I'm going to try to tailor this report to try to answer some of the remaining practical questions that people applying to the program may have. This will be the last report posted before decisions are made and next year's Corps members must make their decisions. So this will hopefully paint a picture of life outside the job. Also, if anyone has questions that haven't been answered, please email me at mccormic@grinnell.edu.
Since I turned in the first report, in November, I've been out of Greece twice, and since I've fallen into routine here in Thessaloniki, these are what stand out for me since I last reported. For Thanksgiving I went to Prague to see a friend from Grinnell. It was a wonderful time, and came at a point where I was getting a bit restless and really longing to see someone from home, and my 'old life,' since one can't help but feel that one is leading a double life when living abroad, with the lack of continuity in space and personalities. Anyhow, it was a treat to see Anna, especially for the holidays; we turned out a lovely, almost-authentic Thanksgiving dinner and relived some memories.
The next time I traveled out of Greece, I went home for Christmas, although I hadn't planned to go, it worked out after other plans fell through. Iowa was nearly as I left it, and was refreshing and comforting as always. It was a quick trip, but satisfying and so amazing to see all the family and friends I had prepared myself not to see for at least a year--what a lovely surprise! However, I must admit that it was pretty satisfying to return to Greece. I think that being home and removed from Anatolia and Thessaloniki helped me to focus and renew some of my excitement, and so I'm feeling more productive and satisfied with myself after returning.
Besides exciting travels, life in the dorm has been just as exciting, one might even say dramatic. For starters, I'm now known as Mrs. Lucy Poosey to some around here, which I think is a very fitting stage name: just the right measure of drama and dignity. Jason is known in some circles as a sexy chicken bikini, whatever that means.... The other dramatic developments aren't nearly as positive: we've had a small (and luckily pretty contained) epidemic of what was described to me as 'body lice.' ... Next we had one student decide to leave the school, which meant giving up her scholarship, to go home. A sad situation with her education at stake, but I can't pretend I don't understand wanting to live at home at the age of 14. And to top off all the drama we seem to have entered cold and flu season (even though the weather is unseasonably balmy) and have a new sickly child every day. Oh, the drama!
And the last of the drama, but actually first chronologically, were a tense two weeks before Christmas, when we found out that 5 students had brought guns into the dorm. This was obviously a most dangerous and serious situation, though I must say that unlike in American schools, the guns weren't intended for violence, but fueled by a curiosity and a penchant for pushing the rules until they break. However, guns are guns and the safety of all of kids in the dorm is our first priority, and guns very obviously undermine that safety. The time following this incident was a very emotional and tense time, since we had to decide consequences, which is never easy. In the end one student was expelled from the dorms and the other four got off pretty lightly, for various reasons. This incident alone was a climax and providing more than enough drama to last us all year (fingers crossed at least).
This little section will be out of place, but I feel like I should address the language issue, which has been a significant source of frustration and stress for me thus far. The thing is Greek is hard: it all sounds the same, there are five 'i's and every word is about twice as many syllables as an English word far as language goes, I should preface (or to try to defend myself) by saying that part of my job is to speak English. In the dorm speaking to the kids in English is very valuable practice for them, especially the younger of the scholarship kids who come to Anatolia way behind in their English skills and are disadvantaged in this area from the beginning. Just in the first two months I saw the younger kids improve greatly in what they could understand when I spoke, and in the last couple months I've seen them all start to try to talk more, which is the really intimidating part, I think.
I can commiserate with them on this because Greek is still incomprehensible to me, despite having taken a Greek class last term. Part of my ineptitude with the language stems from the very basic fact that I've never been 'gifted' with language, but also the fact that I found early on that I could get by with English, or, if English wasn't an option, I could get by with a combination of key Greek and some miming skills. My second justification for my lack of improvement is because the class I took wasn't very helpful as far as speaking goes. I've decided not to take it again this semester; instead, I will take a history class and a short fiction class.
Outside of dorm duty, taking classes and teaching classes, Jason and I have both found that we have a significant amount of free time. It is safe to say that, on average, I work about 22-35 hours a week, though this can fluctuate depending on how much subbing is needed in a given week and if I'm working the weekend. And since the majority of our dorm duties are in the evenings, when the kids are out of school, which leaves us with fairly empty days. All of this free time is novel and great, but it have taken some adjustment. At first I had to figure out how to use it because it was something I'd learned to live without: At Grinnell for the last 4 years, and before that in high school, I was constantly busy with too much work to ever really finish , and I see that my perpetual busyness and became a habit because we're always looking around like, "what next?" I'm not complaining about this; it's just interesting to see how unacquainted we've become with free time. I've struggled to entertain myself at times, but I really value the chance that this year has provided to, well, relax, read, think and do some creative things with my time.
