"Daddy, I heard some other Americans today," Ailyn said a few days ago.
"Oh, that's nice – did you say hi?"
"No! I don't want them here."
"Yeah, we don't want other Americans around. They are embarrassing," Sennen chimed in.
"Why? What's the problem with other Americans? Did they do something?" I asked.
"Well, they're loud sometimes," Ailyn said.
"But we see so few of them on Patmos – they can't all be loud and a problem. Isn't it nice to run into someone like us, someone you can greet or talk to?"
"No, we don't need more Americans here," Ailyn said insistently.
"Yeah, we want to the only Americans, not them!" Sennen added.
The conversation went on for another seven or eight minutes as we drove to Petra. The short of it is the kids prefer being unique as Americans – and as such, to set good examples to our Patmian community of what Americans are. But mostly, they just like being the only ones.
"It's like how Andreas doesn't like having other Italians around because he wants to be the only Italian with a gelateria on Patmos," Sennen explained fairly accurately. "We want to be the only Americans who live here."
First, too late for that – there are other Americans with houses on Patmos. Maybe not so many in central Skala. Some are Greek-Americans many of whom are bilingual so they may be disguised – but we are not alone.
Two nights ago the kids told Eirini they don't prefer to see other Americans staying on the island.
"We don't like our own kind," Ailyn said.
Eirini, who knows we're Jewish had a question mark run across her face and asked carefully, "What do you mean by that?"
"Americans. We don't want other Americans around," Ailyn said.
Seeming relieved, Eirini said she needs Americans on the island because they're the best spenders – but asked why the kids don't want them.
"We are Americans with a house here who live here sometimes – we don't want people copy-catting us," Ailyn said.
"Well, we can save the conversation for who copycats who for another time…." Eirini said in a deep laugh.
It has been a surprising turn of events. The kids who used to be happy to find another English-speaker to play with, now have no interest in making friends Greek, foreign or American. Moreover, they now associate their status as being the Americans with a house on Patmos and therefore having this particular niche. They don't especially mind Americans from cruise ships – but Americans staying aren't so welcome. Ailyn noted every American voice she heard – and there was one we all analyzed for Canadian-ness.
What does it all mean? I have no idea.
Back at the Sofitel, we are far from the only Americans. At dinner, we heard multiple tables with American sounding conversation around us. The hotel seems a good place to transition – aided by the world's best rainfall shower. Nowhere brings to light the miracle of urban water pressure like the Sofitel.
Because of its location inside the airport grounds, the Sofitel Athens Airport strives to be a little world of its own – providing its guests great meal options and comfortable trappings. Given there are no other restaurants or even points of interest short of the 40 minute drive to the city, they can also keep the prices quite high. I don't mind spending good money on a good meal, but spending $45 for what should be a cheap lunch is not my thing. So I asked the kids what they would like from the airport terminal. There's no issue walking into the arrivals area where affordable quick eat options abound – particularly if you like greek pies and bagels – as we do.
Yadda yadda yadda…. I ended up at the Alpha-Beta supermarket's Express store to get Ailyn her favorite yogurt with honey for less than the cost of tipping the porters at the hotel. The chain supermarket sets up their mini-store to reflect a little of everything they sell in a full-store. In many cases, this is a stretch. How many bags of pasta or packs of fresh chicken are people going to buy in an airport terminal? And while alcohol seems one of the more likely things I would expect people to pick up on occasion, I couldn't help wondering how many bottles of Frangelico and Disarrono – two of the more visible brands – people purchase? Who stops off for a large bottle of Frangelico on their way home from a long day of travel? I'd love the video on that.
At the end of the day, after swimming on the 9th floor swimming pool, dining in the ground floor restaurant and chilling in bathrobes on comfortable beds, the kids were ready for the long passage home.
We leave with hanging question marks. While checking in on the United app, we were asked to volunteer to change flights in exchange for compensation. Since the proposed change would basically just change which US city we would transit through and get us to LA within 45 minutes of the original itinerary, we volunteered. We still have to be selected – so it may not happen. But it could. And we'd make enough to pay for at least one of us, if not two on another trip. We may also get upgraded – the app wanted me to confirm we would be interested. Cool.
In short, anything could happen. The adventure is never done until you're back at your doorstep – and even then, life itself is an adventure.
Of course, Sennen is beginning to figure out a fundamental lesson underpinning all of what we do: "daily life" is what we define it as. People lead all kinds of "daily lives" in all kinds of places, in a multitude of ways. They can be on Patmos, or Westlake Village, or a backroad in Timbuktu. We have the right and ability to question and redefine "daily life" if we want and for some of us, we do more than once in life. I can't know my kids' futures, but I see their awarenesses expanding. Over dinner they talked about where in the world they would want to go to college – not just in the United States. Sennen dreams of opening a restaurant in Italy. And in a morbid, but sweet moment, he said, "Daddy, one day when I die, I want to go to sleep thinking of Patmos."
What comes next, I can only imagine….
