alone to take a cruise from Athens. It was nice, we met up at the airport and were able to get seats by one another for the flight.
We arrive in Athens and I am expecting to see my friend Ginny at the airport. Well she isn't standing where I expected her to be. In hindsight we both realized we have sort of adapted this relaxed attitude about things living in both Arab and European countries. It is like you lose the need to manage all the little details like well getting your friends mobile number. She apparently checked the board and found a flight from Dubai that was delayed so decided to head to the shopping mall. Meanwhile my flight was actually twenty minutes early. So Julie and I drag our luggage back and forth across the terminal searching for tall skinny girls with brown hair and a Greek man (this is how I describe Ginny to her). Which funny enough is almost every couple at the Athens airport. After I send multiple emails to both Ginny, and everyone I know that might know her and attempt to friend her fiancée on Facebook hoping maybe he has a data plan and will get the notification to his phone (yea right! they are not so connected to electronics like we are sharing one basic mobile phone). After around an hour I realize that it is possible that Ginny never received or noticed the email that my flight has changed so she is thinking my flight will be in a day later. I leave the airport depressed and convinced I will never see my friend Ginny. Julie graciously offers up her hotel room and we share a taxi to downtown Athens.
Julie and I sauntered around the down town area and I continued to send emails to my friend Ginny and call people in the states at ungodly hours hoping to find her mobile number. Julie and I decide to enjoy some coffee and ice cream at this cafe centered in the middle of town near the plaza.
Here is Julie enjoying some ice cream...
Here I am at the cafe drinking a cappuccino...
Julie and I drag ourselves to her hotel room and lounge on the beds of her very tiny hotel room. We take in the view out of the room and just when I have accepted my fate and am ready to fall asleep for an afternoon nap Ginny calls me. She explains laughing the whole time why the mix up happened and we have a good laugh and she tells me they are on their way to come and get me.
We spent the first evening at Ginny's lovely home. She lives in a suburb of Athens called Metamorphosis, I am sorry but can you think of a cooler name for a city to live in? Ginny and Dimitri live in this amazing villa that sets upon a mattress shop and surrounds a lovely courtyard. Here are some images of the street from the balcony facing out to the street.
Here are some images of the courtyard from the balcony facing the courtyard.
Dimitri's brother and family and his mother and father occupy the adjoined villas that surround the courtyard. During my stay I had mentioned that I wanted to eat authentic Gyros, spanakopita (spinach and cheese pie), dolmas, and baklava. So on each night of my stay his mother would drop off one of these dishes. Every night we ate dinner in Ginny and Dimitri's home and Ginny would make this wonderful Greek salad and put out a plate of feta cheese and bread. I seriously felt like I had died and gone to food heaven. Here are a few images of the wonderful things I feasted on. I learned that the traditional Gyro and the shwarma I have come to know and love in the UAE are not much different. They both come with french fried on the inside (which just never happened to my Gyros in the states which leads me to a whole new conversation to be brought up later that every country has a version of food from another country that is adapted to meet the needs of their taste buds).
Dimitri's mother brought these by for us. They called them donuts. Donuts? Um yea dunkin and crispy creme you haven't got nothing on these decadent "donuts."
This was my favorite evening of cuisine! We had two different cheese pies one with spinach and one just loaded with cheese. Homemade meatballs by Dimitri's mother (whom I never met) and potatoes...and of course some feta cheese and a Greek salad.
The great thing about traveling to Greece in the spring is that there is actually a spring to enjoy. I have been living in a desert climate for so long I have forgotten what spring smelled and sounded like. It is very cliché but it smelled like blooming flowers and there was the sweet sound of birds singing. You got the feeling everyone was out and about just to appreciate the sun shining in the sky. Here is an image I took as we strolled though town of all the trees in bloom.
Mind the Gap! That is what you will read and hear before you get on and off the subway all around Greece. What a great way to get around town and to walk off some of that pita, feta and fila dough. We took the subway everywhere we went. What a great way to people watch as well. I was memorized at the fashion gurus that strolled on and off the subway both women and the metro-sexual men. The women of Athens are strikingly beautiful and I struggled to find my own minds stereotype of the fat and happy Greek women and men that American films had painted for me. Instead I found myself gazing and staring at such beauty and style accessorized down to the toenails and earings and hand-bags. Here is an image I captured while walking down town and you can see what I mean. The women of Athens are fashion divas!
