It’s crazy to think that this might have been my last week in Athens, full stop.  I’m so glad I decided to stay another year – I’m happy to postpone this depressing possibility for later!

I actually tried to give myself a lot of downtime this week, knowing that I would be mentally exhausted.  Work went much better than I assumed; we had a lot of meetings to prepare for the next month (and we’ve already scheduled three meetings for the first week I return) but the day to day work wasn’t overwhelming.  It was actually pretty fun!  On Thursday, we went to Jumbo to buy Christmas decorations, and on Friday, we put up HD’s first Christmas tree!  We all wore silly Christmas hats, sang to American and Greek Christmas songs, and ate a lot of cookies as we put up ornaments and lights.  One woman had been sick all week, but she came in specially on Friday to say goodbye to me, which was very sweet! 

Outside of work, I mostly did things on Wednesday (the ceremony for the texts of terror in the Bible, described in an earlier post) and the Revelation Bible study that this week went until midnight.  Then I had a massively busy weekend!
It started on Friday, when Olga called and asked if she could stop by.  When she got to my apartment, she asked if she could spend the night and had a bag already packed, hahaha.  We stayed up talking and catching up, and then on Saturday morning we both left.  I went to meet up with Dina and Argyris for brunch at a super fancy restaurant in Kiffisia.  They ordered way too much food and forced me to eat more than I could handle, and they showered me with compliments and made me feel really great about coming back to HD next year.

They dropped me off at my house at 2:00 p.m., half an hour before Luciana and Giorgos came over to transport Hans Harrison to his holiday destination.  Unfortunately, HH remembered the trauma of the cat carrier, and he mauled my arm in desperation.  As soon as I would stop shoving him at the case, he would curl up in my lap in trust, which was a very effective way to make me want to stop forcing him in.  Luckily, Giorgos and I teamed up and wrapped him in a blanket to stop his legs flailing and got him in the carrier.

Because they transported HH, they got to meet Rosie, and my plan to start combining my friend groups began (just before I leave, perfect)!  They left, and then Rosie and I met up with Kendra and headed to Mercy’s Christmas party.  There was an enormous amount of sweets and drinks and games, and I was super grateful that I got to do a Christmas party in Athens before leaving.

I spent the night at Rosie’s, both because of the convenience of staying downtown, and because Hans Harrison was there and I wanted to be with him as long as possible.  In the morning, we met up with a bunch of friends to skip church and go to the Anglican Bazaar, which had loads of really nice used books for 50 cents each.  It was cutthroat, with little old ladies elbowing us out of the way, and me using my long arms to snatch books from over people’s shoulders.  I came away with eleven books for 5.50 euro, though, so it was totally worth it!

We headed to 2nd Church for the women’s meeting where Kendra was speaking.  There was a massive lunch first, and she spoke about Leah, the unwanted sister, and how in both secular and church cultures, women are so often made to feel less-than.  She did an amazing job, and women opened up about their stories a bit, and it was just very lovely.

After that, we went back to Rosie’s to hang out for a bit.  I cuddled with Hans Harrison one last time, and then I came back to my house at 6:00 p.m. to clean and pack.  I’m mostly done with that now, so I’ve just got to wait until about 10:00 when Luciana is going to come over and say goodbye, go to sleep, and then wake up early to head to France!

Five days in France for debriefing, then I’m back in the States for a month!  Honestly, right now I’m not excited.  I’ve been having so much fun here, both at work and socially, and I feel like I’m finally starting to find that group of friends that I can call to do anything/everything.  It sucks to leave all of that!  But I know that when I get home I’ll remember all the amazing people there and it’ll be okay.

I’m late writing about last week, but until yesterday there was very little to write about.  I was in full post-friend-visit mode, which means I spent almost all of the time I wasn’t working watching Battlestar Galactica with my cat.  It was me at my sad introvert best.  There are really only two things worth mentioning, but they are two pretty great things!

On Tuesday, we were supposed to go out on a boat with all the HD staff and participants.  But weather was bad, so we went to the mall instead.  I honestly think this turned out to be a better idea!  We went bowling together, and it was really fun to be silly and competitive and supportive.  Everyone but four of us left after that, at which point we all got lunch together.  Then we went to a sweet shop and bought a bunch of different kinds of things to share.  We wandered the mall and shopped together.

