Macy Goes Greek: November 2011

Friday, November 25, 2011

People and Opportunities.

A few years ago, I was asked, "What do you have to be thankful for?" I was first thrown off by this question because you normally hear it during the holidays (i.e THANKSgiving and Christmas), but this was just an ordinary email from an old friend. I thought about it, gave a quick answer and continued with my day. However, I continue to think about my answer then and my answer now. While there are enormous differences, one thing remained constant: the people in my life. I have had incredible luck in being able to call certain people in my life "family", and not in just the literal meaning of being blood related.

I come from a very complicated past, one that resulted in a very slim number of blood-related family members being a part of my life. As a result, I found myself making my OWN family, one that included the people in my life who most wished to see me succeed and more importantly, be a part of that success. Even though I don't have my own set of parents, at Bowdoin I have found more pairs of parents that any other person I know. I like to think I'm the lucky one because most people have two parents, sometimes four with remarriages, but me, I have double that. In addition to that, I get to CHOOSE my siblings. Yeah, talk about winning! There are countless people in my life these days that I consider family and man, do I have a great family. So, I'm grateful for what happened in my past because I was presented with an amazing opportunity to create my own family.

I'm also most grateful for the opportunities that have come my way. Thinking about my past 6 months alone, I have to really take it all in. I often lose sight of everything I've done. From living in India this summer working on a project with the most amazing students I've ever met to traveling all around Europe/Greece this semester. I never imagined that at 20 I would have done the things I have done. I forget to slow down and embrace that sometimes. I am grateful because what I've been through has made me the incredibly strong person I am today.

I wanted to give a few shout outs and thanks to the following:

Casey Family
Amaez/Purnell Family
Kitch/Cooper Family
Elmer and Nicole
Rhoan
Scott, Claudia and the Admissions staff
Matoin Family
Otrickey Family ;D
My Bowdoin Lovelies
Caron Family
Dean of Student Affairs office
McKeen Center
Sakina

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Sakina Mou

I wanted to take this opportunity to write a bit about someone who has become my foundation and inspiration here in Greece. Her name is Sakina, but I call her Sakina Mou (my Sakina in Greek) or 'Kina for short. We met on the first day because we both arrived late, and she was to be the roommate to the other girl to arrive on the last day. Little did I know that our friendship would blossom into one I see lasting til the end of time.

Her birthday was towards the beginning of our program, so we decided to go to Santorini. After all my travels up until now, that is still one of my favorite weekends to date. Sakina is one of the most genuinely, warm hearted people I have had the opportunity to meet. She constantly thinks about others' feelings and is quick to ask, "how are you?" In a place where we're all struggling to get the most out of our time, I think it's so vital to ask that question in order to maintain sanity. It's a small gesture, but one I don't take for granted and neither does she. We've gotten to the point in our friendship where we can look at each other and already know the mood, ideas or feelings of one another. It's something I admire in our friendship.

Not only do we connect well in terms of where our heads are at, she is always up to dance. I love dancing and never thought I'd find someone who loved it as much as me, or someone who'd be willing to dance at any time: weekday, daytime, anywhere. Sakina is my main dance partner. We can go out, just the two of us and dance our happy butts off into the wee hours of the morning and do it again the next night. #Awesome.

Not only do we share our passion for dance, Sakina and I spend a lot of time talking about serious things within our lives. I've found it amazingly easy to open my heart to her, and in return she has been able to gain the same trust and confidence. Whenever I have a problem, big or small, I know I can turn to Sakina to get a REAL, honest answer or opinion of the matter. Her rawness is something I think is hard to find no matter where you go and no matter how long you've known someone, it's never easy to be brutally honest. I would die here without her.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

is there a bar near by?

Today Greek class got real hands on. Believe it or not, my Greek professor played wing woman to me. Yeah, I know. AWESOME! We were in class and all of a sudden she tells us all to get up because we're taking it to the streets. Ha, I felt like I was in Step Up 2. Anyways, the objective was to ask random people on the street if there was [fill in the blank] near by. I got mine quickly out of the way asking an older gentleman if there was a pharmacy near by. Whew, thank goodness I was able to mutter the correct question. Believe it or not, I also understood the answer! Aw yeah.

A few more people continued to find other people and ask their own questions. Then while at a bus stop, our professor spotted a cute, hazelly blue-eyed gentleman and gathered us to ask which girl was going to be brave enough to talk to him. Clearly I jumped at the opportunity. When would I ever had the chance again? So, I walked up to him scrambling to think of the Greek word for 'bar'. I freaked and that was the first thing that came to mind. Keep in mind it's not even 2 in the afternoon at this point. When I ask, he immediately replies, " A bar? it's in the afternoon". Of course it was in Greek- which I also understood! He looked at me funny and continued to chat and I said, "yeah, a casual beer". Bah, it was hilarious. My professor began to laugh and told me it was time to go. I was into the conversation so I was bummed we had to skiddadle.

As we were walking away, I asked her how to say, "what's your number" in Greek and she began to laugh saying, "Now, you are too advanced, Macy!" Bah, it made me cry with laughter. It was hilarious because when we were back in class, she started saying other things I could've said to him INCLUDING: "when will you be back at your house?" and "when will you be at MY house". Greatest. wing woman. ever.