Okay seriously. Are we the land of the free or the land of laws? Don’t you think sometimes we should stop passing laws for common sense things? I feel this way about this subject also.
Monthly Archives: August 2007
it's all greek to me
Alpha – Beta – Gamma – Delta – Epsilon – Zeta – Eta – Theta… (and so on)
Paul and I were on this site this weekend, quizzing ourselves on Greek road signs. Paul does pretty well – he credits math and statistics for his knowledge of the Greek alphabet. I, on the other hand, have much to learn.
Why this sudden interest in Greek, you ask?
Well dear friends, we’d like to have SOME knowledge of the language before we visit the country.
Yup you heard me. Visit Greece. Us. Sometime next year. *does a happy dance inside* I have wanted to go to Greece forever. Well, mostly since the 2004 Olympics were in Athens. But I credit my Mary Stewart books and Kids Discover magazine for fostering an interest in Greece, the land and the history. Paul, of course, loves to travel, period, so it wasn’t too hard to convince him. This weekend, we were talking about it, and we decided to just go ahead and do it. Save up the money, plan a trip, and go.
We ask ourselves if we are crazy. We have loans, and we want to save up money for a house! Why spend so much money traveling? We decided that this is the best time to go – before children, before our lives get hectic, when we’re still young and qualify for discounts, while we’re both still working so we HAVE the money. This is something we both really want to do. And now we’re so excited!!
We were browsing around in Barnes & Noble this weekend and came across this book. It had a lot of really great information, and we hope to actually buy it to help us plan our trip. (We also want to get this book because it was a cool look at Greek sights.) According to the book, we are thinking it will cost about $4,000 to make a 2 week trip to Greece (including airfare). I still want to keep researching costs to have a more specific number, but currently that is our goal. While this would be the most expensive vacation we have ever taken, it’s doable and we figure we’ll have a year to save up before going!
Immediately I set about researching where in Greece we want to go. Here is a preliminary list of places we want to visit. Of course, we probably won’t get to do it all, and we might end up doing things that aren’t on this list. But here it is for now:
The Acropolis & the Parthenon (Athens)
The National Archaeological Museum (Athens)
The Ancient Theater of Epidaurus (Peloponnese Peninsula)
Mycenae (Peloponnese Peninsula)
Corinth (Peloponnese Peninsula)
Ancient Olympia (Peloponnese Peninsula)
The Island of Santorini
The Island of Crete
The Minoan Palace of Knossos (Crete)
Thessaloniki
Delos
So yeah. This might be just the beginning. Or maybe certain things will cause our trip to be postponed indefinitely. Only God knows. :-) I’m excited now though!
By the way, if you’re interested in coming with us, let me know. It would be fun to share the experience! :-)
Carnival of Beauty – here this week!
So I have been horribly remiss about participating in the Carnival of Beauty this summer, but I hope to be better! This week, the carnival is HERE! And it’s about the Beauty of Change (ah, a topic I know something about!). I’d love to see all of my readers participate, so here are the instructions:
Send an email to ashley @ twentysixcats.com by Thursday night. Since I’m up until all hours of the night, I’ll give everyone until midnight to get their submissions in. :-) (But I probably won’t write the CoB post until Friday so even if you’re late, email me anyways.) In your email, be sure to let me know:
1. Your first name
2. The name of your blog with the link
3. The name of your piece with the link
4. A brief one or two sentence description of your piece that will be in the listing of the Carnival submissions.
For other specifics on who can participate, go to the Carnival of Beauty page here. You can also join the Google Group where you can get updates and announcements about the CoB. I look forward to seeing a lot of people participate this week!
baby hugs
Instructions for properly hugging a baby:
1. First: Spy a baby.
2. Second: Be sure that the object you spied was indeed a baby. If you smell baby powder and the aroma of wet diapers, this is indeed a baby.
3. Next: You will need to flatten the baby before actually beginning the hugging process.
4. Then: Simply slide paws around baby.
5. Finally: If a camera is present, you will need to, “hug, smile, and lean” to achieve the best photo.
Dogs, if this is properly done, it will secure you a warm, dry, climate-controlled environment for the rest of your life. Good Luck to all of you!
what do you think?
I enjoy discussion around here, so I think I’m going to make more of an effort to have more of those kinds of posts. (I enjoyed the one we had a while back.)
How do you think we should react to cultures around us? If you moved to another country, do we have any obligation to that country (the “host country”) at all? Should you learn the language? Eat the food? Celebrate your host country’s holidays?
How about your home country, and your heritage. Should you leave it all behind? Should you hang your home country’s flag on your house in the host country, or is that being disrespectful? What if you are earning your living through resources available by the host country? What if you become a citizen of your host country?
How do things differ between home and outside home? Do you speak your native tongue in your home, while learning the language of your host country outside the home? Do you expect people to speak your native tongue? Do you expect the government of your host country to provide services in your native tongue? Do you educate your children in your native tongue, or in the language of your host country?
What if you were settling permanently in the host country, with no plans to return to the home country? What if you knew your children would grow up and stay in the host country? Do you think that you have more of an obligation to embrace the culture of your host country? Would things change if you were only living there a few years, with the intention of returning to your home country?
What if you have a business in the host country? Do you let your employees conduct all the business in the language of the home country? Do you advertise in that language? Do you have special sales for holidays of your home country?
Where I’m coming from: As most everyone knows, I grew up in Peru, South America. My parents always knew we would leave Peru to return to the States (we lived there for 9 years). We spoke English in the home, and learned Spanish. We went to a Spanish-speaking church for much of our time there. We received all our education in English, as my parents felt the Peruvian school system would not adequately prepare us for U.S. college. We had an American flag, but we kept it inside. We flew Peruvian flags from our house. We ate Peruvian food and celebrated Peruvian holidays. We celebrated common holidays with a blend of traditions. We acknowledged some American holidays, but I don’t think we went all out to celebrate them. We learned about Peruvian history. I personally think that if you’re in another country, you have an obligation to respect that country’s culture higher than your own (ESPECIALLY if you are planning to stay in that country!). I don’t think there is any excuse not to speak the language of the country you are living in. I also don’t think that you should cite heritage as a reason to evade the law of your host country.
Paul obviously disagrees with me on all of this.
What do you think on this subject?