Hey everyone! Well today I went to the farmers market with Stacy, Colin and Vicki. The farmers market has to be my favorite part of Athens. When I got home I found out my the constant beeping coming from my security system that the power was out. I called the Embassy and was told that the entire neighborhood of Papagou was without power. Let it be known that it is a beautiful sunny day here in Athens and the power is out for no apparent reason. Luckily the power came back on in about an hour.

I spent most of the afternoon wrapping presents and trying to decorate for Christmas. I have my wreath up on the door and garland on the fireplace. I am waiting for some new stockings that I ordered from Kohl's over 3 weeks ago. We bought lights for the balcony which I am going to wait until this weekend to string because right now the balcony is filled with boxes at the moment. Hopefully when they deliver the mattress they will take the boxes away. Still waiting to buy a Christmas tree. We are going to try to go again this weekend to look at fake trees because we still haven't seen any live trees lots.

Headed out for another run today with Vicki back up to Imitos. Should be a great run because it is such a pretty day here today. Hope you all are having a wonderful week.

Love from Athens...

Sorry for the late blog today. I had a busy day. This morning Vicki got me up and took me up Imitos mountain which is our neighborhood's mountain. I am not sure if I have told you guys before but Vicki is a personal trainer. When she got back to Athens last week she called me on Friday and asked if I would be interested in going running with her. I told her I was fairly certain that I would not be able to keep up with her but I went anyway. We went to this great park in the center of Athens and ran/walked for 45 minutes. Then she took me back to her house for a 30 minute private Pilate's lesson. That was Friday. When I woke up on Saturday I was so sore it was unbelievable. On Sunday she took me up Imitos for the first time and took me on a trail run which was pretty much all down hill on the way out and therefore all uphill on the way back. I was fairly certain in the 45 minutes that we were out that I would die. It is beautiful up on Imitos; very peaceful with an absolutely amazing view of Athens. We are so lucky that we have something so amazing so close. On Monday after we got done unpacking for the day we went running again and then this morning I was up and out the door and back up the mountain at 7:30. I have really been pushing myself because I want so desperately to get back in shape. Vicki is a great motivator and she knows how far to push me which is great. Unfortunately she has a family emergency so she will be heading back to the states on Saturday for the next 3 weeks so I am going to have to keep up with my workouts on my own. Vicki has created her own business here in Athens giving Pilate's lessons so in January I am going to start private classes.

Ok so today Vicki, Stacy, Colin and I went to the Ambassadors house for a meet and greet with the Ambassador's wife. It was very nice and the Ambassador and his wife have a very nice residence. Not sure if I told you this or not but we didn't have an Ambassador until last week. After that we went to lunch at the Embassy and then ran a few errands. In the afternoon Vicki took Stacy and I to Carrefour which is like a Wal-Mart and showed us lots of new stuff that we had not yet been told and let us in on some secrets such as what we can use to substitute for American items that we can't find.

When I got home I made Brandon's homemade salsa, biscotti and enchiladas for dinner. It was a full day! Hope you are all doing well!

Well yesterday was a big day for us! The rest of our household goods arrived. It was a little overwhelming but wonderful. The movers were very friendly and worked fast. They had everything loaded into the house in about 2 hours. The way they load everything is by crane. I have attached pictures so you can see. We are on the 5th floor and they just brought everything up to the balcony by the crane and then into the house. It was very cool!

My sponsor Vicki came over and helped me unpack and stay organized since David had to work. With her help we got the entire kitchen unpack and mostly put away. I am still trying to figure out how I want everything to go. So far only a couple of things have been broken. They broke off two of the hooks on the coat tree that Grandpa Fuchs made me and a couple figurines.

Oh and our mattress didn't make it. Evidently our moving company only asked for customs clearance for 4 crates instead of 5. The 5th crate being our mattress. The moving company has assured me that they will deliver it sometime this week but we will see.

My goal for today is to get all of the boxes unpacked so I can have the moving company come pick up all of the empty boxes before this weekend.

I am still missing a bunch of furniture which the Embassy owes me but has not delivered from the warehouse. Once I get those pieces we will be all set. I am hoping to start to decorating for Christmas this weekend!

