Athens

It's hard to describe how I feel for Athens these days. I miss my friends and bits and pieces of life there, for sure. I miss our group of girls and coffee dates and meeting up on a whim in the evenings for a walk or a glass of wine. I miss our chats and the depth of relationship I was able to create with several people in a short time. There's something about sharing common circumstances in life (being a foreigner, single girl, in Greece, etc.) that forges bonds quickly.

Occasionally when I see friends' photos or hear stories from there, I feel this pang of familiarity and loss. It's strange; I can't say I miss the city, to be honest. I do miss the lifestyle, the feeling of being somewhat familiar with and being "at home" in another culture, and aspects of what life was there for me. But I don't miss the city, the dirtiness, the drug addicts, the brothels, the hardness and apathy and rebellion, feeling of always being a foreigner, the struggle with language. I don't really miss Athens at all.

The funny thing is, I hold so many fond memories and feelings for my time in Greece, but I know that if I went back it wouldn't be the same. A different blend of people, the absence of my fun apartment in my cool neighborhood, different work and social circumstances, and even more unrest and disruption. It will never be the same as it was while I was there. So I guess what I think fondly of is the time, the memories, and the friends and circumstances that came together to make my time there what it was. I'm glad I was there when I was. I like to think I made my little mark and others made theirs on me. :)

Wow, how life changes in a hurry. Life now looks nothing like it did even four months ago. Adjusting to a third culture (where I am SO SO SO thankful they speak English), new people, new job, and soon to be new marriage. It's exciting and feels like a grand adventure is just beginning. So Athens has become another place that I think of when I think of "home" and my friends there are others that I count as close and significant when I think of my important people.

I saw this video on a friend's facebook page a couple months ago. It brings feelings of familiarity and loss, but also of distance. Memories of what was, but knowledge that that isn't my life anymore. And ultimately - fortunately! - contentment and excitement about where I am now. :)

Athens...the Little Great City (I know it's big, sorry)

Top 10 things I'll miss about Greece

Since everyone keeps asking, and "my friends" doesn't seem to satisfy as an answer ...

10. constant excitement - You're always on your toes here, with strikes, demonstrations, and just a general unconventional way of going about things. Never a dull moment! (And, on second thought, I really won't miss this at all.) :)
9. language - Greek is hard. But there is something satisfying about learning and being able to communicate in another language that you never get to experience as a tourist.

8. periptera - I will miss these kiosks!

7. sandal man - There is this guy in Plaka from whom I buy these great Greek-made sandals. They aren't the most flashy, but they're made for lots of walking and they have gotten me and my bad feet through two summers. There is definitely a price to pay (usually in the form of nasty attempted kisses), so I suppose it's not the sandal man that I'll miss, but the sandals themselves!
6. fresh produce - Who doesn't love the weekly neighborhood λαϊκή (farmer's market)?
5. close proximity to Europe and elsewhere - In less than two weeks I'll be located at the bottom of the earth. Really wishing I could have gotten to more of the amazing cultural destinations that Europe (and beyond!) has to offer while I was so close, but so thankful for those I saw!
4. public transportation - Visiting other cities I've paid $4 or more to ride the metro, trains, and buses. In Athens, 1 euro will get you 90 minutes on any combination of the metro, buses, and trams. Since I live centrally, getting around is really easy here. Even when I can't get to my destination by public transportation, a taxi usually isn't more than 3-5 euros wherever I need to go.

3. Greek food and the taverna experience - I love sitting in a Greek restaurant (taverna) with a group of friends, ordering the familiar dishes, and sharing everything family-style. This doesn't always fly everywhere you go. The combination of the great food and the ambiance and being with friends is one of the things I'll miss the most.
2. beach & islands - I think this is self explanatory! Though my job isn't pretty, I tried to escape to the beach or a close by island on free weekends to get out of the city. I discovered that I love swimming in the warm Mediterranean! What a blessing to live in a country with such beautiful places.

1. my friends. They will still top the list. I have old ones, and I will make new ones, but these ones have shared much and been the highlight of my two years here.

What I'd miss* about Athens... the Periptero!!!

*Potentially, possibly, if, when, etc. etc. etc. Don't freak out.

It's really hot. I bought all these cute fall clothes while I was in the States, none of which I have worn, as it's 9 million degrees. Today I was sitting in the post office waiting my turn and felt the sweat trickling down my back. My face is a continual shining beacon, lighting the way for lost travelers.

