It's all Greek to me
So the countdown is on... the boy and I leave for our grand vacay in just 2 sleeps (or 2 working days, depending which one of us you are talking to... )
Half of me thinks the time couldn't pass fast enough... the other half is freaking out because there is "so much to do, so little time."
Most/all of the logistical stuff is done, flights booked, hotels reserved (even car service to get our butts from Laguardia to JFK)...
Now it's fitting in those last minute-dinners, pet arrangements, trips out on the land... (and in my case, laundry, laundry and MORE laundry...) before taking off on Thursday night... not to mention tying up loose ends around work. I've got a bunch of stories I'm trying to finish off before I leave... they'll be dead by the time I get back... and he's got mounds of work to do (leaving at 5:30 in the morning to put in extra hours before we go...)
Considering we're only leaving on a 2-week holiday... I shudder what would happen if we were gone any longer. Apparently Rankin wouldn't survive without us, haha.
And I've been spending the bulk of my lunch hour trying to teach myself basic Greece. The site I was just looking at starts off:
The Greek language is considered as one of the most difficult languages to learn.Greeeat. We're off to a good start. English = hard, Inuktitut = hard, Greek = hard. Can't I learn an easy language at SOME point in my life?
I'm hardly trying to become fluent before we go, but I have this thing where I hate to go to a country and not be able to say something as simple as "thank you." It's only polite. I've been using this really neat site that the BBC set up pre-Olympics... for the pronunciations.
On my list so far...
- ya-ssas = hello/goodbye
- ef-ha-ree-sto = thank you
- para-ka-lo = please
- nairo = water
- beera = beer (!)
- Ang-glee-kah = English
- Meh leh neh = my name is
- Me lah teh Ang-glee-kah = do you speak english
Now if I could just figure out that darned alphabet...
4 comments:
The American in me wonders how many people in Greece speak English. I don't mean this in the arrogant sense of "everybody should speak English. U.S.A.! U.S.A.!" but rather as an admiration that people in other countries seem to have a tendency towards multilingualism.
In any event, if some people do speak English, it might help to ease your nerves enough so that you don't forget your Greek! (Yes, this happened to me, except in Spain. I understand Spanish well enough to just get by, but choked under the pressure.)
Have a great trip!
I'm pretty sure you shouldn't have much trouble with communication in the larger centres. It only gets a bit tricky once you get off the beaten path. But then again this is what I keep telling myself since I have precious little time left to learn useable Hungarian before tomorrow's flight. (Tons of funky accents but at least its Roman orthography)
Have a good trip!
haha try vietnamese! they raise their voice when there are accents, not at the end of a question. plus, my name isnt even pronounciable here... i'm Dani.
haha i hope you have a great time.
I'm in the process of learning Dutch.. the "g" and the "sch" are killers.
I end up with a sore throat by the end of the day.
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