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Sellout Artists Promote Greece with…Placemats and Disposable Cups

By on December 10, 2011 in Chicago, Culture Shock, East Coast, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, New York, News, Ohio, Opinion, Rhode Island, San Francisco, SoCal, The South, Utah, Washington, West Coast

“Live Your Myth in Greece” is the slogan we hear all across New York City and Athens, Greece. Whether it is on the subway or bus stops they are everywhere.  Now you can see this wonderful slogan while waiting for your cheeseburger deluxe at your local diner in New York City or anywhere in the [...]

Cultures in crisis

By on October 12, 2011 in Columns, Culture Shock, East Coast, New York, Opinion

The financial crisis in Greece has caused detrimental havoc in the greek morale, and that, my friends, is the understatement of the century. The over-analysis combined with the lack of any will to remain calm and face tha facts escalate once the media come into play. Yep, drama did originate in Greece. Even if the [...]

Two ways to be Greek?

By on July 27, 2011 in Culture Shock, East Coast, Opinion

Having lived abroad for a decade or two (or three plus…) gives us Greek-Americans a whole new concept of Greekness or Greek identity and what it all means to be a Greek descendent or to just be Greek. As far as we are concerned, Greece is idealized, both as a country and as an ideal. To [...]

Greek directness

By on June 2, 2011 in Columns, Culture Shock, East Coast, New York, Opinion, Washington

Being direct is considered a pretty good personality trait. That is an international fact. Greeks however, we take being direct to a whole new level. We ask questions others would consider prying, indiscreet or downright rude. Greeks want to know, gossip, comment, help or dish. Human relations go way further than the internationally understood level [...]

Family

By on April 18, 2011 in Columns, Culture Shock, East Coast, New York, Opinion, Washington

Family is an ideal. Both in the American and the Greek tradition family is up there, revered, respected, treasured and idealized. Being supportive to family members is a great trait. Being on each others face 24-7 is a Greek trait. It wasn’t accidental that the girl’s parents in ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’ bought a [...]

Alites

By on March 10, 2011 in Columns, Culture Shock, East Coast, New York, Opinion, Washington

I’ve been thinking of a word lately. I have been overcome with the manic-obsessive urge to translate the word in English. The word is no less complicated than the word ‘Alitis’ (as in Vissi’s latest hasapiko ‘Alitisa Psihi’). Oh please, lady, you may say. Bum, bugger, punk, trump or scumbag. True, each of those words [...]

Driving

By on February 3, 2011 in Columns, Culture Shock, East Coast, New York, Opinion, Washington

I always believed driving is the one activity that tells all about a person. One’s personality, life perspective, emotional stability and clarity -or lack of-, it is all out there. If you believe in yourself you confidently hold the wheel with both hands and carefully examine the other drivers at the traffic lights. If single, [...]

Love matters

By on December 18, 2010 in Columns, Culture Shock

Falling in love is an international trade. It happens everywhere. We all crave falling in love, one way or another. How we handle it, though, does bring cultural handicaps in the picture. Greeks fall madly in love. And I don’t mean candlelit dinners and romantic outings at the movies. I mean drama, tears, shouting, blood [...]

Greeks Like Movies Realistic, Americans Like Movies with Happy Endings

By on November 26, 2010 in Columns, Culture Shock, East Coast, New York, Opinion, Washington

In general, Hollywood movies always contain a seamfree transition from pain to happiness and from injustice to a fair resolution. There’s trouble in paradise but it somehow feels contained. A girl cries coming out of the hairdressing salon or in the nail salon, while the nail lady happily comforts her whispering philosophically sounding words. Greek movies like it [...]

Greeks Believe Money Shouldn’t Buy Safety, Safety Should be Equal for All

By on October 20, 2010 in Columns, Culture Shock, East Coast, New York, Opinion, Washington

In the 1990′s there was a great difference between Athens and New York.  Athens had no gang territories back then and one could safely assume they wouldn’t be killed for money in the capital. New York was pretty much the opposite. Anything could happen to you once in the wrong side of town.  In New York there [...]

Designer lifestyles

By on September 17, 2010 in Culture Shock, Opinion, Washington

I don’t remember ever looking at a co-worker, student or managing director, for that matter, in the U.S. and thinking ‘Wow! Isn’t she what designer fantasies are made of?’ It was more like ‘Those shoes(!) with that skirt(!)?Really?!’ And despite the fact that my fashion sense is, for Greek standards, pretty basic, in Washington I [...]

Air-conditioning

By on August 22, 2010 in Culture Shock

My first job in the U.S. was an office job. There had been a few reasons for me wanting to quit that job, yet a pretty unlikely reason really pulled the plug: The air-conditioning system. The damned thing was set way too high. Full blown summer outside and inside the office you had to wear [...]