Well hope you are all well! Love from Athens....

Good Morning Everyone!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. David and I went to Dan and Stacy's yesterday and had a great day. Stacy cooked a wonderful turkey and all the sides were great. We managed to watch the first NFL game and I believe once we got home David watched the start of the Cowboys game on the Slingbox.

Today I went to the Embassy and talked to the Customs guys and our HHE shipment (which is are big shipment that came on the boat) is being delivered on Monday at 9:00am. I am beyond excited to get all of our stuff and a little nervous to see what was broken. Luckily we were just married and I have a copy of our registry so I know exactly how much everything cost so the moving company and I shouldn't have to much of a war.

This weekend David and I are going to try to hit up some of the Christmas stores that have started to pop up everywhere around Athens. The real Christmas trees in Athens are tiny so we are going to try to find ourselves an artificial tree that is a decent size.

Ok sorry that is all for now. Going to go have some left over Thanksgiving now.

Have a great weekend!

Love from Athens....

Sorry for the late posting today. I had a pretty busy day actually. I got up and went to the Embassy with David in the morning for my first Greek class. The teacher was very good and it is a small class so it should work out well. After that I met David for lunch at the Embassy and then made the long trek up the hill from the metro to our house. It only takes me 20 minutes but I dread it.

It did not rain today which was a first in quiet some time. I made two pies for tomorrow one pumpkin and one pecan. The pumpkin looks better than the pecan but I am sure they will be fine. I also hard boiled some eggs so I could make deviled eggs. I am also making Cornbread Casserole and Green Bean Casserole tomorrow.

An army of workers came by today to put up our curtains. It took them almost a month just like they said it would. They actually look really nice and they do make the house feel more homey. My only complaint is that for the sliding doors they did not put a break in the middle so you could pull them apart. Instead you have to pull the whole curtain to one side or the other. For someone like me who enjoys symmetry and balance this is no good. I will wait until Mom comes and see if she can figure out how to remedy the problem without me just cutting them down the middle.

David and I are going to a concert tonight at the Athens music hall. We were invited through the Embassy. It should be fun and I get to get dressed up which I don't get to do very often anymore.

Well hope you are all well. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving we will be thinking of you!

Love from Athens....

Hello Everyone! Today I got up and tried to do some Christmas shopping here in Athens. Everything is just so expensive it just doesn't seem worth it but I did find a few good deals. It rained again today which is becoming a daily event here in Athens. This is what winter is like in the Mediterranean.

Tomorrow I am starting a Greek class. A woman I met from the Embassy called yesterday and asked me if I would be interested in joining. They are using the same book that I used back in DC and the Embassy covers the cost. The class is made up of about 8 spouses and they meet twice a week for an hour.

Also tomorrow they are also coming to install our curtains which will be great. All of our windows (except our kitchen window for no apparent reason) how metal security shutters which are sort of like what I would imagine hurricane shutters to look like. They either slide to the side or they are automatic and raise with the push of a button. They are a pretty good idea that I am surprised has not caught on in the states. At night we have everything closed up because we don't have any curtains and it sort of feels like a cave so I will be glad to have the curtains installed.

Well that is it for today pretty boring sorry to say.

Good Morning! Sorry I failed to post anything on the blog on Friday I was running around and forgot all about it until it was late and I figured everything could wait until Monday.

David and I had a very relaxing weekend for the most part. On Friday night we went to Applebees for dinner. Believe it or not but it was wonderful. You might all think that it is strange but when you are surrounded by Greek food and culture all day long everyday sometimes it is nice to get a little piece of America. David and I both had steaks which we would never order at home from Applebees but they were pretty good. The Appleebees was packed too and expensive. I believe our whole meal appetizer, steaks and drinks was 75 euro which is not cheap but it was worth it.

On Saturday we went to the grocery store in the morning and then spent the rest of the day lying around the house. I made dinner and we watched college football on the Slingbox. We had two really bad storms on Saturday so we were happy to stay home.

Also Saturday was November 17 which is a Greek Holiday and also the name of a Anarchist group in Athens.

