The Cast and Crew

It occurs to me that I have been name droppin' a little bit, and it is high time that I gave you some character sketches of the people who are venturing on this journey along with me. So here we go:

• Whitney- Graduated from Brown. Whitney is my roommate! Bar none one of the most fun people I've ever met. She's super sweet and easy to talk to. What I love most about Whitney is her adventurous nature. For example, on the morning of the Fistiki Festival, I simply texted her, "Aegina. Now." She responded immediately-- no questions asked-- with, "I'm on my way." Moments later we were on a ferry. Gotta love that.
• Greg- Graduated from Smith (MA, that is). If you're around Greg for more than 30 seconds and not laughing till your tummy hurts, then you have no soul. Greg is also fearless when it comes to making friends. Whenever we go out, it is guaranteed that Greg will end the night with no less than five new phone numbers. He is also insanely fun and laid back. One night when he was not at home, a few of us got the idea to TP his room (because we're really mature and grown-up). When he got home and saw our handiwork, he said, "Hey! This is awesome! Nice work, guys!" and left it up. I'm pretty sure it's still there.
• Meredith- Graduated from Rhodes. Meredith is our resident French bakery scout. Longing for a croissant or a crepe while in Greece? Consult Meredith. She is very domestically inclined and is always trying to bake yummy concoctions. She also REALLY loves the cats of Athens... maybe too much. Apparently some of them actually got into the fellows' campus house the other day.
• Chris- Graduated from Michigan State. Chris is the return fellow (i.e., he did this program last year, too), and he is Greek American (currently applying for actual Greek citizenship) and speaks fluent Greek. Needless to say, he was an invaluable resource to us during our first few weeks here. He continues to be a walking guide book that we consult often. He definitely looks out for us and is always willing to give advice.
• James- Graduated from Duke. James is my most immediate colleague as he works in the Gymnasium (the word for "middle school" here) with me. James is dry-witted and about a hundred feet tall. He is a very good traveler and often orchestrates our adventures. He and Whitney actually studied abroad in Athens (CYA) during college, so they give us a lot of good input on their favorite things around here.
• Lizzie- Graduated from Illinois. Lizzie is that wisp of "hipster points" that makes me feel like I'm home in Bklyn. She's a vegetarian, reads Kafka for fun on the bus, and wears some sweet thick rimmed glasses. She has a compass inside her body instead of, I dunno, her spleen or something because we could be completely lost, and Lizzie will just point and go, "That way," and she's always right. She is the Madelyn of this adventure.
• Robyn- Graduated from American. I actually met Robyn before coming abroad. She and I coordinated a meeting in DC over the summer, and I would say this was what really put my mind at ease about this whole ordeal. She was completely sweet and laid back, and I felt that even if I hated everyone else (which I do not, thank God!), I would at least have one companion for the year. As it turns out, Robyn and I are kindred spirits. The amount of times that we wind up saying, "No way! ME TOO!" has gotten absurd. She's a great explorer, too.
• Eleni- Graduated from Lesley. Eleni is one of the funniest people I have ever met. She has a Boston/Greek accent and calls everyone, "Boo." She, too, is Greek American and is fluent in Greek. Again, an invaluable resource to us. She is a natural born teacher not only to her actual students here but to us (she has helped me learn a lot of Greek). Fiercely loyal, she almost attacked some gypsies who were fiddling with a zipper on Robyn's backpack one day. She gave me an apple the other day when I had a particularly long work day because she was worried I might get hungry. She is just a gem.
• Claire- Graduated from Brown. Claire loves music and dancing more than almost anyone I can think of. She has broken more than one glass or plate during a night out because of this. Claire and I get along very well and we often bring on those delightful laughing fits where only nonsense monosyllables are uttered every once in a while.
• Alina- Alina is the new HAEF Teaching Fellows coordinator and is just about the sweetest woman you could ever meet. As I mentioned in an earlier post, she greeted us all with handmade gifts when we first arrived. She is terribly approachable and is very patient. Mother of twin boys (bless her).
• Kathy C.- Kathy is the former HAEF TF coordinator (who is out this year as she is a NEW mother of twin boys... bless her), and it is Kathy who got us all set up and started with the program before we even got here. She still makes herself available for questions, and she is a very lively and smart lady.
• Warren Helm- Affectionately referred to by James and me as "Dub Helmz" or sometimes just "Dubz." He is the head of the English Department and a jolly New Zealander who loves doing "wacky" projects in his classes. Whenever he calls us in the teachers' room in the morning and says, "I have an idea..." we hold our breath for whatever ridiculous act he is about to propose. As a proper New Zealander, his contempt for Australia is not disguised, and he will frequently refer to disruptive students as kangaroos ("What a stupid animal.").
• Effie- Effie is the Forensics Coordinator who I have been working closely with recently. She is a lawyer by day but is infectiously obsessed with forensics, so she made herself available to be the head coach for Athens College. She is friendly and beautifully passionate about what she does. She always has the answer, and the students clearly adore her.
