Becoming Greek

To far away.....

The past two weeks have been full of joys and pains living over 5,000 miles away from family in the United States.  Two major life milestones were robbed from us this month.....

Life:

My sister in law had a baby two weeks ago today, and we missed our time with baby Kylie (nicknamed Kaylie 2.0 by her uncle).  It was hard to to only see the new baby over skype, and watch my wife feel distance and separation from her sisters big day.  She missed out on her new niece and being there for her sister in the hospital.  She will never hold her as a newborn, and we missed some of the most precious moments with her.  I never will smell the top of her newborn head, and get to take a newborn nap with my niece.  At least we will stay connected as she grows, and will hopefully get to visit soon enough....

Death:

About three weeks ago my grandmother had a freak fall down the stairs as she was walking through a new home.  She was 85 but healthy and had at least 10-15 years of life ahead of her, until that accident.  She had emergency surgery for a pool of blood that developed in her brain, and that moment started a time clock no one could stop.  I was on the sidelines helplessly reading email updates, and speaking with my family through the roller-coaster recovery,  She was in a comma, then back to her normal self, and back into ICU.  The battle ended yesterday, and the distance feels immense.  We could not visit her in the hospital, and will not be there for her funeral.  

One one side of the coin we were blessed because we saw my grandma in September, but we are kicking ourselves because we forgot our camera.  We did not get to snap a updated picture with the boys, but even more upsetting is that they will not get to see their great-grandmother again.  I will be preparing some writings for the funeral, and will get to reminisce on some great moments.  My grandmother was a great woman.

It is just hard being so far away.....

A funny story

I have been working on finishing my leadership book, and was doing some re-writing.  I came across this story I forgot, and thought I would throw it on the blog......

There is one individual who I met that has a wild tattoo story.  He is actually a successful business owner of a coffee roasting company in the Seattle area.  He was a huge Evil Keneval fan, and actually met him one day after the show.  He told Evil just how much he admired him and asked for an autograph on his arm.  Evil penned his name on his arm, and then did something totally unexpected.  He opened his walled and pulled out $500.  He handed it over to this grown man, and said, “why don’t you tattoo it”.  I was able to witness the end product years latter on this mans arm with a red, white, and blue number one.

The one that got away......

When we were back in the states we had a little family vacation to Ocean City, MD.  I could pontificate all day on the differences between the beaches in Greece and at OC, but I will spar you my rants and raves....
But a highlight of the trip was fishing each morning with the boys and "Pa".....  Miraculously we caught fish like crazy with the kids.  I normally don't have great luck fishing, and that can be verified by Randy at Beaver Lake, AR.  Yet, at the ocean little seabass were giving our boys tons of fun.  Honestly, since we were fishing catch and release we could have double dipped a fish a time or two but that does not matter. 
On the last morning we saw a couple old guys catch a really nice flounder in the water.  The boys (Mac and Kaiden, my nephew) wanted to see the fish so we wandered on over.  The fish was laying lifeless and Mac really wanted to touch it.  He got up the nerves and gave it a poke.  Nothing happened.  Since Mac was so interested I asked if we could take a photo, and took it a step farther.  We hoisted it up in the air, adn as you can see Mac gave it one more poke.  As he did the fish sprang to life and wiggled like crazy.  I set it on the ground and it flapped and flopped everywhere.  The boys jumped in our arms, the old guys started laughing, people watching all over the boardwalk were entertianed, and Mac had a great adventure.
Truly that was a fish that got away, well kind of.......

Back in the saddle....

    This week we are getting things settled from our crazy visa adventure......  Now we are getting our paperwork processed here in Greece, and getting back into the routine of school life.  Jamie and I plan to really deepen into our Greek this Fall, and continue to deepen our relationship with some of our partners.  It is good to be back, and a relief to have all of our paperwork taken care of!!!
    Last night we went to the circus, and it was a trip!!!  My little tenderfoot Brady was really scared through most of the magic show, clowns, and dances.  However, he loved the acrobats and wanted to see them "fall into the nets".  We tried to explain how that would be a bad thing, and just as we did the acrobat fell and almost flew into the crowd.  Jamie and I dropped our jaws, and Brady clapped as he got his wish.  All in all it was a good night out with the kids, and a nice welcome back to the family!!!

