In Greece: The Waiting Game

 We are waiting. Again. 

Our cat Nermal perfects the art of waiting

On the day that I had planned to finish this blog post, we were waiting for the return of our electricity which means we were also waiting for lights, heat, the internet, and water pressure as each is tied to electricity where we live in rural Greece. This six-hour power outage was 'planned' and we knew it was coming. Still, there isn't much one can do but wait when an outage strikes. 

Waiting just might be the national pastime in Greece. We've come to think of it as a game, 'the waiting game'.  It isn't for the faint of heart or those who are easily frustrated. While it doesn't require much skill, it requires utmost patience.  

Waiting out the latest African dust storm

'What do you do to fill your days in Greece?' we were recently asked by an expat wannabe. 'We wait for things,' would have been the most honest answer.  Things can include but are certainly not limited to waiting for the latest African dust storm to end, waiting for a repairman, for an appointment, or renewal of our residency permits. The common denominator is that we have no control over when the 'wait' will end. 

Instead, we told the wannabe about the errands and chores that must be attended to when living in the rural Peloponnese, the place where we make our expat home.  Then we sang the praises of all the fun things to do here and how much there is to love about this life. 

And there are many things to love. Waiting, however, is not among them. But a wannabe expat will learn about it soon enough. 

In fact, becoming residents requires quite a bit of waiting these days so they'll get introduced to the waiting game early on.  The process that once was a few months, now takes more than a year.  

We applied for our renewal a year ago in April, so maybe in a month or so we will have a biometrics appointment (fingerprinting) and hopefully a few months later we will be issued the wallet-sized card that makes us official for another couple of years.  We've learned when 'waits' last this long you really don't think about them that much. 

The Scout waits at our village service station

Waiting is a part of our new cultural environment.  Here work gets done when it gets done, appointments happen when they happen, and life goes on:  Siga, siga, slowly, slowly. Those of us who come from a deadline-driven lifestyle sometimes have to conjure up a double dose of patience to handle this indifference to the concept of 'as soon as possible'.  

 

Learning a new language requires patience

Those 'prepare for expat life' articles that proliferate the internet, advise that patience will be needed for the big things, like the slowed down pace of life which can lead to long waits and for endeavors like learning to speak the language of your adopted country. We are lucky in this part of Greece as we don't have to learn Greek to be able to communicate. 

Yet, I continue my Duolingo lessons in hopes of being able to one day be able to ask in Greek how long a wait will be. However, I may need to wait a bit longer to master that one. On the same day that Duolingo congratulated me on my 455-day learning streak, it taught me to say, 'The dwarf has the diamonds'.

I've not yet needed that phrase, but I am certain that if I wait long enough, the time will come, that I might.    

The Scout waiting at the village bank branch/post office

What those articles don't address are the little 'waits' that when they begin to build, can bring an expat to their knees. The wait for repairs and replacement work can almost break the most patient of people. We are experiencing a construction boom here, so waiting for a tradesperson to return a call is often an almost endless wait in itself. Then getting the work done is another wait of indefinite time. 

New furnace sits waiting to be made operational

In early December we had to replace our failing furnace, or boiler, as they are called here. The new one was delivered in a matter of weeks and then sat next to the old one for six weeks before installation was completed. It was finally up and running just before our house sitters arrived in mid-January.

Call the repairman said the thermostat

Three weeks ago, it quit working, and we called the installer and waited a week for him to respond to our message. Then we waited another week for someone to come and make the necessary adjustment. 

Waiting sometimes calls for a coffee break

The furnace quit working while we were waiting for the landscape crew who normally whip our garden into shape in January. Their annual task is heavy duty pruning and fertilizing the garden, the latter being best applied in January we were previously told. They are so busy they hope to get here sometime in March. No worries as this year, they said, March is the best time to apply fertilizer.  

No one to talk to at the bank without an appointment

At the same time, we were - and still are - trying to get an appointment to speak to someone at our Greek bank in Kalamata. Our account has been closed due to inactivity. Guess we 'waited' too long to use it! The account can only be reactivated after an in-person meeting during which time we must show copies of electric bills, phone bills, our house contract, our passports, and our residency permits. 

No appointments are available until the end of April and have to be made via email.  We've sent the email requesting the meeting, now we wait for the bank to respond with an appointment date. 

When the 'waits' get up to three or more, we consider the game tedious. Very tedious. And just as our patience starts wearing dangerously thin, one of the 'waits' actually ends and you simply feel recharged and victorious!

