40 things in the life of a GREEK child growing up outside Greece......

01. You have at least one relative who wore a black dress every day for an entire year after a funeral. If it was their child, they wore black forever.

02. You spent your entire childhood thinking what you ate for lunch was pronounced "samsa."

03. Your family dog understood Greek.

04. Every Sunday afternoon of your childhood was spent visiting your grandparents and extended family and eating avgolemono soup with roasted chicken.

05. You've experienced the phenomena of 50 people fitting into a four room apartment to celebrate someone's "yiorti". (name day)

06. You were surprised to discover the FDA recommends you eat three meals a day, not seven.

07. You thought roasting a lamb in the backyard on Easter Sunday was absolutely normal, and that everyone did.

08. You ate salata with feta cheese at every meal.

09. You grew up thinking no fruit or vegetable had a fixed price and! That the price of everything was negotiable through haggling with the bakali.(grocer)

10. You were as tall as your grandmother by the age of seven.

11. You thought everyone's last name ended in "as" "is" or "os."

12. You thought nylons were supposed to be worn rolled to the knee, knotted and then tucked.

13. Your mom's main hobby is cleaning.

14. You were surprised to find out that wine was actually sold in stores.

15. You thought that everyone made their own dolmathes.

16. You never ate meat on Fridays, and no meat or dairy 40 days before Easter.

17. You thought everyone picked "vleeta" and "chorta" along the Belt Parkway.

18. You thought Greek Orthodox was the only religion in the world.

19. Your were beaten at least once with a wooden spoon or "mpantofila".(slipper)

20. You thought every meal had to be eaten with a hunk of bread in your left hand.

21. You can understand Greek but you can't speak it.

22. You have at least one relative who came over "on the boat."

23. Your father or your grandfather, fought in a World War 2.

24. You have at least six male relatives named George and another six named Kosta.

25. You have relatives who aren't really your relatives, like "Thea Bessie," your mom's friend.

26. You have so many relatives, that some, you don't ever speak to.

27. You drank wine before you were a teenager.

28. You are pleased, admit it, that Paris broke off the engagement to Paris.

29. You grew up in a house with a yard.

30. Your grandparent's furniture was as comfortable as sitting on plastic. Wait!!!! You were sitting on plastic.

31. You thought that talking loud was normal.

32. You thought "kouvetta" (sugared almonds) were common at all weddings.

33. You thought everyone got pinched on the cheek and had money stuffed in their pockets by their relatives.

34. You've accidentally inhaled some powdered sugar from a "kourambe'."

35. There was an "icona" in every bedroom.

36. You couldn't date a boy/girl without getting approval from your father. (oh, and they had to be Greek!)

37. You called it "grass", your yiayia called it "chorta."

38. You dreaded opening your lunchbox at school.

39. "Going for coffee" meant going to a Thea's house, and staying all day.

40 Every condition, ailment, misfortune, memory loss and accident was made to feel better by drinking xamomilo tsai (chamomile tea)