Well today I went down to the Embassy after I ran this morning. I found out that our Air Freight will be delivered on Tuesday morning which is great! We are very excited to be getting part of our stuff. The car is supposed to arrive in Athens on November 15 and our big shipment of stuff is supposed to arrive in Athens on November 20. If we get out car and our stuff before Christmas I will be happy.
It got a little cold today and the wind is picking up so I would guess we are going to get rain tonight. Everything in Athens is actually getting green which surprised me since that usually doesn't happen in the fall. I am guessing it was caused by the 4 days of rain we got two weekends ago. That was the first time it had rained since May so I imagine the plants and what little grass there is are thriving.
IKEA last night was insane it was just packed. We ended up getting pretty much everything that we wanted. We only got one rug though which we put in our bedroom. We have a rug coming from home for the office and I am going to keep looking for one for the living room and the guest bedroom. I need to see what it looks like with the furniture in the guest bedroom so I can tell what size rug I need. Oh my books came yesterday from Amazon so I have 5 books to read now. Very exciting.
All for now hope you are all well....Love from Athens!
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Well today was actually pretty productive. I got up and ran this morning and then came home and my Vonage which was not working last night magically started working this morning. After my shower I walked down the hill about 0.5 mile to the grocery store and today was the first time I was brave enough to order from the deli counter in Greek. I was extremely proud of myself and didn't have to use any English. Then I made the mistake of buying 6 liters of water and i had to carry it the 0.5 mile home only this time it was up hill the whole way. I was wishing that I was one of those African women and I could carry it on my head.
This afternoon we went to the Embassy and took care of a bunch of housekeeping stuff. I also got 7 packages in the mail. All stuff that we have been ordering over the last couple of weeks. I order 5 books from Amazon on Wednesday and they were here today so that was a pretty good turnaround.
Still know job on the horizon but I heard they are getting ready to advertise a bunch of new positions in the next two weeks so I am hoping something good pops up.
Tonight we are planning to make a trip to IKEA so I am looking forward to that.
All for now.....
This afternoon we went to the Embassy and took care of a bunch of housekeeping stuff. I also got 7 packages in the mail. All stuff that we have been ordering over the last couple of weeks. I order 5 books from Amazon on Wednesday and they were here today so that was a pretty good turnaround.
Still know job on the horizon but I heard they are getting ready to advertise a bunch of new positions in the next two weeks so I am hoping something good pops up.
Tonight we are planning to make a trip to IKEA so I am looking forward to that.
All for now.....
Monday, October 29, 2007
INTERNET!!!!!
All good things come to those who wait! Friday David picked up the modem and Saturday when we plugged everything in it didn't work! We were disappointed but were expecting it. Of course this is Greece and our Internet service provider OTE is run by the Greek government so we couldn't do anything about it until today. So after my run this morning I called the help line and once I told her I only spoke a little Greek she went right into English and told me how to fix the problem. She was extremely helpful and very nice. Luckily we are in a new house with a new phone line. Most people have has someone from OTE come out and look at it. So 2 months of waiting turned into about 3 weeks. Not too bad. So this also means that our Vonage line is up and running so please give us a call if you would like. Our number is (703) 286-7813. Remember we are 7 hours ahead of the EDT and 8 hours ahead of CDT.
So I am sure you guys are all dying for a recap of our weekend :)....
On Friday we ate dinner at home and then went over to our friends Dan and Stacy's and had a few drinks and talked. Since we only got here a week apart they are going through everything that we are going through only they have a 19 month old. It could be worse for us.
We stayed up pretty late on Friday night so on Saturday we slept in and stayed around the house until the Halloween party. No I did not dress up in a costume. People did ask me why we didn't and I answered with I just arrived 2 weeks ago and didn't know anything about a Halloween party instead of what I really wanted to say which was I hate Halloween. It was about 50/50 half with costumes half without. It was held at a huge house with an amazing yard. They had food, drinks, games and trick er treating for the kids. They also had an amazing haunted house. We were told that one guy brought over 200 pounds of Halloween stuff in is HHE (surface) shipment just for the party. It was a lot of fun and we got to meet some new people too. Since the Greeks don't celebrate Halloween I am sure they were asking themselves what all these crazy Americans were doing dressing up in costumes. It felt like you were in the US which was very nice but we were brought back to earth when we walked and a 3 security personnel with very large weapons where guarding the entrance.
After the party we went to our sponsors house and David watched the Texas game on the Slingbox and I fell asleep about 15 minutes into the game. The game didn't come on until 10:30 pm our time and didn't get over until about 2:30 am so David was dragging a little on Sunday.
So on Sunday we got up late and went to the Acropolis and did some tourist stuff. Since nothing else is open on Sunday. I have a link to some pictures we took from the Acropolis below. It was an overcast day so the views are not as good as if it were sunny. It is also free on Sunday so there were a ton of people running around. After the Acropolis we walked down to Plaka which is the neighborhood at the foot of the Acropolis and it has lots of shopping and restaurants. It is very much a tourist destination. We ended up finding a Turkish/Greek rug for the house. It is silk on cotton (David and I were too cheap to spring for silk on silk) It is beautiful and we got a pretty good price. So when you all come visit we have a place to buy rugs which we can ship back home for you for next to nothing from the APO.
