Author: Trish

Workout Week #7

TrishLeave a comment

THIS WEEK’S GOAL:  17 minutes at least 5 times a week.

WorkoutWeek 1.16.16

Workout Notes

Six days out of seven! (I didn’t work out on Sunday because….I had just arrived in a new country and didn’t feel like it.)  I think I’m actually….enjoying it??  Ugh, I kind of hate myself, because “those” kinds of people always seemed horrible and showoff-y to seven weeks ago lazy Tricia.  But several times this week I thought, “I could just not workout today” but then thought, “Nah, I want to.”  WHAT EVEN IS HAPPENING.

Partly it’s because there is a very slight indentation above my knee where I think I am developing a thigh muscle.  And my shoulders look more like shoulders and less like slopes extending from neck to hand.  Now that I can see some (tiny) tangible changes, it makes me want to keep going.

icon175x175Oh, and I discovered a new app!  Hah, if I’ve learned anything from this, it’s that I really do need constant change to stay interested.  I’m still doing the 30 Day Challenges (which are getting ROUGH), but I’m currently obsessed with Sworkit.  Four workout types are offered for free (stretch, yoga, cardio, strength). You can choose whether you want to work out for 5, 10, 15, etc minutes, and then it gives you random exercises in 30 second intervals.  I like to turn on some pop music and then do 10 minutes of light cardio.

Food Notes

I was going to give myself a pass, since 90% of moving to Greece was about the food (and, uh, the work I’m preparing to do).  But I don’t think it’ll be a problem.  Greeks don’t really overeat.  We have a big lunch, and then breakfast and dinner are small, and I haven’t really gotten hungry.  I do tend to snack on pistachios, which are very healthy AND super cheap here in the Mediterranean.

Actually, who knows?  I could eating horribly, because I’ve been guessing on a lot of the calories.  I can’t read the nutritional information on food bought here.  I’m googling most things and guesstimating, but I feel okay with that.  I’m being thoughtful about the things that I eat, and that’s what I care about most.

Plus: SLOUVAKI.  I’m not going to NOT eat that.

NEXT WEEK’S GOAL:  20 minutes at least 5 times a week.

A Week in Greece #1: Everything is New

Trish2 Comments

It’s been a week!  Well, it’s been a week since I left the United States, though tomorrow will be my official in-country anniversary.  But soon it will have been so long that those differentiations will be meaningless, which is one of the weirdest things I’m going through right now: constantly re-configuring my brain so that I remember this is not a week-long trip.  I live here.  One week down, fifty-ish more to go.

That doesn’t make me scared or anything, it’s just weird.  After all, I’ve never really been one to get homesick (although I have stared sullenly into the darkness at night, wishing Rory’s tiny paws would push my arm around for optimal snuggling).  I feel okay about this being more than a vacation, it’s just….weird!   Continue reading →

Oh Hey, Friday! 5 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GREEK AND US CULTURE

Trish1 Comment

Oh Hey Friday & 5 on Friday

My first Oh Hey, Friday! in Greece.  This is a link-up from September Farm and 5 on Friday from A. Liz Adventures, and I figured a listicle was a great way to address some of the differences I’ve noticed about daily life since moving to Greece.  I’ll probably do this again on another Friday, because Lord knows there are more than five differences.

5 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GREEK AND US CULTURE

1|  Where the Toilet Paper Goes

As a U.S. citizen, I was raised with relatively recent plumbing and could therefore flush toilet paper without a second thought.  Not so in Greece, whose sewer pipes are 2 inches in diameter (as opposed to 4 inches in the U.S) and were created centuries before the invention of toilet paper.  So in Greece, every toilet has a little wastebin next to it.  You wipe, then throw it away.

Some people on trips to Greece (or Turkey, or Mongolia, or anywhere with a culture older than ours) freak out about this.  It doesn’t really bother me, since traveling inspires in me an “oh well” attitude toward unusual bathroom habits (see my story about going to the bathroom in Mongolia: Tricia Accepts the Inevitability of Peeing in Public).  After all, the wastebins have lids, so you’re not looking at used toilet paper while you brush your teeth.  And I have a room to myself, so it’s only my own filth, and I can throw out the bag any time I want.

For me, the problem is in remembering to toss the TP in the wastebin.  But it’s been five days now, and I’m nearly at a 100% success rate. Continue reading →

Welcome to My Greek Home

Trish12 Comments

Months ago, I was told that I would get a room to myself when I moved into the school in Pikermi.  A week before I left, I was told: actually, maybe not.  I tried to prepare myself for 24/7 socialization.  I’ve gone 27 years with my own room, and maybe it was time I learned to share my space?  I’m an introvert, but surely it would, like, be helpful to have a roommate in a new country?  A guaranteed friend?  That is, if she and I would even be compatible.  The whole flight over to Athens, I reassured myself that rooming with someone would not be the end of the world.

