Dialects

I was having an interesting discussion with Rhonda the other night about different Greek accents. There are some people I understand perfectly and others that I know are speaking Greek but I have no idea what they’re saying. Rhonda was saying that not only are there regional accents, but village vs. city accents. Even within her island, you can tell whether someone is from the city or the country based on the way they talk—she said that she has a really village accent and the people in Thessaloniki can tell. She also said that Athens is where they speak the most textbook-correct Greek, and the farther away you get the less proper speaking becomes.

The next day in Greek 104 we somehow got on a similar topic of dialects and how people in different parts of Greece say different things. Cretans, for example, have one of the most distinct dialects. It was also really interesting because the teacher concurred Athenians speak the most correct Greek, and gave a cool example. People in Thessaloniki, apparently, always use με even when grammatically you need  μας, so that when they go to say things like, “I cook for him” they literally say “I cook him”, etc. Just a fun little fact!

Last night was one of that last school-sponsored parties at one of the new summer clubs. It was fun but absolutely exhausting. My whole body hurts and my foot was speared by someone’s stiletto. Getting up for class this morning was the most difficult thing in the world—my teacher said she was surprised even the five of us showed up. It was the funniest class we’ve ever had; the students convinced her to hold class outside so there were the five of us, the teacher, and two random kids sitting around one of the cafeteria tables outside. For an hour, all these extremely hungover kids sat outside munching on food and trying to stay awake, not even trying to take notes, while our teacher told us about Greek/Turkish relations in the 1990s.

I got home and slept for four hours, which kind of bums me out because it was an absolutely gorgeous day and I missed most of it. Abby, Katie, and Kelli tried to drag me out for lunch but I was so tired I couldn’t even concentrate on what they were saying and just went back to sleep. After my nap though, we went out for coffee with Boosa—it was nice sitting in the sunshine and being out of the apartment. We walked along the paralia for sunset and then went back, so at least I got out of the house!

Tomorrow I’m climbing Mt. Olympus! I’m excited but I’m not bringing my computer so I’ll tell you about it when I get back Sunday. It should be really fun, and quite an experience. I have no idea about the weather, though, I hope I bring the right clothes!