Walking Group

As there is little to do on Sundays in the city, due to Greek law which forbids stores being open, I have found an alternative activity. I have joined a walking group. Most of the people in the group are transplants, so fortunately enough the ones that tend to have longer strides speak English, so I’m never without help on the trail. Two weeks ago was the first excursion that I went on with the Susan and Barbie. Susan is not only the wife of the President (of the school) but an amazing person, and the one who introduced me to this program. Barbie, as I have mentioned before, is one of the other fellows who works here with me. You will realize from our picture why we have been referred to as Charlie’s Angels.




Back to the first trip however, I’m rambling again. The first trip was an annual pilgrimage between two villages about an hour from here to celebrate the villages’ friendship and support throughout the years. They all begin in Marmaras, the first village and weave their way through the olive groves and over the rolling sea-side hills. Over 200 people partook in the walk, with at least double that number waiting at the end welcoming those who made the “trek” (16km) with warm food and hearts. If we had known that festivities were planned for the rest of the day, we would have previously arranged our schedules so that we did not have to scurry out. Have no fear, though we missed most of the festivities, we were able to admire everyone in costume, and even convince two of the dancers to pose for us.

My favorite club

Every week I am able to spend time with the students at Anatolia who are interested in an International Relations career. I alternate my time between taking them to the French Ambassador’s home for coffee, croissants, and conversation and taking an additional group to the American Embassy to enjoy Pepsi, pastries and presentations. The students lead all discussions, selecting topics from their interests and researching material in advance. They are small groups of around 10 students who have unique opportunities to spend time with actual Consulate Generals and Ambassadors. I got this program up and running about a month ago, and the students couldn’t make me prouder. They are truly interested in the effects of piracy (and pirates!) on the world, as well as educating youth across nations. One of my students even knew the answer to Ambassador King’s question regarding the number one action that could be taken to prevent terrorism: education a nations’ women. Not only do the students have considerable knowledge on international affairs, but they couple them with defended positions.

Another one of my students made a comment last week that has spurred our next topic of debate: why do we waste our time and effort fighting each other when there are bigger things that we are up against—natural disasters, poverty, and disease. I will be interested to see what the students come up with as their stances for this argument as I believe one of the IB (International Baccalaureate) assignments is to read on the positive effects of war. I’ll keep you posted as to the comments and positions the students take for this highly anticipated debate.

The Greeks Love Their Holidays

The Greeks are rather welcoming to Americans. While here I don’t have to worry about telling people that I am Canadian or German so that I won’t be shot dirty looks, or worse dirty bullets. However, November 17 is not the ideal time to display American patriotism in Greece. In 1973 a massacre occurred at the Polytechnic University and though it was the Greek government who ended the lives of protestors (and civilians) the Greeks believe that the Americans had a hand in previous creating stability so that the dictatorship could flourish. The incident that happened at the University began with a congregation of anti-junta protestors reeling about the loss of their civil rights, freedoms and protections. As more people arrived, things escalated so the government decided to prohibit the rioters from smoldering. Their plan of action? Tanks.

They drove tanks into the Polytechnic University where students and rioters alike had barricaded themselves. When the tanks connect with the gate, lives were lost—however their cause was not. Within a year after the uprising, a parliamentary democracy was restored. However, every year on November 17 the event is remembered. Sometimes with simple demonstrations and civilized parades, but more often with burning cars and destruction against anything that reminds Greeks of the tragedy. On this day, car insurance companies do not acknowledge damage caused, so no claims are illegitimate. Embassies have been raided and foreigners must be aware of their surroundings. An organization, often labeled as terrorists, called N17 (Nov. 17) has led and organized the majority of violence on this day.

However, needless to say, I was not a recipient of animosity or aggression. Granted, the largest percentage of riots is held in Athens where the incident occurred, but as Greeks are fairly active in defending their rights, I imagined a bigger hoopla here in Thessaloniki. This is why when I ventured downtown in the morning I was shocked to find no roads closed and no visible damage. Perhaps I should have gone to Athens to see actual riots.

Friday Night Kiddush or Do the Greeks Just like Wine?

