Gazing at my Feet is a portrait of Greece as seen through the eyes of a transplanted Greek-American. Joan Demakis has lived in Athens, Greece for fifty years and has seen, as she herself says, everything.
Joan describes the difficulties that she encountered and the loneliness and melancholy that she felt during her first years living in Athens, a long adjustment period. In the process of making those wrenching adjustments, however, she began to fall in love with her new adopted country.
Her memoir is an ode to Greece which she now calls "home" - to Greece's stunning and breathtaking beauty, its history and its ancient and modern cultures, its language and religion, and to the warm and hospitable Greeks with their joie de vivre and sense of humor.
This is a must-read for everyone, but especially for anyone who is planning to go to Greece, to visit or to live.
"When you finish reading Gazing at my Feet, you will want to travel to Greece with Joan Demakis as your guide." (Fred T. Golder, Attorney at Law, Boston, Massachusetts, USA)
"A completely Alternative Guide to know and deeply understand Greece. For readers who are trying to understand and adapt to a new homeland..." (Panayiota Liarou, Ex Consul of the Greek Foreign Ministry in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil & Houston, Texas USA)
"Joan successfully paints a picture of modern Greece, bringing this fascinating and complex country vividly to life." (Carolyn Goutis, Principal - School of Foreign Languages, Pyrgos, Ilias, Greece)
"...the wonderful things that can happen when a person is brave enough to leave his or her comfort zone." (Vinette DiGregorio, Product Design Manager, New Hampshire, USA)