Goodness me. Every time I wear a tank top or go swimming shirtless, one of my tattoos is visible (it's my name in Greek, first one I got, don't judge me). Anyways, people see the tattoo and they immediately ask what language its in. Once I say Greek, they connect the dots and I'm set on this road of questioning that I can't get away from. People have this idea of what Greek folks like me are like and because of that, I am asked these questions all the time. Now, I've compiled a short list of things that I constantly hear from people when they find out that I'm Greek.
1. "OMG! Say something in Greek."
Yea, no, I have no clue how to speak Greek. And I'm pretty sure that you being 1/64 Native American makes you an expert on your tribe's traditional headdress making, too. Nice try. Good talk there, friend.
2. "So how many times have you seen 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding'?"
Literally never. I think I've seen one scene where a little girl is being made fun of for eating a dish called Moussaka. And no, I've never eaten that either, so don't ask.
3. "Do you ever break plates and yell 'Opa!'?"
No. Plates aren't cheap, and if you haven't noticed, the economy kind of sort of sucks a lot right now, so I'm pretty sure that a bunch of frivolous plate smashing is not really what me or my family needs at the moment. No sir. And I don't think that I'll ever smash a plate again, the last time I did that (during a floor event), I had a gash in my finger for a month and a half. It dangerous, friends.
4. "How long did you live in Greece?"
What? Literally what? How can me having like a quarter Greek-ness equate to me living in Greece for any amount of time? I know full blooded people of X and Y nationalities that have never stepped foot out of our great state of Pennsylvania. Get out of here with that junk.
5. "Do you like gyros?"
Oh man, that one gets under my skin. Every time someone pronounces one of my favorite foods wrong, I want to slap them with a big piece of pita bread. It's not "gyro", it's pronounced completely different. If you can learn how to say "Tchaikovsky", then you can learn how to say "Gyro".