Sunday night we went to a new church, St. John's. It is a very small church about 15 minutes from our house. They have an English Mass at 5:00 on Sundays and it is mainly filled with Embassy people. The church is beautiful with very pretty stained glass windows and stone work. It is very different from going to St. Mary's as there is no choir or even a cantor. They have a nun who sings and plays a guitar for the hymns. Our priest is the Bishop from the Vatican Embassy and he is Irish so his English is easy to understand and his homely was very nice and thought provoking.
Well not much else going on today. The Internet was my big accomplishment today and I made it on a run so all and all it is shaping up to be a pretty good day.
Love from Athens....
So I am sure you guys are all dying for a recap of our weekend :)....
On Friday we ate dinner at home and then went over to our friends Dan and Stacy's and had a few drinks and talked. Since we only got here a week apart they are going through everything that we are going through only they have a 19 month old. It could be worse for us.
We stayed up pretty late on Friday night so on Saturday we slept in and stayed around the house until the Halloween party. No I did not dress up in a costume. People did ask me why we didn't and I answered with I just arrived 2 weeks ago and didn't know anything about a Halloween party instead of what I really wanted to say which was I hate Halloween. It was about 50/50 half with costumes half without. It was held at a huge house with an amazing yard. They had food, drinks, games and trick er treating for the kids. They also had an amazing haunted house. We were told that one guy brought over 200 pounds of Halloween stuff in is HHE (surface) shipment just for the party. It was a lot of fun and we got to meet some new people too. Since the Greeks don't celebrate Halloween I am sure they were asking themselves what all these crazy Americans were doing dressing up in costumes. It felt like you were in the US which was very nice but we were brought back to earth when we walked and a 3 security personnel with very large weapons where guarding the entrance.
After the party we went to our sponsors house and David watched the Texas game on the Slingbox and I fell asleep about 15 minutes into the game. The game didn't come on until 10:30 pm our time and didn't get over until about 2:30 am so David was dragging a little on Sunday.
So on Sunday we got up late and went to the Acropolis and did some tourist stuff. Since nothing else is open on Sunday. I have a link to some pictures we took from the Acropolis below. It was an overcast day so the views are not as good as if it were sunny. It is also free on Sunday so there were a ton of people running around. After the Acropolis we walked down to Plaka which is the neighborhood at the foot of the Acropolis and it has lots of shopping and restaurants. It is very much a tourist destination. We ended up finding a Turkish/Greek rug for the house. It is silk on cotton (David and I were too cheap to spring for silk on silk) It is beautiful and we got a pretty good price. So when you all come visit we have a place to buy rugs which we can ship back home for you for next to nothing from the APO.
Sunday night we went to a new church, St. John's. It is a very small church about 15 minutes from our house. They have an English Mass at 5:00 on Sundays and it is mainly filled with Embassy people. The church is beautiful with very pretty stained glass windows and stone work. It is very different from going to St. Mary's as there is no choir or even a cantor. They have a nun who sings and plays a guitar for the hymns. Our priest is the Bishop from the Vatican Embassy and he is Irish so his English is easy to understand and his homely was very nice and thought provoking.
Well not much else going on today. The Internet was my big accomplishment today and I made it on a run so all and all it is shaping up to be a pretty good day.
Love from Athens....
Friday, October 26, 2007
So yesterday was a busy day Stacy and I along with her son Colin went to the farmers market in the morning and then we ventured out to the big mall outside of Athens. This mall which is called "The Mall" was built for the Olympics in 2004 and sits right next to the main Olympic Complex which has been sitting empty since the Olympics ended. It is actually really sad. The mall is just like a mall in the US put without department stores. They had about 3 stores of shops. We just walked around and didn't buy anything we just wanted to see what it had and how to get there. Oh they did have a Hooters which made me laugh.
On the way home we tried to take a quicker and shorter route back via the light rail versus the metro. This proved harder than we imagine. We needed to head towards the airport so we got on the train that came to the airport platform. Well this train went up one stop and then reversed itself and took us back to where we had just left. So we got off the train and waited for the next train to come to that platform, confused but still determined to complete our mission. Well then a train came to the opposite platform which goes to downtown Athens and this women on a loudspeaker keep saying "airport, airport" in Greek. We had made it our plan to follow all the people with luggage because we assumed they were going to the airport so we got on the train on the opposite platform which said it was headed to Athens and prayed. Well believe it or not that train actually did go to the airport and we made it home safely. Now if that whole sequence of events was confusing to you imaging what it was like for us. Stacy and I decided that we are in Athens and what makes sense elsewhere does not work for the Greeks so you just have to go with it.
Today I cleaned our house. There is so much dust in Athens and we have hardwood floors so you really have to sweep and dust at least every other day to keep up. Then I ventured to the supermarket about 0.5 mile down the hill on my own for the first time. It was fine except it seems either the service is really bad at that store or just for me. The women sat and talked to her friend for 3-4 minutes instead of checking me out. Then I walked up the hill to the bakery and that was fine I only had to say 2 please and point to what bread I wanted. Oh no whole wheat bread here either.
David picked up the modem today for our Internet. Everyone has told us that there is a 50% chance that it will work when you plug it in. If it doesn't work that is when the 2 month waiting period begins until they get someone out to fix it. We are holding our breath and praying that it will work the first time.
