I GEEK GREECE

With so many topics to write about, I wasn’t sure where to begin with this assignment. After thinking about it for awhile though, it became clearer to me what I should write about. Like Kaitlin, I also don’t really like talking about myself and am much more of a listener, but a few topics really get me jazzed. During Crystal’s site visit, she asked me what I geek, (because the library has a campaign asking people, “What do you Geek?”), and I had so many different thoughts. I wanted to find the one thing, one word, to describe what I geek and I found it – Greece.

But before I describe why I love Greece so much, I should clarify what the word really means to me or what I think of when I hear the word. Other than the amazing memories from my study abroad experience there, Greece reminds me of many things I love: travel, lifelong friends, a giving/sharing culture, eating well, music & dancing, natural beauty, taking your time, relaxing, and enjoying life. I know it probably sounds pretty corny or cliché, but those words truly represent the Greek culture and what I think about the country and its people (and my feelings haven’t changed since its debt crisis).

Here are just a few reasons why I love the country:

· Because Greeks buy fresh food, eat slowly, and share with everyone
· Because nights in Greece finish in the morning
· Because Greeks take their coffee slowly and in good company
· Because Greeks never visit others empty handed
· Because in Greece family is still something valuable
· Because Greeks always make it, even if in the last moment
· Because whenever foreigners cannot find a word, they use a Greek one (like in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, “You tell me a word and I tell you the root of the word, in Greek!”)
· Because Greeks spend their bad and low times with friends and family, not with shrinks
· Because Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were Greek
· Because they built the Parthenon
· Because Greeks don't use ketchup with food - it tastes good anyway
· Because Greeks are not ashamed to cry
· Because Greeks dance when they are sad
· Because Greeks work to live and do not live to work
· Because, although Greeks smoke more than anyone in the world and eat the most red meat in Europe they live the longest in EuropeBecause in Greece nobody is hungry (not even stray dogs)

Also, just for fun and to wrap up the many reasons why I geek Greece here’s an interesting article about the wonderful Greek diet and its positive impact on their lives: The Island Where People Live Longer.

(The island pictured to the left is not Icaria, the one mentioned in the article. Most of you probably know it's beautiful Santorini.)

Yamas (cheers!) Lauren S.