Mom's Qustions

Important: There are some issues that are out of my control and thus, the computer that I am on will neither allow me to check my spelling, which I know is bad, or to add pictures, which I know you want.

So, I asked my mother to send me a bunch of her questions and I told her that I would answer them in a private e mail with her, but none of the answers are things that I cannot share with everyone. On the contrary these are things that I think you all should get to know.

I want to know if you are really happy and having a good time?

• I am genuinly happy and I am having a great time. I am currently trying to line up a job here at Pinewood and there is a slim chance that something might accually work out. I have fallen in love with the city and while I do not know many of the locals I think that if I learn the language well enough they would be a friendly group of people.

I want to know what you are doing about food and laundry?

• I tend to cook most of my meals as it is much cheaper than eating out. Nothing is super expensive but to eat out all the time would be taxing. I eat eggs, cheese, spaggetti, fresh fruits, fresh veggies, lots of bread, and a ton of juice.


• I have not done laundry yet, that is another hurtle.

Do you have sheets on your bed and did the glue hold up on your sandles?

• I do have sheets on my bed, Soula was generous to give me two sets to use.


• The glue on my sandals, they were broken for those of you who did not know, is holding up well and as I hate wearing shoes this has been fantastic.

How are your new room mates?

• The room mates are one . . . well three in a million. They have all been travelling together for a while now and have taken me in as one of the group. It is wonderful to have people to share a glass of wine with.

Are you having some one to "play" with?

• While I have yet to meet any Greeks who are really friends the room mates and I do a lot and they actually took me out for my first real Greek night out. The clubs here do not close untill about 8. . . a.m. and thus most greeks do not go out until 2 or 3 in the morning. We went to a club called KSG and stayed there until 5 in the morning. It was pretty cool as the played dub reggea, a bunch of remixed marley, capleton, and eek a mouse.


• Also Roxanne and Soula, my Greek contacts have been taking me around the city to do the more traditional things, coffee, tavernas, historical sites and such.

I too, want to know if you have found a climbing gym?

• Unfortunately no, there are no climbing gyms to my knowledge and I am really iching to climb but it is going to be hard. Meteora, a big climbing area, is not that far away, but the issue is that the season has not started yet. While the weather, in my opinion is perfect for climbing, the community here still finds it too cold.


• In the mean time I have been going for runs along the aegean, I do 150 push ups a day, and at recess I do pull up on the playground with the kids.

Do you like your kids?

• The kids are exquisite. The only way to explain it is that they are incredibly cultured as they have lived all over the world, but they still act like children. Unlike the U.S. they are not expected to be adults yet.

Is the faculty treating you well?

• The faculty is wonderful, everyone is very helpful and open with ideas and I have been asked to observe in every classroom. The principle is an Aussie and she likes to give me a hard time which is really fun.

Did you buy anything cool yet?

• Just recently actually. Unlike the U.S. where Kohls has a sale every day, in Greece there are two sales a year, one in January and one in August. Everything is on sale, clothing wise. 30/70% off. I have taken advantage in the last two days and have bought two lightweight jackets, one black, one green. An interesting side note is that for the second jacket I went by myself and did the whole transaction in Geek, oh yeah!


• I am also going to buy a zippo, as literally everyone in greek smokes. No, don't worry I have not started nor do I plan to but it is not very customary for the women to carry their own lighters . . . you get where this is going.

What does the coffee taste like and are there sidewalk cafes?

• There are millions of sidewalk cafes as it is cutomary at four oclock to sit with all of your family and friends and drink coffee until 7. Unlike the U.S. where people drink quickly and do not linger to long as the staff of the restaurants want an open table if you are not going to buy anymore, it is awkward to order a second drink here as most Greeks drink super slow and just sit and talk. They also have a thing about eating while you drink, both coffee and alcohol, and so you always get an appetizer or sweets to eat for free. At one of the tavernas you can order a 4 euro glass of wine and then eat a full meal for free as they just keep bringing you dishes.


• While the specialty coffees are fantastic and the customary drink, frapee, a cold icy coffee is ok, straight greek coffe tastes like butt. I have taken to drinking cappucinoes.

Are the girls pretty?

• Greek girls are gorgeous but most are a bit haughty for my taste, fun to look at but a bit intimidateing and very expensive. This does not represent the whole population but is a pretty good representation.


• One of the girls that I live with is super cool but I do not think that I have a chance.

Have you figured out how to get around town?

• Getting around is easy and cheap. I walk mostly but a one way student bus tickt is only .25 euro. Directions are easy as the sea is south, mountains are north, the sun rises in the east, and sets in the west.

How's the money holding up?