• Heather- Heather loves adopting the fellows as her personal charges. She is simply effervescent and a marathon runner. She is also... the mother of twin boys (I gotta get out of here... there's something in the water). She drove Whitney and me home from school once and has promised to hold a hamburger BBQ feast at some point in the year when we all get a little homesick for the good ole US of A. She is American by birth but moved to Greece on a whim and just stayed. She is also very involved with coaching the forensics team.
• Melina- She is the head of the Gymnasio English Department. She is very sweet and quiet but she will get fiery if you question the curriculum or giddy as a school girl if you mention Desperate Housewives.
• Eliza and Silvia- I am putting these two ladies together not because I mean to undermine their autonomy as individual delights, but because when they are together they are the Abbott and Costello of the English department. To call Silvia gregarious would be the understatement of the century. Silvia's signature move is to yell out, "KALAAAA!" (GREAT!) while laughing, grinning, and literally shimmying. When this happens, Eliza is usually sitting right there staring straight ahead and shaking her head slowly. When the time comes for me to leave this place, I feel certain that I will always smile when thinking of that exact image of those two teachers. Eliza, also, is convinced that New Jersey is taking over the world.
• Christina- Christina is 22, and was hired to be a full-time teacher at Athens College starting this year. She was hired on the Friday before the first day of school. We took perverse solace in the fact that there was actually someone at work who knew less about what was going on than we did. She is a rather brilliant lady with big doe eyes, and she might kill you if you take her chalk. Christina and I have become fast friends.
• The garbage man/grounds keeper- He is my boyfriend (sorry, Josh). He is this adorable old Greek man, and I always say, 'good morning' to him, and he gets really excited. He blows me kisses and tells me to have a good day.
• Pappas- He is the "president" of Whitney's and my building, which is like some sort of fusion of landlord and superintendent and "block" owner or something. We've never met Pappas, but we're certain he must have a beard.
• The crazy bus stop lady- Ok. So, there is this woman who is just off her rocker. She has wild curly hair and seems to spend her time going from bus stop to bus stop in our neighborhood and yelling at people. I have no idea what she is so angry about or why she never actually gets on a bus, but I have seen her bang on people's car windows or just yell into empty space just airing her grievances. One day, she yelled something at me, and I answered, very politely in Greek, "I'm sorry; I don't understand." This was apparently the wrong thing to say. She then screeched, in Greek, "You don't understand?? YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND?!?!!?" and then kind of lunged for me with her talons gleaming and spewing all kinds of crazy Greek at me. I quickened my pace and decided not to take the bus that day.
• Mr. Thanos- As you may know from reading the news lately, Greece is rather known for its old bureaucratic ways, and Mr. Thanos is a living example of this. He is The Copy Man. No one but The Copy Man may make a photocopy. If a teacher needs to make five more copies of a worksheet, she has to go through Mr. Thanos first, and he may grant or refuse your request at whim. The key, then, is to make Mr. Thanos love you. How do you know when he loves you? It's the "mou" factor. In Greece, adding "mou" after someone's name is a term of endearment (it means "my"), and it is used all the time. Your grandmother would call you that, your boyfriend would call you that, and your casual friends would call you that. Once Mr. Thanos tags that "mou" onto your name, you know you're in. It's rather hard not to smile and giggle when this darling old man greets you with a "Yasou! Mandee mou!" Mandee mou? Kind of great. Just today, Mr. Thanos grabbed my hands with tears of joy in his eyes to inform me that one of our colleagues who was in the copy room at the time had just become a new papa! His wife just gave birth to-- wait for it-- twin boys. (Seriously? Seriously?!?)
• The Cats and Dogs- The cats. Dear God, the cats. Athens is known for its cats and capitalizes on selling tote bags, t-shirts, and calenders that say, "The Cats of Athens" on them, and it's just not a joke. There are SO many! The cats on campus have recently had some kitties, and well, those are pretty darn cute. Now, the dogs. The dogs are the city folk. Out here in the suburbs of Athens, there are definitely more stray cats than dogs, but as you get closer to the city center, the dogs rule the streets. One woman once described the dogs to me as being "the mayors" of certain areas, and this is absolutely true. They will stand sentinel on their territory and become iconic for that particular stretch of street. The people of Athens, generally, love the dogs. It was raining one day, and we were waiting for a bus from Syntagma Square, and the "Mayor" of the Syntagma bus stop was out in the rain. This old woman did everything she could to find shelter for the dog, herself getting wet all the while. Once the dog was safely under a vendor's table, she relaxed and opened her own umbrella. The dogs are mostly strays, yes, but if a dog is wearing a blue collar that means it is actually "owned" by the city and has been properly de-wormed and vaccinated. They are used to people and are usually just starving for a scratch behind the ears and some love. If you ever make eye contact with a dog, you've probably got a friend for the day. They take that as an invitation to be your best buddy and follow you around faithfully.

So, there we are for now. This list will be added to, I'm sure, so stay tuned and enjoy getting to know these people as much as I am.