The American culture is all about efficiency and
productivity. We are constantly going.
Our mind is set on quantity over quality, the person with the most
things is the best and it seems that genuine people are hard to find. We all expect to be the first priority on
everyone’s list, to be taken care of in the best possible way, however, we are
slow to reciprocate the favor. We stay
away from relationships because we are afraid of the time and effort they
require and the hurt they can bring.
Time is sacred and a highly prized commodity in the states, yet we spend
hours in front of the television every night.
Some things appear to be backwards.
It is not until you from your comfort zone that you can see these things
come to light.
The Greeks
are all about forming relationships with people. As I said in my earlier post, the
neighborhoods are pretty small and are equipped with just about everything you
could need on a daily basis. If any of you have seen the movie My Big Fat Greek
Wedding, you can understand how important family is. There is a scene in the movie where the main
character and her new husband are presented with a “gift” from her parents. The couple opens the envelope to discover
that their parents bought them a house! Little did they know the house was
right next-door. Family is everything
here. In saying this, the families that
make up these neighborhoods go back for generations. The same family has always owned the bakery;
the grocery store owner’s grandson is the heir to the cash register. Everyone has his or her place, and the
relationships between the locals are products of the generations before
them. When you go to pick up a pastry,
you aren’t walking in to a random store, grabbing filo dough stuffed with
chocolate and out the door; you are going to visit your friend Christos to find
out how his kid did on the math test last week, and if you happen to eat a
pastry while you are there, so be it.
My friend Lauren and
I went to the butcher yesterday to accomplish two goals: buy meat for dinner,
and put our Greek to the test. The
butcher is only about three quarters of a mile from our dorm. When we walked through the door, we noticed
that a woman in her fifties was in the middle of a conversation with the
butcher. We had no idea how long she had
been there or how long she would have stayed had we not interrupted, but in the
time she was there, she had made herself comfortable in the chairs provided and
smoked a cigarette. Upon our arrival, the
butcher started to cut the meat the women had ordered. As he cut, the conversation still went
on. Preparing the meat looked to be
second nature to him, and was almost artistic looking. He had probably watched his dad and
grandfather do this same thing for his entire life. The lady apologized twice for how long it was
taking, but Lauren and I assured her that it was fine. We are starting to get used to the culture
now and do not expect a grocery trip to take a certain amount of time. I cannot begin to tell you how relaxing it is
to not feel the rush of the American society.
In the states, sitting at the butcher for 45 minutes after walking to
two different grocery stores and carrying heavy items to and fro, would have
made me a little irritated. Here, I
enjoy sitting and observing the culture and watching the relationships the
people here share with each other. Two
chickens, skinned and de-boned, a couple kilos of ground beef and pork, and a
kilo of what looked like sausage later, it was our turn. After a little confusion of asking for ground
sausage (which is unheard of here) I got a “mesakilo Kimas Mosxapisios” or a
half-kilo of ground beef.
Friday
nights are our proclaimed “family nights”, in which we make dinner for our
whole room to share. Last night, after a
very helpful cooking seminar with Dr. Kaplan, we were inspired to make meat and
cheese pastry. Here are the instructions
that we made up haha:
11) Pre
heat over to 200 degrees Celsius
22) Brown
hamburger meat with various spices
33) Sautee
onions and garlic with butter, add to meat
44) Combine
feta cheese and other random cheese we got because it was the cheapest king at
the store, in a large bowl with one egg (that has two yokes), olive oil, and
spices
55) Add
meat to cheese mixture
66) Add
half can of left over corn
77) Melt
butter and have it at the ready
88) Roll
out filo dough
99) Butter
one sheet of filo dough and quickly cover it with a second sheet
110) Cut dough
into four long vertical strips
111) Place a
dollop of the meat mixture in the top of the strip
112) Fold strip
like a paper football starting at the end with the meat
113) Place on
cooking sheet
114) Repeat steps
10-13 until you run out of material
For our first Greek dish, we did an amazing job. Not to flatter ourselves, but it was definitely
one of the best things I have ever eaten.
No comments:
Post a Comment