Re: I envy you

[BO]

Hello, Rambee

I think this is my first reply to your posting. :)

First of all thank you for this post. It was a lot of fun.
especiall about the guys who chased you.

Actually I've always wanted to go to Greece. those white houses.. statue-like men.. *giggle* Greek mythology.. temples.. those mysterious yet beautiful and historical country.
Maybe someday I will, I just envy you that you had enough time and enough space in your mind to fly.

I'm waiting for your next posting about this trip



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Hello all.

First, thanks for the nice welcome-back postings. It feels good to be hugged electronically. I missed you, too. Julia, I am so glad that you got some brownie points from your mother-in-law with my recipe (oh, I LOVE it). Sung, I will see what I can do about the pictures but I was stupid enough not to take my good camera with me if you can believe it (I used the disposable cameras instead and I regretted not having a good camera everyday). Amos, thank you for your kind wishes for my family, and I wish the same for yours, too.

The first day I was in Athens, I wanted to take advantage of having a free afternoon before joining the tour group in the evening (we all arrived independently). So I ventured out looking for bookstores. No sooner did I step outside the hotel and open up the map than a man in nice suits approached me, "Where are you trying to go?" I was surprised a little but I tried not to look like it, "Oh, I am looking for the closest bookstore from here." He gave me easy directions to get to it, which would be only five-minute walk, then he tried to walk with me. I got a bit uncomfortable, so I stopped and thanked him again and told him that it was not necessary for him to walk with me. Before I finished my sentence he asked me so naturally as if we were old friends "Would you like to have coffee with me?"

On the airplane to Athens I read a book on words' history. The word "symposium" came from Greek words "syn" (together) and "posis" (drinking), and I also read that Greek men love to go to coffeehouse and talk forever. I thanked him again and told him that I needed to get back soon and won't have time for coffee or anything else. He pushed just one more time but very politely "Just nice coffee? No?" I shook my head and he went away (I thought). But when I was trying to make a turn at the wrong corner of the street he shouted at me from far behind, "No, no. I told you to go one more block, straight ahead then turn right". I looked back and found him still standing where we parted two blocks ago. I thanked him again and went my way, a lot faster this time.

That evening we had the orientation with everybody whom I was meeting for the first time. The tour organizer told us not to talk to any strangers, Greek or non-Greek, for our own safety. She jokingly said that Greek men will chase after anything in skirt (which was not very flattering to my ego), and she said that she ended up marrying one (she was from Britain) because she didn't watch out. I shared the afternoon's incident with the group, and they all thought that it was pretty funny but incredible.

The next day, still in Athens, I was out with a woman from Australia, whom eventually I shared the coach seat with. A man (also in nice suites) came toward us and started walking right next to my companion. He said something that I couldn't hear, but my friend kind of rolled her shoulders inwards. So I stopped and sort of yelled at him "We are waiting for our husbands and they will be here any moment now. They are VERY jealous men, and they both have BIG guns." My friend started laughing so hard that this guy looked confused and went away mumbling "all I wanted to know was if you were from Europe." In order for you to see the humor in this you have to know how each of us are built. I am a woman in petite size 6, and my Australian friend is a field hockey player who weighs about a hundred pounds more than I, and I was playing her bodyguard. She later told me that he was wrapping his arm around her shoulder. Some nerves!

There were few other similar incidents, but I am telling what made an impression on me. I don't want you to think that ALL Greek men we met were coming after women among us, though. Most of the Greek men we dealt with were macho-ish but gentlemen nevertheless. One could say that some of them might be a little insensitive without realizing it, but most of them behaved honorably. In general, they were very likable people.

We learned later in Delphi that ancient Greek people often drank all night to have discussions (symposia), but what they drank was mixture of water (2/3) and wine (1/3). We saw some of the large drinking bowls in the museums that were used for serving. I tried to imagine the way they sat and talked with each other at the tables on the marble floorings, about mathematics, politics and philosophy, and perhaps about women. Every piece of evidence that we saw throughout the tour indicated that the people who lived in Greece a few thousand years ago were intellectually as sophisticated as we are today, if not more. I could easily understand how one might want to get into the studies of ancient human history, and how satisfying it must be to do the detective works on the findings. The magnitudes and the scales of the things that they built and the techniques and the knowledge that they must have were just mind-boggling.

Since I am talking about Greek men, I wish I could tell you something about Greek women, too, but I really didn't pick up anything that was a whole lot different about the Greek women. Our tour director who was with us on the tour everyday was a Greek woman. She was one of the most centered and positive women that I have met, but I don't believe that it was a Greek thing. She was going to be a neat woman regardless.

One day we had an optional tour to three islands, Hydra, Poros and Aegina, (all very different but all very interesting, and their scenery make perfect postcards - white houses with bright blue roofs and colorful window trims). The local tour guide was a young American fellow who looked like a Greek statue, handsome and well-built, but he was so unspoiled and friendly. He was very personable and told us a lot of things about his life in Greece while we were on the day cruise. He didn't even finish the high school in the States because he was too bored with the schools. He came to Greece following his girlfriend who was a Greek a few years ago (they are still together). He said that Greek women make the best girlfriends in his opinion - they are very understanding and would do anything for the guy they love. He sounded very happy and satisfied as well as very focused for a young man in his late twenties. He wants to own a cruise ship someday. I cannot verify his words on Greek women one way or another, but since he had no reason to not tell the truth, I believed that Greek women must be very nice, at least in male perspective.

I will tell you about some interesting people on our tour bus in my next posting. Cheers.

Best,
Rambee