Written on 1st of February, 2015
Being a Greek who looks for a life companion in Greece is easy, you just have to find another Greek. It might take time, but eventually you will find the person you want.
When you are born abroad, it is a completely different story. Even if you like your small, Greek community, you meet on different occasions, it can happen that your heart does not want to go anywhere, and waits for another Greek heart, which can be far, far away...
Every Greek couple has a story. Now days the most romantic love stories are born on the Internet. It is the place where the whole world is open, and you can find any Greek you dream of ...theoretically. My three cousins have found their spouses on the net, but it did not work for me, it only made my life miserable for nearly a year.
My older brother Kosta found his future wife on the parking lot of Rice University. My sister-in-law used to drive an old car, which very often needed a small "push", and one day, my brother helped her to start that car, heard Theodorakis played on the radio of that car, and fell in love with the girl. When he gave her an engagement ring, he also took her to the car dealer to buy her a new car ....but the story had a strange twist. My sister in law, Agathe, revealed that...she has used her mother's maiden name, not her real name, the reason she had driven a creepy car was one: she wanted to marry a man who would really love her. All that because Agathe comes from a very rich family. My brother Kosta was so in love with her, at that point, that he would not mind her being a Chinese Princess. Nothing scared him, he just wanted his Greek girl. Since she married my brother, Agathe drives Porsche Cayenne, a car which never has any problem.... Agathe and Kosta lived a real Greek-Texan Cinderella story before they got married.
My other brother, Giorgos, found his wife in the closet.... literary. He was in Boston, participating in a Greek gathering when he heard strange noises in the closet, near the room he was sleeping. He opened the door and saw a girl sitting between the brooms and the vacuum-cleaner. He asked her why she was there, she told him she was hiding because the company was boring. He had locked the door and sat with Athena for the rest of the party and.... he had never left her after that party. They got married in Summer 2013.
My love story was the most boring. It was actually a set up, one of those set ups Greeks are famous of.. .My husband has seen me in our family movie, fell in love with me and for over a year was asking my brother to set up a randez-vous. When we finally met, I also fell in love with him...
But nobody has a story like my cousin Kalliope. Nobody can even compare the love story Kalliope has lived just before she got married to George. My cousin Kalliope is a classical pianist, a pretty, delicate brunette with a crazy Anglo-Saxon sense of humor. Although an artist, she is generally very pragmatic in her life and counts on facts....Wherever she is, she never answers her cell phone, but expects that we answer ours, when she calls. After she turned 25, she was sure it was a time to find a Greek husband and start a family....
There was one difficulty though, year after year Kalliope was touring a world giving performances, and rarely stayed in one town for longer then 3 days. The place, where she was always very unhappy was Italy, because she was there alone, and working. In November 2012, in Northern Italy, in Milano she stayed in Principe de Savoia, a stylish hotel built at the beginning of 19th century. One evening, before the concert, in the lobby of that hotel Kalliope met a man of her life, and it happened like that: she felt someone was watching her, turned her head and saw a man standing in the end of the hallway, staring at her. When their eyes met, she was struck by the arrow of Eros, a Greek God of Love. The man did not lose the time, approached Kalliope and introduced himself in English:
"My name is George, what's yours?"
My cousin Kalliope immediately remembered that she had a bit strange name for non Greeks, and told the man she would tell him her name, if he would not make remarks how strange the name was... He didn't, instead, he sat on the chair and covered his face with his hands...because unexpectedly he found, what he was looking for: he found his Greek girl.
There was one difficulty though, year after year Kalliope was touring a world giving performances, and rarely stayed in one town for longer then 3 days. The place, where she was always very unhappy was Italy, because she was there alone, and working. In November 2012, in Northern Italy, in Milano she stayed in Principe de Savoia, a stylish hotel built at the beginning of 19th century. One evening, before the concert, in the lobby of that hotel Kalliope met a man of her life, and it happened like that: she felt someone was watching her, turned her head and saw a man standing in the end of the hallway, staring at her. When their eyes met, she was struck by the arrow of Eros, a Greek God of Love. The man did not lose the time, approached Kalliope and introduced himself in English:
"My name is George, what's yours?"
My cousin Kalliope immediately remembered that she had a bit strange name for non Greeks, and told the man she would tell him her name, if he would not make remarks how strange the name was... He didn't, instead, he sat on the chair and covered his face with his hands...because unexpectedly he found, what he was looking for: he found his Greek girl.
Nobody should ignore Eros. He is one of the first Gods who came from Chaos and gave the people an extraordinary energy called a romantic love, but also a sexual attraction and desire. This God is really a wandering fire, which sometimes takes a shape of a man, who has wings and who is an excellent archer; what he creates is essential for our existence. Romans, famous Greek copycats, trivialized the importance of Eros and created their own God of Love - Cupid, a sleazy, little child with the wings and arrows...
So Eros struck George and Kalliope in Italy, in a sad month of November, and created another eternal Greek love.
Next morning Kalliope sent me a message:
"I met a man, he is Greek, his name is George".
When I called her, she did not answer.
A few days after this message she was performing in Rome, George followed her there, went to every concert of hers. Every morning he was taking her for romantic walks.
From Rome Kalliope sent me a message:
" He speaks beautiful Greek, but he doesn't want to tell me his last name, I think he is in Mafia!"
I told my husband that Kalliope met in Italy a Mafia man, and he is Greek. My husband thought for a while and said: "Greeks can easily make money without being a part of a crime organization, if he is Greek, he is not in mafia, there is another catch in that story.."
And it was; George was a Greek-American professional with very good incomes, everybody could find him easily on the net. He just wanted Kalliope to love him for what he was as a man, as a person....
Then Kalliope sent another message:
"He is not in mafia, and I love him!"
The Roman days were over and Kalliope went back to Paris, but not alone, George went with her. They were married one month later, in Paris, in St Stephen's Greek Orthodox Church, two days before Christmas. Everything went so fast that only a few people could attend her wedding.
Those were Greek romance stories happened quite recently in my family. Of course there are many other love stories where one part is not Greek, but those are not Greek stories anymore...
Next morning Kalliope sent me a message:
"I met a man, he is Greek, his name is George".
When I called her, she did not answer.
A few days after this message she was performing in Rome, George followed her there, went to every concert of hers. Every morning he was taking her for romantic walks.
From Rome Kalliope sent me a message:
" He speaks beautiful Greek, but he doesn't want to tell me his last name, I think he is in Mafia!"
I told my husband that Kalliope met in Italy a Mafia man, and he is Greek. My husband thought for a while and said: "Greeks can easily make money without being a part of a crime organization, if he is Greek, he is not in mafia, there is another catch in that story.."
And it was; George was a Greek-American professional with very good incomes, everybody could find him easily on the net. He just wanted Kalliope to love him for what he was as a man, as a person....
Then Kalliope sent another message:
"He is not in mafia, and I love him!"
The Roman days were over and Kalliope went back to Paris, but not alone, George went with her. They were married one month later, in Paris, in St Stephen's Greek Orthodox Church, two days before Christmas. Everything went so fast that only a few people could attend her wedding.
Those were Greek romance stories happened quite recently in my family. Of course there are many other love stories where one part is not Greek, but those are not Greek stories anymore...
