Where are you from?

Where are you from?

This seems like such an easy question, but it's always been difficult for me to answer.

I'm Greek. That's the simplest answer, I guess. But even that's a bit more complicated, because my dad is from a tiny village near Sparta, but I grew up in a village outside Yiannena.

"So where were you born?", you might ask... I was actually born in Philadelphia, in the U.S.A. But I never lived there - to the best of my knowledge, my parents were there on vacation, and I arrived three weeks early.

Kinda on vacation, I guess, because my mom's actually from America - although not Philadelphia, Haddenfield New Jersey.

So I'm half Greek and Half American, you could say. The Greek side is easy - several generations back, from the same area of Lakonia. The American part is much more complicated:

My grandfather was Italian - or, at least, the son of Italian immigrants. His dad was from a village near Torino. His mom was more or less Sicilian, although born in the states.

My grandmother was Polish, mostly, with a bit of Cherokee blood. So yeah, I'm 1/16th Cherokee, which almost sounds like a joke.

My dad is Greek and my mom's American.  I was born in America, but I grew up in Greece. My dad's from Sparta but I grew up in Yiannena.

I grew up between two cultures, never quite belonging to either. Greek in America, American in Greece. From Sparta when I'm in  Yiannena, from Yiannena when I'm in Sparta.

Oh, and I've lived in Athens since 2001...

Where are you from?

The answer has never been "from here", no matter where I am.