Tomorrow is a national holiday in Greece, Όχι Day. Όχι Day according to Wikipedia is the celebration of the Greeks refusal to yield to the powers of the Axis in 1940. There are all kinds of banners and Greek flags everywhere. No idea what you do on Όχι Day but if we figure it out I will let you guys know. I know it probably means nothing will be open so our planned shopping trip to find rugs will not be happening.
Well all for now I need to get home. Hopefully I will be writing you all from home with my own Internet tomorrow but no promises. Oh we also have the big Embassy Halloween party tomorrow night, I will let you know how that goes.
Love from Athens....
On the way home we tried to take a quicker and shorter route back via the light rail versus the metro. This proved harder than we imagine. We needed to head towards the airport so we got on the train that came to the airport platform. Well this train went up one stop and then reversed itself and took us back to where we had just left. So we got off the train and waited for the next train to come to that platform, confused but still determined to complete our mission. Well then a train came to the opposite platform which goes to downtown Athens and this women on a loudspeaker keep saying "airport, airport" in Greek. We had made it our plan to follow all the people with luggage because we assumed they were going to the airport so we got on the train on the opposite platform which said it was headed to Athens and prayed. Well believe it or not that train actually did go to the airport and we made it home safely. Now if that whole sequence of events was confusing to you imaging what it was like for us. Stacy and I decided that we are in Athens and what makes sense elsewhere does not work for the Greeks so you just have to go with it.
Today I cleaned our house. There is so much dust in Athens and we have hardwood floors so you really have to sweep and dust at least every other day to keep up. Then I ventured to the supermarket about 0.5 mile down the hill on my own for the first time. It was fine except it seems either the service is really bad at that store or just for me. The women sat and talked to her friend for 3-4 minutes instead of checking me out. Then I walked up the hill to the bakery and that was fine I only had to say 2 please and point to what bread I wanted. Oh no whole wheat bread here either.
David picked up the modem today for our Internet. Everyone has told us that there is a 50% chance that it will work when you plug it in. If it doesn't work that is when the 2 month waiting period begins until they get someone out to fix it. We are holding our breath and praying that it will work the first time.
Tomorrow is a national holiday in Greece, Όχι Day. Όχι Day according to Wikipedia is the celebration of the Greeks refusal to yield to the powers of the Axis in 1940. There are all kinds of banners and Greek flags everywhere. No idea what you do on Όχι Day but if we figure it out I will let you guys know. I know it probably means nothing will be open so our planned shopping trip to find rugs will not be happening.
Well all for now I need to get home. Hopefully I will be writing you all from home with my own Internet tomorrow but no promises. Oh we also have the big Embassy Halloween party tomorrow night, I will let you know how that goes.
Love from Athens....
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Shopping!
Well today I ventured out to go shopping. I went to a neighborhood in Athens down from the Embassy called Kolanaki which is known for its shopping. I have to say I don't know how anyone in Athens can afford to buy anything. To give credit most of the store in Kolanaki where very high end and would be out of my price range back home as well. I did start my Christmas shopping and bought one thing. Tomorrow I am going to hit the mall that was built for the Olympics which is supposed to be pretty large and has a few more reasonably priced stores.
Kolanaki also had a ton of great tavernas and cafes which were packed. It looked like a weekend. The Greeks get off from work for like 3 hours every afternoon and I guess they spend that time sitting in a cafe drinking coffee or beer and smoking.
Sorry guys this is a pretty slow day for the blog. I did order some new books from Amazon. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know. I average about 1 book every 2-3 days and I am out now.
I have really enjoyed some of the English that I have seen written on signs. Last night there was a restaurant with a sign that read "Delicious, Tasty, Yammy" I am pretty sure that Yammy was supposed to be Yummy but I thought it was pretty cute just the same. I have a hard enough time spelling English so I can feel for them a little.
Kolanaki also had a ton of great tavernas and cafes which were packed. It looked like a weekend. The Greeks get off from work for like 3 hours every afternoon and I guess they spend that time sitting in a cafe drinking coffee or beer and smoking.
Sorry guys this is a pretty slow day for the blog. I did order some new books from Amazon. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know. I average about 1 book every 2-3 days and I am out now.
I have really enjoyed some of the English that I have seen written on signs. Last night there was a restaurant with a sign that read "Delicious, Tasty, Yammy" I am pretty sure that Yammy was supposed to be Yummy but I thought it was pretty cute just the same. I have a hard enough time spelling English so I can feel for them a little.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Just another day in Greece. I stayed at home today and had someone come over to the house from the Embassy to measure for curtins. He told me he would be back in 1 month to put them up. I wanted to ask him if the reason it would take so long was because he was making the fabric himself before he had to sew them. Since my mom has made a few curtains I know about how long it should take and we are talking about tab sheers here no fancy valances or anything.
We were also having trouble with our security system so we had someone else come over and fix that. I cleaned house and read pretty exciting.
Last night we went to a new grocery store. The same one we attempted to go to on Sunday but it was closed. It was much better than the previous one we went to and had a pretty large selection. I was finally able to find some ground beef and it was 20.00 euro a kilo (2.2 pounds). Can you believe than for ground beef?
