My Greek Olympics: Just starting

The first Fly-In – Fuck-Offs:

This first month is when we had the visitors from the different divisions, people would show up and say they were sent to work with us and they needed information on some part of the contract of something. Also, a few people there were on "holiday" and they used the contract as an excuse to come to Greece. One guy was getting married on Santorini and had gotten himself a ticket to Greece for the wedding, he worked with us that first month, then he quit. Most of what we did was compliance review, I was trying to figure out what was happening, but I didn't get much information from Jay or Vic, I hardly saw them. The project was changing before it really got started.

Going home for a break:

I was in Greece for only a few months, but I had to return one last time so I tried to get as much information as possible so that I could go back and make recommendations to the guys in the office. This is when I still was a part of the 155 division and was supported by the others, though Fene was working behind my back as I was to find out.

My return to the US was as long as the trip over, a reverse of the way out. Leave at 6:00 AM and fly to Frankfurt, then to San Francisco and finally San Diego, about 24 hours total. I was going to be home for a short time, collect more things and fly back, but this gave me a chance to go into the office and fill everyone in on what was happening. We were providing CATS and the software was to be modified once we got all the requirements resolved. Also, the division was making money on David, Vic, Jay and I, so Dean was interested in what was happening, since I still technically worked for him.

I was able to get some inside info from Mary Beth, apparently the CATS project was coming up for review and the DTRA guys weren't happy. Also Fene was bad mouthing us as usual and stirring the pot. What a little shit he was. I took a few days off since I was working so much, did some things around the house, but the project was still on my mind. We still had so much work to do still and no real resolution of any of the problems that should have been resolved by then. Margit seemed to want me out of the house and I was happy to fly out after a weeks stay, this was the last time home for months. I was now on my own and life would be very different for the next two years.

Run up to IET1:

Once I got back to Athens, we had to get ready for the first milestone, IET-1 (Integration Engineering Test1), which was to be a walk through of the systems we were providing. First order of business was to find a work place. We wanted someplace in the center of town and large enough for most of our work, we also needed a training site. We looked at a place near DAOA, but it would take to long to fix up. George had an old friend who owned a building space in the center. It was an old tourist office and had a minimal network infrastructure. We got the place cheep, something like 6000 Euros a month, the company was renting a shit office in Marousi for 25000 a month, of course they were being taken by the real-estate agent and some kick backs were going on I am sure.