She Was.

Thank you Google, Thank you Blogger, for using your automated forms and your robot technology to ascertain, that I am not a spam robot. Thank you for acknowledging that I am indeed a person and for giving me my blog back.

Now that you know that I am not a spam robot, I will sleep well tonight.

Thank you oh mighty, shutter down of blogs, anti-spam warrior Blogger-bot.

ps – to whomever found my blog using the search fight+boyfriend+nye, I’m really sorry your night sucked. I hope things are better now.

pps – or maybe i’m a very smart little bot indeed!! we’ll never know mwahahahaha

The main reason I started this blog was to have a small something all of my own. A small space where I could say whatever I wanted, think whatever I wanted – out loud, without being shut down, without being contradicted, without being told that what I was saying was irrelevant, inaccurate, nonsensical.One of the most frustrating things about being in Greece, has been living outside of my standard frames of reference, outside the known cultural norms. When I came here I underestimated the power of cultural norms, or perhaps I overestimated my ‘Greekness’. I thought I knew something about dating rules, about how and when you go on vacation (hint: only ever in August – any other time and you’re just not one of the cool kids honey), about what is acceptable relationship behaviour, about what friendship is, about what is a good rate of pay and what sucks, about just what constitutes the job from hell.But since I’ve been here, frequently, whenever I voice an opinion, I hear comments like:

“Well….that’s how it is in Greece”

“No! No! No! Cream doesnt go in the fridge”

“No, working 10 hours and getting paid for 4 isn’t bad, that’s just how it is in Greece”

“No, No, No, we don’t eat avocado, sour cream, mexican, sudanese, vietnamese (substitute anything but Greek, Cretan or the occasional Italian meal)”

“But seriously baby, you’re just wrong about this”

“But seriously baby, that’s just not how we do things here”

And you know what, this is fair enough I guess.

I am not the majority. These are not my frames of reference. These are not my cultural norms. I’m a newcomer, a newbie, I’m green, I’m a living in, working in, thinking in Greece virgin – but I’m tired of hearing that I’m wrong. I’m tired of hearing that annoyed tone in people’s voices when they are exasperated with my strange ways and my strange requests. I’m tired of being made to feel like I’m wrong and everyone else is right. Because like it or not might is not right my friends, and just because you’re in the majority doesn’t mean dairy products live on the kitchen bench.

Cultural norms are real and they are different depending, obviously, oh so obviously, on where you come from – and even more so, on what your frames of reference are. I’m not wrong. I am different. And that’s not a bad thing. Hell, you might even learn something from my differences, I know I’ve learnt a lot from yours.