My oldest UFO

My oldest UFO from jessica alexandrakis on Vimeo.

a few words on culture..

Thanks for all the kind words of encouragement on my last post.

The problem with being multicultural is that sometimes some aspects of one of the cultures get on your nerves. But I've got to remember that I'm lucky to have such problems..

Ah, to think back on the days when I only had one culture-- just middle-middle class, German-Irish Catholic south side of Chicago culture. I only knew about the things I saw in my daily life; getting teased at school, singing in the choir, going bumming with grandpa. Everybody would say, "what are you?" "I'm half Italian and half Polish." "I'm one quarter Lithuanian, one quarter Irish, and half Dutch." "I'm 100% Irish." "Me too."

And we did countless projects in school where we were assigned to go ask our grandparents about our family tree, when did they come to America, do we still have family back in ____?
Then we'd plot little stickers on the map of the world to show were "we" came from. Once a year we'd ask our grandmas to bake soda bread or make canoli for the "international lunch."
It was all great fun, definitely inspired me to want to learn more about other countries, but all in all, we were all still American. All of us. Even Jim Fergus whose mom came from Ireland (and she had an accent!). Why wasn't being American celebrated when we were growing up? Why did we have to wish we were from somewhere else, or fool ourselves into believing that we actually were?

I fell in love with Costas because he loved America. He could tell me things about my own country that I had no idea about, and no interest in knowing, before he made it sound like the best place on earth. That's when I started loving America. But before that I had already hightailed it out of here. As soon as I could I left the country (at age 16, for a 3 week trip to Japan). Choosing to go to Japan was completely arbitrary. I could have gone anywhere and been just as happy to have finally left the States. But fate had it that I would end up in Nara, just as Ryoko had started at Doshisha University, and I fell in love with Japan, hard. And since then I've wanted to go back, over and over and over.. so I did.

Part of my mixed feelings towards Greece are as I mentioned before-- lack of like-minded friends. Other issues are not so much a difference in culture as a difference in class. And another big point, which I didn't clearly realize until I was typing this post.. there are a lot of things about Greece that Costas doesn't like. He has chosen to live here. When we're here he'll complain about America, when we're there he complains about Greece. But my introduction to Greek culture came not only with my own observations but also with his point of view. Ah. Now I see things more clearly. Greece is a very passionate country. Things there make sense in the right context. Same as with all other places, right? It's so true, but not always so easy to remember.

Anyway, thanks for listening to my long rambling post. I treated my sour mood of last week with a healthy dose of sewing (pics to follow shortly) and a few of Regina Spektor's songs on repeat in the car, especially this one.

Traveling

It's so nice to get home early on Wednesdays. I've been a little moody and stressed at work lately and it's probably better if I spend less time there. I do love my job, but in the summer it's easy to get overly wrapped up in everything.

I thought I might quilt on the deck tonight but it's a little chilly and I've been really good about working on the Winding Ways quilt (which I've decided to name "Alethia" btw) for the last two nights and I didn't really want to drag it outside. It's too big to pretend it's a lap quilt..

I've had fun all day helping Simmy plan (or, giving her more suggestions than she probably knows what to do with) the second leg of her trip to the USA.

Speaking of traveling, it amazes me that we'll be hitting the road ourselves again soon.. less than 2 weeks til we arrive in Athens.

I'm trying to be positive but I've still got really mixed feelings about this trip. I lose control whenever we go to Greece. I don't have my own schedule, have to be ready to go out and look perfect at a moment's notice. I feel I'm being judged by everyone.. I know some of them are my own personal hang ups, but I guess I still have a lot of issues with the "cultural differences." I have yet to go to Greece and be able to stay completely comfortably "me" while I'm there. I suppose the closest I came was the first trip in '01 when Costas brought me to meet his family for the first time, and I think it's because I didn't know any better. I was really into beading and I scoured the bead shops and made a bunch of bracelets. I was making a bracelet as we stood in line to get the ferry back from Mykonos. And I didn't think a thing of it.

I always craft when I'm in Greece, but after that first time I somehow found out that it wasn't perceived the same as it was in the States. Here if you see someone knitting in public it's really not a big deal. There, well, even in the comfort of my in-laws' home I feel I constantly have to explain what I'm doing (I'm quilting. It's going to be a blanket.) and why I choose to do that instead of some other typical, age-appropriate activity such as flaunting my body on the beach, shopping for over-priced designer goods, or socializing with other young people (i.e. arguing about politics or anything else, or more realistically- sitting there bored out of my mind while C and his friends discuss politics/soccer/gossip/etc. in Greek). Hmm. Wouldn't you rather be quilting?

I know part of the problem is that I don't know any crafty people in Athens. If I had my own crafty friends there, then of course I could feel more comfortable. As it is, we have tons of friends there, and I love them all. I do enjoy typical social activities for people my age, we go to the movies, out for dinners, hang out at friends' homes.. but you know me. I'd rather be crafting no matter what. During our honeymoon I tried to work on a small piece of hawaiian applique at the beach. Costas wasn't mortified, he knows who he married, but his mother would have been. We'll see how it goes this time. I think I'll bring the bright diamond stars and maybe some sashiko. I could also work on some small things to sell at the quilt show too. We'll see.

When I was in grade school I used to make friendship bracelets. I had a neon green floss box that I brought with me everywhere and no matter what everyone else was doing, I'd be making bracelets. I guess I've always been good at entertaining myself...
In 7th grade, we moved to a house across the street from my grandparents. It was August and I was about to start at a new school (I switched from Catholic to public school). My cousin lived on the same block and I remember the day that I went to go meet all the neighborhood kids. As I was leaving my grandparents' house, my grandpa put his hand on my floss box and told me to leave it at home.
I think about this memory a lot and maybe he was right. At the time I didn't know how to float between different social circles. That's something I didn't learn until college and afterwards. Now I can do it, but we all still have our comfort zones. If I know I'm going to be alone for any period of time or not engaged in some activity, I still always bring something with me. People who can't entertain themselves tend to get bored and whiny. Making things keeps me calm and relaxed. Of course I love sharing crafty thoughts with other crafters, and spending time crafting in a group is one of the best activities I can imagine, but I haven't yet found those experiences in Greece. I have a feeling my whole attitude towards Greece will change if I do.

*photos are of New Chitose Airport outside of Sapporo.