The First Week...

Well, I have decided to create a blog. I'm not a gifted writer, this will just be my thoughts and feelings.  Kind of my own little diary to help me remember these days in Greece and everywhere else this new job will take us.  By us, I mean my husband Mike and me, the new directors of HUG.

I have learned already that life seems rather surreal here.   I'm sure that is because we don't have any type of regular schedule yet. We go where we want, eat when we want and try to remember the way home to the Artemis.

For those who don't know about the Artemis, it was once a hotel in the seacoast town of Porto Rafti. I think there are about 22 guest rooms, our apartment, a classroom, library, dinning room, and many other common areas all hidden behind a large wall on a busy street. It has marble floors and in some areas marble walls. The doors are big and solid and don't close without a slam. It now houses us and between 30-40 Harding University students, as of Sept. 10!

We have been in Greece one week. This week we have learned most of the letters of the alphabet (very helpful in reading signs, even if you don't know what they mean), a few necessary words, the route to many grocery stores, the airport, the train station, the Athen's Mall, a huge grocery/Wal Mart type store, 2 IKEA's, a home improvement store, a Factory Outlet, several local bakeries (yummmm), a clinic, the bank, Aristotle Travel, church, and Starbucks.  During this time we have managed to lose our car at IKEA (biggest parking garage ever), almost get squished by a city bus, had our wind shield washed at many intersections (guys trying to get money), eaten many unfamiliar foods, had chest ex-rays (no paper or cloth gowns here, ladies), TB tests, and have learned to dispose of toilet paper in trash cans (yes, we flush, but only natural waste products!!!) We've also explored the hotel and grounds, tried to figure out the phone system, breaker boxes (first morning...brrrr, didn't know the hot water heater was off!), and plug adapters. As you can tell it has been a busy week.  We also had dinner with the Roussos', have met a few times with Vassilios,(a local lawyer) been to city hall, and have managed to "jailbreak" both iPhone's and get local phone service!

Today, when we went to a huge Carrefour store to buy groceries we set everything on the checkout counter only to find out I had to get out of line and take all the produce we were buying back to be weighed and priced.  Mike checked us out, while I trotted off to find out where and how to do that.  We just learn something new every hour or two!!!

All the staff is off this whole month. August is the month people take vacations.  It is hot here and people flock to the coastal areas.  On our drive to Sounio Wednesday, we took the route by the sea and it was packed with cars and buses as people escape from Athen's and spend their days off at the sea.  It is beautiful and the young and old seem to be enjoying the beach.

Mike is preaching in Glyfada (suburb of Athens) on Sunday. Because it is summer the crowd is extra small. Last week we had 15 and the service was translated into Spanish and Ukrainian. It is an English service. This week atleast 4 of the regulars will be out of town, but perhaps others will be back.
Well, it is late and tomorrow we will have more adventures.  The security man is coming and he speaks no English, that should be an adventure all by itself! We miss you all, it's very quiet here.

 Kali nihta...