Stories from Patra

I believe that I mentioned before the fact that I have a great friend in Patra, a bigger city just one hour away from Messolonghi. Her name is Theano and I met her in the Netherlands during the Summer University.

I’ve already been to her place 3 times now, you could say I’ve almost moved in there, something that I might actually do to some degree or another. The last time I went to Patra I met a bunch of Erasmus students studying there, most of them Spanish. I also remember talking to one girl from Scotland who was here with Erasmus but not as a student but to do social work, especially concerning the refugee problem that Greece faces. Apparently, the problem is bigger than I ever imagined and illegal immigrants from countries with little chance of a decent life come to Greece in very large numbers and have been doing so for the past 15 years. One of the most difficult things to comprehend is the fact that they have no rights here, and apparently not even the most basic human rights are recognized by local authorities. Knowing this, most of them try to get onto the boats going to Italy, in hope of a better life in a more understanding community. I understand that there is a plan about building a refugee camp close to the city, where food and shelter could be provided, but the idea has met with many impediments because of the attitude of local citizens who don’t desire the camp to be placed in the vicinity of their neighborhood. I want to keep a close eye on the development of things in this matter, but I forgot to get any contact information from the girl I was talking to. But I can probably get in touch with her somehow if I really want to. ?

I have just come back now, from my last trip to Patra, which lasted about 5 days. I had a great time going out with my friend and I met some more of her friends as well with which I got along great.
Since on Saturday we didn’t have that many things to do, except going out for coffee, taking a walk and chatting about various things, we decided to do something different on Sunday. We went hiking in one of the mountains close-by. It was an invigorating trip, and although it wasn’t the Himalayas the view of the city from 1500m was indescribably beautiful. The fresh air, the wind, the climbing between many rocks gave me a thrill I haven’t felt in a long time. I hope to do it again soon. We went on this trip with a climbing organization called EOS Patras, that will organize more difficult trips in the future and I hope to be fit to join them. But before that, on the 23rd of November they have a rafting episode planned which I will be joining. I expect it to be great, even though I am worried a bit because of my complete lack of experience in this matter. Just avoid the rocks a friend told me.. :-D I can’t wait :D:D

On Monday I went with Theano to one of her courses. She told me it was a course about trade, but the only words I understood were Hollandia, Gallika, and egrasia (which means work). The context in which these were mentioned is completely unknown to me as the course was only in Greek and I was too bored to ask my friend to translate everything. Notwithstanding the fact that I didn’t understand what was being taught, I enjoyed the feeling of being in a classroom again, falling asleep almost and waiting for the course to end while chatting with my friends, an experience that I will be deprived of here, in Messolonghi, where, from what I have understood so far, I will not be attending courses like normal students, since there are only greek courses available. I will probably be given books and some programs to work with, like the first professor that called me has done. I might go by the university once in a while to ask for clarifications and such, but other than that I don’t really think I will have any reason to be there. I never thought I would miss the existence of a schedule so much, no matter if I keep to it or not, the whole idea of not having some sort of plan for the following days is very depressing. On the other hand I might get used to relaxing all the time, like on a very very long vacation.

I will drop by the university tomorrow to tell a few ‘kind’ words about the Erasmus organizational system here that I believe to be very wrong and lacking so many things, most of all, normal courses. :P I hope to find some sort of information about whether or not I need to be here , and other such things. If everything goes well and I don’t actually need to be here, I will go to Patra again and hang out there. :D I should be going to Turkey sometime in November as well. Ah, this weekend I will be going to Patra to meet with Theano, but the next day we will take the train to Athens. I might not have too many things to say since we are going to see her grandparents, but anything is better than staying here and getting bored to death.

Because of the very capricious weather I think I managed to catch a cold. But I hope to be rid of it soon, since it is very annoying. :P

Ah, I forgot to mention something about my last bus trip to Patra. As I found my seat on the bus and sat down, I took out my greek conversation guide, in hope of maybe learning some words or phrases. I sat down next to a middle aged man who recognized the type of the book and asked me where I was from. We started talking and I found out he was from Agrinio, a very big city close by, which I hope to get a chance to see soon. He told me about his numerous trips to different countries. He had lived 2 years in Paris, visited Russia, Poland, Netherlands, Germany, England, Japan, Egypt, South Africa, parts of America, and others I can’t remember now. He had worked on a cruise ship for a while and that is how he got to visit some of the above-mentioned places. I was impressed with the idea of South Africa and he mentioned there were very cheap airplane tickets from Athens Airport to South Africa. Ever since this conversation I can’t stop thinking about going there. :D Although I few days ago I was looking on Google Earth and realized just how extremely far far away South Africa really is. But I’m not giving up on the idea. :)

