Listening to the Next Generation >> Georgia

When I came to Georgetown, my dad and I made a deal that I would have to take at least two full years of Greek because they don’t offer it at many universities. So I signed up for Greek and have since taken three years of intensive Greek. I also realized there was a Hellenic association here and I got involved with it and it was exciting because I got to learn stuff that I didn’t know. Even though I am half Greek, I didn’t know any Greek dances so I was really excited to learn that. I wanted to come home and show my dad that I learned how to dance. Once I got involved, it seemed like such a small club and that they really needed me to help out and I made friends with everybody.

Got Greek? interviews Georgia P. from Georgetown University

My dad was born in Thessaloniki, I believe, and grew up there. He left when he was 18. Both of his parents came from Thasos in the Northern Aegean. I think they both met and got married on Thasos and then moved to Thessaloniki to find work because there weren’t too many jobs on the island. My dad went to school in Greece, to some special boys’ school in Thessaloniki and scored really well on his tests and then got a scholarship to college in England. So he went to England and went to some sort of a boarding school there for a year. He then went to Sussex University and graduated from there.

Q: Did your father return to Greece after his studies?

A: After he got his degree, he went to Vancouver, Canada to the University of British Columbia [UBC] to get his PhD. My mom was there getting her PhD there, too, and that’s how they met even though my mom is American. So they got married while getting their PhDs in Vancouver and my sister was born. Then my dad decided to go back to Greece for his military service. So they left UBC for two or three years, I think. My sister was a tiny baby, so they went over and lived in Greece and my mom taught English in Thessaloniki but my dad was stationed in the middle of nowhere in some awful place. Especially, Northern Greece in the winter, is not very nice. But when they finished that, they moved back to Canada and finished their PhDs. Then I was born and we moved to the United States after that. I was born in Vancouver and we moved to Saskatoon for a year when I was a baby. Then, we moved to South Carolina because my mom got a tenure track position at Furman University.

Q: What stories have your parents passed down to you about their experience in Greece?

A: I know my mom was really lonely and stressed out with a little baby and my dad was always away and he hated being in the army. He didn’t have a very good time and I imagine most people don’t, but he was especially upset. My dad’s family hasn’t always gotten along well with my mom because they feel like he left Greece and never came back because of her and because of us, which is partially true. He left by choice and he doesn’t love the United States completely but in some ways he would rather live here. So he has always felt really guilty about his family back in Greece and it’s sort of complex because emotions are involved. While my parents were in Greece, it sounds like it wasn’t a very good time for them. I do know that my sister, when she was a year old, whenever she saw men in military uniform— she would call them baba, which is dad in Greek. According to my relatives, she also developed perfect Greek by age three. But now, she can’t speak Greek and they make her feel really guilty about it. They say, “You had perfect Greek when you were three and you can’t remember it. Why can’t you remember it? That’s really awful.” I think my parents were relieved to move back eventually because the situation there wasn’t that great.

Q: Growing up, what was your interaction with Greece?

A: When I was really young, we didn’t go over there very often. But when I was five and six, we went and my grandmother died that summer. I know my dad felt really guilty about that because he hadn’t seen her very much. I don’t know what kind of terms they were on when she died so that was hard. I was six, so I didn’t realize it. We went there every other year to visit my aunt, grandfather, and uncle. But now we’re on bad terms with them because my grandfather died and they are fighting over his inheritance. It is a huge mess. There is a feud going on, I guess. It’s always been emotionally difficult because I always felt that I didn’t really know these people and they really didn’t like me. I couldn’t speak Greek. I didn’t know what they were saying and they wouldn’t speak English. They always seemed mad that we were Americans, instead of Greek people, when I was a kid. We tried learning Greek but it was really hard to master a language if you just have a tutor once a week or your dad tries to teach you a little bit if you hadn’t been speaking it all your life. That was always hard. But in the past few years, we’ve built a house on Thasos, on some land that my dad inherited from his father. So we went there two summers ago and it was a very happy occasion for my family because we had this house and it was my dad’s 50^th birthday and he was really happy about it. I think now he feels like he is not so disconnected from Greece because now he has a home there and my parents are planning, tentatively, to retire at least partially in Greece. That in itself is complicated because how will they see us and what will they do in the winter on the island when there is no one there and it’s really boring and cold. We have a very difficult relationship with Greece.

Q: But despite the strained relationships with relatives in Greece, you’ve served as one of the co-Presidents for the Hellenic Club at Georgetown University.

A: When I was a kid, I always felt like the odd person out in my group of friends because no one I knew really had an international connection. All of their families lived in our home town and they always saw them. I had family that I didn’t know really, I couldn’t talk to and I always felt that they hated me and they never sent me birthday presents. When I was a kid, that was a big deal but now I don’t care. I always felt really weird and I wished that we didn’t have that trouble. But I’ve since come to terms with that obviously. When I came to Georgetown, my dad and I made a deal that I would have to take at least two full years of Greek because they don’t offer it at many universities. So I signed up for Greek and have since taken three years of intensive Greek. I also realized there was a Hellenic association here and I got involved with it and it was exciting because I got to learn stuff that I didn’t know. Even though I am half Greek, I didn’t know any Greek dances so I was really excited to learn that. I wanted to come home and show my dad that I learned how to dance. Once I got involved, it seemed like such a small club and that they really needed me to help out and I made friends with everybody.