Such was the case in February before the furnace quit working. The Scout had called to reorder the oil used to fuel the furnace. The oil provider is a service station a half hour from us. The owner, Nikos, is an enthusiastic young man who has a can-do attitude and a smile on his face.  He told us he'd be out 'in the afternoon or tomorrow'.  

Wine and pizza ease the wait time

The 'afternoon' got to be 6 pm and dark, and we gave up that day's wait. We set off for some pizza and wine in the neighboring village. Literally as the waitress put the wine glasses on the table, Nikos called to say he was at our house, ready to pump the oil. Despite our gate being locked and the grounds completely dark, he assured us he could fill the tank.  As for payment, no problem, he said, he'd drive over to the restaurant and we could pay him there.

Within the hour Nikos parked the big ol' oil truck in front of the cafe. Sure, he could have a glass of wine with us. And he did. We had a great conversation during which the said he'd like to bring his girlfriend by our house sometime to see our view.  We told him to bring her for wine and mezes this summer. He finished his wine and said he had five more deliveries 'that afternoon' and off he went.  

That time we felt victorious. Sometimes though the only way to beat the waiting game is to quit waiting.  And that's exactly what we've decided to do.

'Road trips' are best done walking aboard a Greek ferry 

 We have arranged for a kitty sitter and are setting sail next week on a Grecian 'road trip'.  After spending a night in Athens we are off to Syros, in the Cycladic islands then we'll take an overnight ferry to Kos, in the Dodecanese islands.  Then we get really wild and crazy:

Dodecanese islands beckon

We will check the local ferry schedule and set off for an island, maybe two islands, maybe three islands based on what suits our fancy. No waiting involved . . .other than for the ferry to arrive!

Thanks for being with us again and we send wishes to you for good travels and short wait times, for whatever it is that has caused your wait!  Hope to see you back again soon - bring a friend or family member along - don't wait!

 

 

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Cyber-attack, Curmudgeons, Critters and Covid

Our trip began with a cyberattack so we probably shouldn't have been surprised that it ended with Covid.

Such was the start and end of our trip to America.  A trip that will go down in our travel memories as one of 'those' (roll of the eyes) trips. The kind that had a mind of its own and no amount of planning could have anticipated its unexpected twists and turns.

Not this trip to Manson!

Admittedly, the challenges could have been far worse. On the flip side, it could have been far more pleasant as well. We know that you travelers among us can probably relate to 'those' trips; the kind that adds little or nothing to life's happiness quotient. 

The Scout now describes ours as one in which 'our expectations were low, and they were met or exceeded.'  

On the home stretch: heading to Seattle

As expats living most of the year in Greece, but with a home base in the Pacific Northwest, our travel back to the States isn't what we think of as a vacation or holiday. House repairs/projects and health appointments are scheduled months in advance of our return and then we fit the good times in around them. 

Our calendar was filled with 'must do' items and interspersed with the 'want to do' fun things. We'd find a balance between them, or so we thought as we set forth. . .

The Cyber Attack

Seattle, Washington

Our US gateway airport is SeaTac, just outside Seattle, Washington.  Our noon arrival some 24 hours after we'd left Kalamata, was on a warm mid-August Sunday - a time when the airport is normally pleasantly empty and getting through baggage claim and immigration is a snap.

That is unless you arrive the day after a cyber-attack on SeaTac brought down its internet systems, disrupting travel for thousands. 

Luggage carousels sat idle at SeaTac thanks to a cyber attack

Surprisingly the airport's international terminal was indeed empty. Very empty.  Our British Airways flight was the only arrival. While we hadn't been caught up in the initial cyber strike, we got a dose of its continuing fallout. Those impacts made headline news for days as travel disruptions and inconveniences continued.

The Scout waits at SeaTac for our luggage

Even with just one arriving flight, the wait for checked luggage was very long. A wait so long, I called the rental car company to assure them we would still be picking up the car sometime that afternoon. 

Those who've made that trip between Europe and Seattle know how brain- and body-numbing it can be. We'd entered a new degree of numb by the time the bags arrived - but we were among the lucky ones because they did arrive!   

Aftermath of cyber-attack took days to clear up

A month later SeaTac was still dealing with the hackers. In mid-September the low-life criminals demanded six million in bitcoin be paid to them in exchange for the information stolen from the airport.  I am happy to report that SeaTac hasn't given in to the demands and the FBI continues to investigate.