On two of the nights in Patra I went to a few friends’ houses and we watched a movie. I came to understand that it’s a very student-like activity to gather in a friend’s house and call up a bunch of people and watch a movie together. I was not surprised with this, but I enjoyed it very much, since it was a very familiar atmosphere that I lack in my hotel room. :P On both occasions we were extremely hungry so we ordered a huge delicious square pizza. :D And after watching the movie we stayed up and talked, had a beer or two, or something similar and just relaxed. Although most of the time they tended to forget I didn’t understand and started talking in greed, I didn’t mind so much since I was very relaxed. On the second night we went to the house of a guy who had a guitar, and there was actually someone who knew how to play amongst the 8 of us that were there. I got to enjoy some nice greek songs that sounded a little like folk to me, which I like very much by the way, and also some great classic english songs like Nothing else Matters, Californication etc, and my very own favorite, which I had never heard played live before, Stairway to Heaven ... :D

Oh, did I mention I’m trying to read Ancient Greek literature poorly translated into english ? I started to read Homer’s Iliad, but I am finding it a bit difficult since it’s also trying to imitate old english.. Ah, and I’ve also started reading Aristotle’s Poetics, which you can imagine is also not very easy..

So far, so good…

Photos

The never-ending road. :D The little thing you see at the end is the city. ;)



Mesolonghi. ;)


View from the roof of my hotel. :D

Another day, a different story

Yesterday I tried to wake up and go jogging in the morning. Those who know me will not be surprised by the fact that I did not wake up early enough and that I was too lazy to jog. But I did take a walk, a very long walk along the sea on the never-ending road that, from what I understand leads to the beach. This road separates the sea from part of the land, forming a lake on the right side, while on the left guarding the sea. There are several roads extending far into the sea, so I am not sure whether this is the actual sea or just another lake. This whole city is in a lagoon, so I don't think I will see any big waves here. This city is unbelievable quiet and can give you such serenity as I did not think could be found. I began to walk on this road, in the middle of the day, with the sun still burning hot as if it were still summer. I found what I then believed to be the beach, a small patch of ground extending to the left. I must note that every beach I’ve seen so far was rocky and not the least bit sandy as I have always know beaches to be. But I still believed that this patch of ground was the beach Konstantinus told me about, only to be proven wrong later. After walking a little further away from it, I decided to turn back faced with the idea that the road will not end anytime soon. On my way back I stopped at the beach and splashed my hands with sea water. I sat down at the end of this beach for a while, looking at the sun starting to set. I had the brilliant idea of taking the camera with me, so I will be able to soon show everyone what I have seen so far. :)

I was supposed to meet with Konstantinus later that day, at about 6 pm so that he can give me a code I need for the WIFI in the university grounds. Unfortunately he forgot the paper, but we went out and had a coffee/tea at one of those fancy cafeterias. After that we went to eat dinner at the university restaurant. Too bad that it's so far away, it has really good food. And free with the meal-card. I believe I will have some problems with this card, because every time I show it Konstantinus has to explain smth to the lady there in Greek, and of course I have no idea what he is saying. Anyway, last night I had a delicious dish called: "Fisherman's Pasta", which is spaghetti with calamari, and squid and smth like that in a delicious sauce.

I remember the subject of gypsies coming up in the conversation when Konstantinus told me a very interesting myth about them and what he believes to be the truth behind the myth of Dracula.It is said that the nails that were used to crucify Jesus were made by the gypsies and that is why they have this destiny of a nomad life.Concerning Dracula, he knows this to be true: Dracula existed for real as a very good and kind man, a religious man, who fought the ones who didn't believe in God, his enemies at that time. But one time when he was away at war, a letter was sent home to his wife telling her that her husband had died. In a desperate act she killed herself. When her husband came home to discover such an event, he confronted God, demanding and explanation. When God did not answer, he denied his faith and drank blood from a cup. So the myth of the vampire was born..

We decided to go out again later, after taking a shower. So we met again at 10 pm. I of course have no idea which places are good to go to so I asked Konstantinus to pick a place. We went to a traditional restaurant/pub very popular with the students here from what I understand. There I met a friend of Konstatinus, who works as a waiter. And another friend. A very cool guy from Jamaica who finished studying in Dublin and is here to earn some money to do his Masters later. He's been here for 11 months and has learned some basic Greek. So I am hopeful that I will also learn one or two words. We stayed in the restaurant drinking wine until about 2 am when we realized it would not be a bad idea to go get some sleep. :) And so I did. I like the way Konstatinus thinks. He is very open-minded and seems to be a lot of fun. More info to come as I get to know him better.

