This week was all over the place, so we’re going to go day by day.
SUNDAY
After the service, there was a church lunch at Cosmovision. In the sanctuary, I found myself with a couple other ex-pats saying, “Are you going?” “I dunno, are you?” “I guess.” “I guess I will too, then.” This level of enthusiasm continued throughout the entire experience.
I don’t blame the Greek church for doing Greek things, but it does make me wonder why they are so keen on ex-pats joining in. It’s funny, the little things that make you feel like an outsider. We arrived early and chose to sit by the windows for the view. Someone came by to tell us that they were going to close the windows soon, and we were all basically a shrug emoji. It turned out they were closing the windows because the old people like to sit without a breeze, so soon we were surrounded by all the oldest members of the church who, coincidentally, are the ones least likely to speak English.
Before the food was even served, I leaned over to Mercy and said, “I’m ready to go home.” “Me too,” she agreed, and then we tried to eat our feelings of loneliness with lots of rice, potatoes, and bread.
It got a little better two hours later when I found Dawn and Kendra, ex-pats that I am friendlier with, and we kind of rolled our eyes at each other at all the Greek in-jokes and anyway, it was super nice to get home after FOUR HOURS of introvert hell.
MONDAY
Sarah came back from her Paris excursion on Monday, and after work we went downtown to eat at a highly-reviewed restaurant. It was closed. I have very little follow-through, so I kind of moped around the corner and said, “This place is open, do you want to eat here?” We order a meat plate, which turned out to be DELI MEAT, which is a travesty in Greece, how dare they. The night was saved when Luciana and Giorgos showed up and we all got dessert at Little Kook. It warmed my little heart to go home with all three of them and cram everyone into a little two-bedroom apartment.
TUESDAY
On Sarah’s last day, we got sushi and talked all the rest of the talks we needed to have. Luciana and Giorgos were at the apartment when we returned, and we spent the rest of the night laughing, doing each other’s nails (Giorgos abstained), and talking about childbirth (Giorgos poked his head in to say, “WHAT?” several times).
WEDNESDAY
Everyone left me! Sarah flew back to the States, and Luciana and Giorgos moved into their new apartment. I skipped Bible study to stay home, partly because my introversion wanted to have my home to myself, and partly because I was sad to have the apartment to myself.
THURSDAY
I moped around a lot more. I mean, the good thing is I finally got to catch up on some TV shows, but yuck. My sociability is enormously tied to whether or not I have roommates (that I like).
FRIDAY
We had an OM team come to HD to clean, do construction, and help make Christmas cards. One of the women had volunteered with us a couple weeks ago as well, and she pulled me aside. I had accidentally encouraged her the previous time, so much so that she decided to give me a sizeable donation toward the $26,000 I am trying to raise. !!! What a huge encouragement for me.
I met Marilia downtown after work. We were going to hit up a vintage bazaar, but it turned out to be a tiny shop that had already been picked over. Instead we got Pumpkin Spice Lattes and shopped at Tiger. I met Marilia at the women’s conference back in May, but she was gone pretty much all summer, so I haven’t seen her much since. We talked about Harry Potter and our mutually unexpected love of the Byzantine Empire, which is exactly the kind of nerdy diversity I want in my friends.
Then I went home, put together an IKEA shelf that I bought last Saturday, and moped some more. I hate having to leave the house to socialize. That takes too much energy. I want to literally roll out of bed, open my door, and say hi to someone.
SATURDAY
Anthi interrupted my Slow Saturday Cleaning (dust a table, read a chapter of a book, water a plant, watch a TV show, etc) to invite me to HD. One of the OM guys was finishing putting together some furniture and she wanted me to help him. I was not oblivious to this lowkey matchmaking, but I think she’ll be unsuccessful.
Oh, and we had two pieces of big news at work this week, both awful in different ways and to different degrees. Now that I’ve finished with work stuff here and no longer need the HD wifi, I think I’ll go home and mope some more. I have three episodes of How to Get Away With Murder to catch up on!
It Is Trish 