Yesterday I had a huge disappointment. I went over to our sponsors house and I decided to get online and catch up on all of my shows since I have missed the last 3 episodes of most of them. Well evidently the FCC has made it illegal for the networks to allow you to watch any of their shows which are posted online if you are outside of the US. How about that for a bunch of crap. I am living in Athens paying US Federal Taxes as well as State Taxes in Virginia (still can't figure that one out) and I can't watch American TV shows online. The same thing happened to David when he was listening to the UT game on Saturday on the radio over the Internet. About 5 minutes after he turned the game on they cut him off because we are outside of the US. At least they allow you to request access if you are an American stationed overseas (still waiting on an email back I am sure). Once we get Internet in 2 months we will have the Slingbox and we can just DVR all of our shows at David and Judy's and watch them online but until then I am paying $1.99 an episode to download them off of iTunes. And it takes about 3-4 hours to download a single show. Good thing I have plenty of time on my hands.
Tomorrow I am planning on hitting the Embassy in the morning when David goes in and then heading out to do some shopping on my own. We just got a Management Directive (the State Department issues these for everything) from the Embassy indicating that we have to ship our packages by December 11 in order to make sure that they arrive by Christmas. This means I need to get a jump on my Christmas shopping early. So Fuchs family that means we need to draw names soon. I have also programed a conversion calculator in my phone so I can find out how much I am really paying when I buy things over here. I will have a full report tomorrow.
Hope you are all well.
Love from Athens....
We were also having trouble with our security system so we had someone else come over and fix that. I cleaned house and read pretty exciting.
Last night we went to a new grocery store. The same one we attempted to go to on Sunday but it was closed. It was much better than the previous one we went to and had a pretty large selection. I was finally able to find some ground beef and it was 20.00 euro a kilo (2.2 pounds). Can you believe than for ground beef?
Yesterday I had a huge disappointment. I went over to our sponsors house and I decided to get online and catch up on all of my shows since I have missed the last 3 episodes of most of them. Well evidently the FCC has made it illegal for the networks to allow you to watch any of their shows which are posted online if you are outside of the US. How about that for a bunch of crap. I am living in Athens paying US Federal Taxes as well as State Taxes in Virginia (still can't figure that one out) and I can't watch American TV shows online. The same thing happened to David when he was listening to the UT game on Saturday on the radio over the Internet. About 5 minutes after he turned the game on they cut him off because we are outside of the US. At least they allow you to request access if you are an American stationed overseas (still waiting on an email back I am sure). Once we get Internet in 2 months we will have the Slingbox and we can just DVR all of our shows at David and Judy's and watch them online but until then I am paying $1.99 an episode to download them off of iTunes. And it takes about 3-4 hours to download a single show. Good thing I have plenty of time on my hands.
Tomorrow I am planning on hitting the Embassy in the morning when David goes in and then heading out to do some shopping on my own. We just got a Management Directive (the State Department issues these for everything) from the Embassy indicating that we have to ship our packages by December 11 in order to make sure that they arrive by Christmas. This means I need to get a jump on my Christmas shopping early. So Fuchs family that means we need to draw names soon. I have also programed a conversion calculator in my phone so I can find out how much I am really paying when I buy things over here. I will have a full report tomorrow.
Hope you are all well.
Love from Athens....
Monday, October 22, 2007
Not much news for today. The property people came over to switch out our furniture for the new furniture I requested. The good news is that it is brand new the bad news is it is not what I requested. I will add pictures tomorrow if I get a chance but while it is an improvement from the green and gold it is still stuck in the early 90s. They didn't bring any of our office or guest bedroom furniture so they have to come back in a couple of days for the rest. At least everything matches now and now I can set out in the very expensive world of Athens (or the lesser expensive WWW) to find accent pieces to make it more our own. That is a struggle here from what I can see. Every one's house looks exactly alike on the inside for the most part since we all have the same furniture. At the luncheon this women told me she has had the same couch at three different post in three different continents and they were not moving it with them. I hope that doesn't happen to us.
Came to the Embassy this afternoon after the property folks left and have been doing some serious online shopping which is fun. Most store do ship to APOs and a bunch have free shipping so that has been a welcome surprise. Before we left for Athens David and I shipped some stuff we didn't want to take in our bags on the plane. We shipped it USPS Priority from DC on Wednesday and it arrived here the following Monday. It is only a couple more dollars to ship Priority compared to First Class and with Priority you know it will arrive in a decent amount of time.
For those of you who plan on making a trip to Athens (Yea to Brandon and Rebbecca for booking a trip for April 08 already!) we cannot wait to have you. Let me know if you are looking to come at a specific time and I can help you hunt for cheaper flights. Remember you will have a free place to stay once you get here. Jenny C I know I told you I would look for flights for you for next summer. I checked flights in June and you could save at least $300.00 a person if you were willing to drive to Chicago or even Minneapolis and fly out. Summer is the high season here so it is going to be anywhere from $300-$500 more expensive to come June-August compared to the rest of the year. Unless you like the heat you don't want to come in August or at least that is what everyone has been telling us. The good part about August is that all of the Greeks live Athens for a month holiday.
Love from Athens......