Anyway, I am thinking of all these great things that I'll miss about this place if I end up leaving. There are many, so I'll dive right in.

#1- the corner periptero, or kiosk.

These little structures are on any and every street corner. I pass three on my three minute walk to my neighborhood metro station. Here you can buy newspapers and magazines ... water, soda, juice, beer, milk & yogurt (if you're lucky) ... bus & metro tickets ... cigarettes, pain killers, gum ... candy, chips, cookies ... phone cards, postcards ... ice cream ... batteries ...Some really decked out ones have sunglasses (where do you think my fabulous shades below came from?!), T-shirts, watches, backpacks, magnets, suitcases.....

So many times I have run out to the kiosk to pick something up or stopped on the way to a destination to arrive with a snack or drink in hand. Oh so convenient, oh so quick. A Moldovan friend who lives in Greece was in the States once and they needed some ibuprofen and she said, "Can we just go out to the kiosk?" Of course, they looked at her strangely. This is one thing that Greece has on the US! It's brilliant, really.

the other side of Athens

This is an all-too-common sight for us in the area we work in, which is full of drug addicts (and dealers), women in prostitution, refugees, and general riff-raff (my new favorite word). I have seen more people shooting up here than ever in my lifetime combined, in all areas of the body.

The drug of choice in Athens is heroin, leaving many people to suffer the effects of this illegal drug, like this girl on a bench just outside our office. The heroin is usually mixed with something cheap like ground up concrete, to make it go farther and sell cheaper. So many people are so far gone that they are just a shell, lying in a doorway, or leaning over precariously as they have lost their equilibrium, staring out of unseeing eyes.

This sight is so common that I barely notice anymore, let alone stop to look. This was taken by Kelly, one of our summer interns.

it's my birthday!

I went to Agistri for the weekend. Love that place, just a cheap 45 minute ferry from Athens. My friend Andrea turned 40 on Friday, so we made a weekend of it - just one night for me, but it was a good day of biking and beaching and bumming around. :) Today I am back in Athens, getting ready for the onslaught of interns! Nine folks have arrived over the weekend, and our summer internship program begins tomorrow.

strike!

Well, I am definitely back in Greece. It's taken me a bit longer to regain my footing here this time, what with weird jet lag, weird heavy & hot weather here that makes you sluggish and tired, and the sheer foreign-ness of everything (to me). Maybe the fact that I might be leaving makes it feel like a strange place. But today, I know I am back - we are having a strike. Home sweet home!

Everyone is stuck today ... no public transportation: no metro, trains, buses, ferries/boats; the ports are closed, and the airports are closed for several hours today. No hospital workers, lawyers, media, banks, customs officials, municipality workers ... at least the garbage seems to be being picked up still, which is always good when it's 90+ degrees.

So everything is canceled, it's hot, I have two fans blowing on me ... yes, I'm back.

demonstrations

A few more photos and some videos from last week's demonstration, which thankfully was peaceful. A friend and I were caught in the middle of it trying to get to a lunch appointment so we stopped to take in the crowds (first video), and on our way back there were only a handful of people left sitting in the street blocking traffic, surrounded by the police in riot gear (second video). The police forcefully moved them off the street so the cars could pass through after the streets had been closed all morning. We took the opportunity to be stupid American tourists and take our photos with the police boys. :)

the "other" office

A colleague found these videos on You Tube the other day. They're of the street where we work with the Nigerian girls, shot by some little excited tourists from the roof their hotel next door. As it gets later, more girls come - around midnight they'll be arriving in taxis together from their apartments. The "house" the girls mention in the video is a hotel that many of them work out of, and those guys are not their pimps; probably just some dudes hanging out.

Give it a couple more hours after these clips are shot and the numbers could get up to 50, 60, 70 girls at times... Or, like last night, when there were zero because of the police driving through over and over to scare them. In one of these clips the girls all ran up some stairs onto a higher level - to run from either the police or some people who sometimes come through, also just to scare them.

Medieval Rhodes

it's a great country I live in...

The good people in Cyprus reimbursed me for every expense for my trip there. Now, I'm taking the money and running! To a 75% off (off-season special) 5 star hotel on the sea in Rhodes. What can I say, I'm in desperate need of a break.

Bye now.