Hey Oriole Bird.....

My father-in law is a huge Orioles fan, and since we have been back every game has been tuned in on a local Baltimore station.   Our boys are normally running around, but love watching a particular commercial with the Oriole Bird.

We this has turned into an exciting obsession, and on Friday night we watched the O's beat the Indians at Camden Yards.  My father and I had my two boys, and we brought along another nephew who is 2 1/2.  So we adults were outnumber 3/2, but with a few cheez-its, peanuts, and juice boxes we were able to keep the boys highly entertained.  It was a great night with all sorts of action, but I think the highlight for Mac was getting to hug the Oriole Bird.  He had done the Oriole Bird dance, and then gave the bird a huge hug.  He pumped his fists in the air, and I think it made his night.....

What made my night was the guy behind me in line to hug the bird.  He had an iphone and emailed the picture to me since the camera was at home.....

Back in the USA

The past month we have been back in the USA working on an endless visa struggle.  We went to Greece with the advice from our company to obtain our residency in Europe.  Once we arrived we quickly realized we were given some bad advice and tried to do everything possible to get legal in the country. 

The rule is that you can be in Greece (which is part of a larger group of countries called the schengan) 90 days in the time period of 180 days.  To live in a country this is a very hard rule to follow, and we found ourselves going about it the "old school" way.  This method relies on the boarder police not to enforce the rules of the schegan zone.  Over the past ten years or so this method has worked well, and I personally know many Americans who still try to use this method.  However, the boarders are getting tougher and much stricker.  We were personally turned away at a boarder in March, which made us quickly realize that we had to do something to obtain a visa.

A Greek visa is done by presenting documentation in a US consulate, and then giving paperwork and a visa stamped passport to your local mayors office.  In March we were in Greece, and so going back to a US consulate is not the easiest task.  So we began to pursue the Greek side, and thought we had gotten the legal paperwork only to realize we came up a little short.  While our paperwork was getting processed in Greece we worked on out FBI background checks which can take up to 6 weeks to process. 

In early June we were denied our visa in Greece, because we were lacking he approval from the US consulate.  So we planned a trip to the US to work on an easy to get visa.....  right.....  right......

We arrived the first day of August and visited our consulate of juristiction, however we were denied three times for not having proper documents and not fufilling their requirements.  The short version is that they did not want to get us the visa we needed.

So we reached into our bag of tricks and decieded to fly across the country to a seperate consulate.  Before doing so we switched our residency, got drivers licences to the corresponding state juristrictions, and prepared all our documentation for the 4th time. 

Apparently, the worker in the first consulate did not like us very much.  We fit all the requirements, and in the second consulate we had our passports stamped with visa's in almost 24 hours of flying into that city. 

So at this point we are going to relax and take a couple days off before we head back to Greece in September.  We are really gratefull that we have everything legal now, and look forward to our time back in Greece.

After buying trans-continental flights, getting fined when leaving Greece, travelling across the country, and taking 4 weeks of out of life we have acomplished our goal of getting visas....... 

The A21 campaign

    We have has a group of Students working with us in Greece the past few days, and they have done a wonderful job.  Things have been incredibly busy, but they have been able to touch a lot of people here in the city.  Today the team hit the streets with (thea21campaign.com) A21 team and passed out food items to people in danger of human trafficking here in Greece.  The A21 group is about abolishing injustice in the 21st century, and our students from America were able to be the hands and feet to disburse things on the streets of Thess.  We were given over 450 meals from Goodies and McD's, waters from Carrefour and Coke.......  It was a great afternoon and evening for the team.  They have worked so hard all week in so many diffrent ways and venues over the past week!!!

    We are so glad that they are here with us!!

