My Greek Olympics: Between the IET

Delivery:

Once I returned from SD, I had to get the rest of the stuff for my apartment. I ordered a refrigerator and stove from a store near Panepistimiou. They never got the stuff so I canceled that order and went to the story next door. I bought the same stuff, washer, stove, and refer and had them delivered with in three days. The funniest thing was the guy delivering them, who carried the stuff from his truck around the corner from my apartment, up the four flights of stairs and into the apartment. Wildest thing I saw to date. 

Near the Coast Guard Office

Coast Guard Stavroula:

We were having lots of meetings with the committee, and Coast Guard Stavroula was part of it. She was a chemical engineer, but you would never know it by looking at her. She was more like a model type person, most thought she had rocks in her head or just air. I never hear her speak about anything in the meetings maybe just a few words on an issue here or there. The thing about her was she had a great body, a great chest in particular. Her shirt was so stretched that the button holding her in was under so much stress that we thought it would shoot off if she sneezed. We called it the Jesus button, we all wondered when it would give up, Jesus only knew.

She would sit in the meetings and every once in a while she would take a deep breath, we all turned quick to see if this was the time when the button would fail. We did hear that the shirt did fail a couple of times, but both times was when one of the committee members was with her, and he was gay so nothing gained. As he would say, it was totally wasted on him. We all hoped it would be us next.

IET2 run-up – Stavroula #2:

The IET-2 was pushed off because nothing was ready, this was the first time the system would be used by the customer and we had to start training people. I was to give an over view of the system to the engineers and the Greek people who were going to do the training. This is the first time I met Stavroula #2, she was the first one in the door of the MOC and she was very pretty. Stavroula, Alex and Sophia would be the Greek trainers that will be working at the MOC and they all worked for Pouliatis or Q&R.

I thought she was a bit forceful or straight forwards, but she was cute. I had to deal with the corporate morons, they didn't know anything and they kept talking like we had to build a whole new system. It didn't go well, but I got to meet Stavroula and that was one of the best things that happened. This is when I also met Alexandros and Sophia, Alex was funny and likeable, new his stuff also.

As Stavroula was leaving, Rick and I were joking and I did a Semos impression, I took Stavroula by the hand and started to pet her hand as I said good-bye, she smiled and pulled her hand away and I kind of laughed at the response, but she smiled back and I was looking forwards to seeing her again.

My role in the IET-2 was to demonstrate the SS3, 4, 6, and 7 components and how they relate to SS1. At this point everything was still out of the box stuff, but we had to train people on how to use it. I expected people with some skill in computers and an understanding of what we were doing. I got people who never used a computer in their lives. Nikos was going to have to serve his military duty so I met Dimitris at that time as well.

Life in the apartment and shopping:

Now in an apartment, I started to go to the central market to shop. The market was a two kilometer walk from my place. I would walk past Panepistimiou and over toward Omonia. The market was in a large building where meat and fish were sold and with vegetable stalls across the street in the square. There was a small market near my place, but the big market was cheep and had many fresh items, plus the meat and fish I wanted. I found in the square some items that I liked to cook, fresh eggplant, squash, onions and peppers, olives, sausage, and some spices. In the main building, the beef, lamb, chicken and pork were sold from stalls. Each type of item was in one area, so all the chickens or pork or lamb was together in groups of stalls. In the square there were stalls, but people would stand around the area and sell things themselves. One lady sold cilantro, the only cilantro in the whole market. If I wanted to make Mexican food, I would have to get it from her. I would buy all she had which wasn't much, but it was cheep.

I had a standard meat stall to get ground beef, one to get lamb, and one for chicken. The meat was very lean and if you wanted to have some fat in the ground meat, you had to have them cut it and put in the grinder. One stall had a whole cow hanging on a hook, it looked like a marathon runner it was so lean. When I buy the meat, I would point to the meat chunks hanging on hooks and the guy would cut off pieces and then run it through the grinder. Once ground, he would wrap it and toss it back to the lady with the scale, who I would pay. You walked through the hanging meat to pay the lady.

I then would get fish or squid from one of the stalls in the fish area. Nice mullet or shrimp, maybe langoustine if I felt like it.  The fish wasn't cheep, almost like the price here but the really small fish were the cheep ones. They were like anchovies or sardines, they sold them by the kilo and I might get a kilo of sardines for dinner. I liked the mullet, but the small ones were best fried and the larger ones grilled. I had a small electric grill, but it would smoke or catch fire if there was too much grease. Cooking the fish in the apartment was always smelly. I should have cooked on the patio so it wouldn't smell.