Came to the Embassy this afternoon after the property folks left and have been doing some serious online shopping which is fun. Most store do ship to APOs and a bunch have free shipping so that has been a welcome surprise. Before we left for Athens David and I shipped some stuff we didn't want to take in our bags on the plane. We shipped it USPS Priority from DC on Wednesday and it arrived here the following Monday. It is only a couple more dollars to ship Priority compared to First Class and with Priority you know it will arrive in a decent amount of time.
For those of you who plan on making a trip to Athens (Yea to Brandon and Rebbecca for booking a trip for April 08 already!) we cannot wait to have you. Let me know if you are looking to come at a specific time and I can help you hunt for cheaper flights. Remember you will have a free place to stay once you get here. Jenny C I know I told you I would look for flights for you for next summer. I checked flights in June and you could save at least $300.00 a person if you were willing to drive to Chicago or even Minneapolis and fly out. Summer is the high season here so it is going to be anywhere from $300-$500 more expensive to come June-August compared to the rest of the year. Unless you like the heat you don't want to come in August or at least that is what everyone has been telling us. The good part about August is that all of the Greeks live Athens for a month holiday.
Love from Athens......
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Well David and I had a nice weekend. On Saturday morning our landlord's son came over with an electrician to fix our stove and the hot water and so now everything is fixed. He was very nice and from what I have heard from other Embassy people very responsive. Usually you have to wait a couple weeks for the landlord to get around to coming over since he is on Greek Time. What a relief I though we were going to have to take cold showers tomorrow because it is cloudy today. The son was about David's age and wanted to know if David wanted to come play basketball sometime with him and his friends only with European rules. I laughed since David has not worked out since our Wedding.
Friday night we went to a party for Embassy employees who live in our neighborhood. The women who had the party works for the Department of Homeland Security down at the port checking on cargo heading to the States. She is also from Texas so she had a large spread of homemade Mexican food which was amazing. That is one thing that David and I love that you just can't get in Athens. She even gave David some jalapenos to take home which was very nice. We also met a Marine Corps Gunny who is in charge of all of the Marines at the Embassy and he offered to have David and Dan (one of David's friends from training who arrived the week before us) over to his house to watch football next weekend. They already have AFN (Armed Forces Network) which we have ordered and allows you to watch American TV shows and sporting events just one day late and they also show news and American movies.
Saturday we headed outside of Athens to a small town on the coast where Poseidon's Temple is located. If you can remember your Greek Mythology Poseidon is the God of the Sea. We have posted a few pictures at the link below. It was a cloudy day but the drive was still beautiful. On a sunny day it would be truly spectacular. The coast is just amazing. Poseidon's Temple was very cool. The Greeks take very good care of there historical artifacts. The sunsets are supposed to be breathtaking but since it was cloudy and rainy we are going to save that for another day.
Today we slept in and tried to go to the store and it was closed. Evidently everything is closed on Sunday even the grocery store. Well enjoy the pictures and hope everyone had a great
weekend!
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=nchytxl.8zwto7a9&x=0&y=8s1ice
Friday night we went to a party for Embassy employees who live in our neighborhood. The women who had the party works for the Department of Homeland Security down at the port checking on cargo heading to the States. She is also from Texas so she had a large spread of homemade Mexican food which was amazing. That is one thing that David and I love that you just can't get in Athens. She even gave David some jalapenos to take home which was very nice. We also met a Marine Corps Gunny who is in charge of all of the Marines at the Embassy and he offered to have David and Dan (one of David's friends from training who arrived the week before us) over to his house to watch football next weekend. They already have AFN (Armed Forces Network) which we have ordered and allows you to watch American TV shows and sporting events just one day late and they also show news and American movies.
Saturday we headed outside of Athens to a small town on the coast where Poseidon's Temple is located. If you can remember your Greek Mythology Poseidon is the God of the Sea. We have posted a few pictures at the link below. It was a cloudy day but the drive was still beautiful. On a sunny day it would be truly spectacular. The coast is just amazing. Poseidon's Temple was very cool. The Greeks take very good care of there historical artifacts. The sunsets are supposed to be breathtaking but since it was cloudy and rainy we are going to save that for another day.
Today we slept in and tried to go to the store and it was closed. Evidently everything is closed on Sunday even the grocery store. Well enjoy the pictures and hope everyone had a great
weekend!
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=nchytxl.8zwto7a9&x=0&y=8s1ice
Friday, October 19, 2007
Another Sunny Day in Athens..
Sunny and in the 80s today.
Today was a pretty uneventful day but since this is sort of a digital diary I selfishly am going to detail everything. Since we are still having hot water problems and our stove loses power when more than one burner is on the maintenance people came out today from the Embassy. They could not figure out how to fix either problem so now our Greek landlord has to get involved and everyone has told us this is not a good sign. As I have said before the Greeks move at a slower pace so I know that this may take some time to fix.
