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Happy in my Homesickness

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Yesterday I was feeling especially homesick.  It was a combination of things: listening to Dallas radio stations online, seeing blue lights at a metro station that reminded me of a movie theater in my hometown, talking with friends from several places I call home.

I told one friend:  “I’m occasionally feeling homesick.  I think I’ve been here too long and I need to travel somewhere.”

She wrote back: “It’s funny that your reaction to homesickness is ‘go somewhere else.’  You are a very interesting person.”

I hadn’t considered that my feelings were kind of weird, but as soon as she confused me, she gave me some answers.  “Maybe you need to travel to regain your excitement for being away from home.  And then when you do get back to Athens, it will feel like home by comparison.  Maybe.”

She was totally right.  But it got me thinking…so what happens when Athens DOES feel like home? Continue reading →

A Week in Greece #15: A New Friend, First Week at HD, and Apartment Furnishing

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A New Friend

Luciana is the second Day Program volunteer.  Normally she will work just one day a week, but since our first week was abnormal, she’s been coming more often.  She’s from Brazil, she’s athletic, and she’s studied sociology, counseling, and social anthropology. She’s engaged to a Greek guy even though she’s a year younger than me, and she’s lived in Brazil, Portugal, and Northern Ireland.

Early in the week, we both stayed late to do some work, and I “kindly” told her “helpful” things that were really just me bragging about how I had been there longer than her and knew more than she did.  I went to the bathroom, realized what I was doing, and came back into the office.

“Hey, if I’m ever being obnoxious, it’s because I’m intimidated by you,” I said.  “Before you came, I had a very specific role that no one else in the office could fill.  But your talents  overlap mine, and I’m worried that you will replace me.”

Just like that, the jealousy went away.  Speaking our grossest feelings has an amazing ability to dissipate them.   Continue reading →

ART THERAPY REFLECTION | My Life as a Tree

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One of the classes that I lead at HD is called “Boom Team.”  It’s meant to be an arts and crafts time, but I’m a counselor, so I turned it into art therapy.

Project:  My Life as a Tree
Draw yourself as a tree,
with the roots being things that give you strength
and the leaves as things you want to change.

The cool thing about HD is that we are meant to participate in the recovery process with our girls, because even if we haven’t been trafficked, we all have our baggage that we need help processing and overcoming.  I won’t share “A”s tree, because that is her story.  But I will share mine!

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My “roots,” aka things that give me strength:  Continue reading →

Online Dating as an INFJ (aka Tinder Update)

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About a month ago, I wrote about my half-hearted attempt to try Tinder.  Since then, I have kept my account…quarter-heartedly?  Eighth-heartedly?  What I mean is, I open the app every couple days, swipe left on everyone, and close out again.

I know I’m not doing it right.  I’ve tried prioritizing different things:  first I opened everyone’s profile to see if they wrote anything about themselves.  If they didn’t, I automatically swiped left.  If they did, more often than not it was something like this, which also resulted in a left swipe:

  • “I’ll Channing your Tatum.”
  • “All kinds scorn SEX they is CRIME.”
  • “My last tweet was longer than my last relationship.”
  • “Pigeon King.”

Continue reading →

A Week in Greece #14: Meeting Presidents, Reading at the Beach, and Starting HD’s Day Program!

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WHAT A WEEK.  It feels like everything in the world happened, but unlike last week, I felt really good about everything.  So much happened, but I still managed to find time to read two books, play an enormous amount of Civilization V (I’m obviously playing as Greece and I’m conquering everyone), and binge-watch season 2 of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

Sunday

Argyris and Dina took me to a church plant, but we showed up an hour late.  That was fine by me since their Translation Headphones were mostly screechy and I couldn’t understand most of the sermon anyway.  I have resigned myself to the fact that the majority of my spiritual teaching will come from podcasts…so I’ve been listening to all of Mike Stroh’s sermons at TFC!  He’s my friend and he’s so talented!

