1st Few Days in Athens Mother said to never get in a car with strangers……

After witnessing a huge “boo fest” at the Singapore Airport between Amanda & three of her close friends I boarded the plane with a distraught 15 year old. Mind you I’m only 2 weeks post-surgery and can only lift 10 lbs. Amanda was stuck carrying & lifting my two carry-on’s. The flight from Singapore to Istanbul was uneventful. 12 hours and we arrived early in the a.m. It was just our luck to be on a plane that did not pull up to a gate. We had to climb down steep stairs and board a “bus/tram” to the terminal. This meant Amanda carrying my rolling brief case, a heavy, large Vera Bradley duffle & her backpack. Almost more than she could handle. Now you may ask why the hell did they bring so much? I had my laptop and all our important files stuffed my brief case & all our electronics & jewelry in the other bag. None of those items could be checked. I’m asking why the hell didn’t Rick insist we have a direct flight, like the one he took 3 days later? Why must I do things the hard way…Murphy’s Law. So Amanda schlepped all our stuff around the airport in Istanbul for 3 hours. Time to board our 1 hour flight from Istanbul to Athens. Again board the bus/tram, cram onboard with all the other passengers. Climb the steep steps onto the plane and take our business class seats. What a joke….it was a three seat & three seat plane. Business class consisted of 4 rows with the seat in between vacant and used as a table/arm rest. No extra room in seats or for legs. Of course I get the only seat where some ass has to recline his seat in my face for the entire 1 hour. So rude!!

Day two we had a driver pick us up at the hotel and drive us to ACS (American Community School of Athens) for 9:00 a.m. appointment. We arrived at the counseling office and Amanda was taken to complete her math placement test. I was told to go visit the nurse & transportation office to take care stuff. Then wait in the library for the hour to 1.5 hours the test would take. Amanda would meet me there. After 2 hours I was getting worried so I went back to the counseling office to look for Amanda. She was sitting in the counselor’s office scheduling classes. As luck would have it the computers in the entire school were down and the scheduling had to be done by hand. 2 hours later and after me insisting that Amanda could not handle taking both chemistry and physics at the same time (don’t they realize we are not talking about a rocket scientist here?) we were done. They tired to tell me that you need 3 lab sciences to get into college. I was like since when? I have just had 2 kids graduate college in the last 2 years and they did NOT have 3 lab sciences to get into college. Amanda will be going to a liberal arts college and we are not taking physics. The only way her schedule would work is if they put her in 11/12th grade P.E. After 2 hours of sitting there I was like whatever…. Did I mention the poor counselor had only been in Athens for 2 weeks!! Then I was like what about a locker, gym uniform, student ID & password so she can get her assignments off “blackboard”? At first they were like oh she can take care of that whenever. I was like NO we’re here let’s get this done so she doesn’t have to worry about it. We were taken to the “new” principles office where we were told that the man who takes the ID pictures wasn’t taking pictures for the next 2 days. I had also found out that Amanda would need her ID in order to pick up her books. So I very loudly said, “Well if she can’t get her ID or her books until Monday then why should I bother to send her to school for the next 2 days. They of course looked at me like I was nuts, “but she’ll miss valuable learning time”. Me, “We’ll she won’t be able to do her homework so what’s the point?” Then they called the picture taking guy over who was on campus just doing “other” things. He said he’s take the ID picture first thing Thursday morning. GREAT! Now how do we get a locker and gym uniform? Well you go to the lady who issues locks get a “chit” then go to the casher and pay for the locker. Oh and while you are up there also pay for the gym uniform. 75 Euros for 2 gym uniforms, “they are Puma” big fat hairy deal!!! And 20 Euros for a locker (you get it back when you leave the school if the locker is not damaged) we are talking over $100 USD. After waiting 15 minutes to pay the cashier, we went back to the locker lady to giver her the receipt and then around the back of the school to find the gym teacher. The gym teacher has us follow her to a storage shed full of uniforms. She can only find the “summer uniform” but not the winter one. She keeps our receipt and says she’ll look for a winter uniform later and give it to Amanda some other day???? Still waiting on that…….. I was like where are your parent volunteers to help you hand these out? Gym teacher, “oh we don’t get any help? WTF? There is a PTO what the hell do they do? By now Amanda & I are both on the verge of tears. She is whispering to me, “I want to go home (Singapore).
We stop back at the counselor’s office and they were able to give us a real schedule printed out. I asked if they could call us a taxi, we were told the “Security” at the front gate could call us one (I had no cell yet). We walked to the front gate and approached the fat Greek “security” guard and asked him to call us a cab. He looked at me like I was putting him out. He supposedly tried to call us one but couldn’t get through and told us to walk out to the main road and haul one. After 4.5 hours at the damn school, Amanda & I hot, tired and jet-lagged walked to the road and after about 10 minutes thank GOD got a taxi to take us to our hotel.
We walked into the hotel and I lost it. Rarely do I cry unless I’m watching a sad movie or reading a sad book. I proceeded to Skype Rick and tried to tell him in the middle of my hissy fit what had happened. He of course was having dinner out in Singapore with his colleagues. I basically hung up on him because he was not in a place to listen to my melt down. Finished my good cry, pulled myself together and walked with Amanda to T.G.I.Fridays for dinner. Did I mention I got my period the next night….maybe I was just PMSing and the day really wasn’t that bad??