1492 has a different meaning in Greece. This was the year that thousands of Sephardic Jews were expelled from Spain due to the Alhambra Decree and arrived in Thessaloniki. Perhaps this is why I feel such a Spanish presence in the walls of the middle age architecture. One of the main reasons that the Jews elected Greece as their settlement was actually because of the Islamic influences in the Ottoman Empire, which of course at this time, Greece was a part of. The Koran preaches an acceptance and toleration of all people and is rooted in peace—though today’s media seems to have a difficult time portraying this. Therefore, Thessaloniki became a disaporic oasis for the Jews and by 1520, only three decades after the decree, more than half of Thessaloniki’s population was comprised of Jewish exiles.

The Jews, being the new majority, controlled many aspects of social and cultural life. For example, instead of the city being shut down on Sundays as most Christian nations practice, or Fridays as is common in Islamic societies, the ports of Thessaloniki did not operate on Saturday—the day of the Sabbath. However, their prosperity was not infinite.

A few hundred years later, after internal battles and tilts with neighboring states the Jews faced an unavoidable enemy—the Nazis. During the Second World War more than 54,000 Jews from Thessaloniki were taken away most commonly to Auschwitz and Treblinka, but also to more local concentration camps. It is believed that 98% of them did not survive. Prior to their final death train rides the Jews were corralled into numerous ghettos across the city with the Nuremburg laws in full effect. One of the main roads between Larissa (where a US base current resides) and Thessaloniki was built through the forced laboring of the Jews. Come 1950 less than 2,000 Jews lived in the city; today that number teeters right around 1,000.

Bottom's Up

I would claim that I fell off the end of the earth as an excuse for not posting in nearly a month, but I suppose that Copernicus proved that theory wrong a few years back. So I’ll be honest, I have been busy. Simply put. Fortunately it has been a great combination of work and play. I would recommend reading these posts from the bottom up, as I will post them chronologically, with the most recent being at the top.

Trick-or-treat?

Trick's on me. Halloween isn't a popular holiday in Halloween. Fortunately since I am working at an America school most of the on-campus professors are foreigners who celebrate the holiday and knew what to expect when I brought 40 kids around trick-or-treating. The kids had a whole slew of activities planned for them on Halloween day including pumpkin carving and costume contests. Much to their dismay, I did not allow them to bob for apples as they have done in years past. No need for swine flu to be spreading even quicker than it already is here.

Apparently there is a celebration in late February (sometimes March) where kids and adults alike get dressed up for a certain festivity. As you can clearly see by my vagueness I don't know too much about it, but I will let you know when it happens--or at the rate I'm going, a few weeks after it happens when I have time to post!

I just wanted to share a few of the pictures that I snapped of the kids on Halloween so that you can see the students that I am living with.

Switzerland

6 days. 4 planes. 2 trains. 1 car.

Welcome to the land of four official languages: German, French, Italian, and low and behold, Romanch. I’ll give you a lot of credit if you have ever heard of Romanch, simply because it is spoken by such a small percentage of Switzerland that I doubt it has any world clout. It’s a fun little romance language that appears to have its strongest roots in Italian with a German flavor. Unfortunately we (Barbie, one of the other interns and I) didn’t make it to the northeastern corner of Switzerland to hear this well-kept secretive language. This was because we were far too entertained in the western part of the country driving between and through Zurich, Luzern, Interlocken, Lausanne, and Geneva.

Out of these five cities I would vote for Luzern being the most beautiful and Zurich the easiest to navigate. Sadly for me however, these were both Germanic speaking cities, so I don’t envision spending too much time in either of these locations in the near future.


Example of Switzerland's city beauty. This was taken downtown.



Rather than recapping each individual city, I’m going to throw everything to you all at once with a little organized list. It was the easiest way to jot everything down—so figure me if I didn’t pay attention to elements you’d be interested in. If you have any questions, you know where to find me.

Fun Facts/Notations:
1.Every city has an “old town”. There is an entire quarter of each city whose ancient buildings are well in-tact and streets well-worn from horse-hooves and carriage carts. Switzerland is not unique in having “old towns” except for the fact that every city has one. Simply put, this is because they don’t engage in wars. Their countryside’s have not been burned down, nor their cities destroyed. Their cities’ greatest enemies are pollution and population increases, not bullets, missiles or bombs.