• As long as I do not think of things in terms of dollars, greece is super cheap and I live on a little less that fifty euro a week unless I do something extravagant. The new apartment is expensive but worth its weight in gold, and I really can't complain. Once I start traveling more I''m sure I'll have to be a bit tighter.

When do you take over the classes?

• Ahhhhh! Monday. Reading, Grammer, Advanced fifth grade reading, and 7th grade biology.

Do you love teaching or is it too soon to tell?

• To be honest it is too early to tell. I can do it, and I am pretty good at it from what I have been told. But my experience is still pretty limited. I have only taught a hand full of lessons here . . . so we will see.

Is the school pretty modern and well equipped?

• No, neither, however they are bulding a new campus to open next year, of course.

Have you met any of the parents yet?

• Yes, I have met a few. I went out to dinner with their equivalent of a PTO a few nights ago and they are as eclectic as their children.

What is the weather like?

• Never listen to anyone from Greece, the weather right now is fantastic between 10 and 12 degrees during the day. OH! Celsius that is. The sun is usually out and I have only seen rain twice. However, I guess in the summer the city is swealtering.

Is the food as weird as it was on Anthony Bourdain's show?

• Not so far, now I have not done a lot of eating out but nothing seems too weird. There bread is wonderful and cheap, their fruits and veggies the same, the cheese is amazing, and the sweets oh the sweets, I should be fat but I force myself not to eat too much. Oh yeah, the wine lists are pretty impressive as well.

What kind of music do they listen to?

• Much of the music here is english language music and nothing extrordinary, the kids listen to a lot of greek pop which is awful in my humble musical opinion. However, there are a lot of street performers. Accordions and clarinets seem to be most popular and are wonderful. On sunday mornings there is a guy who sits down my the sea and plays a hammered dulcimer which is absolutly wonderful.

Well this is all for now, I hope this answers some of the questions floating around out there and everyone has a better underrstanding.

Yes Adam, I am right by the church. I live at 29 Agias Sofias St.

"To admit dehumanization as a histocal vocation would lead either to cynicism or total dispair."

/Freire/

Peace, Love, and Happiness
ian

On the Move!

I am not sure that everyone was aware but I am in Greece, I do not speak the language, and I was living by myself. Now, this is all well and good but it does not aford me my needed stimulus of human interaction, so I fixed all that; I moved.

I found an apartment for the same price that I was paying originally only it is in the center; in the heart. Do you all remember that huge church cathedral that I posted? well I look down on that square from my bedroom windown.

The set up of the apartment is a bit different. . . there are five bedrooms connected together by a large hallway, one kitchen and sitting area, a living room, and we all have our own toilet and shower. It is a pretty cool set up. The apartment is not as new as my previous apartment but it is nice evough. My flat mates are from all over the world all going to aristotle university. One from argentina, one from russia, one from japan, and another from ecuador, we are a regular international youth hostle.

I have not me everyone yet as te have been out of town and I just moved in today. . . by myself. Yes, that's right with no help. No one was available to give me a hand and so I did it by myself; in three trips. it took a total of six hours. Awsome.

I will post pictures soon and tell some stories, but currently I am being smoked out.

peace and love
ian

-it is not the place that you live, but how long you have lived there that makes life complicated-

Pinewood International School of Thessaloniki

Pinewood is the international school where I am doing my student teaching here in Greece. I realized that I had mentioned it only in passing, if at all. I suppose that since student teaching is the vehicle that brought me all this way it is important that I explain a bit about it, the school that is.

The school is built on a small hilltop outside Thessaloniki proper in a suburb called Pilea. The school building itself, built in 62’, has a lot of what I’ll refer to as character. While old the building is accommodating and has been added on to a few times to allow for more students, whose population, k-12, hovers around 200. The students come from all over the world, literally. And I am not exaggerating when I say that I have an 11 year old student that knows four languages and another student of the same age that has live in five different countries in as many years. There are a couple of big banks, a large international corporation, the embassies, and the military that drive these families to the Thessaloniki area. While Pinewood is taught all in English there is also an ESL program and Greek studies. The curriculum follows primarily the American public education curriculum and the IB program is treated as AP course work.

I am well acquainted with the 6th graders as I teach the entire class, all 16 of them. Yes there are 16 6th graders . . . total. I have not taken full control of the class; I am splitting duties with Roxanne as she is trying to finish a unit. In about a week and a half I will take over with my own literature study.

The kids are precocious. 6th grade verges on the my limit of too young, but these kids are so cultured that they often catch me off guard and remind me quickly that I am a lowly American. I have a great time teaching them and they are very responsive to my presence, perhaps just the appearance of a new face.