(photo from Kathleen Andersen)

Just another day in Athens...

Strikes, strikes, so many strikes!

We missed a big one on Friday while we were in Cyprus. I heard several people tell of their two+ hour walks to work! Many didn't make it in at all - metro, trains, and buses do not run, government offices and schools are closed, etc. etc. etc.

Gearing up for another one tomorrow - you have to plan ahead, rearrange your schedules, and stay close to home...nowhere you can't walk to! And hope you don't have a flight scheduled...because those are canceled too.

Thank you, "austerity measures" ...

spanakopita

I got an email today that said "We have been reading a lot in the newspaper about Grease."

:)

Well, I have returned from a whirlwind trip to Cyprus. We had a really great turnout, and I enjoyed doing the training. I was reminded how much "ministry" is involved in these things, when during breaks, after the conference ends for the day, and much of your otherwise "free" time is taken by meals and other meetings and chats and questions and you always have to be "on"! At one point I was so brain dead I just stared into my pizza blankly while the others talked around me. So much polite smiling and nodding and making conversation. :) THAT is what exhausts me; the teaching part I love!It was great having a traveling companion ... Holly is from Seattle and interning with Nea Zoi for a year. I was glad she could come along. We had a bit of free time on Friday morning to wander around along the sea and in the old part of Limassol.
Back in Athens, it's rainy and freezing again! I thought we were surely coming into some nice spring-y weather; last week I was ready to break out the sandals. Not yet! Today we also have our African dust back in the air, so the dark storm clouds mean that it literally rains mud. All the cars parked along the streets look like they have been off-roading.

strikes

(photo from Times Online)

Yesterday was the biggest national strike I've seen since being here in Athens - we already have a petrol strike going on (which has been going long enough that my supermarket is becoming quite picked over as delivery trucks aren't able to be on the road with no gas), but yesterday was a huge general strike - public transportation, airport, schools, government offices, courts, even historical monuments (including the Acropolis) and media (there was no news on last night)!

From a friend's balcony in the center I watched 30,000 people demonstrate (click and watch that video) through the streets with huge signs, chants, drums and bells...the labor unions all joined together to demonstrate against the governments "austerity measures" and tax hikes to meet E.U. requirements over the next month to reduce the deficit. Other groups were marching for papers for all refugees and immigrants. I walked past the university - where police are not allowed to come on campus since 1973 - and there was a huge banner over the front gates with the word "KATOXH" painted on it - "Occupation" - which basically means they have taken over as their place to hide when things get hairy!

We walked back inside the house for a minute and heard glass breaking - we rushed back out onto the balcony and saw some masked guys breaking the windows of a fast food restaurant below. It is ridiculous, no one stops them as they vandalize a Greek company - it wasn't even a foreign (esp. American) company that were the victims of the riots over a year ago! There were also some clashes with police and tear gas fired (of course) in the center.

A friend recommended a dentist to another friend the other day with the explanation: "It costs 50 euro for a cleaning if you don't want a receipt, and 80 euro if you do want a receipt." This is so demonstrative of the mess that this country now finds itself in - everyone has two sets of books to evade tax paying. Those who do actually pay will now be penalized by tax hikes as the new government seeks to meet E.U. requirements for Greek financial accounting. So we will be having more of these strikes, essentially shutting down the entire country, until we see what "solution" is reached next month...

Return of the dust...

The African dust has returned! I remember this from last year, when thick brown dust from the Sahara blows right up into Greece and hangs like smoke in the air. Yesterday morning on the roof of my Greek school we watched the dust clouds blowing in, covering the clear blue skies. Today you wouldn't know it's a sunny day; it looks overcast and reminds me of the smoke we had during Southern California fire season!

This is from California a couple years ago, when Kristin and I were moving out of our apartment before I moved to Greece:Athens looks pretty much the same today (it's a little thicker than that right now actually), except instead of a smoky smell we are breathing in dust. I just discovered there is even a website to check the dust forecast - as you can see we are pretty well covered!

You can't hang your clothes outside to dry and you can't wear white or you come home wearing brown. And I won't tell you what you get when you blow your nose! :)

That end of the year post...it was a doozy!

It's been quite a year, and who wouldn't want to reminisce about it? ;) Let's begin this obligatory post with December of '08, just because that seems to be when all the fun began. It's like a 13-month year in review. Kind of like a 16-month calendar, which makes no sense either.