2.Swiss roads are full of three things: roundabouts, tunnels, and cows. Roundabouts are so common because the Swiss are rather efficient, and instead of having a 4-way stop sign, they put in a roundabout so you only need to yield to oncoming traffic—no need to wear out your brakes. The tunnels I am purely speculating on, but here is my theory. Switzerland is beautiful. They do not want to clutter it with visible man-made constructions such as highways, so they hide them through a series of multi-kilometer tunnels. Point two regarding tunnels: Switzerland is incredibly mountainous. Instead of winding up and down a mountain with Indian-turns, they borrow right through the mountain. No need to waste time going around them.

3.40% of Geneva residents are foreign-born. This is can be attributed to Geneva being the headquarters for a slew of NGOs/IGOs as well as the European headquarters for countless multi-national corporations. Knowing that Geneva is such an international metropolis, I was worried that I may not have the opportunity to practice my French as much as I wanted (or rather, needed to) as I did not envision everyone knowing French. However, I found that nearly everyone I came across knew French (whether it was their first language or not) though nearly everyone spoke another language better than French—ranging from German to English to Russian. Barbie and I stayed in one of the more ethnically diverse neighborhoods where Asian cuisine was more common than bakeries, and still we were impressed with the fluency of everyone’s french.

4.Staying in the ethnic section of the city had wonderful perks besides the aroma of spice and rice—it was less expensive than the other side of the river. Here, parking was only $60 a day, and a diet coke was only $3.00. They advertised their McDonald’s “dollar menu” for $2.50. As outrageous as this seems, tuition as the Graduate school I am looking at there is only $10,000 for both years combined. The Swiss have large incomes, and can afford to pay a hefty price for small purchase. However, when it comes to education, they do not want to prevent anyone from attending top-notch schools, so their tuitions are either free or $2,500 per semester for non-Swiss nationals.

5.Another great perk of where we stayed in Geneva: It was only a 10 minute walk to the university where I interviewed, and another 5 minutes past that to the UN. The view from our bedroom overlooked the infamous fountain in Lake Geneva, the largest fountain in the world (with Lake Geneva, or Lake Lacman—depending on who you are speaking with—is the largest lake in Europe [save Russia of course]).

6.Though it was certainly nice to have a guided tour of the UN, I was a bit disappointed that it was my only alternative. There is currently no part of the UN that visitors are allowed to explore on their own, including the outside grounds. However, the tour itself was wonderful. My two favorite rooms were the humanitarian reinforcement efforts and the disarmament room. The humanitarian room was designed by the Spanish architect Miquel Barceló. The disarmament room told a story, while the humanitarian room had a theme. The disarmament's story regarded the effects of war and those of intelligence, portraying how far the evolution of science and technology have come while balancing it with how much war has destroyed efforts to advance.

7.While in Geneva we spoke with a Greek native about the differences between Greece and Switzerland. Besides pointing out the obvious differences in efficiency and diversity, the aspect of Greek culture that baffles him the most is the dependency that Greeks have on their cars. Greece has a well networked public transportation system in all major cities, yet most families own multiple cars. Not only this, but they will take them to drive very short distances—less than kilometer walk. This is the reason why I award the Greeks with the most creative parking medal—there are too many cars and not enough spaces, so they simply create their own. I’m still waiting to find the perfect picture to post regarding the double-parking on the sidewalks that I have witnessed. Not only are cars blocked in, but people actually have to walk on the road because the sidewalks are entirely covered by cars.

8.The Swiss don’t speed. When the speed limit says 120kph, you push your limits by going 125. You’ll be flying solo in the high speed lane the entire way if you decided to exceed the speed limit—which I wouldn’t recommend doing. The Swiss Guard is not something I would test.

9.Speaking of the Swiss Guard, contrary to my previously held beliefs, Switzerland does have an army, and a well-trained one at that. Their males are required to complete a national-service requirement. Though they are considered to be the most neutral country in the world, and probably won’t deploy troops anywhere, they are more than prepared for an attack.

10.Switzerland, home to the UN, only became a member in 2002. The UN, originally the League of Nations (founded in NH!) was created during Wilson’s presidency almost 100 years ago. Yet only 7 years ago did Switzerland vote on becoming an actual member. It was fairly convenient for them, considering it is home to the European Headquarters.

