My Greek Olympics: Meetings and exercise

Running:

At this time, David was into his "running" at the national park near our hotel. I decided to join him and he told me of his idea for training. He would run one additional minute every day, he started at 8 minutes and was up to 15. I thought I could do that so I went with him, we walked to the park, which is next to the Parliament building and is full of trees and walking paths. We get there and David starts his watch, off we go on the run. The pace was so slow I could have walked it, I wasn't even pushing myself. After 16 minutes, we stopped, David said it was a good run and he would be ready for some beers and food. I though it was too easy and I wasn't even winded at the slight effort it took.

So over the next few weeks, we would go to the park and do these "runs", adding a minute each day. There were a few others running in the park, a nice looking girl ran in the park and I noticed her giving us a look. I don't know if she was American or not or from one of the embassies, but the Greeks don't seem to run in public. The paths ran through an old zoo and around some statues. It was green and cooler there than in the rest of the city. It would be crazy to run in the street so this was a good place to do it. After a few weeks, David lost interest and our running days were over.

Meeting with the Fire Brigade:

The project is becoming one meeting after another and nothing is getting done, lots of talk. We did have a meeting with the Fire Brigade at a station near Omonia Square, we all go and the meeting is held in a very small room. Most of the people have to stand, but this is the first time I meet the Fire Brigade and Sissy. We talk and I find out that Sissy knows GIS, we hit it off right away and we make plans to meet and discus the project. We all shake hands and smile and since I still know no Greek and I have to rely on the translator. It was a good meeting and I start to see how things are, the Greeks don't use a lot of technology so the system will be a big change. I thought they would be open to the change, but I will soon be proved wrong. The Fire Brigade is more open to change than the police when it comes to using technology.

We spend our days mostly going to Siemens, a horrendous drive in the morning traffic that can take over two hours to go the 6 miles. There we sit in an office and go over documents and contract changes, looking for problems that could arise. Strange things start to happen, people show up and say they were sent to work on the project and then disappear or some says they are only going to be there a few weeks and then they go. We have no idea who they are or what they are doing. The Fire Brigades 911 center is very close to Siemens and I end up going over there from time to time to see the construction of the new building that is being added to the old one. This will be the new command center for the Fire Brigade.