Halkidiki

    Now that we live in Greece we have become very acquainted with the beach area of Halkidiki.  Since I grew up in Montana I never really had the opportunity to be close to the beach.  All that has changed and we have had the opportunity to visit some of the most beautiful beaches that I have ever been to.  It has been out Saturday morning ritual....  Eat a little "Boo-gat-sa"  and drive 45 minutes to the beach...
    This past weekend my brother danny (who is spending the summer in France) came to visit us for the week.  We went to the "second leg" of Halkidiki where you could swimn in the ocean, and have a wonderful view of the sacrad Mt Athos.  All in all it was an increible time. 
    The only thing that you have to be careful with is the sunburns.....  Currently I am staying far away from the sun burns, but my friends have told me about all sorts of crazy ways to use sun cream.  Check ot this older guy as he keeps his skin fair....  The video is real, and filmed here in Greece.

BTW- I am not wearing a speedo yet.....

Dr Pepper

    One of the Soda's that I love is Dr Pepper, but this is a very difficult soda to find here in Greece.  There are a few sodas like that such as Mountain Dew, Dr Pepper, Brisk Ice Tea, and Root Beer that are impossible to get unless they are imported....  And normally I do not even have a craving for these soda's until last week.....
    Last week a couple of Navy ships docked here in Thessaloniki spilling American sailors all over the place.  One of our American friends connected with the Navy chaplain and they offered a tour of the boat to any Americans in the city.  So we took the boys on the boat and it was a lot of fun.  They took pictures with machine guns, got to steer the captains wheel, and toured the in's and out's of the ship.  Here comes the good part.....  The dining area had soda machines with all sorts of good stuff - Dr Pepper, Mt Dew, Root Beer, and Brisk Ice Tea.  We were pumped because at the end of the tour the chaplain was going to buy us all a soda.  I was like a kid in a candy store, until the machine was sold out.....  Uhhhgggg.  And the worst part was that it got in my heart.
    So today we went to the import store and they actually had Dr Pepper which is a miracle.  Here in Greece a soda at a restaurant like Applebee's will cost you $6.00, and a 6 pack of Coke at the store is about $5.00.  So the prices are already expensive to begin with, and so when we picked up a 6 pack of Dr Pepper we knew we would pay a pretty penny.  Well, 9.00 Euro's latter (or $13.00) we had our 6 pack of Dr Pepper.  We will enjoy those babys on a much needed craving day!!!

Top 10 ways you know you are not in the US......

    Last night Jamie and I went to a fundraiser for children with down syndrome at one of the nicest party gardens in the city.  People were dressed formally, the food was fantastic, and the atmosphere was like that of an incredible evening wedding reception.  For a few hours we literally forgot what country we were in until a stray dog waltzed his way though the main dance floor.....
    After we had a nice laugh we put together a top 10 list of ways you know your not in the US:

10.  Stray dogs are anywhere and everywhere
9.    People want to help you with directions
8.    You sit down at table with 8 people and everyone can speak at least two languages
7.    No one has heard of the term "customer service"
6.    You have no idea who the president is, or if the president is the man in power
5.    Stop signs really are optional
4.    People still use cash
3.    A total disregard for BO
2.    You can order a beer at McDonalds
1.    A one piece bathing suit is not modest at all

Miss Shannon

    One of the reasons we are here in Greece is to network a study abroad program for AG schools during their University years.  We plan to mentor 6-8 college students each semester as they learn how to live and touch lives while being abroad.
    The past few months we have become great friends with a students named Shannon who is from USF in Tampa Bay.  She was involved in here Chi Alpha program at USF and found us through some mutual friends.  We were a blessing to her life in the form of a place to do laundry, get a home cooked meal, catch up on The Office, and have someone to take here to church.  We were blessed to have a friend to talk English with, a girl who loved our boys, and great person to share life with.....
    Shannon left for the states last week, and the family here in Greece is sad.  Mac fell in love with Shannon and is missing his girlfriend.  We are missing our friend to watch some American tv with, but she is our official represenitive to eat Chic-fil-a for us in the states....
    Some times we get to busy to take time to build new relationships, but we are so glad we became friends with Shannon!!!!

Acropolis Road Rally

       This weekend I went to the famous Acropolis road rally with my Greek friend Thomas.  The rally is a bunch of cars that race on dirt roads over three days to see who can come up with the best time.  So we drove down late Thursday, slept on the ground, and got up early to watch the cars.
    It was wild to say the least.  Greece is one of the few countries that lets the fans near the track, and boy to people get up close and personal.  You can see, touch, taste the cars....  And you can eat as much dust as you want!!!  In the video bellow I am standing with my friend against some trees on the opposite side of the road.  My friend found this video on youtube and we happen to be in the crowd on the other side.....  Wild huh?
    We were at eye level with the cars as they raced by, and it was an experience I will not forget.  At lease we were downwind and did not have to eat a dust sandwich.....

