Feb-2020
Living in Greece
It’s been a little over a year and slowly, slowly I am getting used to how things go. On the island where we live you would normally not experience the slow life of the winter time as you would only stay for summer. Well that’s what we used to do too. Four years I spent with only the summer time on Karpathos but all that changed when we started building up a life on this picturesque island.
Now don’t get the word summer misunderstood. Summer here on Karpathos starts in a shy April day and lasts up to the still warm month of October. Summer is the tourist season on the island when everybody works their asses off. Wintertime however is the season where you catch your breath as a local. Not much is going on and you get to enjoy nature to the fullest. Simply wonderful if you’d ask us. The funny thing is that when we just got here, for our first winter, everyone warned us that we’d get bored. But we didn’t. It’s just too much fun to prepare for the season again in a very, very slow and relaxed way. Just like the Greeks. Because, as you know, their second-favorite thing to say is “Siga, siga” (meaning slowly, slowly). Their favorite thing to say is Malaka, but that one you all know.
As the days go on I always find myself confused by the hour of the day. All out of a sudden, or at least that’s how it feels like, it’s 4PM. Meaning that the question “What’s for dinner” pops up in our heads. Today I wanted to buy some chicken when this came to mind. I don’t know about you, but in my birth-country, you go to the supermarket and look for the package of 300 grams or perhaps 700 grams of chicken you like. Here in Greece I like to go to the authentic butcher. And yes, authentic because it has everything you just pictured.
I always ask for κοτόπουλο, which is Chicken, but it’s just fun that I can now order it in Greek. I tell the butcher I’d like to have only 500 grams of ‘kotopoulo’. Usually that’s being followed by me saying “uh only half a kilo I mean” as he start checking into his selection of chicken and takes one or two pieces out. He asks me if I’d like to have my kotopoulo pre-cut and then puts it on the weighing scale. The scale then reads something around 1200gram…which really was more than I remembered asking for.
He wraps it up, I pay and take it home knowing I’ll have to put some in the freezer for another time. A few days later the same happens and again I find myself going home with too much meat. My latest trick is to tell them I would like 1 or 2 pieces instead of the grams. Now knowing how big the pieces are that he selects.
It has its charm. We’re not in a rush and we can always think in ways of solutions. So by now I have mastered the art of ordering meat at the butcher in Greece, but I yet have to conquer so much more.
About Renate Rigters
Ever since I left my home country I felt at home at any other place I went to. I enjoy getting to know more cultures by talking to strangers and hearing their philosophy about life. Speaking with gestures when you can not find a shared language, finding places only the locals go to and learn about their customs and values. Hanging out with local people makes me happy. The experience of every new place is a step out of your comfort zone where I like to wander around until it feels like a second home.
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Such a lovely post.Your tale is too good to be shared. Malaka 🙂