Just like in every language, there are some words in Greek that cannot really be translated in a way that could attribute their meaning and all its cultural weight. You might know “meraki” as one of these words or “filotimo” even. “Ανταμώνω” is another one of these. It basically means to meet but it mostly communicates a familiar feeling of togetherness.
In Greek we often say that “τα καλοκαίρια είναι για να ανταμώνουμε.” Summers are for getting together. In an online Greek School like ours this is more than a phrase. It is a promise and an expectation. The need for this familiar feeling of togetherness is what has inspired our summer programs, our Greek Summer Camp for children and our Greek Immersion Course for adults. And even though we had to cancel them for this year due to the pandemic, we still managed to get together with our colleagues and our students of course.
Students that have been with us for years managed to travel to Greece and made sure to meet their teachers. New students that have only been with us for a couple of months took advantage of their days in Greece to meet their teachers in person. Adult students and younger ones. Students who were young and are now adults. Students from the US, Australia or Europe made sure to schedule their holidays in a way that would allow them to spend a few hours or days with their Greek teachers. And in other cases, students, classmates doing classes together met even if they could not visit their teacher.
The Greek Online School team met as well. In all the corners of Greece, Thessaloniki, Athens, Patras, Crete. We work together every day, we see each other online all the time, but there is just something extremely special when we get together.
Τα καλοκαίρια είναι για να ανταμώνουμε! Thank you for making the dream of this online community a reality!
