ABC with Sun and Sea!
By Addie Zannetakis, who runs an English school called English From A-Z in Rhodes
I, like many of you have been lured here by the sun, sea and the beautiful island and yet I somehow feel an “alternative” story in comparison with the oft cited “love stories” I hear or indeed in comparison to the Tourist Industry which most people find themselves working for when they first drop onto the island – indeed perhaps drop is not concise enough a word when considering the frequent screaming to a halt that pilots often put us through in order to save taxiing to the end of the runway and back - `Τι να κάνουμε! Στην Ελλάδα είμαστε!’ In fact I had never really thought hard about this until a few innocent friends came a-visiting and that, combined with the plane wreck they had just flown over, ensured that they arrived with a lasting impression of the island of the sun!
It is of course the “Greekness” that draws so many of us Brits but for me it was always a kind of home albeit one with which I had a love-hate relationship as I always felt my surname unsuitably and embarrassingly long at school and the `z’ always meant I was conspicuously last into exams etc! Indeed it is a paradox as here everyone says I am undoubtedly English but in good old Blighty I was always somewhat foreign. Of course as in every situation there are always pros and cons – the pros being that I had the privilege, if you should so call it, to be something “special” someone who could speak a “funny” language. We also came to Rhodes every summer to stay with Yiayia and co (all in one building of course!). The cons, however, were that again “we came to Rhodes every summer” (we never stayed in a hotel or went anywhere else – mind my holiday with a friend near Clacton-on-Sea one year was definitely an eye opener what with the freezing sea and the clay like muck which seemed to be standing in, as the sand had taken a sickee that day!) It also meant that after Uni when I came out with some friends of mine to relax and celebrate I was voted official cockroach killer as I was the only one who had ever set eyes on such beasts before – though I too was in shock when Charlie the Cockroach and friends decided to take flight making the whole process much more precarious and downright terrifying!
Anyway despite the moans and obvious differences with regard to the UK, here is home as it has been for the last 11 years – I still feel somewhat different as to the Brits I am “half Greek” (said with amazement) and to the Greeks I am probably just “a bit strange”, but here I be, a testament to the fact that the results of all those love stories (yes I was the result of one myself!) will turn out to be quite decent human beings despite the culture clash going on inside them (“To shout or not to shout, that is the question”) and I continue to fight my own little battle on my own little corner of the rock – as a woman, as a school owner and ultimately as a teacher and hopefully there is a chance I will come up more than just trumps!
I believe in what we do and that we provide something different or even “a bit strange”. Feel free to pass by and give us a visit or even just a wave – indeed we are having an Open Day on the 6th September 6-8 and everyone is welcome. That’s all for now from English From A-Z, thanks a bunch for all you’ve read!