7th grade science on the other hand . . . As of right now I have not even really met the teacher that I will be working under. Her name is Georgia and she has been administering the IB exams for the past two weeks. I am sure she will be wonderful, because I have not met a single person at the school that I do not like. They all have their quirky stories of how they ended up at Pinewood and have all given me their full support. Interestingly enough ther is a large Ohio contingency here, 4 including myself; everyone enjoys giving us a hard time about escaping from the state.

It is an interesting place and I hope that I will enjoy my time and learn some things along the way.

Bend and you will be whole.
Curl and you will be straight.
Keep empty and you will be filled.
Grow old and you will be renewed.
-Tzu

Thessaloniki

I do not really know how to make Thessaloniki sound as spectacular as it really is, or as I think that it is. This has nothing to do with the fact that describing it is difficult, or that I do not already know a great deal about the city. It has more to do with the fact that to describe the city as it appears, which is the only way that I can describe it to you, is to paint the picture of a dismal, overpopulated, dirty city that few would find enticing.

While I will admit that not one of theses observations is false it is not what is important. The city is, for lack of a better term, alive literally all the time. Customary Greek days start around eight in the morning and go till three o’clock. At three most families would have a huge meal together and then till about six or seven there is a period of relaxation after which, the stores open back up and stay open until about 10. Dinner is late, 9ish, and low key, usually consists of a small appetizer type dish with wine. Much of the eating is done in restaurants and thus there are restaurants everywhere; “tavernas” are the most popular and serve old style Greek cuisine.

The nightlife in Greece does not then begin until about midnight and most clubs remain open until around six in the morning some even later/earlier. This nightlife is usually taken advantage of by the youth population and goes on every night . . . every night. One must understand that the youth culture here is in control of just about everything. The college students are highly political and shut down streets, the university, businesses, and public offices on a regular basis in protest of political actions. The government in Greece currently is on the conservative side of issues and so the college students are especially busy.

The adults seem to be very westernized and more and more jobs are taking away from the usual time table of events, however the elderly population is alive and kicking as they attempt to maintain the entire household. The family is very important here and even the children respect this. Sundays are my favorite days to simply go down to the coast and observe the people. The old men get together and gripe about the youth culture and politics over their game of backgammon and the mothers and draughts saunter down the walkway talking of fashion, boys, and food.

From my observations the people here are generally very nice and seem genuinely interested. However, they are not Latin America interested. I kind of expected to walk down the street and be able to say hi to everyone I saw but this is far from the case. The people seem to be reserved making it difficult to meet people.

The other thing that makes it very difficult to meet people is the language barrier. I have been told by multiple people that my language skills are progressing faster than average and between my “Greeklish” and the general populations English skills I can get anything that I need and I am very confident. This being said I might as well be deaf when listening to Greek. The people speak incredibly fast and the sound are completely different, needless to say I really miss meaningful conversation and I often wish that all of you were around to talk to, but you are not so I will have to learn.

The Aegean Sea butts right up against the city and is beautiful as long as you do not look straight down. One must remember that Thessaloniki is literally thousands of years old, imagine if Cleveland were that old; how would Lake Erie look? Luckily, all of the industry is concentrated outside the city and so there is really no smog and the air is fine except for the car exhaust, which considering that the country has only really become a car culture in the last twenty or thirty years, is not too bad.

The city itself is like a layer cake. I cannot really begin to explain it. I will try to take pictures and you can see a bit for yourself.

Please keep posting your comments. I have a lot of fun reading them.

“You will never be able to escape from you heart. So it’s better to listen to what it has to say. That way, you’ll never have to fear an unanticipated blow.” -Coelho

Let's Get Excited!

This is my apartment, well the one that I have now. It is super expensive and I am currently looking for something a bit cheaper. It's nice though, no complaints other than the price.
This is the view from my balcony. Thessaloniki is a city of high rise apartment buildings.
This is one of the two major Byzantine Cathedrals in Thessaloniki. It is a copy of one that Alaxander the Great built in Istanbul, except a 1/4 the size.
Ah yes, the sea. The Aegean to be exact
The dichotomy of Thessaloniki is the most drastic I have ever seen. Old and New.

Loose the Hounds!

Well I have arrived. I apologise to those of you who were expecting me to post faster or have given up all hope on this site; things have been. . . well, let's leave it as hectic.

I am behind in my posts and despite only being gone for five days I have all kind of stories, but I only have an hour at this computer and it has no place to load any pictures. I will give you an overview of all the happenings and try to relay all of the excitement to you. I will set this up in sections so that it is as chronological and comprehensive as I can make it.

Cracked window, unbalanced airbus, no movie, and a beautiful Russian:
a.k.a The Plane Ride:
This is basically the plane ride here, leaving Cleveland I was and hour delayed b/c of weather, luckily everything else was fine and I had plenty of time in Phili so no worries. The flight to Frankfurt on the other hand. . . oh my.

