Traveling to Greece with the mindset that cultural confrontation would happen has made it much easier for me to accept and appreciate different cultural and everyday practices. However, there are some moments when I still get a little overwhelmed. The most common example of cultural confrontation that I have experienced is probably grocery shopping. Each grocery chain here in Athens has a different culture in itself. Not all of them work the same way. It took me a few trial and errors to learn this. For example, at the grocery store to the left of my apartment, one does not have to weigh any fruits or vegetables before checkout. At the grocery store to the right of my apartment, there is a worker who is posted at a little weighing station where one must hand them their bags of fruits and vegetables, and the worker prints out a sticker and a price for each bag. Additionally, although most locals here are able to converse in English, many supermarket clerks are not able to. The language barrier in conjunction with a non-uniform culture across grocery stores made shopping nerve wracking at first. Sometimes I just want a Publix or a Target! 🙂
With this being said, I still try to make every experience a learning experience. Throughout all of my not-so-clear interactions with locals, I have noticed something beautiful; there are so many more ways of communicating other than speaking. Hand motions, dancing, singing, facial expressions, and tone of voice have all come in handy. One night during a school trip to Delphi, Greece, a group of friends and I came across a group of local kids playing in the street. They did not speak any English, but we were able to communicate through laughter, smiles, and commonly known TikTok dances. So, although some moments of communication may be difficult, there is still so much beauty to be found in the communication between all cultures of the world!