After the service, we went to Dina’s sister’s place.  It was a family meal, since their aunt and uncle are visiting from Chicago (actually, this 80-year-old couple went from Chicago to Boston to Chicago to Uganda to Greece…#lifegoals!).  There was an enormous amount of good food.  For being a socially anxious person, I mostly don’t mind just randomly crashing other people’s parties.  Probably because of the food.   Continue reading →

HD Update: THE DAY PROGRAM BEGINS TODAY

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Six years ago I had a revelation:  In the United States, I can go for months at a time without needing to rely on God.  I know someone will say, “You can’t even BREATHE without relying on God,” and yes, thank you.  But practically, being a privileged person living in a privileged country, I am free to rely on myself to succeed in life.  Prayers become something more like wishes than declarations of God’s provision.  Continue reading →

The Tyranny of “I Should”

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A while ago, a friend said to me, “I’d hoped you would participate more in the school activities…eat lunch with us, maybe go to chapel.”

I froze.  My mind whirred with responses, some excuses, some truths:  “The lunches are too expensive.  I forgot.  A lot of the time I’m busy!  Sometimes I’m too socially tired to leave my room because I’m scared I’ll run into someone and have to make small talk!”

Instead, I answered with a more palatable truth.  “I want home to be somewhere where nothing happens.”

My friend stared at me, and I could see their brain desperately trying to understand what I had said.  Finally, still with a confused look on their face, they said, “Okay.”

I agonized about this interaction for DAYS.   Continue reading →

INFJ Post Generator

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I found an INFJ article generator!  What a wonderfully specific gift on the Internet.  Here are some of my favorite posts that it linked me to.

1|  These spot-on cartoon descriptions of INFJ life by INFJoe.

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2|  Someone polled a bunch of INFJs and found our top 25 favorite movies!

Here’s what I found out: INFJs have very eclectic taste, but out of all the genres, they seem to have very obvious favorites.

INFJ Favorite Movie Genres:
1 – Dramas
2 – Epic fantasies
3 – Psychological thrillers
4 – Family movies
5 – Romances

Continue reading →

Workout Week #14

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Sunday

After church, I went out to a taverna where we got multiple entrees and even more appetizers, so I basically said, “Oh well,” and gave up on healthiness for the day.

Monday   FullSizeRender

It’s always easiest to stay healthy when I stay home the whole day, snacking a little bit at a time as I get hungry rather than eating a big meal.  Hermits = healthy!  Why is no one pushing this angle??

Once again I’m feeling bored with the workouts I’ve been doing for over three months now, so…YouTube!  I searched “20 minute workouts” and this was one of the first that came up.  I liked it quite a bit, and I’ll probably cycle around to it again sometime in the future.  But not too soon, because…boredom.

Tuesday   Continue reading →

A Week in Greece #13: House Hunting, Class Planning,and Nafplio

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So much happened this week but in exactly three categories:  house hunting (!), class planning, and Nafplio.

House Hunting

I’ve been thinking about moving into my own apartment for about a month now.  It would save me money, put me closer to HD, and give me some much-needed introvert time.  I thought that when I brought the subject up, everyone would talk about and think about it and a few months from now, something would happen.  NOPE.

I told Anthi about it last week, and the next day she called to say, “I found a 2-bedroom apartment for only €300!”  I freaked out, because I was not ready to make this thought a reality, but I broached the subject with Dina and Argyris last Sunday.  “This is a wonderful idea!” Dina said.  “We knew you would spread your wings and fly,” Argyris said, “But we did not expect you to want to fly this soon.”

Long story (aka I whined and stressed for several days) short, on Friday Anthi and I visited the apartment she saw and it is AMAZING.  Beautiful, newly renovated, private, so much amazing.  There is a random tiny room that is kind of like a walk-in closet without shelves, and I immediately pictured it covered in pillows and converted into a comfortingly claustrophobic Reading Room.    Continue reading →