crowded world

The WWF- World Wildlife Fund for Nature just released a report on the ecological status of Earth. The "Living Planet Report" is a quite comprehensive look at the impact humans are having on the environment and at the balance which humans are striking--or not--with the output of resources and human consumption of them.

Not surprisingly, the USA comes in as the 2nd 'worst' nation for overconsumption. Each American person requires 9 hectares (22 acres) of ecosystem. Greece is the 11th (of 148) worst, and each person requires roughly 15 acres. We live in an environmentalists hell.

News items of the day:

• There was a surprise 24-hour strike today, so traffic has been even more abyssmal than usual. Catching a taxi this evening was a long affair, and the conversation with the Greek-only driver about where "Olympou ke Metamorfoseos" was in Athens was carried out to the tune of honking horns.

• We will not be receiving our tax ID numbers (ΑΦΜ or "ah fee mee") for at least 25 more days because Greek government employees are mindless cogs in a broken machine. We are angry. Very. We may not be able to go to Prague for Thanksgiving as planned because our Schengen visas expire November 18th, and we're unsure what that would mean for entry into the Czech Republic and reentry to Greece. Personally, I think we're at the point that if we were refused reentry to Greece, we would dance a jig just because we wouldn't have to deal with any more bureaucracy.

I am unforgivably behind in my grading. The school has adopted a new grading system this year which is entirely online, a system not vastly dissimilar to the program used in Kentucky public schools. There are a few differences in ease of use (the KY system is easier), but the program is an enormous pain because there was no training whatsoever. Also, the president of the school decided that he would go ahead and make the decision to allow parents to have constant access beginning at the start of the year before some teachers even knew how to login. Fortunately, that was changed, so now total access will begin in January. There are problems with this that someone who isn't in the classroom would never consider, but we're lackeys to the people who have decided that they're better fit to the run the school. We have a population of parents who are so focused on grades that they literally will check once a day. Not fun when I put in grades once every 2 weeks.

Anyway, the grading system is entirely online, something which is extremely convenient. When you have a decent internet connection. Which the school does not. So it's horrible.

I think I'm going to get a chicken gyro from Artemis, "our" souvlaki place up the street. Ioannis doesn't even need to take our order any more. I like that.

The hallway on the 2nd floor of the middle school. My room is peeking up from beside the lockers on the left.

A view of the tennis courts.
A view of the elementary school and 'center' area.

Spetses priest

Spetses, originally uploaded by dwain.

A Greek Orthodox priest on his way.

Looking back at Spetses.

The cover where spent the afternoon.

How we had to get to the cove.

We rented bikes and biked the 6-ish km to the cove before our legs gave out. It was a beautiful day.

Fresh fish.

A small cove we found while biking on the island.

The patio of the Villa Christina.

The business class deck of the Flying Cat 1, a catamaran that had all of us overdosing on Dramamine and searching for anything in which to throw up. None of us did, but it was dicey. The sea was so choppy the boat took 45 minutes longer than usual to reach the island.

Waiting to leave Piraeus.

brief

I've been far too lax in updating this, not for lack of material. In brief:

• Went to Spetses over the weekend and had a marvelous time.
• Had the day off from school today because it's "No Day," the day Greece said no to Mussolini. And were invaded by Germany anyway.
• Cooked squid for the first time. Yummy.
• Ate the best meal I've had in Greece at a Lebanese restaurant.
  

Pictures will speak louder than words, I think.

On my way to work...

It's a chilly night in Athens. A brisk breeze on the way to school this morning helped wake me up after a restless night, and the same breeze soothed me on the way home after a long day. I only had two classes today, but my students were rambunctious and took what little energy I'd begun the day with almost instantly. Middle schoolers are a very inquisitive age of children, searching for anything and everything: attention, meaning, laughs, touch, satisfaction, respect, adrenaline. Unfortunately for my students today, I had little more than impatience to give them, something I try to hold back because I don't like being ill-tempered with them. I don't mind being strict, but there's a vast difference between constructive and cruel, and despite my blustering, I try to avoid the latter.

I'm listening to Patty Griffin, a melancholy song for a moment of inner quiet. Of course, the moment I write that, Depeche Mode starts singing "Personal Jesus..." The moment is shattered.

The neighbors upstairs have slowly come to life over the past 3 weeks. We now hear chairs scraping, occasional footsteps, and every now and then a child's voice. There's a dog next door who barks infrequently, a sound we miss a lot.

On my way to work, I make 2 right turns and 2 left turns. And no, I don't live where I work, in case someone was going to suggest it.

On my way to work, there's a 3-meter stretch of road that smells like bleach. I think it's a tree.

On my way to work, I go by a Greek school whose walls are solidly graffiti.

On my way to work, I cross Δουκισσησ Πλακεντιας (Doukissis Plakentias) and breathe a silent prayer for the inventor of scooters to be given an extra day in hell. They're a nuisance and menace.