11.Switzerland as many of you already know is not a member of the EU. Nor does it intend on becoming one. However, it will accept the Euro in most cities, and complies with many EU regulations (though you are permitted to smoke in restaurants there). Its boarders are open in the sense that they allow a certain amount of EU citizens to work and study in Switzerland.

12.Swiss bank accounts are infamous for their secrecy. This is why so many heads of states and terrorists organizations have financial protection, because the Swiss bankers refuse to reveal the contents or account holders of their customers. Granted, in the past decade they have been far more cooperative, investigating into a few accounts linked with Al Qaeda, but they are not granted the EU’s request to share with EU officials the information of all the accounts of EU citizens.

13.The Swiss do not write personal checks, nor do they often use their credit cards. They pay with cash, or more commonly, will simply transfer the allotted amount of money from their bank account into yours. This guarantees that they have the amount of money they claim to, where checks and credit cards do not have this same protection. They are actually quite amused with the concept of writing personal checks. Fine. But I will still remain skeptical about giving you my bank account number so that you may deposit money directly into it. Though, I suppose they do have the protection of Swiss banks accounts. Must be nice.

14.Exits in Switzerland are not labeled by numbers or even location. They merely say: exit. Granted, they do have signs indicating that the exit in 400m leads to Geneva, but so do the next three….I have yet to figure out how you can tell which one you should take. Unless of course you are lucky enough to have a GPS which indicates it for you.

Alright, that’s all folks.

Mount Athos

The other counselors and I took nearly 40 of our students to Mount Athos for a day field-trip. Mount Athos is a finger of the Peninsula in Halikidiki about 150km southeast of Thessaloniki.


Here is a picture of one of the counselor's sons whom I tutor once a week who also went on the trip with us. He's great. Meet Christopolous.






It hosts the grounds of some of the world’s most sacred monasteries. The region, a semi-autonomous state, only permitted bearded men to live there, and males—regardless of the beard—to visit. They are so anti-female, that not even female domesticated animals are allowed within 100m of the shores (expect hens, which provide them with eggs). There are legends that this was a tribute to the Virgin Mary who herself visited the mountain, but many struggle to see how banning women pays respect to them. Therefore, most believe that women were originally banned so not to distract the monks from their spiritual quests and tradition has simply carried through to the present. Mary herself is claimed to have visited the mountain in her pursuit of spreading the news of the death of her son. Mount Athos, once pagan territory, realized their error and converted to Christianity after Mary left, and has remained this way since.

Mount Athos is currently home to 20 monasteries, though this number has changed over time due to devastating fires and construction of new hamlets. It was once home to over 40 monasteries housing 40,000 monks. I need to do a bit more investigating, as I am unsure of all of the monks are of the Orthodox faith, or belong to the larger Christian community. The peninsula is run on shared wealth and assets of all the monks, and over the years they have collected legendary items, including the hand of Mary Magdalena (skin intact) and the holy girdle.








Not all monks live in monasteries. There are some who have elected to give up material comforts and live in caves and natural huts lining the cliffs of Mount Athos. With a permit, and a proven devotion to Orthodox religion, men are occasionally able to spend a night with one of the solitary monks. Most visitors however, are hosted in one of the various monasteries.


Just for kicks, here is the reason why I was terrified during this boat tour--don't worry our boat kept 500m off shore since there were women aboard.





These little buggers were swooping down everywhere. Head-hunters. Not pleased.

Running a Fever? Nope, just overwhelmed with fervidity

Do not be mistaken, it is not merely a stereotype that the Greeks posses ardor. They have an abundance of passion, so much so that they have difficult containing it, or even channeling it. I perhaps should rephrase the word passion, and substitute it with extreme and heated emotion, as their ‘passion’ is not always positive. If emotions were paints, the Greeks would look like a colorful Picasso painting: hard to interpret but full of life. This sounds crazy I know and a complete overgeneralization, but honestly, I have been the target of more emotional daggers and the recipient of undeserved praise simply for existing. Gossip is rampant, and not just in the female circles. Life here is not only lived, but expressed. Personal space must be demanded if desired, and even then, you might only see a few inches difference in proximity.

One of my favorite quotes I came across in high school was “You know the Greeks didn't write obituaries. They only asked one question after a man died: "Did he have passion?" So on that note, I am off to find a canvas to hold my Renaissance emotions for the time being while I go explore in the modern art realm of expressions.