Today I had my first good workout since we have been here. There is a very nice park about 3 blocks from our house that is actually well maintained for Greek standards and it has a nice path that goes along the perimeter so I made about 5 laps today and since I am incredibly out of shape I am exhausted now. The Greeks are not big on exercise (even though this is the birthplace of the Olympics) they kind of just stared at me as I ran by each time. When my sponsor was running in a park one day these old men started cheering her on though which I thought was cute. This is the nicest park I have found yet. Most of the parks in Athens are overrun by stray dogs and covered in dog poop and graffiti. I don't think I have told you about the stay animals. It is actually very sad. Greeks do not believe in fixing their pets so there is a large population of stray dogs and cats running the streets. It is actually very sad. The Greeks don't want to fix them but they have no problem with them running around starving and hurt. It is very strange. They also do not pick up after their own dogs so there tends to be lots of dog poop. And then there is the graffiti. It is on everything hotels, peoples homes, every street sign, even churches. It is awful it is really the worse part about Athens. And they right the most bizarre things for instance the English word "since" is painted on a wall of a school by our house.
This weekend will be filled with more exploring. There is a beach about an hour outside of Athens that everyone says has the most amazing sunsets so we are going to try to do that tomorrow. We also have a big all Embassy Halloween party next weekend so David and I need to hunt down some costumes. Even though I really do not like Halloween it should be fun and will give us a chance to meet lots of new people.
Oh David was told today that our air freight is in country but the Greeks will not release it to us for a couple weeks. Why you ask....that is just the Greek way. So it is sitting at the airport right now just waiting.
Well after one full week of living in Athens I would have to say we are starting to get the hang of everything. We are starting to learn our way around and we are getting lost less often so that is a plus.
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.
Love from Athens.....
Today was a pretty uneventful day but since this is sort of a digital diary I selfishly am going to detail everything. Since we are still having hot water problems and our stove loses power when more than one burner is on the maintenance people came out today from the Embassy. They could not figure out how to fix either problem so now our Greek landlord has to get involved and everyone has told us this is not a good sign. As I have said before the Greeks move at a slower pace so I know that this may take some time to fix.
Today I had my first good workout since we have been here. There is a very nice park about 3 blocks from our house that is actually well maintained for Greek standards and it has a nice path that goes along the perimeter so I made about 5 laps today and since I am incredibly out of shape I am exhausted now. The Greeks are not big on exercise (even though this is the birthplace of the Olympics) they kind of just stared at me as I ran by each time. When my sponsor was running in a park one day these old men started cheering her on though which I thought was cute. This is the nicest park I have found yet. Most of the parks in Athens are overrun by stray dogs and covered in dog poop and graffiti. I don't think I have told you about the stay animals. It is actually very sad. Greeks do not believe in fixing their pets so there is a large population of stray dogs and cats running the streets. It is actually very sad. The Greeks don't want to fix them but they have no problem with them running around starving and hurt. It is very strange. They also do not pick up after their own dogs so there tends to be lots of dog poop. And then there is the graffiti. It is on everything hotels, peoples homes, every street sign, even churches. It is awful it is really the worse part about Athens. And they right the most bizarre things for instance the English word "since" is painted on a wall of a school by our house.
This weekend will be filled with more exploring. There is a beach about an hour outside of Athens that everyone says has the most amazing sunsets so we are going to try to do that tomorrow. We also have a big all Embassy Halloween party next weekend so David and I need to hunt down some costumes. Even though I really do not like Halloween it should be fun and will give us a chance to meet lots of new people.
Oh David was told today that our air freight is in country but the Greeks will not release it to us for a couple weeks. Why you ask....that is just the Greek way. So it is sitting at the airport right now just waiting.
Well after one full week of living in Athens I would have to say we are starting to get the hang of everything. We are starting to learn our way around and we are getting lost less often so that is a plus.
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.
Love from Athens.....
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Another exciting day in Athens...
So today was a busy day that is why we have such a late blog entry. This morning I went to the market with another woman who lives in our neighborhood and her husband also works at the Embassy. Then the two of us went to a luncheon put on by the Embassy's Community Liaison Office (CLO) which sponsors different activities from trips to classes to parties for everyone in the Embassy community. Once a month they have a lunch for spouses of people of work at the Embassy. It was great because I got to meet a lot of other women. Most if not all have children so I am in the minority but they are all very nice and it was just nice to meet some new people.
I had a Greek moment this morning...all along the streets they have these metal boxes for you to but your trash in. I didn't think anything of it and put my trash from our house in the one across the street for us because it is the closest and this Greek man came out and was yelling at me so I just moved my trash to another box and pretty much ignored him because I couldn't tell what he was saying. It is not his box it his own by the city for everyone to use. I figured it all goes the same place. I am not sure if it is the Greek language or if everyone here is alway very angry but it always seems like they are yelling at you or you have offended them in some way. Something to just get used to I guess.
Well that is about it for now. Today I am justing my sponsor's computer while just is back in the States and they have everything set to Greek so I am having a little trouble with the blog today so sorry if you have trouble reading it.
Love from Athens...
I had a Greek moment this morning...all along the streets they have these metal boxes for you to but your trash in. I didn't think anything of it and put my trash from our house in the one across the street for us because it is the closest and this Greek man came out and was yelling at me so I just moved my trash to another box and pretty much ignored him because I couldn't tell what he was saying. It is not his box it his own by the city for everyone to use. I figured it all goes the same place. I am not sure if it is the Greek language or if everyone here is alway very angry but it always seems like they are yelling at you or you have offended them in some way. Something to just get used to I guess.
Well that is about it for now. Today I am justing my sponsor's computer while just is back in the States and they have everything set to Greek so I am having a little trouble with the blog today so sorry if you have trouble reading it.
Love from Athens...