The other reason that free time is a little challenging to fill (besides have been trained to thrive under perpetual busyness) is because Greece is spendy and I am limited in the financial department. I should clarify this though, the stipend provided by Anatolia is definitely more than enough to live on here and enjoy yourself; it's just that I've instituted a tight budget so that I can afford to do the traveling I want to do during and after the program. Soooo... it's more that given what I allow myself Greece is expensive and I am poor. The "make your own fun" motto is mine again, which is a pity in some sense, because going out for frappes and to tavernas is a big part of the Greek lifestyle/culture. When I'm not working read a lot, I run, I go downtown to swim, I shop at the market for small amounts of produce, I give myself haircuts, I write letters I listen to NPR, I read the NYTimes, I talk on skype, I go to coffee shops or for the occasional taverna dinner, and watch more than my share of sunsets over the Aegean.
After spending so much time on the enclosed and protected Anatolia campus (which is so beautiful, green and quiet) I often find the craziness of downtown a welcome, if smoggy, change. I haven't tired of wandering around the city, and I love finding all the stray cats lounging, playing in and using the ancient Roman ruins as a littler box. There are usually 10 or more if you look carefully. I also love to walk through the city and then suddenly come right up to the sea, it's wonderful each time. Watching people eat nutella filled crepes is another great "free' activity because it's impossible to eat one gracefully, and napkins just create more of a mess, or something akin to 'paper mittens'. The pigeons in Aristotle square are great too. They all suddenly get up and fly in big circles around the large open square for no apparent reason, other than my enjoyment.
While downtown, getting my fill of urban life and watching spectacular sunsets, I also try to get my fill of people watching, which is yet another joy that no one charges for. These people remind me of simple pleasure, which are the greatest of course: old ladies meandering along holding hands, a little kid tirelessly chasing the pigeons, which audaciously fly about 5 feet, resettle and wait for his next attack. A boy and girl on a moped exercising their dog--zipping along, the dog trailing them, encouraged by the girl leaning around to make sure he's staying with them as they race along the boardwalk. On a lucky day I'll see jugglers or other circus-esque performances. On a supremely lucky day I'll sit outside Starbucks at the right time, get a free sample, and then see a dog go up the crosswalk, sit down, patiently wait for the 'walk' sign, and then saunter across the street with the herd of people--just like the seasoned and weary commuter that he is. And lastly charting fashion trends doesn't get old for a sloppy American girl. People are very fashionable and dressy here, and so I am out of place no matter how clean my jeans are. Trendy means tight pants for men, genie-type pants for women, and fannypacks for both sexes! Also, they wear the mullet proudly here-- like they just discovered it or something. (Jason and I knew we'd settled in nicely when we stopped having to point out the mullets (or 'mull-lays as one student calls them)...unless it was a really spectacular mull-lay and then of course we couldn't help ourselves)
However all of these little activities have not really soaked up all my free time. I'm considering taking dance classes, finding all of the museums in town, or going camping on the beach on my weekends off; the options are endless, I just have to get up the gumption and figure out how to find them.
It's been interesting for me to watch something of a routine emerge from my unstructured free time, as I detailed above. It's also been telling to see how much of this time I spend talking and writing to family and friends. I've thought about it and I think that the reason that I've spent so much time in communication is probably pretty normal and most likely to two main reasons: 1) in order to achieve the goal of 'keeping in touch' with is one of the post-graduate trails as far as friendships go, and also 2) in order to fight off the feeling of disconnection, which commonly accompanies the sudden reality of the post-graduate life, as well as the experience living abroad, far from everyone you know. I've done more than my share of email and spent a lot of time on the phone and skype (which in case you don't know is the best deal on the face of the planet, and the only way to have an affordable and intimate international conversation.) But anyhow, I think its worth pointing out, even it's seems a little banal, that a fair amount of my energies in Greece have gone towards communication with people far removed from me, but those who are/have become very important to me in my daily life. And so even while I make friends and connections here, I've found that it's essential for me--grounding, really--to stay connected to the lives of people at home.
That said, I'm going to wrap this thing up. I have bus duty now and it's a gorgeous January day so I need to take a walk to fully appreciate this lovely global warming weather. Please write if you have questions. Until next time....