So naturally I did the tourist thing and I saw the Parthenon, the temple of Poseidon, the temple of Olympian Zues, and the acropolis. I did not get to see the The National Archaeological Museum because due to off tourism season they kept strange hours and it just didn't fit into my plan to see everything in just four nights. Here are some images from these historical landmarks.
Then we strolled downtown to the same coffee place Julie and I had been at when we first got to Athens. This time I had Dimitri with me so it was nice to let him make recommendations. I soon feel in love with the Nescafe Frappe and sipped on one of those before we headed over to see the changing of the guard. After the silly spectacle they put on we got to take our picture with them. The changing of the guard is not meant to be silly but they are grown men in tights and mini skirts with pom-pom's on their shoes, it is really hard to take them serious. Here is Ginny and I taking turns posing with the men in tights.
For our last excursion I so desperately wanted to live out some fantasy I have always had of taking a boat to a Greek Island and so it was fulfilled! We took the ferry to the island of Aegina. The trip was right around an hour and the boat was really large. Dimitri's family owns a house on the island that they go to most weekends during the summer. They informed me that these ferries were filled with people and hard to find a seat in the summer. In March we nearly had the boat to ourselves. It was a really nice trip a little cold but nothing a warm Frappe couldn't cure. Here is Ginny and I enjoying our Frappe's on the deck of the ferry boat.
The island was really mellow during the off season and I imagined it alive and filled with people in the summers. Boats filled the docks and the townies cruised along on motorcycles and mopeds. We enjoyed some spinach and cheese pies and walked along the shops. Then it started to drizzle so we spent the afternoon in a coffee shop enjoying Frappes and having some delicious ice cream that reminds me of Gelato. We took the ferry back all of us thinking how nice a nap would be. Here are a few images from the island and from the ferry.
All in all it was an amazing and relaxing trip. I still found enough time to finish a novel, sleep in late, and being away from Michael and Gavin made me miss them like crazy and appreciate how wonderful my little family is and how much I need them in my life. I think it is important to realize this from time to time because we can find moments where we forget this in the daily grind. It was strange landing back in the UAE and feeling this weird feeling of familiar. This Arab land is familiar? I felt home driving down the long street past the burger king in the back of the taxi as I pass the mall that will never be built and pull into my immense compound of apartments to building ten, ok now I am home where I find my sleeping boys. Is this what they mean by Zen moments?
One thing that everyone here can share with you that comes with culture shock is the roller coaster of feelings of anxiety, depression, anger, and frustration. Each of these feelings is contrasted by feelings of enlightenment, joy, amazement, and even sometimes just a high that comes from so many new experiences. I remember once thinking that I was starting to get old enough that I had pretty much done all my firsts. First bike ride, first airplane ride, first time behind a wheel, first drink of alcohol, first time whitewater rafting, first time traveling across the states, first time in a foreign country, first kiss, first bite of sushi or curry, first time swimming in the ocean, and the list goes on and on but you get the point right? You get caught up in day to day life in America the daily grind so to speak and you hit 30 and you have your career, you give birth, you get married, and well this looming feeling of I did all life has to offer and now I just sit back and wait for things to happen to my son so I can live through him now right? Well I suppose this feeling is sort of gone for me now that I live overseas I mean I really start to see how large the world is and I know that I have so many firsts if I just travel. So I took my first trip to Athens, Greece so cross that off the bucket list.
