Last Days of Greek Summer

Kalimera friends! Sitting down to write this blog post has been a struggle. Over the past two weeks since my last post I feel as though a lifetime has passed. Life moves so fast yet so slow here. It is hard to summarize everything in 500 words, but I will try my best.

Internship and Volunteering

As the weeks have gone on, it has gotten easier and easier to make friends. The NGO community here is very close knit due to the fact that many of the organizations work together. Additionally, I picked up even more volunteer work outside of my internship teaching swim lessons to refugee women in the evening.  One thing I find so interesting about this experience in Greece is that every single thing I have been interested in or passionate about has somehow come into play. I taught swim lessons for four years in high school and college and loved it, and here I am, doing it again, albeit in a very different context.

Biking to swim lessons after my internship... biking on the hills of Greece is NOT for the weak

At my internship, I’ve been primarily working on social media content and photography for our website as the other aspects of the project I am working on take a little longer. The unfortunate reality of doing a PR campaign is that you spend a lot of time waiting for people to email you back.

Office with a view of the sea... whaaaattt?

Some bags in the shop ready to be sold

Additionally, I’ve started learning the process of sewing the bags and am excited to start working on those those as soon as I am done with updating the website and social media.

Island Life

Outside of my work, I’ve also gotten to go one a couple of fun excursions. This past weekend, me and a group of volunteers went camping at Farra beach, about 45 minutes away from Mytilene. I was tasked with driving the car as the American drivers license is pretty strong internationally (shocking considering how easy our driving test is). That, I was terrified for, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

The camping trip was amazing. I brought my camera and messed around a bit with it. A fun new hobby I’ve been picking up on this trip is photography. At the beach that night a local band played some authentic Greek music which was beautiful. Additionally, I had some of the most incredible swims. The water here is so clear and, even right on the shore, there are hundreds of beautiful fish swimming at your feet. It feels like another world underneath the surface, I’ve never seen anything quite like it.

But somehow it gets better. I have some friends who work at an eco-farm about 15 minutes outside of Mytilene and last night they invited me over for a meal full of fresh ingredients. And I do mean fresh, because right before dinner we went out and caught the mussels and sea urchins we ate with our meal. It was truly one of the most incredible meals I’d ever eaten. Mussels sauteed in tomatoes and feta, fresh risotto, and rice stuffed zucchini flowers.

Harsh Realities

However, as incredible as this island and this experience is, it is also very sobering. Meeting the people who came here and learning about their experiences is hard to hear. Suddenly the news headlines aren’t just headlines. Bombings in Yemen, Gaza, and Kuwait, flooding in Pakistan, they are so much more than a death toll. Knowing that people I am friends with have loved ones who could be one of those numbers is hard.

It has also made me realize that I am an incredibly blessed person. Not just blessed to have this experience and be in this beautiful place, but blessed for where I was born. I am blessed to call my family without fear that something has happened to them. I am blessed to swim in this sea and see the beautiful fish and catch mussels and not be scared. I am blessed to have a passport that took me two weeks to get. I am blessed to feel safe here. I am blessed to travel freely.

And of course... here is the playlist

Ladies Room by Olivia Dean (of course... more Olivia Dean)

Ya Habibi by Mohamed Ramadan (this was playing in the car for most of the trip to Farra)

November Air by Zach Bryan

Yasou!!!! That’s the more casual way to say hello in Greek. This week has been exciting and challenging in all of the best ways. I’ve been meeting people, stepping out of my comfort zone, settling in with my NGO, and adjusting to living alone (coming from a large family... this is definitely the hardest part).

Last Saturday, I landed in Lesvos running on 6 hours of sleep over the course of 48 hours. Turns out, getting a taxi, finding a house, and buying groceries with a language barrier is a lot harder when your eyes are half closed (shocker). After taking Sunday to sleep, I spent the week meeting with the team at my non-profit, hashing out details of the PR campaign I will be doing, cleaning the old house I am staying in, and exploring the island.

On the tarmac wearing sunglasses because there is no life behind those eyes.

After spending the first few days wandering the city by myself and going for some lovely sunset swims, I challenged myself to get out of my comfort zone and go to an event alone. I am glad did because I ended up meeting an incredible group of volunteers. This past weekend, we explored Mytilini and the rest of the island together. One thing that I didn’t realize about Greece until I came here is that it is incredibly mountainous. Some of the crazy cliffs I’ve seen while I’ve been here are pictured below. I also got to swim in a hot spring for the first time (well... sit) but sadly didn’t get any photos.

Beyond these fun little adventures, however, I have been focused on creating community and routine here. As I learned during my exchange program in Australia, having a routine and people you can call when you’re in a pinch is the key to feeling at home in a new country. Going into this experience, I expected the volunteer house I’d be staying in to be the natural community I’d create here. However, after discovering that I’d be living alone, I’ve had to go out of my way to create those connections.

