Take Five
By George Rose
July 28, 2009
As I write this, it is July 16, 2009 at 3:07 a.m. Greek time. I have just returned from dinner with the woman I am leading on and her two friends who are in a relationship. Only my date is a 30-year-old woman and I am a 23-year-old man, who typically dates men. I'm no prude and have had my fair share of experiences with women (usually younger than me), but would pass one up in a heartbeat if any of these muscular Greek gods paid me any attention. Apparently the only place "boy lovers" (as I've heard many Americans refer to the Greeks) reside or visit is the island of Mikonos. Of course I planned for my entire two month trip to be on the island of Chios. This is why, out of boredom and desperation for friends, I am bothering with this facade that I am a straight man and am on a double date with an older woman. Oh, the things a writer will do for a good story.
Over dinner, we discussed a few more of their cultural differences that I came across today, much like the ones I went over in the last article. Here are some new ones I found noteworthy:
- "Until you marry, it will pass": I was playing paddle ball on the beach today (or "racquets" as they call it here), which was not a good idea. Anyone who knows me knows that sports are my Kryptonite. I don't look or act particularly gay (as I've been told), but if you're going to throw a ball at me, you might as well throw a handful of knives in my direction. Either way, I will duck and run. To uphold my masculine image, I agreed to play racquets with the cougar's best friend's boyfriend. It took less than five minutes for me to fall to the ground and scrape off a layer of skin from my leg. There was literally a clump of my leg hair on the bloodied rock. Movies are safe, sports are dangerous. This has been and will now forever remain my mantra. After making a fuss that I would have to get my leg amputated, my new friend said to me "until you marry, it will pass." After I inquired, I learned that this is often said with reference to "minor" injuries. It means that, unlike marriage, the wound would eventually go away. It sounded to me like "stop whining like a little sissy," but they made it sound philosophical, as if the words were all the band-aid I would need. They weren't and I went home shortly after and took care of my new masculine scar.
- "Yamas!" – the sequel: I mentioned this in the last article, although now it has a new meaning. It is the Greek version of "Cheers!" though it means "to health." It is said while drinking and will cause everyone around you to stop what they are doing or saying, and raise their glass. It has gotten me out of many uncomfortable situations. It also caused a very uncomfortable situation. Sometimes in America – and I'm aware this is very, very uncommon – I will raise my cigarette with my smoking buddy and say "Cheers!" We say it as a joke, as if we are raising pints of beer, and we move forward with a laugh and the continuation of our cigarette. Doing this in Greece is a fatal mistake. If you raise a cigarette and say "yamas," you are basically asking the person if they smoke marijuana. Drugs, including entry level ones like pot, are not acceptable. They are about as unacceptable as homosexuality. By doing this, I not only offended the person I was smoking with, but I seemed to have given them the impression that I meant what I was doing and was revealing that I am some sort of major stoner and hoped they were too. That was the end of that conversation and cigarette break.
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