motoko

I haven't been sleeping very well these days and I always feel very tired and sleepy. Keep having nightmares of me being back in Greece :p Greece is a beautiful place to go holidays, but if you are Greek, it's the most pressurizing place to be.

Families care so much about each other that their love is literally suffocating. They want to know everything about you; every single move. Then you have to "follow their advice" or do what they tell you to do, because, of course, they know best.

Greek families are very stubborn and arrogant, thinking they know everything and that they are smarter and better than the rest (other families). Which of course leads to constant suspicion of each other. Everything is said in confidence; even when everybody knows "the secret" (which could be a promotion, being pregnant (married), bought a new laptop/car/shoes, new boyfriend, found a good grocery shop), you still have to pretend that you don't know.

There are of course things that everybody should know and that has to be related with illnesses, diseases, accidents, operations of sort. If someone has the flu, all the family has to know and feel sorry for them, make a fuss and pay lots of attention to them. I mean, ok I understand if they have something more serious, it's good to have family and friends to support you, but having a tooth ache and what happened to the dentist is definitely something I don't want to hear on the phone over the course of an hour of my lunch time, including every single gory detail of the procedure! haha

Going back to the "family knowledge" and the pressure that comes along with it, I give you two examples. This can be from:

Did you have lunch? What did you have? Why didn't you have feta cheese instead of Mild Cheddar? You know feta cheese is better for you. I know because I am a mother/grandmother/aunt/sister/best friend/ and I have more experience and know what is best for you. Should I make you some feta cheese with brown bread? No? Why not? Come on. I'll make you some anyway",

to:

"So, how's things with your boyfriend? Yeah, I don't think he is good for you, because last time he was here, he didn't say hello to me straight away. Have you thought about Kostas? He is very nice, and with a good job, I can arrange a dinner with his family"

Exhausting. And of course, even if you are the most assertive person in the world, you are going to have a fight in the end, because disagreeing with a Greek person is like trying to explain the theory of relativity to a cow. They never understand your point of view, because their perspective of things is the correct one and of course since that is the case, you appear to be the rude one for disagreeing with them the first place!

How come modern Greeks are related to the wise ancient ones; I don't know.