December 2008 ~ the month I moved to Greece. It was a day later than intended, because of an air traffic controller's strike, but I made it. I moved into a tiny room below a family with three cute little boys in Piraeus and celebrated Christmas with my new Greek friends. This is where the photo in my banner came from, a five minute walk from that house.

January 2009 ~ lots of adjusting! Had visitors from Talbot and spent a day with them at Corinth - so good to see familiar faces. Later in the month I left for Thailand to visit a couple of anti-trafficking & prostitution ministries. That was such a great trip on so many levels, from being with a great group of women from the US, to learning so much from the ministries we visited.

February 2009 ~ kicked off with a solo trip from Bangkok to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Can't say I'd recommend that as an on-your-own travel destination, but still learned a lot and visited another ministry there. Started making friends in Athens, taught the first Greek Hands That Heal course in Thessaloniki, and was traumatized by the Greek health care system! This month I also started volunteering on outreach with Nea Zoi.

March 2009 ~ Just the general hum-drum of trying to settle into a new place. A bit of loneliness and discouragement, boredom, language difficulties, and cultural frustrations. I was growing frustrated with where I lived outside of Athens and not having much community around me. Did have a lovely day trip to the island of Hydra - my first Greek island. :)

April 2009 ~ This was a crazy month. I still remember, and I'm not sure I would ever choose to repeat it! Except the part where Janell came to visit! And the part where I got my own apartment in a great neighborhood in Athens...except for the moving and delivery nightmares surrounding Easter. Anyway - we kept busy: first a quick trip to Istanbul for a visa trip for me, then a couple of days on Santorini which were not restful in the least. :) I was so thankful to have her visit for a few weeks! April was also Easter week, in which the whole country shuts down and I skipped town again like any good Athenian for a couple days in Crete. Ok, so April was a bit of a nightmare.

May 2009 ~ But May was worse. For some reason, this was by far my worst month of the year. A number of things happened with family/friends, or at home, or to me in Athens, etc. etc. to make this a really difficult, lonely, and depressing month. I did get to go to France for an anti-trafficking conference and a weekend in Paris (paid for by a supporter - thank you!). I also made some friends at the gym :) and start spending more time with one of the girls we were working with. We also started teaching Hands That Heal for a second time, this time in Athens.

June 2009 ~ Recovering from May (this took several months). Took a visa trip to Albania.

July 2009 ~ I enjoyed summer in Athens. Lots of swimming in the sea, turning 30, making friends, and of course, Sakis. We did some intense street outreaches in July which were pretty exhausting, and I started a three week intensive language course. (I guess it was an intense month!)

August 2009 ~ Vacation month! Athens shut down and we were left in this "ghost town" of a city. I finished up my intensive language course and spent 5 days in Cyprus, learning about trafficking and trying to rest there. (Ha ha - what is rest?)

September 2009 ~ Things slowly begin to start up again in Athens after a month off in August. I watched the city fill up again and come back to life. We started regular outreaches again and began to plan for the third Hands That Heal class. I was sick, questioning the meaning of life (my life in particular), and trying to figure out what exactly I was doing in Greece.

October 2009 ~ Still sick, started Hands That Heal with a great turnout, had a weekend away with our friend who had left prostitution, and escaped with a few friends for a weekend to Meteora. There were rumblings inside and outside of me about my future in Greece and what that could look like. Lots of prayers and tears and questions. :)

November 2009 ~ My trip to Amsterdam, where it all began to come together for me to make the move to join International Teams. Also had probably the best visa trip ever to Jordan, courtesy of Andrea. :) Had a great Thanksgiving with neighborhood friends and realized that Athens has begun to feel like home.

December 2009 ~ And here I find myself back in the States, for Ramesh's wedding and the holidays. It has been a whirlwind - not relaxing by any means!!! It's good to be with family and friends, though, and I am realizing that I will be sadder than I expected when it's time to head back to Athens in mid-January. But I think I'll be ready.

So what a crazy year! Ten countries, I counted; lots of work, lots of learning, lots of amazing opportunities, and lots of processing yet to be done. Maybe I'll actually get to rest and think when I get back to Greece. ;) It's fun to look back over this year with thankfulness and a strange sense of awe, and I am really excited for what's to come with International Teams. So, stay tuned, I guess. :) And happy New Year!