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What Is My Faith Made Of?

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“Καλημερα!  Καλημερα, Τρισια!” I heard behind me as I turned right in front of the 1896 Olympic Stadium.  I turned around.  Nir held his arms open.  “Like my jacket?” he asked.  “My parents bought it for me.”

We discussed our weekends, and he asked about how church works.  He asked about Christmas and Easter, and I asked about Yom Kippur and Purim.  He said he wasn’t religious, but was I?  “Yes,” I said, grimacing.  I’ve thought about this before, how much I hate to tell new people that Christianity is a big deal to me.  Romans 1:16 runs through my head like an accusation, but I’ve decided that I’m not ashamed of the gospel…I’m ashamed of a lot of the people who go around talking about it.

“What does it mean for you?  To be religious or not religious?” Nir asked.   Continue reading →

Workout Week #8

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THIS WEEK’S GOAL:  20 minutes at least 5 times this week.

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GOAL MET

Workout Notes

This week was weird.  On the one hand, my Greek lessons and Greek homework took up an enormous amount of my time, making it harder to make room for working out.  On the other hand, I had a lot of stress manifesting itself physically, and I found that a good cardio workout went a long way toward making me feel better.

Exercise…making me feel…better?  Wow.

I’m continuing with my 30 Day challenges and Sworkit app.  In addition, I walked about four miles every weekday – mostly from Syntagma to Pangrati and back (the metro station to my Greek class).  So all in all, it was a very active week!

Food Notes

Another weird thing.  I…didn’t eat much this week?  Maybe due to stress, but usually when I’m stressed I OVEReat.  I don’t know.

My eating schedule most days was this:  eat cereal for breakfast at 9:00, eat a snack (strawberries/little pastry/etc) at 1:00, eat dinner at 7:00 when I got home.  I kept having 300 or 400 calories left over every day, but I never kept myself from eating when I was hungry.

Is this normal?  If you’re walking a lot, do you stop being hungry?  Maybe so, because today I stayed in my room most of the time, and I found myself snacking a lot.  Hmmmm.  Maybe it’s not so mysterious.

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

(I have less and less time due to my Greek lessons 1.5 hours away,
so I don’t want to push my luck.)

A Week in Greece #2: First Week in a Daily Greek Class

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Υεια σασ!  Τι κανετε;

Δεν ζερω ελλινικα ακομα, αλλα καταλαβαινω λιγα.

This week has been all about GREEK.  I’ve gone to class for three hours a day (we’re supposed to get a half hour break, but some days we get only fifteen or twenty – one day we went over by half an hour).  It’s crazy intense.

Every day I leave feeling like my brain is about to explode.  This is compounded by the fact that my classmates have lived in Greece for several months.  When we practice speaking in class, they’ll throw in phrases they’ve heard or learned, and it’s all I can manage not to throw a fit and scream, “You can’t say things we haven’t learned in here!!”  I feel very dumb, especially since the girl who struggled the most dropped out.  I’m now definitely in the bottom three.

It’s easy to focus on that, because, well, perfectionism.  But on Wednesday I skyped with my mom and later with my grandparents, and I read them a paragraph from my textbook.  I mean, I read it in Greek.  “Do you know what you read!?” my mom asked.  “Yeah,” I said dully, because I’d mispronounced “δυο.”  “WOW,” she enthused.  “Three days ago you didn’t know any Greek.”   Continue reading →

INFJ Complexities

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Every time I meet new people, I have to have this conversation:

Person:  You’re so friendly!  You should come hang out with this group and then that group and then do five more social things!
Me:  Yikes, no.  I want to go hang out alone in my room for awhile.  I’m an introvert.
Person:  What?  You’re an introvert??
Me:  Yes, like, a SUPER introvert.
Person:  But you’re so outgoing?

When I took the Birkman Personality Inventory, the man analyzing me pointed out my high need to both BE friendly and have people be friendly BACK.  “You’re probably a pretty high extrovert, huh?” he said.  I laughed in his face.  “No, I’m definitely an introvert.”  I felt kind of bad as his face fell, my personality not fitting into his schematics.

Who knew the answer that would balance my dichotomies would come from Pinterest?  I was mindlessly scrolling one day when I found this pin:   Continue reading →

First Day at Greek School

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I have started my month-long intensive Greek lessons!  It’s in downtown Athens, which means it takes about 1.5 hours to get there.  There’s a bus very near the school where I’m staying, which takes about 40 minutes to get to the metro station.  I get on the blue line, and ride that for another 30 minutes or so to Syntagma Square.  I exit aboveground at the place where, eight years ago, I rang handbells for a crowd in front of the Parliament building.  From there, I walked through the National Gardens, exit near the Olympic Stadium, and walk up a sweat-producing hill (altogether about 25 minutes) to the Athens Centre.

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The blue line is my walk from Syntagma to the Centre.  The red blobs are tourist destinations.

I arrived at the Centre with enough time to fill out a registration form and grab a cup of free coffee.  I wasn’t really nervous about the class, but I was…on edge? Ready to be nervous? But I think I’m finally experienced enough that I can walk into an unknown situation with new people and not immediately hyperventilate. Of course, it helped that the Centre is small, beautiful, and comfortable.  There’s a fun view of the Acropolis from the roof.   Continue reading →

A Week in Greece #1: Everything is New

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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 →

My Last Week with Rory

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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 →

A New Personality Inventory: The Birkman

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My sending organization made me take a 45-minute long personality inventory last week, and today a man walked me through the results.  The Birkman stands apart from Myers-Briggs or the Enneagram because it focuses mainly on the difference between how a person acts, and how they want other people to act toward them.

This is useful in group situations, because most of the time we mirror each other.  If I chat for a while before getting to the real issue, chances are you will do the same.  Generally, that’s fine, and people want to be treated the way they treat others.  But occasionally, the way you interact with the world is NOT the way you want the world to interact with you.  That’s totally okay, but it can be confusing (both for you and for the people working with you).  The Birkman tries to erase that confusion so that you can pre-emptively inform someone:  “Hey, I like to chat a while, but I’d really prefer if you just got straight to the point with me.  Thanks!”   Continue reading →

#same pt. 2

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Here are some more tumblr posts that made me laugh/cringe and whisper “#same.”

 

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cleromancy
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ezthetic

 

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CHAINS

 

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the game of scones

 

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Northern Boys Love Gravy

 

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chenyanqing

Packing for a Year in Greece: Entertainment

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Based on this blog, it should be obvious that I take entertainment very seriously.  Ingesting stories is how I grow and/or stay alive.  So when it comes to preparing to move to Greece, the majority of my planning has revolved around books and media.

The one problem?  I have to pack a year’s worth of possessions into two suitcases and a backpack.  While I would LIKE to take two suitcases full of books, even I know that is impractical.  So I’ve improvised.   Continue reading →