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Good morning everyone. It is 0932 Athens time which means it is 0232 (EST) or 0132 (CST). Another eventful day in Athens yesterday. David and I spent the afternoon driving down to the coastal beach community and suburb of Athens Παγκράτι (Pangrati). It has lots of shops, bars and restaurants and is located right on the Mediterranean. It is as close as we have gotten to a beach. The real beaches are on the islands. Most of the beaches around Athens are not safe to swim in according to the EU. Hopefully we will get to head to the islands soon. You can do day trips very easily and cheaply.
I forgot to tell you all about our shopping experiences this past weekend. On Saturday we went to the market. It is just like a farmers market back in the states. There is one everyday in a different neighborhood. Our neighborhood, Popagou, has its on Thursday so on Saturday we went to the one right by the Embassy (3 miles from our house). It was amazing they have all kinds of fruits and veggies and everything is really cheap. This is the only cheap thing I have found in Athens everything else is outrageously expensive. You can get 1 Kilo (2.2 pounds) of tomatoes for 1 Euro. That is so much cheaper that what you get at home. We bought cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, onions, apples and olives which are amazing. Everything is so fresh and tastes amazing. There is lots of screaming by the owners wanting you to buy there stuff because it is so fresh and tastes the best. It is a pretty cool experience.
Saturday afternoon we went to Carrefore which is a French based store that resembles a Wal-Mart. It has pretty much everything. That was a little harder shopping experience for one everything is expensive. Try 3 chicken breasts for 9.70 Euro. Now that is ridiculous. And don't even think about beef it is outrageous. So that is going to take some getting used to. Plus I cant read the labels so you have kind of guess what is what and what products clean what. It was a little frustrating but I will get used to it and as soon as our stuff gets here I will have all the cleaning supplies that I need since I stocked up a Costco before we left. On Monday I cleaned our hardwood floors and I had to spend about 45 minutes with the dictionary translating the label so I would know how to use it.
Yesterday morning we went to the property people at the Embassy to switch our some of our furniture. As you can tell in the pictures the green and gold couch although lovely would not have been my first choice. The furniture is actually very nice and of good quality it is just not exactly my taste. It is a bit more traditional that I would have liked. So we ordered a new couch, love seat and chairs. We had a twin bed in each of our guest rooms and we a swapping one for a queen bed (for all of you when you come visit) and once for office furniture.
The State Department has a book of furniture which you can look at to see what is available. And whoever picked out our choices back at State had very interesting taste. If it were me and I was having to pick out someone else furniture I would have chosen neutrals or maybe all blue, all tan, all red even but not this person of infinite wisdom they choice red with gold flowers, green with gold flowers and ivory with ivory flowers (my new couch). I swapped our our green and gold set for the ivory set.
Well I actually need to get to the gym today now. I have to get back in shape for Kristin's wedding and I only have few weeks and without a job I really have no excuse. Hope you guys are enjoying the blog and I hope you like the pictures. The link is below you do not have to log in to view the pictures. Please let me know if you cannot view them and I will try another way.
More to come..... Love from Greece!
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=nchytxl.b279j39t&x=0&y=f113yr
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
We Made It!
Hello From Athens.....
We finally made it to Athens on Thursday morning. The flight was pretty uneventful and we even go some sleep. Our house is wonderful. We are on the top floor (5th) of our building and have the most amazing views (pictures to be posted tomorrow). Our house is brand new and we have a wonderful kitchen will brand new appliances. There is a balcony off of every bedroom and a huge one off the living room and kitchen. And the roof deck is amazing. The Embassy is very nice and actually pretty big. They have pretty much everything that you would need (gym, pool, store stocked with all your American favorites, etc).
Living in Athens is going to take some adjusting. I would describe Athens has much slower paced than the US but in absolute chaos.
For starters one knows how to drive here to save their life. Traffic signs and laws are not followed except for stop lights and no right turns on red. They drive like crazy people with seemingly no care for there own safety or the safety of others.
We went on Saturday to have them setup our Internet and were told that it will be installed in TWO MONTHS!!!! Can you believe that? Only 3% of people in Athens have high speed Internet and I am fairly certain 1.5% of that is made up by Americans and other westerners. So I am on the Embassy computer today and will be making the 3 mile trek each day to use the Internet.
Other fun adventures.....Our water heater is solar powered (can you believe how green we are?) but it only heats enough water for about 1 shower per day and you are done which means no hot water for a second shower or washing clothes, dishes, etc. And here is the kicker...if it is not sunny one day you can forget about having hot water on the following day. This maybe fine for Greek who do not shower everyday but not for us. We have been told there is an electric water heater that is supposed to supplement the solar one but we are waiting for the Embassy to get around to turning it on. Also when they built our apartment and installed these beautiful new appliances in the kitchen they forgot to add sufficient power so when you turn more than one burner on at a time the breaker switches and you lose power to the kitchen. Make for a fun cooking environment.
Our air freight is supposed to arrive sometime this week which would be amazing. Our other belonging are supposed to get to Athens the week of Thanksgiving and everyone has told us they sit at the port waiting to get out of customs for at lease a month so I am hoping we get our stuff for Christmas or New Years at this point. Same for the car. People have waited as long as 6 months so we are keeping our fingers crossed that doesn't happen.
