I leave for the airport in 30 minutes. I have family already on the island of Santorini, they text a picture from the hotel and I am overwhelmed with excitement! Before I get too excited though, I have a day's worth of flying to do. I am in LA right now, we leave for LAX in a few short minutes! Then from LAX I go to Munich, then from Munich to Athens, then from Athens to Santorini!!! It will be Friday when we get to Santorini, and we will be there around 8:00 pm. I think after forever my hours of flying we will all be ready for some sleep. Saturday is when we will meet up with the wedding party and family, and we will celebrate and do the rehearsal and all of that jazz. I cannot wait to see everyone, and to see Santorini when the sun is up! I am very excited, Greece is on my bucket list, but I always thought I'd be closer to kicking range when I got there... I'm 25 and on my way! Accompanied by my loving boyfriend and his awesome parents... Traveling to Greece with my favorite Greeks! (You may be experiencing some jealousy right now, and that's perfectly normal).
At first the idea of learning a few phrases in Greek before traveling to Greece sounded like such a good and convenient idea! I should have known better though. I have taken a total of five years of Spanish classes, and was raised in a Spanish speaking family and I still cannot speak Spanish. I don;t know why I thought I'd be able to learn an ounce of Greek! I got excited, and let my excitement get the best of me.
Looking back, I really should have learned how to cook something new. I am not the best cook, though I pretend like I am. So that is a 20% project that would have been time better spent. Initially when I was looking for "research" I found some cute and helpful things on Pinterest. Pinterest ended up being more of a distraction than anything else... "This is why I deleted the app long ago" I kept reminding myself. I did however find a lot of beautiful pictures, and have been becoming increasingly excited for this trip! I did not learn Greek. I got caught up with everything else going on in my life, and plan on heavily relying on the Greek family I am traveling to the homeland with to get me where I need to go. I am not an auditory learner, so listening to Greek and trying to repeat it was such a disaster. I embarrassed myself in the car, alone... And it's not an easy language to try to learn to read either. If I could devote more than 20% of my time, and maybe take a few classes, there might be hope. I've vowed to learn a new language when I retire, until then I need to retire this fantasy I seem to have of learning a language other than English. For now I will stick to pointing animatedly toward things and exaggerating my facial expression in hopes that the Greek speaking individual I'm asking directions from understands that I need a bathroom or restaurant or something. |
Kimmy McKenzieI am visiting Greece in May for a family wedding. I know that I like Pastitsio and Avaglemono... But that's not going to get me directions to the nearest restroom... So I am taking it upon myself to learn some Greek phrases! I hope you find my journey fun and comical, because I certainly do. Archives
May 2015
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