Some history from Wikipedia, "The group's name, 17N, refers to the final day of the 1973 Athens Polytechnic uprising, in which a protest against the Greek Military Junta (1967 - 1974), also known as the Regime of the Colonels took place. The uprising ended after a series of events that started when a tank took down the main gate of the Polytechneion and security forces, including soldiers, stormed the campus."

They are mostly disbanded in Athens now after a big crackdown by the Greek government in early 2000. They are very anti-American but really have not been relevant for sometime. But on November 17 each year the Anarchist spend the day inciting riots in some of the poorer neighborhoods of Athens and then they come to the Embassy and protest America all day. The Embassy was locked down all day and Americans are told to keep a low profile. Last year there were close to 12,000 protester's and they like to throw molotov cocktails and usually get pepper sprayed by the Greek Police. November 17 is also the reason that college campuses in Athens are classified as Asylum Zones and the police are not allowed to come in for any reason. So they can insight riots and throw there man made grenades and then run back into the campus and the police can't do anything about it. Lovely!

Sunday we went with Dan, Stacy and Colin up to a Casino on the top of one of the mountains close to Athens. No we were not taking a child to a casino. It was actually really neat. You have to park about halfway up the mountain and then take a gondola up to the Casino. There were amazing views of Athens from the gondola and then we had lunch up top at the Casino. We did not actually go into the Casino. We were looking for something to do and it was a fun little day trip. We again had a really bad storm on the drive home. David and I made it to church on Sunday night and for the second week in a row David did all of the readings. I was so proud!

Today I am at the Embassy taking care of a few errands and then I will head home for the rest of the day. It is cold today in the high 40s I would guess but sunny. Since winter is approaching we are going to start getting a lot of cloudy and rainy days so I am happy to have sun.

Hope you all had great weekends....Love from Athens...

Hey guys! Well today I had the Bring Your Own Pie Party. My pecan pie did actually setup which was a gift from God. It turned out pretty good but my crust could use some improvement. The woman who hosted had a really cute and cozy house in the suburb of Kifisia. It was a much smaller group than the last luncheon and I would say a lot more welcoming as well. It was really nice and I am really glad I went. Once I get my stuff I would like to host something too.

I heard something interesting today about the schools...they serve alcohol at the prom here at the American school. Can you believe that? One of the moms was telling me that and I couldn't believe it. Evidently 70% of the kids in the American school are Greek so their parents insist that they have alcohol at the prom. I know that underage drinking is not an issue here like it is at home but really at the prom? We were all talking about how when we were in high school they would bring in that totaled car the week of prom to show you what could happen to you if you drank at prom. They are also currently debating whether or not they should put a smoking lounge into the high school. Can you believe that? I am certainly glad that we don't have any kids in school here!

Well I am currently watching the Today Show on the Slingbox in the middle of the afternoon it is so strange. Not too much else going on!

Love from Athens...

Well unfortunately I don't have too much to share today. I was so tried last night that I slept until 11:00 this morning and it felt amazing! I think I have recovered from my strange sickness. I started feeling bad last evening and didn't eat much of a dinner but this morning I had some toast and am feeling much better. I think I needed the sleep. Today I made my pie for the BYOP (Bring your own pie) party tomorrow. I had to make my own crust for the first time in my life and I think it will turn out alright. I have attempted to make a pecan pie. As many of you know my mother and I both have had difficultly successfully completing a pecan pie. Our pecan pies have a tendency to not setup all of the way but fortunately taste pretty good. I tried a new recipe this time so we will see if I embarrass myself in front of a bunch of Embassy women tomorrow. Stay tuned....

I am currently in the middle of moping my floor. It is so dusty here it is unbelievable. Part of the problem is that there are two new houses being built next to us so hopefully when they are completed we will have a little less dust. Now with the way the Greek work it might be 2010 by the time these houses are finished so I am not holding my breath.

It is chilly and raining again today. Fall has finally arrived in Athens! I am trying to get up the energy to walk down the hill to the grocery store to pick something up for dinner. Planning on doing that after I get done with the floors. I am thinking pork chops for dinner tonight.

Oh I need to send a shout out to Ben Chadwick for his amazing chocolate chip cookies. Ben was very nice and made me a batch of chocolate chip cookies to take back with me and David informed me last night that they are the best chocolate chip cookies that he has ever had (even better than mine). I have been feeling too crappy to have any until today and they are truly amazing so Jenny you are a very lucky girl!

