I have experienced a few instances of cultural confrontation during my time in Athens Greece so far. One of the things that sticks out the most to me is that there is a large staring culture here, it is not considered rude or weird to stare at strangers or friends when they are walking down the street or talking. I think that in the US there is a belief that staring is rude or impolite but that is not the same here. When I first arrived, I was very self-conscious about the staring, I worried that I had been committing some cultural taboo without knowing. After talking it over with one of my professors I learned that it was not a me thing, just a public sphere thing. Since there is meant to be a difference in public and private spheres it affects more of life than just staring. It directly affects people’s fashion choices and actions. In general, casual clothes are nicer, this does not mean that the clothes are more expensive per say just that there is less leisurewear clothing on the streets. In my time here, outside of my fellow American college students, I have only seen a singular person wearing sweatpants and they were styled to make them look more like slacks than sweatpants. I think that this also affects the way that people act in public as people seem to be generally more conscious of the way that they present themselves. This also connects to the prices of the apartments as the apartment buildings here are vertically stratified meaning that the apartments higher in the building typically cost more than those lower in the building. I think that this is related because one of the reasons that these apartments are considered to be nicer is because you can see into other people’s balconies/apartments, but they cannot see into yours. This gives you more information than you are offering in return.