Thankfully, the team at my non-profit has been incredibly welcoming, and I am quickly settling into life there. These two weeks have been crazy, but I find that every time I step out of my comfort zone, whether it be going to eat alone, swim alone, or go to an event alone, I am always rewarded by the experiences I find and people I meet.

The Statue of Liberty (not to be confused with New York) where I have been going to swim in the evenings to create routine here.

That being said, this trip hasn’t come without its fair share of challenges. The night I arrived in Greece I spent many hours crying on the phone to my parents saying I wanted to go home (My dad made me screen record our conversation to watch back when I leave). Maybe it was just a combination of sleep deprivation and jet lag, but I did want to talk a little bit about how hard the adjustment was coming here because I feel it is less often shared in travel content. Culture shock is real. Homesickness is real. Moving to another country and not knowing anyone is hard. You feel as though your body and nervous system are constantly “on” and no matter how hard you try, you can’t find the off button.

Despite all of this, I am falling in love with this place. I love walking everywhere. I love how friendly the people are. I love stumbling through my broken Greek (and the sense of pride when a Greek person says “bravo” if I get it right). I love the work I am doing. Even when I am homesick, I still wake up every day with gratitude for this experience and this place.

The water is so blue here.

The hills you see in the distance in this photo... that’s Turkey.

It is so crazy to me that I literally live right next to a castle on the hill. Ed Sheeran who?

And, as a final note, here’s the playlist...

Lady Lady by Olivia Dean

Watch Me Go by Lord Huron

Ooh La La by Faces

Hello! Or should I say yasas, which is how you say hello in Greek. I have two full days left in the States before I depart for Greece and I could not be more excited. Currently my closet and room are in disarray as I pack my life into one checked bag and head to the island of Lesvos for four months. However, to procrastinate finishing this endeavor, I am going to share with you guys a little bit about what I’ve been up to since graduation and my thoughts on the trip.

June: Italy 

View on Lake Como

With the bridal party in Bellagio (P.S. I sewed that dress hehe)

Giving Maddy snacks while she gets ready for her wedding

This summer I got to do a bit of traveling and spend some quality time with friends I won’t see for a few months. I went to Bellagio, Italy to see one of my closest friends, Maddy, get married. It was  incredible to not only share in this special life moment for her and her husband but also to experience Italy for the first time (all I can say is that it is definitely popular for a reason). Between wedding festivities we laughed over dinner, chatted on patios until midnight, and swam in the ice cold water of Lake Como.

July: Visa struggles 

Taken immediately after my visa application was finally accepted. I was more excited than I look in this photo, I promise. 

This was the least fun part of my summer. As amazing as Italy was, I returned home on Saturday, June 14th with the head cold from hell. And on Monday the 16th I had my visa appointment. I decided to power through it and, along with my parents, made the 2 hour trip to Atlanta, documents in one hand and tissues in the other. However, due to some issues with my documents, my application was rejected.

What followed was a mess of struggling to get a new appointment (appointment slots can get booked out months in advance), a delayed trip, and tedious hours spent working on my new application. As miserable as the experience was it did give me a better understanding of just how difficult the experience is for refugees. The Greek migration system is confusing, bureaucratic, and slow, and that is coming from a privileged white Westerner with immense support from a credible Greek NGO. I can’t imagine how difficult it is for the refugees waiting on Lesvos for months to hear back from the Greek government. Although I will never be able to empathize with them, I now understand a crumb of their experience, and have so much admiration for their ability to keep going along with more drive than ever to help where I can.

August: To Greece we go!

A clock in my parents house, telling what time it is where I am (my brother in Tashkent has one too)

Sisters and I matched for fourth of July

Against all odds I finally secured a visa (huzzah!!) and am ready to  leave. This Friday is a big day for my family. My older sister moves to Nashville, my brother moves back to Uzbekistan, where he works as an English teacher, and my little sister moves back to her university to work as an RA. Although my trip getting delayed was unfortunate, I am grateful to have spent one last summer living under the same roof as most of my siblings before we depart on our separate adventures.

And now it’s time to leave. I expected to feel more nervous for this trip, but in all honesty, I am experiencing a weird sense of calm (that is subject to change). Right now I feel that I am going where I am supposed to be at this point in my life. So thank you guys for reading this first post, and keep reading to follow along on my journey 🙂

P.S. My big sister told me I should include a mini-playlist with each blog post... so here are my current favorites if you want to listen along with me.

Songs: 

Heavy Foot by Mon Rovia

Rein Me In by Sam Fender ft Olivia Dean 

Universal Sound by Tyler Childers

Leaving on a Jet Plane by Peter, Paul, and Mary