Back in Athens

Well back from a whirlwind trip home to the great United States of America. Thursday was a long day but it was pretty uneventful. Flying that long is not fun and anyone that thinks international travel is glamorous has never flown coach for that long. It was 4 hours from Athens to London with a 3 hour layover then 8 hours and 45 minutes from London to Chicago with almost a 4 hour layover and then 1 hour to Des Moines from Chicago. When Jenny picked me up from the airport I had been either at the airport or in a plane for 24 hours. It was a long day.

The wedding was beautiful and a great time. Kristin looked stunning and planned a beautiful wedding. I did not take any pictures but hopefully Mrs. Hunter will have some to post when she returns from her honeymoon. On Sunday Mom, Dad and I hit Barnes and Noble for some new books since I get through one about every 1-2 days. The we went on to Target where I stocked up on a bunch of exciting stuff like peanut butter and lint rollers. Then onto the new mall in Des Moines for a little early Christmas shopping. I found two really cute dresses at Gap for what a quarter of a dress would cost here in Athens and I didn't even have to pay shipping.

The way back to Athens was harder than the trip from Athens. I amazingly was on time for every flight which rarely happens anymore. I slept the entire flight from Chicago to London and then proceeded to throw-up in the bathroom in London and then twice on my flight from London to Athens. I am not sure what happened but I felt like crap. When I got home I took a shower and David made me some dinner and I went to bed. I feel better today but not 100%. I am guessing I picked something up and since I was overtired my body just couldn't fight it off.

It is another pretty day in Athens with a high in the 60s. I didn't sleep great last night so I am lounging around today. I watched Grays and Desperate Housewives on the Slingbox from David and Judy's DVR which was great and now I am doing laundry and getting the house back in order. I have to give David credit the house was in great shape when I got here and then I just kind of dumped everything out of my bags so it is a bit of a mess.

Well hope you all had great weekends and have a great week!

Love from Athens.....

Well everyone this will be my last post for a couple of days. Tomorrow I leave in the morning to head back the glorious USA for Kristin's wedding on Saturday. I am really looking forward to coming home but not looking forward to the flight. I leave Athens a 9:00 am my time and arrive in Iowa at 10:30 pm. It is going to be a long day but it will be worth it! I am carrying on all of my clothes and then checking an empty bag so I can fill it full of stuff to bring back to Athens.

Today I didn't do much. It was cold again and looks like rain. I cleaned the house and walked down the hill to the grocery store so I could stock up on a few things for David before I leave. I plan on making lasagna tonight and then David can put it in the oven tomorrow for dinner and eat out of it for a couple of days. Oh this was a fun discovery. I picked up chicken legs to make for dinner tonight and when I was washing them off before I put them in the marinade I noticed there were still feathers on some of them. That's right it was awful. Not sure why they didn't see a reason to remove all of the feathers but hey this is Greece!

Oh I also wanted to give everyone our APO address. I keep forgetting to do that. You can send us mail just like you send it in the States and it even costs the same. It takes USPS Priority mail 5-7 days to arrive here.

David and Lauren Mark
PSC 108 Box 22
APO, AE 09842

Well I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week and a great weekend and I will have a full recap of the wedding when I return.

Today was a glorious day! We received our air freight this morning!!!!! Very exciting. I never thought that hangers, towels and knives could bring such joy...but they do!!!! Sorry for all of the exclamation points.

So I spent most of the day putting our clothes on hangers, washing clothes and using dryer sheets and getting my kitchen put together. We now have our own comforter and pillows which will be wonderful tonight. Since our house is built out of poured concrete there is not a lot of insulation so it does get cold at night and our down comfort will be a welcome change.

And luckily our air freight came today because it got cold here today. It has been raining for the last 4 nights and it rained off and on for most of the day today but it is also cold which is a first. Now not cold like Minnesota cold (Erin updated me today that yesterday Minnesota received its first snow of the year). Cold for Greece is in the low 50s which is what it is today.

Tonight we are going to make it to the grocery store. Didn't make it yesterday because of the rain. Need to get David stocked up before I leave on Thursday.