The taxi driver just didn't understand my excitement

Late arriving luggage seemed a hallmark of our trip. Those same two checked bags didn't make it on to our Kalamata flight before it left London on our return to Greece in September. We arrived on a late Saturday night and the bags arrived the next day. They were delivered by taxi to our village.  Because we have no house numbers or street names, we met the taxi at the beach cafe near our house to pick up those bags.

The Crank and The Curmudgeon 

                                      Crank - an annoying, ill-tempered person                           

                         Curmudgeon - ill-tempered person, often stubborn and grouchy.

The fence saga that I wrote about while in the states really did end up being a saga. Suffice to say the planned three-day project sucked up three weeks of our month in the States. Its price doubled, sucking up a few thousand more dollars than it should have. 

We worked on the fence as well to get it done by the time we left

While our 'concerned neighbor' (that I likened to Gladys Kravitz, in my last piece), will likely continue in her role as the roaming neighborhood crank, she will meet her match should she focus again on our place. An unintended consequence of her meddling was my transformation from once-good-intentioned-neighbor to curmudgeon:

Should the crank resurface the curmudgeon is ready

Shakespeare, I believe, describes the new me well!

Critters

HiHo Silver was away for a week

A few weeks into our stay in America we got a message from our house/kitty sitter in Greece asking about a warning light that had come on in 'Hi Ho Silver,' our Toyota RAV. that she was driving in our absence. 

Believing that electrical wires might have gotten damp in a storm, she took the car to the local repair shop and after three days of test driving and checking, they couldn't find the source of the problem but pronounced it safe to drive until we could get to the dealership in Kalamata.  The headlights and brakes worked, even if nothing else on the dashboard did: no speedometer, no gas gauge no temperature indicator. 

The car went to the dealership a week ago. It took the mechanics but a minute to diagnose the problem - one all too common in rural areas: 

'Rats!' they said, showing us an air filter full of dark brown droppings the size of grains of rice. 

The rat did it!   (Photo credit: Axleaddict.com 2008)

 'Leave the car - it could take days to isolate the damage and order parts,' they added.  

We rented a car from company run by a FB friend of mine. It pays to have FB friends especially when you tell them you have no idea when you'll return their car.  Living here, he understood our problem.

Happily, I report that within four days the wires eaten by the little critters were located and replaced.  'Hi Ho ' is home again with moth balls and critter repellant lining the engine. 

Covid: The Climax

It is Covid!

So why not end the fun fest with Covid?  It seemed a fitting climax. 

We give little thought to Covid these days. Seldom do we see anyone, especially travelers, wearing masks. I no longer pack them when we travel. But Covid is still out there. Our house sitter reported that it had struck her down two days after her return to New Mexico.

 Although it knocked us flat for a couple of days, in reality it was no worse than those colds and flu we used to get. And my new motto is: it could have been worse! 

Now three weeks later we are back in the saddle at our Stone House on the Hill. Our area is gearing up for olive harvest which will kick off the end of October.  

Thanks for your time. Good travel wishes to you and yours.  And how have your trips gone this year?  Have you had one of 'those' trips as well?  Tell us about it in the comments or shoot us an email. Always good to hear from you~

 

Saving Time in a Bottle

Just when you become comfortable, maybe even complacent, change happens. 

In June the government issued new requirements for Greek residency permits for third-country expats, like us. 

The news was seismic in the expat community; as well could be the changes!

The game rules have changed: time out!

I liken it to changing the game rules once play has started. We are now on the field in the timeout period waiting for the referee to clarify the new rules of play so the game can begin again. 

And we are wondering if we still qualify as players or if we'll be booted.

Greek Game Changer

A seismic change in residency permit requirements

After nearly a decade of staticity, Greece's residency permit was recently overhauled.  It was lengthened from two to three years. The name changed from FIP (Financially Independent Persons) permit to the 'Residence Permit for third-country Nationals with Sufficient Resources'. 

But the most riveting change is the increase in the amount of income you must have to live in Greece.  

The joy in getting that plastic card, the permit, that lets us live in Greece

The monthly income requirement for individuals has nearly doubled, going from 2,000 to 3,500 euros ($3,824US). Two people, filing as a family, will be required to have 4,200 euros ($4,584US).  Because we originally applied as individuals we will need to show 7,000 euros a month in income.