I spent most of my time with our Greek-speaking participant, because neither of us are hugely into shopping.  Using our broken language communication, I held her stuff and gave her feedback as she tried things on.  It was really fun, and a good opportunity to struggle through communication instead of relying on a translator.

It was also a great experience because this particular participant struggles with anxiety.  She doesn’t go out shopping a lot, and things like going to the register alone stressed her out.  I found this out later, because our broken communication is not that nuanced.  But that turned out to be great!  Since the only two staff there spoke mostly English, she had to kind of suck it up and do things on her own….and she did!  Non-consumerist therapy at the mall, who knew.

The other noteworthy event was on Sunday.  Kendra ran in the Athens Marathon Continue reading →

What an awesome week!  My two besties, Lindsay and Emily, came on Sunday and left on Sunday, which means that this is the perfect forum to discuss all the amazing things we did together.

In general, there was a lot of eating and drinking and talking.  In particular, I had such a good time being with people who know me at a deep level.  I was just talking to Anthi an hour ago about how hard it can be to spend time with family and friends from your childhood because they see you as the person you used to be.  I feel really lucky because Emily and Lindsay knew teenage self-conscious and self-righteous Tricia, but they’ve somehow allowed me to grow up and treat me as the person I have become.  It’s the perfect comforting relationship, and I’m really grateful for both of them.

I’m also grateful for our mutual agreement on what constitutes a good time.  For instance, on Tuesday, we listened through the entire Hamilton soundtrack while cutting each other’s hair in my living room.  And any time someone suggested that we not do the thing we had planned on doing…everyone else said YES MORE SWEATPANTS TIME.  I love my socially lazy friends.  Continue reading →

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 Continue reading →

This week has been so great!  Mostly because I have new roommates, and I loooove them.  Luciana and her husband Giorgos moved into my second bedroom on Tuesday, and it has been so much fun.  Let’s relive each moment, shall we?

NEW ROOMMATES

Our mutual friend Janet also came over on Tuesday to help them move in.  We quickly got distracted by ordering tons of Chinese food and then playing Black Stories late into the night.  Luciana had a bad day on Wednesday, and she requested that we all drink cider together that night.  Giorgos was late coming home, so Luciana and I compared our Enneagram types (4 and 8 – the most passionate pairing that is most likely to end up in physical violence!).  On Thursday we all stayed up talking, and Giorgos said, “I want to play a computer game and empty my head,” and I said, “YES PLEASE.”  So they introduced me to Deus Ex, and we all sat on the couch making moral decisions. (Me: What happens if you kill that person?  Luciana:  We’re not killing people!  Giorgos:  Okay, honey, I’ll stun him.)

On Friday, Continue reading →

I’m super behind on this, so it’ll be quick(er than usual)!

Last week was pretty great!  I had my regular Greek lessons.  I considered cancelling my Thursday lesson to have the evening to clean and get ready for Sarah’s visit, but then Anthi told me that my teacher LOVES me and that I’m so hardworking she’s willing to keep teaching me even though she doesn’t really have time to do it. I respond VERY well to effusive praise, so I kept the lesson but asked to do it earlier.

On Tuesday at HD we had a lesson about creating happiness, and I said that I missed binge-watching TV shows with friends.  Wonderfully coincidental, on Tuesday evening, I went to visit Kendra.  As “repayment” for catsitting for her a while ago, she bought us a bottle of wine and we hiked up a hill to watch the sun set over the sea.  We went back to her place and made barbeque chicken sandwiches and watched the first episode of This Is Us.  It felt really great to have a friend who I feel comfortable enough with that a two-hour planned hangout could extend to 11:00 pm.

I went back to her apartment on Wednesday for Bible study.  For the first time, it hit me how strange it is to have a Bible study that lasts 2.5 hours and only ends because it’s 11:00 pm and people need to get home before midnight.

Life at HD continues to be good.  I started up my regular counseling sessions with each participant, with our newest woman for the first time.  She was reluctant at first, which was slightly panicky for me because I don’t get to use my counseling skills enough to feel truly confident, but then she opened up about current worries, and by the end she leaned back into the cushions and said, “I feel so much better.”  Yay!

Sarah came on Friday, and we caught up and made pizza and packed for our weekend in Meteora…which I will talk about in a separate blog post!