Smoking

I thought that I was lucky to have the smoking ban go into effect July 1, so that the Greeks would have at least two months to cooperate before I arrived. No such luck, noting like the lights out that happened the day after the ban went into effect in Turkey. 2 points for Turkey on this one. Though I don't have any concrete examples, I have been told that Greeks aren't surprised that the smoking ban is not enforced. Greeks don't do well with authority (perhaps becoming Grecian will be easier than I thought!). The birthplace of democracy is now home to one of the most anarchic nations in the western world. This will be elaborated on when I have more details for you.

So here is nitty gritty on the ban. The smoking ban went into effect in Greece July 1, 2009. This ban prohibits bans smoking in indoor public spaces and work areas, public transportation, and smoking in areas without proper ventilation. Small restaurants and bars (between 70-300sq. meters) are permitted to have smoking, so long as they have a non-smoking section as well.

Currently, over 50% of the Greek population lights up on a regular basis. Minors are not discluded from this statistic either. I have 14-year-old chain-smokers in the dorm. The ban, unfortunately, does not seem to prevent the Greeks smoking. Rather, it promotes exercise in order to smoke (smoking isn't allowed on campus, so the teachers here all have to sprint off campus for a few puffs during their 7 minute class change).

Elections

Though Greece is the birthplace of democracy, it has not always been able to uphold the dreams that Aristotle, Socrates and Plato envisioned. It has undergone countless changes in leadership and government type, returning to a democracy—more specifically a parliamentary republic—in 1974 after holding successful fair and free elections. Greece presently has both a chief of state and a prime minister. National elections determine not who the president will be, but rather who will become the next Prime Minister. Presently, Greece’s Parliament does not have a majority in favor of any party, which makes it incredibly difficult to pass new laws and legislation. Therefore, in hopes to achieve a more effective balance in Parliament sooner rather than later, snap elections have been called and were held today.

Currently, Kostas Karamanlis, leader of the New Democracy (Nea Demokratia) party, holds the position of Prime Minister. Despite him being the one who pushed for this year’s early elections, he will be in close contention with George Papandreou, head of the PASOK (Panhellenic Socialist Movement) Party (it is still too early to call who won the election, I’ll let you know the results). Karamanlis’s popularity has declined through-out his term. This is due to an array of factors including the downward spiral of the Greek economy and the lack of control over the recent forest fires in Athens. Additionally a recent real-estate scandal involving the sale of land from the Church to the State has diminished the public’s faith in church-state relations.

As in the majority of democracies, the voting age here is 18. Unlike in America, voting here is compulsory. People must vote in their hometowns which attributes to the reason why elections call for political holidays, and the reason I had a four day weekend! Also unlike America, citizens do not vote for their president. The president is elected through a secret ballot system in parliament. Karolos Papoulias has been reigning over Greece as President since 2005. As the presidency is only a five year term, the next Presidential changeover will occur in March of 2010. The President has limited power. His main responsibilities lie in foreign affairs, while the Prime Minister controls domestic dealings. This will be one of the few times in contemporary Greek history where the presidential and prime ministerial elections are held so close together. This could potentially lead to an entire upheaval of current political positions, so it will be interesting to see how the public will handle this delicate but crucial time in Greek history.

Fun Facts and Upcoming Events:
•Greece has had a Papandreou or a Karamanlis as prime minister for 30 of the 45 years of democratic governance since 1955, excluding the 1967-74 military dictatorship.
•This election is coming two years earlier than scheduled.

Education

Being at a private school, I do not have to adhere to many of the public requirements set forth by the ministry of education. However, my students cannot all escape them. Any senior who is planning on going to college in Greece must take national exams called Panhellenic national examinations. They are similar to the exams that my host sister took in Turkey in the sense that all seniors feel the need to take private lessons to enhance their scores. In Greece though, these exams seem to have greater importance than in Turkey. I say this because Public Universities in Greece are free. Yes, I repeat free, for Greek citizens anyways. Therefore what University you are eligible to attend, FOR FREE, depends on your Panhellenic score.