So first, we board the plane on time and everything looks fantastic, I had five seats to myself. However shortly after boarding I was asked to move to the back of the airplane (an airbus mind you) and find a seat for take off. When I asked why, I was told that the plane was not balanced correctly and to take off the weight needed to be shifted to the back. Excuse Me?! I'm sorry, but an airbus is a massive plane, should it not be balanced all the time? Whatever, I move. . . for the sake of the other people all 175 lbs. of me.

Being the suave de-boner young gentleman that I am I took a seat next to a young woman and that I of course, you guessed it, is where I would stay for the rest of the flight. She turned out to be from Russia, living in the U.S., planning to move to Germany with, of course, her husband. Our window turned out to be cracked and the movies did not work for about half of the flight. Anna, zee future German, turned out to be great company and, while two hours late leaving the tarmac (due to malfunctioning backup breaks) things went well. Getting into Thessaloniki was casual and Soula met me no problem.

Thessaloniki: The arts of the big city and how I fail over and over and over while
still managing to come out on top:

I am sure that I will have many stories to tell about Thessaloniki but here I will tell three.

The ATM: When I arrived I had no Euro on me, I had decided to get all of my Euro from the atm and thought that the need to have some was unimportant. However, up until now, just about an hour and a half ago, I had yet to access my account. The Euro is about 1.70x the dollar right now, the dollar is getting slaughtered. I was hoping to only go to the atm a few times, removeing 600e at a time (about 1000 dollars). My limit through hunington you might ask? 400 dollars at a time. 600e is impossible, but I tried; again and again and again. I have learned my lesson. Fortunatly I have found that I can make 50 euro go a long way.

The Night Out: On the second day I decided to Take a walk down to The Center (downtown). I felt kind of like G'ma Harrington, I walked for 4 hrs. Exciting huh? I got super lost, saw all kinds of ruins, and eventualy made my way home, all by myself (sorry mom). I will post pictures of the city when I post about the city.

The Day with Roxanne: Today, January 18th, I spent my entire time with Roxanne. She is the Shanno Federinko of Thessaloniki; for those of you who know Shannon you will understand. She does everything teaching related and she does it well. I am teaching in her class, or will be. It was a fantastic day and I feel almost at home now that we have gone out. Things are going to be awsome.

So, I know it is vague and it probably doesn't answer a lot of questions, but its a start. I am now running out of time and need to get this posted.

Ian, you might say, is awful at blogging. You would be correct, but this is the reading assignment that is required whether you like it or not. I will get to more details and yes some pictures soon. The problem is that currently my computer is broken. Yes, broken. I am currently shaking it and cursing at it to make it work, soon it will, I think I'm getting through to it.

thank you for your patience. Here's what you have to look forward to in future posts:

• More about Thessaloniki
• Soula and Roxanne
• My plans
• Greek language
• Greek Culture
• And yes pictures!

Peace, love, and happiness,

• Ian

First and foremost

Well, here we go. I would first like to squelch any ideas that anyone might have that this blog will make me more capable of keeping in touch. Anyone who has tried to keep in touch with me via e-mail or even my phone knows that I am not very good at it; I cannot promise that the blog will help. That being said, you will all at least get to see this one.

I am off to Greece, Thessaloniki to be exact (the i's are pronounced with long e's) a.k.a Salonika (former name) or Thessalonica (ancient name). Here's your history lesson. Thessaloniki is the second oldest, second largest city in Greece only to? Of course, Athens. The city is considered the most metropolitan in Greece and functions as its second largest port, still functioning. Thessaloniki is the capital of the largest region in Greece, Macedonia and lies on the northern gulf of the Aegean sea.

Not bad, right?

I will be teaching at the Pinewood International School in 6th grade language arts and 7th grade biology. The students are from all over the world; the school runs the IB program along side a traditional U.S. school curriculum. This is about all I know about my teaching experience. What's more is that you can find all of this information on your own if you just search for the school.

My general lack of knowledge does not stop there, oh no. While I have an apartment, my own, I do not know where it is, how much it will cost, its address, how big it is, and I am only assuming that it is furnished. How exciting!

The beauty is that I have two contacts in Greece who have been incredibly helpful and seem genuinely excited about my arrival. There are two other items that I also have going for me:

1. Because I do not know anything there are no expectations, thus no let downs, thus only good experiences.

2. I do not care. The simple facts that I am traveling and get to learn new things and once again facilitate learning are enough for me.

Oh yeah! Make that three items.

3. I almost forgot, I'll be in Greece!

Here will end my first posting and if my reputation reflects the truth then it has the potential to be my last; hopefully not.

Fight for every breath, and tell death to go to hell -Che-

Peace, love, and happiness,
Ian