Across the street, there was a cheese and butter shop, I would get a block of butter and a kilo of feta or some other cheese. It was better and cheaper than the market by my place. I would get canned items or liquor at the market and any other items other than food. But since I ate out so much, cooking was more of a once in a while thing. Maybe spaghetti or stew, once in a while lamb chops or fish.

A daily staple was yogurt and honey with nuts. I would get a lot of this and eat it every morning, really good and quick to make. I got coffee at the market as well. I may stop at a place and get a cheese pie or spinach pie once in a while. I lost weight with all the walking, even though I would drink a lot of beer and eat a lot of fat.

The apartment was large for just me and since I didn't have much furniture even after I bought some, it was very sparse. I had gotten a table and six chairs in the thought that at some time I would have people over to eat, but that only happened a couple of times. Mostly it was just me and I lived on the couch with my computer next to me. I had taken one of the projectors from the office and would project movies on the wall. I had speakers and it was like a small movie theater.

The one main issue I had was cooking anything that would make smoke. I had an electric grill that I used to grill lamb or fish, but it would catch fire when the fat dripped down. I should have taken it out on the patio and cooked there. I would buy a bunch of stuff and make a big pot of chili or something. This would sit in the refrigerator for a while since I ate out so much.

I wanted some more furniture; the $6000 I got from the company to buy stuff didn't go very far. After the appliances and couch and bed, I didn't have much left. I did buy two folding chairs and a long table, plus my rugs. I had the chairs on the patio and on Saturday morning I would go out and spray down the dust and wash the patio off. A lot of dirt and dust collected which was mostly from the cars. I called this my surfing Saturday and at least I got my feet wet.

The washing machine was a front loader and though they are supposed to get your clothes clean, they take forever to do a load. The first time I used it I figured it would take maybe 20 minutes, but it took over an hour. Then once it finished, the spin would make the machine bounce all over the place. I thought it would go through the wall or damage the floor. I ended up not using the spin and just squeezed the water out before I hung it to dry. It was a pain to use and I didn't really like the front loader at all.

One other thing I had to do was pay the monthly apartment bill and this was about 50 to 100 Euros a month. It was for the heating and maintenance of the building. Once a month I got a bill and I would have to go down and pay the bill then get reimbursed from the corporate shit heads. I was known as the "American" and everyone knew who I was.

Shopping at Care4 and other places:

I would also go and shop at one of the major stores from time to time. Care4 was a major chain that is as close to a super market as you can get. They sold everything from food to clothes and appliances. I would buy things that I needed around the house like soap and detergent or sheets and the like. The Care4 near me was by the Police station at Ampelokipi and a bit of a hike to get to, but it was the closest one I could go to. I also would shop on the streets around the central market. There were a number of shops that sold household items that I needed. Then down on Ermou in Monastiraki was a few stores that sold furniture. I got a couple of folding chairs for the patio and some small nick-knacks for the house.

Flower incident:

One night I went out with Rick, Silvia, Roula, and a few others from ETEAM. We were going to go to a Bouzouki for music and entertainment. Silvia said that we had to go around 11 pm so we met at the Metropol and walked to a place not far from the MOC on Nikodirmos street. It was a downstairs place and was kind of full. Lots of loud music was playing and singers singing, people drinking and dancing, plus a woman with flowers walking down between the tables. This was a traditional place and the music was known to all.

We get a table and order drinks and since scotch is popular that's what we get. After a little while, a singer is singing and a group of employees come on stage caring boxes. They sit them down and start to take out bottles of Campaign. The men start shaking the bottles and opening them, lots of pops and spray and the whole case is opened. The singer toasts the guy who bought it and she continues to singe. The Champagne is actually soda water and they do this to show how much they like the music.

I find out that the flowers are to show love and if you throw or drop flowers on some ones head, it means they love you. Well since we were drinking and flowers were around, we started throwing them around, not knowing what they meant. I tossed some in the air and some landed on Roula and some went on the next table. Well the guy didn't like us throwing flowers on his wife so he starts to yell. Silvia calms him down, but we were not really that welcome anymore. In the old days they would break plate and glasses, now they use paper plates, flowers and fake Campaign.