Zach the Greek

I have a vision. Zachary Pearson the Greek.

I have spent only 5 days in the beautiful country of Greece, and yet I am already in love. I love the culture, the people, and the language (speaking the language, specifically). I first fell in love with cultural diversity when I fell madly in love with Spanish in the 9th grade. Since then I have always loved the international aspect of our world, and plan on someday integrating that into my job in the business world.

Today we got an opportunity to go to the Acropolis Museum in Athens. Here we saw lots of monuments and statues made of marble that were originally held in the Acropolis. I could not help but admire how the ancient Greek people were able to create such elaborately detailed monuments out of what was once a solid block of marble.

After spending hours in the museum, our group went to a restaurant just nearby. The experience here became one of the major highlights of my trip thus far.

While at this restaurant we got the opportunity to meet the store owner, Vassiles. I ordered my meal completely in Greek, and needless to say he was thoroughly impressed and consequently went on to teach me new words throughout the night. At the end of the evening, Vassiles and I were chatting and joking like old friends and he even brought our group two desert platters of fruit, on the house.

As we walked back to our apartment buildings, I watched many Greek people in conversations, and couldn't help but envision myself joining in with them. To be one of them, is something that I have found myself envying more and more as this trip proceeds.

Greeks have such a unique culture, that if you're on the inside, you are a member of an elite group with a wealth of knowledge, and a history that dates back 3,000 years. Yet even when I speak an elaborate sentence in fluent Greek, accents perfect and all, I will still 50% of the time receive a response in English, and inevitably be asked, "where are you from?"

As an American I am an outsider, but I envision one day when Greeks will embrace me as one of their own. Yet for right now, I am stuck, somewhere in between.

~Z