Bring On The Weekend

Last weekend was Rusty's first away games, which means the first time I was left in Lamia by myself. I was a little nervous after Rusty left. I haven't even gotten to know the area that well, so I wondered if it was safe, who and how I could call for help if I needed it, who I could chat with if I started to get stir-crazy in our apartment, but at the same time it has made me determined to make friends.

Here are some pics of the scrimmage Rusty played in Athens. He was given number 5! How lucky is that?! In the second picture, take a close look at the guy's face on the other side of the net, it cracks me up!

So after Rusty left, I walked up to "The Center", which is the main part of town. They basically have two centers, which are right by each other, one is just a little closer to our apartment. I went into Cosmote, the main phone carrier here. I brought an old Blackberry phone of my dad's to see if I put a new SIM card in it, if it would allow me to make local calls in Greece. Not one employee in there spoke English. One of the ladies working called another employee who speaks English, so that I could talk to her on the phone. I love that the people here are so nice and willing to help. Instead of just sending me away and telling me to try back tomorrow, they call an employee who wasn't even working at the time. Unfortunately, the phone is locked, so it can only be used in the US. I will have to buy a new phone, but I can get one for only 20 euro and then just pay for the minutes as I need them.

The Center

On my way back from the center, I saw one of our friends, Catherine, sitting in front of Eyenet. And by "friend" I mean we have said hi a couple of times haha. Catherine works at Eyenet and since we pass by there everyday, we have gotten to know almost all of the employees, who fortunately, are all right around our age. Each of the employees are so different and seem like characters from a book. I wanted to include pictures of them, but I don't have any so hopefully I can take some and include them in my next post.

There is Olga, the quiet, sweet waitress- She is in her mid to late twenties and has brown curly hair that is always pulled up into a pony tail. She laughs at Rusty's crazy antics, which I love because it reminds me how lucky I am to have such a great husband- he makes people laugh wherever he goes. Olga is married to a guy named Bill. She told me she met Bill through her brother who was dating Bill's sister and that she and Bill ended up getting married on the same day as her brother and Bill's sister! Olga speaks the best English out of everyone at Eyenet. She said that here in Greece they start learning English when they are eight years old, but that people forget it because they do not get to use it very often- I'm surprised there are not more people who speak English since they begin learning that early.

There is Mixalis, who goes by Mike- the crazy, grungy delivery guy. Since he does deliveries, he is always pulling up and driving off on his scooter. He is in his mid-twenties and has super thick eyebrows, which are connected, so I guess I should say he has one, super thick eyebrow haha. He also has a full beard and mustache. He wears a worn t-shirt, sweats, tennis shoes, and a fanny pack everyday. He wears one little diamond earring and on occasion, he wears a train conductor type hat, with a really short brim. He speaks some English. He wants to go the the US to live with his cousins who live in Ohio, but the US rejected his visa so he is going to try again.

There is Costas, the sleek bartender- except he is usually making coffee and espressos rather than alcoholic drinks. His hair is always styled, he either plucks his eyebrows or gets them waxed, and he is usually wearing jeans and a tight t-shirt. The other night I went down to Eyenet and he was wearing a plaid button- up, the top three or four buttons were undone, exposing his shaven chest hair haha. He is nice, but he seems a little bashful, which could just be because he cannot speak English.

And there is Catherine, the spunky waitress- She is super friendly and always gets excited to see me. She has blonde hair and a little diamond glued onto the bottom of her tooth! Catherine does not speak any english, but one day she called my name and waved me to come inside Eyenet, so I went inside and sat down at a table with her and her friend. Her friend spoke English, so she was able to translate for her. The friend told me Catherine wanted to learn English, so hopefully I can help her out with English, while she helps me learn Greek.

Anyways, so now that you know everyone at Eyenet, I will continue with the story haha...I sat down with Catherine and soon Mike joined. Then Catherine's boyfriend, Dimitrius, and his sister, Roza arrived and joined us as well. I asked them where I could find nail polish remover because I had not noticed it in grocery stores. Roza seemed super excited to help me, she walked with me across the street to the supermarket and picked some out for me. After sitting with them for a little bit, I headed up to our apartment.

The rest of my weekend basically consisted of deep cleaning our apartment, doing laundry, video chatting my family, writing in my journal (thanks mom for the new journal!), blogging, and watching shows on Hulu. I was able to stay busy throughout the weekend, which made it go by pretty quickly. Before I knew it Rusty was back and we were planning out our week!