Well I need to get in the shower. Yes I know it is like 3:45 in the afternoon and I have not gotten in the shower. I was waiting for it to clear up so I could go for a run but it hasn't and I am not hard core enough to run in the rain anymore. Hope you are all well, Love from Athens....

Hydra

Well I hope everyone had a great weekend! The weather was wonderful on Saturday so David and I took a boat out to the island of Hydra which was about 2 hours away by high speed ferry. There are no cars allowed on the island just donkeys so it was a nice change of pace from Athens. We had a wonderful lunch and just relaxed. Hydra is a must see for anyone who comes to Greece. Here is the link for some pictures we took.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=nchytxl.72sdah9d&x=0&h=1&y=2wcj47

On Saturday night we finally figured out the Slingbox. The Slingbox worked fine when we used it at our sponsors house last weekend but when we tried it at our house it wouldn't work right. David went into the modem settings and figured out that there was an internal firewall in the modem and then with David's firewall on the computer it was making the connection way to slow to run the Slingbox. So with the modem firewall disabled we are in business. David watched the Texas game on Saturday night from the comfort of our house so he was very happy.

On Sunday since we had such a late night on the Slingbox we slept in and then watched a movie on the Slingbox from David and Judy's HBO. I love the Slingbox I got to watch some Food Network yesterday for the first time in forever! You can all laugh at my Food Network love it is fine with me. We went to church yesterday and then was about it for our weekend.

Today I already got up and ran and this afternoon I plan to do some exploring down by the Embassy and then head by the Embassy for a little while. Need to go to the grocery store too some time so I can stock up on easy to make food items for David while I am away this weekend at the wedding.

Well enjoy the pictures and I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Love from Athens....

Well sorry everyone for not having a blog entry yesterday I am sure you were all very sad. :)

Yesterday was beautiful it was in the high 70s and very sunny. Last night it rained and washed all of the pollution out of the air so this morning we had a great view from our house of Athens and the Aegean Sea.

Yesterday Stacy, Colin and I went to the farmer's market in the morning and got some great deals. In the afternoon we went on a little adventure. We decided to take a radio taxi (Embassy calls a taxi to come to your house and pick you up) to go to Carrefore which is like a big Wal-Mart. Well our plan was to grab a taxi for the way home off the street. Well taxis in Athens are not like taxis anywhere else. If you can actually get them to stop for you they will ask you were you are going and if they don't want to go there they just drive away. So after like the 25th attempt we gave up and decided to walk to the closest metro station only about 2 miles away pushing a stroller and carrying many bags. It was a very long day to say the least.

And then the highlight of the afternoon....we were standing at the kiosk in the metro station buying tickets. There were two kiosks both of which worked and a Greek women proceeded to push the stroller (with Colin in it) to the side with her entire body so she could use the exact kiosk we were attempting to use. Granted there was no one else around and the kiosk to the right our ours was in perfect working order because just seconds ago I had purchased my ticket from it. I couldn't help it and I had to use a few choice English words on here. She of course could have cared less. I have to come to see this type of behavior has being the rule in Greece and not the exception unfortunately. Everyone is in there own world and seems to care only about themselves. The Greeks treat each other that way not just foreigners but that still does not make it any better. With that said I have met some very nice Greek people who have been very welcoming and courteous too.

Today I hung around the house all morning. A women from the Embassy came other to inspect the house for problems so we would not be liable for anything broken now when we leave. Since our house is new she didn't have much to do. The only real problem we have are the floors. We have wood floors which are not of the best quality and they tend to scratch easily so she took note of that.

Now I am sitting in Embassy hanging out on the computer. If it is nice tomorrow we are planning to head to the island of Hydra which is a little less that two hours away by boat from mainland Greece. If we go I will be sure to post lots of pictures. Oh today we received our AFN (Armed Forces Network) box so we just need someone to come in to install the Satellite dish and we will be able to watch American TV on our TV and not just on the computer. Luckily the Embassy gave us a small TV to use until our HHE shipment gets here sometime in the next month or so.

Well I hope you all have a great weekend and if you get a chance and want to chat our Vonage is working perfectly.

Love from Athens....