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.