On my way to work, I walk by an empty lot with a grapevine growing along the bordering fence, and I wonder if I'll get the chance to pick another grape next fall. I also wonder if the dozen chickens wandering around are tame or feral.

On my way to work, I walk by a woman walking her poodle. It's ugly.

On my way to work, I constantly look behind me to make sure a motorcycle isn't using the bike path I'm on to go the wrong way down a one-way street.

On my way to work, I wonder how much longer it will be before my arm/leg/hip gets broken by the mirror of a passing car who's more worried about damaging a parked car than a pedestrian. We walk down a one-way street (alley, more like it) that connects to a major road, and it's horrible to walk in the morning traffic.

My way to work is an adventure.

I've developed a sense of urgency regarding our time in Europe. I want to see more, do more, but I know I never will. It may seem strange to some people, but Greece would have been one of my last places to visit on my mental-itinerary.

We're thinking of Prague for Thanksgiving. I want to see this ossuary.

There were some serious strikes in Athens today, most of them in the transportation sector. Read about the chaos in this CNN article. Banks were closed, schools were shut down, tear gas was used, hellfire and brimstone rained down on the city like Sodom and Go-mo-rah (because I don't know how to spell it).

And we still had school.

Imagine a room full of adult professionals singing the Greek alphabet to the tune of the "ABCs" (apparently it's universal; I wonder what the royalties are on it). That was my afternoon. I have it down for the most part, but what begins to throw me off are the diphthongs and a couple of the miniscule letters. The 'v' making the 'n' sound throws me off, and the 'μ' as an 'm' really throws me off whack.

It's an overcast day in Attica, and a cool wind is blowing through the city just gently enough to stir the smog but not strong enough to dispel it. We just got back from a morning at the school and an adventure of grocery shopping. ACS hosted a boys' volleyball and girls' soccer tournament today, and I was asked to take some photos by one of the assistant athletic directors. Watching young girls play soccer is only slightly funnier than watching gangly teenage boys run around a volleyball court chasing a ball. It's easy to find the ball in the girls' soccer game because they ALL run after it in a group; passing doesn't enter into the strategy.

Last night was a birthday celebration for one of the ladies in our Yank group of teachers. We went to a local restaurant that specializes in Greek food. Now, this may come as a bit of a surprise to some of you, but Greek cuisine isn't nearly as grand as people imagine. In fact, it's rather limited and fairly boring. I believe that you could walk into any restaurant on mainland Greece and be able to order without looking at a menu; the only difference would be how much you pay, and that wouldn't have any actual effect on the quality of the food or its presentation. For a Greek salad, it's hard to mess up cutting tomatoes, cucumbers, and green peppers. Last night we had rabbit stew (delicious broth; the rabbit was bland), brined sardines, hamburger patty with tomatoes on top, fried zucchini, and sausages. Give me a gyro any day!

After dinner, I went with four other people to the center of Chalandri to a bar called Blue. I was the 5th wheel, something I hadnt' been for a long time, but the awkwardness was salved by Stella Artois. They played neo-jazz and various other musical subgenres with incredibly specific criterion which are virtually indistinguishable to the hoi polloi, and the walls were lined with photos of blues and jazz musicians whose claims to legendary status went from great to wishful thinking. I stuck around for an hour or so and caught a taxi home at 2. The taxis here are a very cheap method of transportation; it's the relaying of directions that's taxing.

Each 'suburb' of Athens has a center, usually clustered around the church, with tavernas, restaurants, and stores. The Chalandri center is the '2nd best in Athens' for shopping. It has music stores, high-end fashion, and numerous clubs and pubs. I've only spent 2 evenings down there, both short, but I'm excited to live as near it as we do.

Athenians do their grocery shopping on Saturdays, and half of Chalandri and Agias Paraskevi were shopping at the same time as us this afternoon. It was a slalom of grocery carts and young women handing out samples while employees stocked shelves that would have been stocked the night before in the States, and it was amidst this chaos that we embarked on our greatest shopping expedition yet. Miah headed to the vegetables and stocked up while I was in charge of the seafood and the cheese. I ended up buying a whole rainbow trout and 2 whole squid. I know how to say 'one (ena)' 'half (miso),' 'fourth (tetarto),' 'kilo (guess),' 'please (parakalo),' and 'thank you (efcharisto),' the phrases that got me the above and a chunk of homemade feta fresh out of the barrel. You have to bag your own groceries here, so I load the belt while Miah loads the bags. It's a pain. We're very excited about cooking up our delicous meals, and I've found a delicious sounding recipe for 'spicy calimari with bacon and scallions.' Trust a Kentucky-dweller to cook his kalamari in bacon grease! The Greeks just fry theirs. I wasn't able to save the ink that filled the plastic bag, but I think there will be many more. I just have to figure out how to remove the quill, and trust me, there will be photo evidence.