A little bit of travel

Sorry for the lack of blogging of late, but we have been here there and everywhere......

At the end of May we had some friends from Kansas come visit us up here in the North.  Randy and Linda have been great friends to us, and while they were here we had our first Greek Island adventure.  It was a whole lot of fun, and the boys still talk about riding the ferries.

We then ran into the rest of the Kansas crew in Athens and had a two day tour of Athens and Corinth.  It was our first time on a real tour and was really nice to ride the bus instead of walking all over the place.  The boys enjoyed riding the bus with the tour group, and somehow managed to always get a treat or two....

After Athens we we back up North to Halkildiki to our Balkan area conference with others who work in surrounding countries.  It was a great time to meet some new friends, and the kids had a ton of fun with a group of young adults and college students who created a childrens program.  The leader of that team is Sarah and is an old friend of ours....

So after the confrence we brought the team back to Thessaloniki for a couple days and did a tour of some of the local things including Phillipi, Olympus, Dion, Kavala, and Thessaloniki. It was a lot of fun to hang out with the team, but it was a ton of work.

After a big strech or travel we hit the books again to keep working on Greek!!

Euro-Vison

  

So here is an outsiders perspective on one of the biggest music tv events worldwide.  This is a follow up to the video underneath....

    The concept of Eurovision is that 42 countries offer up their best performer and they get to represent their country.  Over the course of a few days the 42 are whittled down to the top 25.  Saturday the top 25 performed and then the viewers text in their favorite performer.  You are not allowed to vote for your own country, and each country gets a set number of votes.  They all get 1-7 points, and three high point numbers of 8,10, and 12.  The performer with the top point total wins.

    Here is where things got interesting to me.  The way a country votes has so much to do with not just the performer, but the history of the country.  For instance Greece always gets a number 1 vote (12 points) from Cyprus.  When Cyprus will automatically endorse Greece as number 1, it is guaranteed that Turkey will get no points.  So a country will ally with nations they get along with, and not give points to countries they do not get along with.  Saturday the winner was Norway, and probably was the top act.  However, on the Greek news they showed a crowd cheering the loudest for the 7th place Sakis (the Greek performer).
    So here is where a foreign view looks at the voting.  I thought it interesting that Greece boarders Albania, Macedonia (FYROM depending on where you live), Bulgaria, and Turkey.  Greece has a tense relationship with Turkey over Cyprus, and political conflicts with the name of Macedonia.  Yet, Greece has good relationships with Albania and Bulgaria when it comes to visas and politics.  Bulgaria and Albania awarded the top 12 point score to Greece.  Turkey and Macedonia did not place Greece in the top 10, and so Greece received no points from those nations.  Turkey finished 4th, but did not get any points from Greece.  Also, the old Yugoslavia countries constantly voted inward to Bosnia and Herzegovinian to the audible groan of the live crowd in Russia.  The most sickening vote was Andorra a small island nation off the coast of Spain.  They awarded their 12 point vote to Span who only collected a total of 23 votes from all 42 nations.
    The UK and Ireland voted with no political reserves,  The Northern countries stuck together, and the Muslim nations of Turkey, Armenia, and Azerbaijan traded amongst themselves.  The most interesting part of the show was the voting, and the history that unfolded in a simple European "American Idol-esk" competition.
    While America was literally undiscovered Greece and Turkey were in a dispute, and hundreds of years latter the tensions have cooled but the sentiments are the same.  History is something a foreign person can never know or truly understand.   As a young generation texted in votes, the old ways of grandfathers came though via a mobile telephone device.  It was just a music completion, and the best man did win.  However, the underlining feelings bellow the surface were interesting.  It was a very insightful and interesting evening of television to watch!

On the tele' tonight!

