Keyboard! Secrets! Revealed!

Tah-daaaah! Here it is, the elusive Greek keyboard. You can download a program to your computer that allows you to toggle between English and Greek letters. Some of the letters look the same in both languages (a relic of Latin's close linguistic reliance on Greek), but you will notice that on the same key with the English "s" is the Greek letter "s" called sigma as I previously posted about, and you can click to switch between them.

Bilingual Keyboard

A few more amusing bits of Greek minutiae: I can't read the words, but I assume this is the Greek equivalent of "baby on board" in the rearview window of a car. But it's not a sign, it's an actual little baby t-shirt. I would be terrified indeed to drive in Athens with a baby on board. Greece has one of the highest road fatality rates in the European Union. As Archaeologist Taxi Driver observed when picking me up from the airport, driving rules are treated around here as merely suggestions. And with the sidewalks choked with scooters and parked cars, pedestrian casualties are common. The Greeks erect little shrines by the side of the road similar to those on U.S. highways, but here they are half in memory of loved ones who died in wrecks, and the other half in gratitude that someone managed to survived a wreck. Godiva asked to see a picture of a Greek license plate. They look just like the ones we've seen in movies set in Europe. Only with blood on them.

Hellenic Baby on Board

I also had an American discovery recently, college students being their own subculture and all. Last night at Program Director's party, I learned the phrases "chicken fight" and "parent pic." A chicken fight is when a woman sits on the shoulders on a man in a pool or the ocean, and she tries to unseat another woman similarly perched. I've seen such things before, of course, I just didn't know it was called a chicken fight. Apparently, in preparation for their outing to the beach, chicken fight teams have already been forming among some of the students.

The phrase "parent pic" came out of a discussion of Facebook, on which all but three of the students have profiles. The students expressed great unease that baby boomers are starting to invade Facebook, because most of the students have pictures posted there they wouldn't want their family members or employers to see. A "parent pic" is a wholesome picture you don't have to put behind a privacy filter on Facebook lest Aunt Mabel (or Professor Tiara!) sees it. In a well-meaning effort to learn the students' names and faces before meeting them, I scrolled through their pictures on Facebook, and I certainly wanted to scrub my eyes with a brillo pad after some of them.

Greek License Plate