Last night, one of our fellow Yanks was mocking the accent that a couple of other newbies have when they speak Greek. We had all noticed their difficulties, but he was ruthlessly honest, a role usually filled by myself but thankfully not this time. If you need help remembering how to say 'thank you,' just use the little trick--completely accidental--these two women use to say it: 'a fairy's toe.' And sadly, that's EXACTLY how it sounds when they say it!

I really miss the diversity of the States. I've seen nothing but pale and olive skin for a couple months now.

As we drove across the Corinth Canal, below us the moonlit sea looked like snow which the wind had piled into small drifts except for a few dark patches which had been lifted into the sky to serve as snowy clouds.

shaken

There was an earthquake in Greece this morning. I didn't feel it, and most of my students were probably lying when they said they did, but it's still a scary thought.

-, originally uploaded by dwain.

The main beach of Nafplio is guarded by the Palamidi bastion. Apparently it's not mighty enough to guard it from the hordes of American and German tourists who descend on it daily.

Tolo

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Originally uploaded by dwain

Miah looking out at an island monastery not far from the beach of Tolo. The walnut cake and chocolate ice cream were wonderful, and the sweet Greek coffee warmed beautifully.

Nafplio from Boutzi

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Originally uploaded by dwain

Sitting on the wall of Boutzi looking back into the harbor of Nafplio.

A funny story

Yesterday evening we went home with Kate and Lindsey, two new teachers from Atlanta, to have dinner. Another guy came over a bit later, and we spent a few minutes chatting on the balcony. At 9:30, their landlady and her English-speaking knocked on the door and loudly berated the girls for "being loud and waking us up all the time and my daughter is studying for test and maybe this is how you do it in America and we said no parties and I thought we understood each other and..." It was ridiculous because there were 5 people in the house being very quiet. Ludicrous. The most ridiculous thing of all, though, was that this was at 9:30 in the evening! The Greeks don't start waking up until 9, so to be chewed out at such an early hour is asinine!

Another fun interaction with angry people.

To get over it, I just look at photos like this.

We both were observed by our respective principals this week, and both observations went quite well. Miah was observed on Tuesday, and I was observed this morning. If she wants you to know about hers, she can blog. She's not blogging, so you'll hear about mine.

It went well.

Tomorrow is a half day of work for us, but we have to enter a lot of grades and comments in the afternoon. Each student has to receive 6 'prepackaged' comments as well as a brief description of what's gone on in class and a 'freeform' comment about their performance. All of this on a web-based program being accessed over the slowest network I've been on. Progress reports go out on Monday. The kids are antsy. They should be. Fear me.

On Saturday we go to Napflion for a night with a couple of friends, one of them a new Greek friend who works at school.

Have a good weekend, everyone!

Also this weekend, we decided to skip out on a free REM concert because it was cold, late, and a Sunday. Something tells me that when I look back over my life, it won't be a regret. Quite unlike the Cranberries and Toad the Wet Sprocket concert an hour from our house I missed in the mid-90s. Total regret.

Moments in Greece

Walking home this evening, we passed a home whose expansive front yard was darkened by trees and unlit by the crescent moon. We were deep in conversation and paid no mind to the house at all.

From the front yard a sheep bleated.

We stopped, unsure if we'd heard correctly. We had.

Walking home this evening, moments later, we rounded the corner to see a woman cradling her bare-bottomed daughter suspended over the sidewalk peeing.

Greece is bizarre.

My great-uncle died yesterday (the day before, depending on the time zone) at his home in Pennsylvania. I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to see him a few times before we came over. It was odd to come home from an evening out and call my dad at 3:30 in the morning Athens' time to hear he was gone. The surreality of the moment hasn't quite passed. My uncle will be missed.

It's been a difficult week at school. There was some conflict between some of the administration and Miah and me that hopefully is done. Without rehashing the entire affair, there was a question of professionalism that boiled down to cultural differences and which led to some heated exchanges. Saturday evening we had a parent and faculty 'cruise under the stars' around Piraeus on the boat of one of the board members, and it was a relief to sit and drink wine with the Mediterranean wind blowing away all the frustration of the week. Of course, at that moment my family in the States was gathering around the bed of my uncle, a divergence of experiences which speaks to me of the infinity of human individuality.

We spent a great part of the evening with Matt Barrett and his wife, Andrea, an American expat who has settled in Athens and has the most comprehensive website with information about Greece. Google it.

tobacco and film

We went to The Mall again--this time while the stores were opened--and went to a movie. As we walked into the ticketing area, we saw girls wearing white leggings and purple blouses offering people something from black cases. They were offering complimentary cigarettes. If you filled out a short survey, you also received a free USB drive.

Silk Cut: Not afraid to hand out cancer sticks in a theatre.