This morning I woke up determined to go jogging. And I did. Go jogging, not wake up in the morning. :D I realized I’m terrible shape, because I got tired very quickly, but I hope to improve my condition soon. After my short jog and long walk I decided to go to the center to enjoy some nice and beautiful internet. But when I got there, surprise, surprise! The wireless internet connection that I loved so much was gone. There was no sign of it, and so, no sign of internet. Because of this I decided to go to the TEI and have lunch, and try out the internet connection there. I called Konstantinus to see if he hadn't already eaten, but he was at home. So I was there for the first time on my own. Of course I had a few problems with the lady who started to ask me smth and I tried to tell her I don't understand, after chaotically saying the words ERASMUS and OK she said smth like yes and I just took the food and found myself a table. In case you're wondering I had spaghetti and meatballs. After finishing with my lunch I went in search of a plug for my laptop hoping to be able to stay there longer than the two hours my battery has to offer. Of course I could find no such thing. But I found a nice bench and decided to use my 2 hours to the fullest. :) After my batteries were almost dead, I sadly turned off the computer and went back to the center. There I found a supermarket and finally bought myself a teaspoon. :) But I couldn't find any sugar..

I had a lot of fun last night and started to feel a little like I can find my place here, but today I started to feel out of place again. I read on the internet an article about this very common mood associated with Erasmus experiences and other long-term exchanges. The phenomenon I am referring is called 'culture shock'. It's not only common but also normal that with such dramatic changes in scenery and going from one country to another for a study period, the student goes through several stages of depression, frustration and anxiety in the first few weeks. Confronted with many difference between the local culture and new culture the student is faced with, several communication issues appear and there is a constant feeling of confusion and anxiety. In time though, the shock is diminished and the student adapts to the new environment, adopting the lifestyle of their new home.

Although I do not believe the phenomenon to be exactly the same in my case, I am hoping the part about the anxiety going away is true. My biggest problem is that I have not yet started courses and because of that I cannot get a grasp on a minimal daily routine. Because of this I still feel out of place. Of course there also the fact that I do not know that many people yet and find myself to be a little shy about approaching strangers out of the blue. :P But I’m sure as soon as the ice has been broken I will become my talkative self again. :)

I didn't go out tonight. It's not like I had any opportunities that I let slip, but still I felt a little lazy. And still do. :) Dunno when I’ll get to post this, but for the record it is now 8.30 pm, October the 16th, my third day here..
I'll see you on the other side.. ;)

First days

I am writing now from my hotel room on my first night in Messolonghi. Things are not always as one would like or expect them to be. I have a few little problems, that seem to bother me a bit, like no internet connection in my room, but I have internet in the city center and the university. Also, the fact that I am staying in a hotel is not that appealing to me, but I have come to understand that this is how a very large part of the students live.

I wrote the passage above last night, before finding out that my colleague from the Bucharest decided to leave and go back home because she did not like the accommodations or the facilities. I am now in the International Europeans Office of TEI which is the name of the university here. I left the office soon after I wrote the passage above, I couldn’t write then, since I was a bit busy and I was talking to Konstantinus.

I am now in my room, living by myself in a hotel by the sea. I talked to someone responsible about moving me closer to the city in another hotel, but I have come to understand that this hotel is the nicest there is. I am having second thoughts. In the other hotel I would probably be living with another student, which is actually a good thing because I feel I would get lonely on my own. Although I like to have my space, living with a Greek student could be very interesting.

The only person I met here and with whom I’ve had more than one short conversation is Konstantinus, a Greek student responsible with my accommodation here and helping me with everything I need. He’s very nice, he showed me part of the city and where I can find many things.

I am the only Erasmus student here, as this university is straight in the middle of nowhere, in a very small city. City is a compliment, village would be the right word to describe this place. This will not be the Erasmus experience I had expected or hoped it would be. I am still doubting the decision that I took to stay here, contrary to my colleague who decided it would be best to go back home. I think it’s stupid to go back, after coming all this way and not even giving the place a chance. A friend of mine, Tony, told me about his Erasmus experience in Poland, how he only hung out with other Erasmus and didn’t even meet that many native students. This will not be like that at all. I don’t understand why this University is in even in the Erasmus programme since it seems to lack some facilities and from what I’ve seen so far doesn’t seem to be such a great university. When I get back I might have a long talk with the Erasmus responsible in Bucharest. I don’t know why they signed a contract with this particular place, instead of a slightly bigger city, like Patra, very close by, about 50 km, a city with a big university center, or even Athens. From what I understand from a friend in Patra, this university in Messolonghi is actually part of the university in Patra…

The hotel room is nice, although I still don’t appreciate the idea of living in a hotel that much. I feel watched and stripped of part of my freedom. No doubt this feeling will soon go away. I will take some pictures of this place and maybe post them later. The view I have is very interesting. Because I am only on the second floor I can see the roof on top of the restaurant or other rooms on the first floor out my window. To be more exact, I can actually go out the window and walk on the roof. I thought about trying that last night, but Sonia, the Romanian girl who was here, thought I was crazy and I decided to postpone the idea. I think that before I leave here I will surely take at least a few steps on the roof. :D Call me crazy but it’s something I wanna try.