Food

I'll break my month down into sections so that I don't overwhelm you all at once. The first topic I will address is food, mainly because I am hungry after refusing tonight's dinner of a french-fry omelet. French fries should be their own food group here with the amount they are served--in the salads, on the gyros, with the pork--however, since they are only lightly fried in olive oil, they are supposedly better than America's "trans-fatty fries" direct quote, I couldn't make that up. I noted that french fries are in salads, gyros, and pork, because those are the other staples in the Greek diet.

The traditional Greek salad is a bed of lettuce, mixed with rocket, tomatoes, olives, and feta cheese. Oh, and we best not forget the olive oil that it is swimming in. If you ask for salad dressing, you will receive olive oil, and if you are really lucky, they slosh some vinegar on there as well. This however, has made me truly appreciate the taste of the actual vegetables, as I have a "naked greek salad".

Perhaps I fill overwhelmed with pork because I didn't have it for my time in Turkey. Then I realized, no, it was months before Turkey that I had my last piece of pork. I do find it very interesting that Turkish is 99% Muslim on a few hours away, and pigs are nowhere to be seen (and no, not because they killed them in fear of Swine Flu like Egypt) and you jump the boarder to the hog house. Fortunately, they over cook their pork, which means it not only tastes like chicken, but I love it.

These little piggies are also the main ingredient in Greek gyros. I somehow managed to go through 22 years without even taking a nibble of a gyro, which is a sad story. They are delicious packed with nutrients, protein, and your daily calorie count. They are cocooned in a warm pita, filled with pork (not lamb or beef like in the States), vegetables, McDonald's secret sauce, and heavily flavored with tzatiki. There is no good phonetic way to spell that word, I apologize, but what tzatiki is is a yogurt based salsa mixed with cucumbers, garlic, and mint. I would equate its use to ranch dressing in America, some like it for vegetables, others for pizza. It seems fairly multi-purpose.

Lunch is hands down the biggest meal of the day here, and eaten around 3:00pm. No snacking between breakfast and lunch either. Though ironically enough, they will snack before dinner which is often as early as 8:00. Somehow, I have managed to acclimate to this schedule, so long as I am busy in the mornings. However, if I have any downtime, my American 10:30 snack time calls me. Overall, I’ll rate the Greek food system better than expected.

Long Time Coming

I apologize to those of you who had been checking my site for the past month and were left disappointed after finding out that yet again, I had not posted. Needless to say, I should have been more diligent in this past month about keeping everyone updated—forgive me. Tomorrow will make it officially one month since I arrived in Thessaloniki, and two weeks since school has started. Now I suppose that all of you don’t know exactly what I am doing here (as I myself found out upon arrival) so I will give you a brief rundown.

Most mornings my day starts at 7:00am and I either make sure that all the kids are up and out the door, or escape to the gym for a quick workout depending on the day. Unfortunately, I do not have a designated class that I teach during the school day, which is a bit disappointing. Instead however, I get to bounce around and experience all secondary grade levels and teach a whole array of lessons. I am in charge of teaching an SAT prep class which will begin next week; I think that 40-50 students are forecasted to sign up for this course which makes me a bit nervous since I only have 2 hours a week with them. I am an advisor for three different extra-curriculars: debate, newspaper, and an International Relations Mentorship program. The first two are fairly self-explanatory, but they last one is the one I am most excited about. I am designed a club for the kids who are interested in careers in the international affairs field. We meet once or twice a week to discuss current events and debate political issues. In addition to that, I am working on convincing a few of the embassies to host us through-out the semester so that the kids will get the chance to meet real diplomats and hopefully discuss their ideas with them. When that becomes more concrete, I’ll let you know.

The next two months should be fairly busy for me as well, as I have agreed to look over all of the senior’s applications who are applying to American Colleges. So far I have only met with two of them, so I have about 45 more to go. I am also helping out our affiliated University by working in their study abroad office writing for their newsletters and being a contact for both exchange students and abroad institutions. If that isn’t enough, my nights are spent in the dorm with the kids making sure they complete their homework (and in free time playing Apples to Apples!). Oh yes, and I am learning Greek twice a week at the University.

So for now, that is my life. I promise that I will post more this week (probably this weekend to be honest) to update you on the culture and events that have gone on in the past month. I just needed to sit down and get the ball rolling by making my first post of the school year.