Q: What role would you like Hellenic student clubs to play on campuses nationwide?

A: One thing is to help “lost” Greek American people, like me, foster a connection to our heritage that is hard to find. A lot of our members are Greek American and go to Greek Orthodox church. So they know how to dance, how to cook, and went to Greek school. I think there are a lot of people like that. Then there are people, like me, for whom it is a little more complicated. I think it’s nice for people to come somewhere where no one thinks your last name is weird and their last name is probably longer and more complicated with too many consonants in a row like “fth.” I think mainly what a Greek club should do is let people connect to where they came from who otherwise can’t connect. But the club also has Greek international students who come and study here. I am sure they probably feel even more lost because they are in a foreign country where everyone speaks English, and might not connect with Americans who they don’t think understand Greek culture. So I know that those kids are really happy to find a group of Greek people who know where they come from and can speak Greek with them.

Q: The other co-President in the club you worked with came from Greece. How were you two able to bridge the Greek and the Greek American culture?

A: It’s kind of funny. I realized all along she had been reaching out to the Greek national students and making friends with them on her own and forwarding me their information to put them on the list serve and have them be part of the club. When they came to meetings, she introduced them and she spoke Greek to them and translated what I was saying to them. On the other hand, I mainly reached out to kids who felt like they weren’t Greek enough. They were worried they couldn’t join because they didn’t know how to speak Greek or dance. I remember feeling like that. Then there are other people who aren’t Greek at all and they are classic studies majors who are interested in Greek culture. But at one meeting, I sensed that they felt out of place with everyone speaking Greek. So I talked to them afterwards and told them not to worry about it and that we would conduct everything in English. The goal is for them to learn about Greek culture and enjoy it.

Q: How do you identify yourself: Greek, Greek American, American with Greek roots, American, something else?

A: Before I came to Georgetown, I felt like I was all American and I had this Greek thing in my past and a whole side of my family that I didn’t feel connected to. So I was basically just American. I know my Greek family thinks we are just Americans, that we don’t care about learning Greek, don’t know who they are, and we don’t understand their customs. Basically, they just wrote us off. That makes me feel bad. But then when I came here and I started learning Greek and got involved in the Hellenic Association, I started feeling more and more Greek, which is funny because I never thought about it that way until right now. My friends describe me as Greek, which is funny because I wouldn’t describe myself as Greek. Maybe I would say Greek American or part Greek or American with Greek roots.

Q: So what do you explain about your heritage to friends not of Greek descent?

A: I don’t really talk about it much. I can see how they can see me as being very Greek because I am always doing my Greek homework and speaking Greek to them by accident because I am always studying it for my classes and going off and doing Greek club things or going to an event at the Greek embassy here in Washington D.C. Inwardly, I think it would take a little bit more for me to feel comfortable in Greece. I don’t know if that has to do with my family, the language, the culture or what. I feel I have more in common with the Greek Americans than the Greek nationals definitely.

Q: Going forward, do you see yourself getting more involved in the Greek community?

A: Yes. I am learning more about the Greek political system and economy, Greek current events and history. It’s a lot more interesting and complicated than I ever expected. I didn’t realize that Greece is the way it is now, as far as the different regions and culture, until recently. I thought that it always had been the same. I hadn’t learned about the occupations and the wars and all of that.

Q: Do you keep up with current events in Greece, eat Greek food and/or listen to Greek music?

A: I watch Greek news and read Greek news sites for class to expand my vocabulary. I eat Greek food. I make Greek food sometimes for my friends and they get really excited. I like to make baklava especially. Baklava is like my favorite thing in the world. My friends love it and ask how I make it. I think it’s really easy to make. It’s just foreign to them and they think it’s really great, which is fun for me because I get to be proud of something Greek that I can do. Growing up, I never had any Greek music but my dad always had it around. I thought it was boring, that it sounded weird and it all sounded the same. I surprised him last Christmas by asking for Greek pop music so he got me his favorite Greek pop artist, which I don’t really like. But I also got the Greece 2008 dance mix, which I love. It is so fun. I like to listen to it while I am running to keep my mind off the fact that I don’t want to be running. I will try to translate what they are saying in my head so it helps with my language skills, too.

Q: Do you have things in your room here at school that connect you to Greek heritage?

A: I think I have some postcards of Thasos and pictures of me and my family in Greece at our house.

Q: Do you see yourself going to Greece in the future?

A: Yeah. I wish it was a little closer and cheaper to get to. But I would go all the time if I could and if I could drive a stick-shift and rent a car. It is kind of difficult to get to Thasos. You have to fly to Thessaloniki and get to Kavala somehow, and then you have to take a ferry to Thasos and then another long drive through scary windy mountain roads to our house. I’d love to go if I could.

Q: Before we wrap up, would you like to share anything else?

A: This was a fun interview because I don’t get to think about this stuff very often. While I was explaining things to you, I realized how complicated my journey to, from and back to my Greek heritage that my life has been.

Q: Thank you for the interview.

A: Thank you.