PSYCH, it turns out I DO have a room to myself!  Hallelujah, I can be honest:  no way could I stand to have someone always around.  No way could I come back from a draining day of language learning or counseling or teaching and say Hello and make Small Talk, ugh.  When I’m stressed, I need, at minimum, five hours to myself.  Hahaha, I wish I were joking, but on Tuesday I spent eight hours alone in my room recovering from five hours of desperately trying to listen to Greek conversation.

So I’m rooming alone, but in a dorm building, so my new friends Olga and Natasha are just a few dozen feet away.  Lunch is communal, so I’m always meeting new people there.  I’m socializing – I just have an escape route.  And a cute little cozy one, too!  Here, let me give you a tour.  Continue reading →

Grocery Shopping in Pikermi

TrishLeave a comment

Part of the excitement of traveling is that daily tasks become opportunities for bravery.  I slept through the school’s breakfast, so I walked to Cafe Veneti for coffee.  Just saying, “espresso americano,” staring blankly at the cashier when she asked me something, then assuring her I had euros when she changed the bill to dollars, took a lot out of me.  But I did it!  I get to feel proud of myself for ordering coffee – what a world.  Next door was a medium sized grocery store (apparently they get bigger the further you walk from the school).

Screen Shot 2016-01-11 at 12.46.54 PM
View courtesy of Google Maps

Although a grocery store is a grocery store is a grocery store, there were some differences between shopping in Pikermi and running to Kroger in the United States.   Continue reading →

The House of Hades by Rick Riordan

TrishLeave a comment

 

The_House_of_HadesOkay, THIS is my favorite book in the Heroes of Olympus series.  It’s divided into two plots lines, one that follows Percy and Annabeth’s dangerous adventures in Tartarus, and another that follows our remaining seven demigods (plus Nico!) in the Mediterranean.  While I like following Jason, Piper, Hazel, Frank, and Leo, it is undoubtedly the Tartarus story that makes this my favorite.

Percy and Annabeth are such a great couple, and that’s largely because they are both so well-developed as individuals.  We know that as readers, but Percy and Annabeth know that about each other.  They respect each other’s skills and easily accept each other’s help.  They are a team, and that is the only way they are able to cross the increasingly horrifying world of Tartarus.  Well, that and Bob.   Continue reading →

National Human Trafficking Awareness Day

TrishLeave a comment

In the United States, January 11th is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day, and I cannot help but find it auspicious that this is my first full day in Greece, beginning a year with HD.

Greece is a transit, destination, and a very limited source country for women and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor, and men subjected to forced labor. (US Department of State)

Officially, Greece was designated a Tier 2 country, one where a government is not fully compliant with the minimum protection of victims and in which the number of victims of severe abuse is significantly increasing. (Greek Reporter)

Although few Greeks are trafficked (however, the number of Greek women who resorted to prostitution grew significantly when the economy collapsed), but women (sex trafficking) and men (human trafficking) frequently find themselves sold into slavery here.  They are from Eastern Europe and Africa, and their traffickers use a variety of threats to coerce them into work.   Continue reading →

I’ve Arrived in Greece!

Trish3 Comments

The power went out three times during the flight from Detroit to Amsterdam. Everyone had settled in with movies or TV shows when suddenly all the screens went blank. A couple seconds later, all the overhead and tracking lights went off too. In the dark, hundreds of people sat silently for a good three minutes before someone official made an announcement saying yes, the power was out, and they were rebooting the media system. 

It was a real testament to people’s patience and endurance…and also a hilariously scary picture of how useless we would all be in an emergency. 

Halfway across the Atlantic, I hit the “What am I doing!?” part of moving. It’s such a strange feeling to realize you’ve decided to leave everyone and everything you’re familiar with and intentionally surround yourself with the unknown. Not only that, but I spent nine months fundraising and preparing to do this to myself!  With all that forethought, it took actually flying for the panic to set in.    Continue reading →

My Last Week with Rory

Trish1 Comment

When people ask what I will miss most during the year I’m living in Greece, I think they assume I will say a person or a food or something.  Actually, maybe they aren’t, because several people have asked, “What will you do without Rory??” with all the gravitas of a tragic question.

Rory is what I will miss most.  I tend to prefer animals over people anyway, and Rory is the best little animal on the whole planet.  For instance, a day in the life of Tricia and Rory:   Continue reading →