I found a TV music station, like MTV, called GRtv. The only difference from mtv is that this TV station plays great music, various rock genres from what I’ve seen so far.

I had my student ID and meal-card given to me from the university today. It’s a great thing that I can eat for free in the university’s restaurant, which has great food. Unfortunately, the university is very far from the city and even further from this hotel. Breakfast may be a problem. :P

Internet will also be a problem, I will post this article after I go back to the city center later this afternoon. It is almost 4 o’clock now, so it’s still siesta time. Everything here is closed from 2 to 6 pm, with very few exceptions. From what Konstantinus told me, the Greeks love two things: food and sleep. During siesta they sleep, take a stroll in the city, and of course have some coffee at one of the many ‘cafeterias’ here. I think this very small ‘city’ captures a lot of the essence of the Greek lifestyle. I will know more in a while, after I get to know more people. I start courses next week. Until then I have no idea what I will do. I might have to go to the university again.T

his is a very bohemian lifestyle the Greeks have. I probably won’t have all the parties I’ve heard so much about from other Erasmus students, but I’m pretty sure I’ll have some fun. I have 4 long months ahead of me. I hope I won’t get bored too soon…

Since I am in Greece, and I am pretty tired from walking around all day and waking up early in the morning (can you imagine me doing that? :P), I will take a nice nap. When in Rome… (or Messolonghi..)

I will soon post another article about the long trip I had coming here from Romania by car.

Come on already!

It's been 3 weeks since my last post. Honestly i was too lazy to write anything about my past times in Greece, but maybe another time.
In these past 3 weeks i haven't done much. I'm just starting to get eager about my soon departure and to be very honest i can't wait! Screw not getting my hopes up and my expectations high! I can't wait! I wanna go! Now! Come on already!!!
Ok, ok, i will calm down now. As you will notice, it's past 2 a.m. and i am still up. Why you might wonder? No apparent reason. I was reading a few blogs of other Erasmus students that have already departed and you can understand where my sudden impatience came from.
I have a certain personality trait that some may consider to be bad. I tend to leave things till the last moment. Always! All the time. And lately I've been cutting it close. Too close.
Today for example, i had planned to wake up in the morning and arrange the documents necessary for my passport. I don't really need a passport but i figured, since i may be travelling, why limit myself? So i decided to get myself a passport. Actually the decision to get a passport was made long ago, as far as 2005, when Romania wasn't even in the EU yet. But i wasn't even eighteen at the time, and there were a few extra documents and papers to be filled in by my parents at the time stating that they allow me to get a passport. And since i had nowhere to go at that time, and my father was working in another city during the week it just seemed not to be worth the bother. But i was so mind-bent on having a passport in the beginning that i payed the afferent taxes at a bank called CEC.
Today, almost 4 years later, i woke up decided to go ahead and fill everything in and gey my passport. Only things don't usually go as planned in the morning. Because the previous night i had gone out with my friend Beatrice to meet one of her clients from the real-estate agency, i ended up having a drink with Betty, Iuli (another friend who joined us later) and the client, who doesn't like being called that, so for future reference (maybe) i'll just call him Huseyin, which just happens to be his name. We had a lot of fun, i can't really remember why or what we talked about, but it really was fun and a very nice break from my usual routine of doing nothing most of the day. :)

What was i saying? Oh yes. The morning after. I didn't get home too late actually. Twelve o'clock the latest. I was lucky that my brother just happened not to find a parking space in front of the building and decided to call me and see if i needed a lift home. Evidently i did, and so i was very happy to be spared of the looong walk home from the center of Bucharest, the University square.
After arriving home, i started talking to my brother about the upcoming trip to Greece. Did i mention, i will be going there by car, with my brother and a friend of his. They will be driving. I will probably be sleeping. Although i did manage to get my driving license. But i'll talk about that later. It's a rather funny story. It has something to do with my being late and postponing things all the time . But enough about that. So we started talking, and we noticed we didn't know the speed limits for Greece. Evidently we turned on the PC and we googled it. We weren't actually paying much attention in the beginning, i was in my bed, browsing through a guide of Greece, when my brother stumbled upon a very nice article about Greece drivers, and driving in Greece. We laughed so hard it hurt and we couldn't stop. This is the link. Enjoy!
After reading such an explicit and hilarious article about the crazy greek drivers, knowing our fair share of crazy drivers, we googled 'driving in Romania'. What we found kept us up for another hour, laughing our brains out, trying to read not a very long story without stopping every two words to roll on the floor. This gave new meaning to the word LOL. This is the link. And (un)fortunately, everything said is generally true. I have two such articles. Have fun! :) This one and this one