In college I had a great roommate named Ginny and we quickly became great friends. Memories with Ginny include having a good time laughing, dancing, playing pool, traveling to Colorado, and whitewater rafting on the Amazon river. We have kept up contact over the years and when I would travel back to Iowa we would meet up for a meal or lunch. Ginny began working at this restaurant in Iowa City owned by this great Greek man named Dimitri. They fell in love and have been together ever since. She used to tell me they would move to Athens, Greece and would marry there. I remember thinking how mythical that sort of life might seem. Well just over a year ago they did, they sold their home in Iowa and were off to Athens. I have to admit feeling so distanced from our friendship I had some anxiety about showing up on her doorstep in Athens and staying in her home but it was wonderful. We didn't skip a beat from college it was like no time has passed and we found as we started to discuss that we had a lot of the same feelings living in new countries. We have similar observations of the void of culture in the United States compared to an Arab culture or Greek Culture. When Ginny and I were roommates we held one of the best cocktail parties ever. Here are a few images from that time.
Here is Ginny all dressed up.
This is my friend Julie and I at the same party all dressed up...
We had some really fun times that I will never forget and it was really great to spend a few days with her in such an amazing place! Let me tell you about my trip to Athens, Greece now! Here is a picture of Ginny and I on top of Mount Parnitha. We haven't changed too much from 20 to 30 right?
We arrive in Athens and I am expecting to see my friend Ginny at the airport. Well she isn't standing where I expected her to be. In hindsight we both realized we have sort of adapted this relaxed attitude about things living in both Arab and European countries. It is like you lose the need to manage all the little details like well getting your friends mobile number. She apparently checked the board and found a flight from Dubai that was delayed so decided to head to the shopping mall. Meanwhile my flight was actually twenty minutes early. So Julie and I drag our luggage back and forth across the terminal searching for tall skinny girls with brown hair and a Greek man (this is how I describe Ginny to her). Which funny enough is almost every couple at the Athens airport. After I send multiple emails to both Ginny, and everyone I know that might know her and attempt to friend her fiancée on Facebook hoping maybe he has a data plan and will get the notification to his phone (yea right! they are not so connected to electronics like we are sharing one basic mobile phone). After around an hour I realize that it is possible that Ginny never received or noticed the email that my flight has changed so she is thinking my flight will be in a day later. I leave the airport depressed and convinced I will never see my friend Ginny. Julie graciously offers up her hotel room and we share a taxi to downtown Athens.
Julie and I sauntered around the down town area and I continued to send emails to my friend Ginny and call people in the states at ungodly hours hoping to find her mobile number. Julie and I decide to enjoy some coffee and ice cream at this cafe centered in the middle of town near the plaza.
Here is Julie enjoying some ice cream...
Here I am at the cafe drinking a cappuccino...
We spent the first evening at Ginny's lovely home. She lives in a suburb of Athens called Metamorphosis, I am sorry but can you think of a cooler name for a city to live in? Ginny and Dimitri live in this amazing villa that sets upon a mattress shop and surrounds a lovely courtyard. Here are some images of the street from the balcony facing out to the street.
Here are some images of the courtyard from the balcony facing the courtyard.
Dimitri's brother and family and his mother and father occupy the adjoined villas that surround the courtyard. During my stay I had mentioned that I wanted to eat authentic Gyros, spanakopita (spinach and cheese pie), dolmas, and baklava. So on each night of my stay his mother would drop off one of these dishes. Every night we ate dinner in Ginny and Dimitri's home and Ginny would make this wonderful Greek salad and put out a plate of feta cheese and bread. I seriously felt like I had died and gone to food heaven. Here are a few images of the wonderful things I feasted on. I learned that the traditional Gyro and the shwarma I have come to know and love in the UAE are not much different. They both come with french fried on the inside (which just never happened to my Gyros in the states which leads me to a whole new conversation to be brought up later that every country has a version of food from another country that is adapted to meet the needs of their taste buds).
The great thing about traveling to Greece in the spring is that there is actually a spring to enjoy. I have been living in a desert climate for so long I have forgotten what spring smelled and sounded like. It is very cliché but it smelled like blooming flowers and there was the sweet sound of birds singing. You got the feeling everyone was out and about just to appreciate the sun shining in the sky. Here is an image I took as we strolled though town of all the trees in bloom.
So naturally I did the tourist thing and I saw the Parthenon, the temple of Poseidon, the temple of Olympian Zues, and the acropolis. I did not get to see the The National Archaeological Museum because due to off tourism season they kept strange hours and it just didn't fit into my plan to see everything in just four nights. Here are some images from these historical landmarks.
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