Tonight we are finishing watching the Eurovision competition which will have over 100 million viewers tonight. On Thursday Greece qualified for the finals with the "modern greek god" Sakis..... I have to be honest that the only thing on the news Friday was 78 overviews of the Greek performance. We are cheering for Greece tonight (the Greek/Ricky martian/Micheal Jackson/Clay Aiken)....

So I ate some lamb brains.....

    We had one crazy Easter weekend here in Greece.  It started with a traditional Saturday Night service at the Orthodox church around midnight.  Everyone goes to church at midnight and brings a candle that gets lit at midnight.  At midnight everyone lights the candles and begins to celebrate, with shouting, setting off fireworks, and proclaiming the resurrection of Christ.
    So let me detail this experience for you to get the picture.  We went inside the church at 10 minutes to midnight, and watched the service inside for a minute but the crowd was to big to see anything.  We then went into the courtyard which was wall-to-wall people, and as I tried to push my little Mac through the crowd it which was very difficult.  We found a small place where we could huddle together as we where getting shelled by fireworks.  You could hear nothing but booms, breath nothing but sulfur, and everyone was holding their own fire sticks including Mac.  Mac was in his stroller almost falling asleep with his candle almost lighting everyone who tried to squeeze by on fire.  It was a great experience, and one Easter service I will not forget.

    Then the next day we to our friends house to eat the lamb.  Bellow the video is our little friend that we ate!  The best part so I had been told was the brain, and a real delicacy here in the country.  SO when the grandfather approached with a cracked open skull, I had to give it a try….  The texture was that of mushy cheerios that had sat in milk for 15 min.  The taste was liver-ish.  And pretty much was a nasty treat….  So the rest of the lamb was amazing including the tongue!  But next year when it comes time to eat the brain I am not sure if I am going to hit them up on it…..

Easter Weekend

    When the "great schism" happened dividing Western Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Europe the date for Easter has been calculated on different calendars.  So this weekend is our Easter here in Greece a week behind the Catholic date that was  celebrated in the US last weekend.  Easter is the biggest holiday of the year and so let me try and bring a quick overview of the weekend.
    Last night we went to an Orthodox service on Good Friday that is a symbolic funeral of Christ.  During the day different funeral parades were being led all over the city with ornate flower caskets in memory of the death of Christ.  Tonight on Saturday we will go to the Orthodox church around midnight to celebrate the first few moments of Easter.  We will take dyed red eggs, and crack them on other eggs pronouncing "christos-anesti" (christ is risen).  After that we are going to light a candle and bring it to our house which is a traditional Orthodox ritual.  Our friends are having us over for lamb intestine soup, and tomorrow we will be going over to the house for the roasted lamb and a whole lot of eating....  This will really be a Easter to remember!!

My first European "football" game.

    Last weekend I went to the last soccer game of the season to the Iraklis team here in Thessaloniki with my friend Thomas.  Not a lot of people in the city are fans of Iraklis, but my friend is and so I wanted to check out a game.  The crowd was down a little bit because it was the last game of the season, but the fans who were there sure made up for any empty seats.  The stadium is divided into four parts. Two side line areas that have a great view of the field, and then two end sections that are located behind the goals.  The team playing Thess was from the Peloponnesian part of Greece that is over 400 miles away and so their fans stayed home and watched it on tv.  The end stadium section behind the other team was completely empty.  We entered the stadium at gate 10, which is the area of the stadium located in the video behind the Iraklis goal.  The fans are rabid, and really love their team.  We ended up sitting near the sideline giving me a perfect view of the fans and the field.  As I nestled in my seat eating sunflower seeds, I began to watch a truly amazing game.  The team we were cheering for won the game 2-1, but the real show was in the stands.
    As you watch the video bellow you can see the crowd throw things, light flares, and sing the majority of the game.   It really was a fun experience and I plan to attend some more games next year.  The game was coming to an end and I noticed that no one was leaving early to beat the traffic rush.  I stayed to be polite, but as soon as the game ended the real action began.  The reason why people don't leave early is because they don't want to miss the second match; the riot police verse the gate 10 crowd.  It was controlled well, but there was plenty of excitement to keep the crowd happy.....
    The video bellow is not from the game I attended, but is pretty much the same experience.  Watch for at least the first minute to get a glimpse of the chaos that can be Iraklis football!!