Ah, the good old days

Remember how much fun I had in Israel? I just love it there. Could live there, even.

redefining safety

I watched the movie The Soloist last night. It takes place largely on Skid Row in LA. I have been there so many times, during the day and night, yet the intensity of the place in the movie still surprised me. I have forgotten. It's not the same here.

Thursday nights we start outreach at 11. I walk there alone, to some of the worst parts of Athens. I have walked home alone from the center square at 2 or 3 am. Yet I don't really think twice about it. Athens is different from LA. Tonight on my way to the outreach center I saw the customary drug deals, the guys who are totally strung out shooting up right on the sidewalk, the bazillions of refugees in the streets, the girls at work. I suddenly realized how my perception of danger or being unsafe has changed.

Athens is not a dangerous place. Ok, it would not be shocking if I were mugged, or if someone broke into my apartment. Petty crime has risen with the poor economy and the increase of refugees and immigrants. But violent crime is so rare. It's almost unheard of here. In this way, my self is safer than my stuff. So I can walk alone at night (being smart, of course - it's not like I choose the darkest alleys or the worst areas and walk into them at 3 in the morning) without much fear. Seeing Skid Row in this movie last night made me realize how different things would be elsewhere. My perception of safety will need to be readjusted when I leave here. Maybe it will just naturally readjust in a different environment with different levels or definitions of danger.

In LA, it's not uncommon for people to hurt others. Here in Athens, it's more common for people to hurt themselves.

bad habits

A few bad habits I have picked up since living overseas:

1. Speaking Greek in English (ex. "I like shrimps" or "I am bored to do that.")
2. Calling my country "America"
3. Staying up SO LATE (partly because the culture and work are late night things, but also because everyone at home is awake during my night for skype, IM, etc.)
4. Eating the same things because walking to the grocery store and carrying the bags all the way home is such a pain
5. Hoarding plastic bags (the Greeks do this and now so do I...for garbage bags, carrying things, etc.)

:)

I am so lucky!

There is a demolition going on a few floors above me. How do I know? Because of this:And because they started working around 6:30 am, throwing all their pieces of junk (including but not limited to: doors, windows, pieces of wall, cupboards, drawers, countertops) down into this dumpster. Which happens to be right outside my bedroom window.

Score! A free alarm clock, AND a great view!!

impressed for once!

Sunday morning I got up as usual, got ready, went to church...on the way home I ran into some friends from the neighborhood at one of the cafes and stayed for a drink and lunch afterward. By the time I got home it was 4:30 and I was scrambling to go out again for my 5:00 coffee with another friend (life is hard). :)

I had to check something on my computer and noticed the outlet wasn't working. Great. My Greek teacher's (Voula) husband (Elias) is an electrician, who had come when I first moved in and fixed all the non-functioning outlets; they are old, so I supposed one had stopped working. I tried another. It didn't work either. Uh oh...I tried the light switch...nothing. I went to my electrical box but none of the fuses had popped up, but none of the lights in the house worked. To my dismay, the lights in the hallway outside the house worked just fine...it was only my house. :( Somehow, given that I live in Greece, I was not surprised. (Is that bad??)

I called Voula who asked Elias what was going on. He had me check the fuses and then decided it was a problem with the company. She told me where I could find the number on my latest bill (which I had made sure I paid!) and I called a few times before I got through. The guy spoke no English, but I was able to tell him I had no electricity and where I lived. He said he would call me back. That is never a good sign! I settled in for the long haul, rescheduling my coffee date, planning what I would do that evening for light and possibly the next morning for a shower, and fretting that he wrote down my number wrong.

Nearly 30 minutes later, the guy called back. I had no idea what he was telling me. Somehow I figured out that the electric guy was outside the door of my building! Thanking him, and in a bit of shock that they were already here, I hung up and ran down to let the guy in. I showed him the electrical boxes in the basement, and he called me over to show me what was wrong. A simple button that he pushed back in. "Off, on, off, on," he said, pushing it in and out.

A half hour and I had my power back! I almost fainted in disbelief. I found out that the number for outages operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This is crazy for a country that takes every other day off for a holiday and closes early on the other days. :) And they actually followed up and showed up at my house in a timely manner! Holy electric company! I was floored.

