It Is Trish

I was thinking about what I would write here while walking down the street, and it was literally going to include the words “I just want to be in the United States!!  Cry, cry, whine, whine.”  But then I saw someone I knew walking in the opposite direction!  But…we’ll get there at the end of the week.

It’s been a hard week, is what I’m trying to say.  Well, now that I’m looking back on the calendar, there were some really great moments too.  I don’t know!  Clearly this is not going to be a well-thought-out blog post.

Okay, so at work, we got our director back, which meant that most staff meetings were in Greek and it was translated to me and Luciana until everyone else realized that it took twice as long to do this and anyway, everyone speaks English.  This somehow set off a really weird set of circumstances where everyone kept trying to make me speak Greek.  I just kind of glared at people, and finally Natasha asked how Greek was going.  “It’s horrible.  I’m taking lessons twice a week and I’m still relearning the things I knew in January.  I feel like an idiot, but I also have zero motivation to put in more effort because when I’m at work, I’m thinking about work, and when I’m not at work, I’m thinking about fundraising, and when I’m not doing either of those things, I’m trying desperately to distract myself with books or movies.  And even hanging out with friends isn’t helpful, because it feels like work!  I like my friends here, but it’s not easy!  Nothing is easy!  So why would I purposefully add one more hard thing to my plate!?!?” In the face of this meltdown (it really happened, I said all of those things), Natasha said, “Oh.  Yeah.  Learning a new language in a new country must be…hard.”

“It is.  Thank you.”

So anyway Continue reading →