2008 Woodie Awards
Greek Culture Meets Real Life
Natalie Wyatt
Issue date: 1/29/07 Section: Life & Times
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Communication is hard enough even when it is in the context of one's own home community. When does the line between normal American kid and worldly traveler get crossed? Well, that is easy, when one least expects it.
The act of understanding those people whom one interacts with on a daily basis can be a difficult task for even the most observant and open minded person of their day. When one ventures to move outside of their zone of comfort, a familiarity which they have, at least to some extent, come to a vague conclusion about, it can seem too much to even begin feigning at an attempt to accept all of the available knowledge of the second outside society. If any knowledge can be transferred between the two cultures in any way, one must decide how this exchange can take place. Such an event occurred in front of my eyes as I was studying abroad in Greece.
During my time on the Greek island of Crete I did not run into any outstanding situations that allowed me to question my knowledge when directly applied to a certain conversation or interaction with a certain person of a different culture. To say that I wasted my time with fellow students from the program is not quite right to say either. But the extent to which I explored the cityscape and landscape of Crete was largely ruled by the plans made by the program.
The only times that I endeavored to walk outside of the lines of C.Y.A. was when I went to explore the cities looking for someplace to eat. There is one event that stands out in my mind as being a genuine crossroads of my understanding of a situation and the actual situation that was at hand, an event that, with more information about the specific way of life of the community that I was moving through, would have been more intimately understood by me personally had someone sat down and explained all of the background information to me.
This particular situation occurred at the first café on the first night. I was with a group of girls from the program and we had found a wonderful place on the outskirts of the main square of the town. Its central location was cause for a display of some sort of seemingly political statements to be made. This was quite confusing to us because the situation that we saw unfolding before us looked more like a celebration than anything else, but the words that were being spoken from time to time were in the tone of someone fighting for a cause.
The act of understanding those people whom one interacts with on a daily basis can be a difficult task for even the most observant and open minded person of their day. When one ventures to move outside of their zone of comfort, a familiarity which they have, at least to some extent, come to a vague conclusion about, it can seem too much to even begin feigning at an attempt to accept all of the available knowledge of the second outside society. If any knowledge can be transferred between the two cultures in any way, one must decide how this exchange can take place. Such an event occurred in front of my eyes as I was studying abroad in Greece.
During my time on the Greek island of Crete I did not run into any outstanding situations that allowed me to question my knowledge when directly applied to a certain conversation or interaction with a certain person of a different culture. To say that I wasted my time with fellow students from the program is not quite right to say either. But the extent to which I explored the cityscape and landscape of Crete was largely ruled by the plans made by the program.
The only times that I endeavored to walk outside of the lines of C.Y.A. was when I went to explore the cities looking for someplace to eat. There is one event that stands out in my mind as being a genuine crossroads of my understanding of a situation and the actual situation that was at hand, an event that, with more information about the specific way of life of the community that I was moving through, would have been more intimately understood by me personally had someone sat down and explained all of the background information to me.
This particular situation occurred at the first café on the first night. I was with a group of girls from the program and we had found a wonderful place on the outskirts of the main square of the town. Its central location was cause for a display of some sort of seemingly political statements to be made. This was quite confusing to us because the situation that we saw unfolding before us looked more like a celebration than anything else, but the words that were being spoken from time to time were in the tone of someone fighting for a cause.
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