This morning I told Voula what happened, and she affirmed the round-the-clock hours of the company. But when I told her that the guy had shown me the button to push in the basement, she frowned. "That is against the law," she said, "only electricians can get into those boxes!" She shook her head with that "I can't believe these people" look that I use at least twice a day in this country. I knew there would be something "Greek" about the situation, ha. But at least I got my power back. Each little occasion like this makes me feel like I am getting the full Greek experience. What's next? I can take it. :)

dinner with friends

Thanks to skype and a bout of insomnia, I got to enjoy dinner with a few good friends, all the way from California. :)

new wave

Last night during outreach on the streets, we saw a couple of Asian girls who were clearly in prostitution. These are the first we've seen. We've heard that they are in Italy, and will not be surprised when they start showing up here too. The Nigerian girls came to Greece in 2003, and had been in Italy before that. I know there are Chinese and Japanese trafficking rings in Italy, but have not heard of any here in Greece, yet. Now we are moving to our next wave of "exotic" girls to meet the demand. I'm sad to see it. I'm curious to see where they will start to appear - on the streets? In the brothels? What are their stories?

thoughts on sharing my (uncommon) opinion

I've been in several discussions the past few weeks about legalizing prostitution. First of all, at parties, barbecues, meeting new people with friends at cafes, whatever - the question "What are you doing in Greece?" (an international derivative of "What do you do?") comes up inevitably. This always leads to a brief or longer (if they are interested, which some are) description or discussion on human trafficking. Many ask a few polite questions, show some shock, and move on to lighter topics, but many press it farther and want to talk about it more. Either is fine. But several times lately this has led into someone's soliloquy on why prostitution should be legalized. Hate to say it, but it's been a male every time.

And I usually say with some nonchalance that I disagree, and if they are listening, give them my reasons, to which they listen thoughtfully, don't usually have much of a response, and then we move on. I was just thinking about how in some cases I feel almost embarrassed to give my opinion. I know in most circles men (it's mostly men, although there are many women who believe in the woman's right to choose what she does with her own body) believe in legalization, and they think that it will curb problems like sexual violence and trafficking. (It's quite the opposite, in fact.) Often I feel like the little Christian girl with the conservative viewpoint talking to someone who probably has visited one of these women in their lifetime in some country or another.

But, it's ok, I've realized...I can articulate it in an intelligent way, and my reasons are not based on my faith (fundamentally they are, but there are many reasons that don't even need to get into that). So they usually do listen thoughtfully and I know they are thinking about it. And, they still like me afterward. :) Usually if someone is talking to me about trafficking, etc. in the first place, they will be open-minded enough to hear my thoughts. It's just funny how we can be shy to share our thoughts, our faith, our whatever, if we know it is not the popular belief. I like having these discussions with men, and being able to make them think about things beyond their own opinions or "needs," in a way that doesn't make them write me off or feel condemned or end the conversation.

I even got invited to come over and smoke weed after one of these conversations last week, so I guess I am still "in." Ha! (I didn't. Thank you.)

viva Greece!

I met a friend for coffee yesterday in one of my neighborhood's trendy cafe/coffee shops around 6pm. When she left an hour and a half later, I moved over and joined a group of friends from the neighborhood a few tables away. As more people came we added chairs and crammed around our tiny table full of glasses and chips. At 10:30 (in the midst of a downpour - glorious!) we made our way to the neighborhood lamb taverna and shared the traditional Greek spread. I got home around 2am. That is Greece! :)

Tonight I met some different friends around 7 or 8pm. We weren't in our own neighborhood, but one where you can walk for blocks without hearing Greek, a neighborhood full of refugees and people shooting up and women in prostitution. I went into six brothels tonight, met a girl from Romania who looked 15 and has been here just one month, a Nigerian girl who claims that she's been here two years but has never met us before, a Bulgarian girl who lounged her stiletto-heeled feet on the arms of her chair and nervously answered our greetings. Men come and go and she does her business and that's just how it works. This is also Greece.

What can I say, I get the full experience.

earthquakes & bombs

Apparently we just had an earthquake. I felt nothing, but as I was trying to find some news about it, I came across this piece of information:

Greece experiences more seismic activity than any other country in Europe, accounting for half of the continent's recorded quakes.

Um, what? How did I not know this? I think I am more afraid of earthquakes than any other thing in the world. How come no one told me?!?!? Waaaaaaaaaah

Also the Athens Stock Exchange was bombed this morning, but I was blissfully unaware of this occurrence as it was taking place as well. Until it was all over the international news.

What am I doing here again??