David doesn't really have to start working until next week so we are spending this week getting to know Athens and how to get around. We have had some really good food so far too. The weather was amazing on Thursday, Friday and Saturday but has now turned pretty cold. I am hoping our airfreight gets here this week because it has all of our coats.
That's is all for now I will update this everyday once we get Internet at home and at least every other day once until then. Oh our Vonage number does not work since we don't have Internet at home. We will let you know when it is up and running.
PICTURES TO BE POSTED TOMORROW!!!!
We finally made it to Athens on Thursday morning. The flight was pretty uneventful and we even go some sleep. Our house is wonderful. We are on the top floor (5th) of our building and have the most amazing views (pictures to be posted tomorrow). Our house is brand new and we have a wonderful kitchen will brand new appliances. There is a balcony off of every bedroom and a huge one off the living room and kitchen. And the roof deck is amazing. The Embassy is very nice and actually pretty big. They have pretty much everything that you would need (gym, pool, store stocked with all your American favorites, etc).
Living in Athens is going to take some adjusting. I would describe Athens has much slower paced than the US but in absolute chaos.
For starters one knows how to drive here to save their life. Traffic signs and laws are not followed except for stop lights and no right turns on red. They drive like crazy people with seemingly no care for there own safety or the safety of others.
We went on Saturday to have them setup our Internet and were told that it will be installed in TWO MONTHS!!!! Can you believe that? Only 3% of people in Athens have high speed Internet and I am fairly certain 1.5% of that is made up by Americans and other westerners. So I am on the Embassy computer today and will be making the 3 mile trek each day to use the Internet.
Other fun adventures.....Our water heater is solar powered (can you believe how green we are?) but it only heats enough water for about 1 shower per day and you are done which means no hot water for a second shower or washing clothes, dishes, etc. And here is the kicker...if it is not sunny one day you can forget about having hot water on the following day. This maybe fine for Greek who do not shower everyday but not for us. We have been told there is an electric water heater that is supposed to supplement the solar one but we are waiting for the Embassy to get around to turning it on. Also when they built our apartment and installed these beautiful new appliances in the kitchen they forgot to add sufficient power so when you turn more than one burner on at a time the breaker switches and you lose power to the kitchen. Make for a fun cooking environment.
Our air freight is supposed to arrive sometime this week which would be amazing. Our other belonging are supposed to get to Athens the week of Thanksgiving and everyone has told us they sit at the port waiting to get out of customs for at lease a month so I am hoping we get our stuff for Christmas or New Years at this point. Same for the car. People have waited as long as 6 months so we are keeping our fingers crossed that doesn't happen.
David doesn't really have to start working until next week so we are spending this week getting to know Athens and how to get around. We have had some really good food so far too. The weather was amazing on Thursday, Friday and Saturday but has now turned pretty cold. I am hoping our airfreight gets here this week because it has all of our coats.
That's is all for now I will update this everyday once we get Internet at home and at least every other day once until then. Oh our Vonage number does not work since we don't have Internet at home. We will let you know when it is up and running.
PICTURES TO BE POSTED TOMORROW!!!!
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Goodbye Virginia, Γειά σου Αθήνα
Well tomorrow is our departure date for Athens. It feels like it has been an eternity but it has finally arrived. The movers took our belongings for shipment/storage on September 27th and they picked up our car on October 1 so everything should be well on its way by now.
We have a 1:30 flight from Washington to New York and then a 4:00 flight from New York to Athens. We arrive at 09:10 Athens time on Thursday morning. Our sponsors will pick us up and take us to our place and to the Embassy so we know how to get from one to the other. David should not have to do too much work until Monday so we can spend Thursday-Sunday getting used to the neighborhood and trying to learn our way around.
We will let you know via the blog once we get access to the Internet so we can use our Vonage number to contact you and you us. I I hope to have pictures of our neighborhood and place posted at that time as well. The Internet could take some time since we will be working on Greek time and not American time. As you can all imagine Greek time will be a fun experience for David and I to get used to.
As you can probably tell the blog is going to work as our way of communicating with you guys from Athens. I will do my best to post something daily (once we get our Internet) to keep you updated. Feel free to post responses. Of course once our phone is up and running we will love to hear from you via phone as well. Just remember the time difference.
All for now take care and we will talk to you once we get settled in Athens!
We have a 1:30 flight from Washington to New York and then a 4:00 flight from New York to Athens. We arrive at 09:10 Athens time on Thursday morning. Our sponsors will pick us up and take us to our place and to the Embassy so we know how to get from one to the other. David should not have to do too much work until Monday so we can spend Thursday-Sunday getting used to the neighborhood and trying to learn our way around.
We will let you know via the blog once we get access to the Internet so we can use our Vonage number to contact you and you us. I I hope to have pictures of our neighborhood and place posted at that time as well. The Internet could take some time since we will be working on Greek time and not American time. As you can all imagine Greek time will be a fun experience for David and I to get used to.
As you can probably tell the blog is going to work as our way of communicating with you guys from Athens. I will do my best to post something daily (once we get our Internet) to keep you updated. Feel free to post responses. Of course once our phone is up and running we will love to hear from you via phone as well. Just remember the time difference.
All for now take care and we will talk to you once we get settled in Athens!
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