It's just come to my attention that maybe the articles are not so funny if you regard them from the actual point of view of the one who wrote them, someone very disappointed and angry at the romanian drivers. You should know not all drivers are like that, and too read about it as it is written above, while being on the other side of the 'barricade' is really amusing. We had had a few drinks also so maybe our sense of humor was very high that night.

Anyways, after laughing all the sleep out of me, even though it was about 3 a.m. i couldn't go to sleep. I found a website about Romania and Moldova, and i started browsing through it, in hope of finding some more of that unbelievable humor foreigners seem to develop while talking about my fair country. This kind of attitude reminded me of how surprised Michiel and Freddy (2 friends from the Netherlands) were after seeing so many cables simply hanging around on the streets. I always knew the cables were there and that they looked absolutely terrible, but i suppose i simply ignored them for too long to even notice them anymore. But ever since my attention has been brought to them, they are the only thing i see on the streets now! Damn it!

I finally went to sleep a while after that, remembering what i had planned for the next day. An early morning trying to hunt down the people who could help me get my passport. Since 2005 you can imagine that the taxes were raised a little. Not much, the amount is irrelevant, the problem was that i had to go down to the police station and ask whether or not my former receipts were still valid. So i had a bit of running around to do. There is a CEC office very close to where i live, so i was convinced i had plenty of time to get everything done. Unfortunately for me, i woke up at about 2 p.m. , had 'breakfast' and turned on the tv. My brother was actually the one who woke me up, screaming: "hey, what time is it? we were supposed to wake up at 11". And so, 3 hours later than planned we went and had breakfast in the dinning room. We browsed through tv channels not finding anything interesting for a while, we watched the news, and then we switched to the explorer channel where we watched a very disturbing documentary about a child who was killed and it's killer was found but not prosecuted due to lack of evidence.
Before we knew it, it was almost 4 o'clock. My mom came home. Oh, and i was supposed to order my new laptop online today. Which we did in about ten minutes. We turned on the PC, and ordered it. I hope i'll get it soon! :) At about 10 past 4 we were starting to wonder when the CEC agency closes. We concluded it must close at half past four, because that's how we remembered it. Of course we rushed out, my brother turned back to get my cell-phone, just in case the ppl with the laptop call (they didn't) and when we got to the agency, guess what, yes, it was closed. 4.15. we were 7 minutes late.
But that's not the end of the story. We decided to go to the police station and see what se can do there. They told us the receipts were valid, we just had to pay the difference. So here we were, frantically looking for a CEC agency near us. Why the urgency you ask? It takes 7 days for a passport to be issued. And today was the last day this week when i could get it done. Oh, nd the police department dealing with these things closed at 6. Eventually, after calling a friend to check the internet for the address of a close-by open agency (he didn't find it), and running around a bit, we managed to pay the stupid difference ( did i mention it was only 50 bani, almost 15 euro cent). And i managed to get everything done, with 20 minutes to spare. You gotta love this city, when you're in such a hurry you can still find what you need close-by.
After having finished with all this passport stuff, me and my brother decided to go by the clinic (we had some blood and health tests taken about 2 weeks ago, part of a national health program). When we got there, we waited for some time, while the doctor finished with another patient. It was unbelievably boring. When we got to the doctor she told me that i was almost anemic, and i should eat more meat and spinach and fruits. So remind me to do so. :)

It was a busy day, compared to my usual pace, but i enjoyed the rush. I'm envolved in a project for AEGEE and that's also keeping me busy. I have to investigate an area of the city, so i will be talking a lot of long walks. Anyone care to join?
I know this article is very long, and i started ranting at one point, i hope i didn't bore you all away. If anyone is actually reading. :P

What was i saying in the beginning ? Oh, yes! I'm bored, i wanna go to Greece already. I have so many things and plans in my head. But that's another story. :) (oh, if i misspelled anything, let me know, i'm to lazy to double check now, and i'm starting to get sleepy it's 3 a.m. again).