Thursday was Amanda’s first official day at ACS. She broke my heart as she climbed into the taxi to go to school wiping tears from her eyes. That’s when a mother feels like shit for moving her kid. After that drama a friend of a friend picked me up. I know my Mother taught me not to get in cars with strangers but I did anyway. Sorry, Ma. Stephanie took me down south to the 15 euro a day beach. Just what I needed. Stephanie is from Montgomery Co., Maryland and graduated 1 year after me at a rival high school. We had lots to chat about. The “expensive” beach was wonderful. Nice wooden chaise lounges with cushions & pillows, umbrellas, bathrooms, Starbucks and Fridays!!! The water was crystal clear with tiny ripple waves. I could only get in up to my thighs but it felt so great. I forgot to say that ALL the women wore bikinis but ME, I’m totally serious or they wore just bottoms. Of course I stuck out like a sore thumb; they could all tell I was an American by my tankini. I guess I’ll bite the bullet and get a bikini. It’s going to be a sight for sore eyes, literally. I wanted to go topless once when we were 1st married in the Caribbean but Rick was like NO way. I should have told him to fuck off; I was young and had a great body then. Now after nursing 3 kids I look like an old dog with his ears hanging low. I told Rick I was going to go topless & he doesn’t seem to be worried about this….my God you’d think he’d be humiliated. What’s wrong with this picture? Anyone know where I can find a size 12 bikini in Greece?

Friday morning Rick arrived early! We walked Amanda to the bus. I had arranged with transportation to start picking her up near the hotel. She waits in front of Ruby Tuesdays! We got picked up and taken into the Coca- Cola Hellenic office where they gave Rick his ID card & temporary car; an Audi A6 station wagon. A very big car for the narrow streets here and Rick doesn’t like driving big cars. We then drove to the mall to pick up a GPS and grab some lunch. Of course we couldn’t program the GPS because it wasn’t charged. We were able to get our old GPS to work and found our way back to the hotel with me gripping the passenger roof handle and pointing out where Rick needed to turn. The streets are wicked narrow, cars drive and park wherever they want. Wild dogs run along side barking at your car. It’s pretty intense and it’s no secret in my family that we think Rick is a bad driver. It was stressful and then you must parallel park. We could have opted to go down the “car” elevator into the car park of the hotel. It’s under the hotel and you have to put the car on an elevator, talk about tiny space. Did I mention Rick has poor depth perception? And I was wondering today why my jaw hurt. I must have been clenching my teeth the entire time!!
Friday after school Amanda texts us to say she wants to go to Starbucks with Morgan. Morgan lives in our town and is American/French. They show up at the hotel a bit later and ask if she can hang out in town for the evening. Okay fine…..She doesn’t come back until her curfew at 11p.m. We did check in with her and she was bonding with several other American kids in town. Our town, Kifissia is a quant walking town with tons of shops, cafes, parks and a train station into downtown Athens. Meanwhile Rick starts having stomach issues. Some of you know he was plagued with stomach issues on and off the entire 16 months he was in Asia. This a constant source of irritation for me because he has lost 20 lbs and kept it off. Me I got sick with a parasite had to go to the hospital and lost NOTHING. Now I just had some organs ripped out of me and still I lose NO weight. So here we go again…..Rick looks like he did 25 years ago and I’ve still got a 20 lb. tire around my freaking waist!!! That just isn’t fair!
Ahhh day 4….. After walking to a café for breakfast, I mean Starbucks. We took the car out again. This time to IKEA near the airport. We made it without fighting and with Amanda saying Rick’s driving was making her car sick! I have lived in Asia twice and I’m telling you I have never seen so many people in once place. Every Greek & their Uncle Kostas was there. Parking lot was a mess and Rick not so good at parking big cars….we park on the street and walk the distance to the store. Of course half the items we wanted were “out of stock” due to “strike” Did I mention that Greece has about 5 different “strikes” going on at the same time all the time? I was like okay then we’ll order stuff online and Rick was like fine I’m happy to pay extra to have it shipped get me out of this place. Little did I know Greece does not have IKEA online ordering until I got home and online, again Murphy’s Law. I love Murphy well not really but he sure loves me! We made a few purchase and walked back to the car. Then we went into a large appliance store to buy and have delivered a washer and dryer. Greeks think American’s are crazy to use dryers. Whatever, I’m having a damn dryer for my towels and jeans. After a long debate we get to the cashier with our “merchandise ticket”. We called our banks last week and told them all we are moving to Greece make sure we can use our credit cards. Banks, “ok no problem” NOT! Card was denied. But we just used it yesterday at the same store at the mall, WTF???? I say then use your Singapore credit card, again denied. We leave…..then Rick says I guess I could have paid cash, you think dumbass? Me, “If I had known you had a wad of cash I would have reminded you.” Off we go to the mall……This time Amanda does not get car sick. We get something to eat, we’ll Amanda & I eat. I talk Rick into a coke (he usually only drinks water, how boring) he needs the sugar etc for his sick tummy & he picks at some mashed potatoes. Me I eat a hamburger, a few fries and 2 cokes (gotta support the new company. I love to eat…right now my only vice. We send Amanda off for an “athletic” swimsuit. Gym teacher says she must have a Speedo and swim cap for class. She is not thrilled to say the least. She has eight 11th & 12th grade boys in her class and 1 other girl. She will have to swim every other Monday!!! I find this hilarious. She calls me on the cell to come to the dressing room to look at these athletic suits, “they feel weird”. I guess so they are modest and cover you up. She’s not used to this.
So Rick says lets go to the appliance store here at the mall and try and buy the same washer/dryer what we tired to buy at the airport store. Okay…… he again ties to use the damn U.S. MasterCard & it’s denied but remembers he has the cash and pays cash. Why we couldn’t do that in the first place is beyond me but I have stopped trying to figure out this man a long time ago. I’m not going to bother to bore you with what it’s like driving the “big” station wagon in the narrow parking garage with Rick and using the machines to pay for your parking ticket. We get out of the parking garage to find its raining. This is a huge deal because it has not rained in 3 months. We had been warned when it rains the streets flood. This is true. We make it back to the hotel, parallel park the Audi with success and now I’m writing this blog……..