The alternative to the increased monthly income is having stash of 72,000 euros ($78,663US) deposited in a Greek bank account (that's up from 48,000 euros or $45,089US). 

Mid-morning: tellers closed their windows despite waiting customers

The amounts are the only thing clearly defined in the new requirements. And for many expats and expat wannabes, the increases alone could put expat life out of reach. 

For others who could meet the income requirements, it will be a matter of how the proof of income is defined that determines whether or not they qualify. Must it be strictly a pension payment or will passive income, earned on investments, count? 

Greek banks aren't known for their customer service.  So that higher amount to have on deposit isn't a warm and fuzzy option for those of us who've dealt with them. Will savings accounts and investments not in Greek banks count toward the requirement?

'What if' and other questions. . .

We, and most of our American expat friends in the village, are in the midst of the permit renewal process. Applications and documentation for the previous requirements were submitted and accepted by the authorities months ago. Now we wonder if we will be required to start over, file addendums, or get grandfathered in (most unlikely of the scenarios).  

Unsettled times

Expat social get-togethers in recent weeks include a conversation or two on the 'have you heard anything about the permits?'  And occasionally we touch on - the proverbial elephant in the room - 'What if we don't qualify?'  

Needless to say, it has made for a somewhat unsettled summer in the third country expat community. (A 'third country national' is anyone who hails from a country outside Greece or the European Union). We've all had moments in which we ponder our vaguely uncertain futures. And we've all been a bit more reflective on our time here. So much so, that I've decided a song from my teenage years could be the theme song for the summer of 2024. . .

 Saving Time in a Bottle

If I could make days (in Greece) last forever. . .

Back in 1973 singer-songwriter Jim Croce sang a love song about making days last forever, making wishes come true and saving time in a bottle.  Back then, as teenagers, it seemed like days did last forever as we awaited adulthood. Why the need to bottle it? We were far too busy marking time to think about saving it. 

If I could make days last forever

If words could make wishes come true

I'd save every day like a treasure, and then

Again, I would spend them with you

I'd save every day (in the village) like a treasure. . .

Fast forward a half century and the song's lyrics are hitting home loud and clear this summer as a love song for expat life in Greece. I would fill my bottle with. . .

If I could save time in a bottle

The first thing that I'd like to do

Is to save every day 'til eternity passes away

Just to spend them with you

. . .Time spent watching summer sunsets. . .

I'd save summer sunsets and winter storms

. . . and winter storms. . .

The village parking lot after a winter storm

Time spent traveling the backroads. . .

Backroad adventures

. . .even time spent in traffic jams. . .

Local traffic jam

Time spent in the olive grove. . .

My friend Mary and I harvest olives

. . .from harvesting in October. . .

Princess and Maggie in the olive grove

. . . to walking amid wildflowers in March, exploring with my cats. . .

The Scout and our friend Captain Antonis

Time spent with friends - both Greek and expats from other lands. . .

Fellow Americans, friends, who we'd never have met in America

 and even fellow Americans whom we'd never have known back in the States. . .

House projects included, installing a new hot water tank

Times spent making improvements to our Stone House on the Hill . . . 

Enjoying our Stone House on the Hill

. . .and times spent enjoying it. . .

                                                              But there never seems to be enough time

                                                      To do the things you want to do once you find them. . .

Make the time ~ find the time ~ enjoy

Summer's end is fast approaching, and as with every season it does seem we never have enough time to do everything we want to do.  One thing is for sure this year, we are approaching all things with a bit more reflection and appreciation.

Thanks for the time you've spent with us today and to those of you who've followed the residency journey for as long as we've been on it: your continuing interest and support is most appreciated!  

Enjoy your travels and your everyday adventures. Until next time ~

Losing Touch

It was a copy of People Magazine left by our recent houseguests that brought the point home: 

Living in the laidback Greek countryside, I've lost touch.  

Summer in an olive grove

People Magazine tells all there is to tell about America's celebrities and public figures. Problem was, that aside from 79-year-old Tom Selleck, most recently of television's Blue Bloods, and the recently deceased O.J. Simpson, I didn't recognize many of the names of those famous folks.

People Magazine - who is doing what and where

I've lost touch. It is as simple as that.

 And what I found most amazing about that realization was that I didn't care who these people were, nor did I care what they were doing when the paparazzi photographed them, even if it was while they grocery shopped or frolicked on some exotic holiday. 

Losing touch with the other world

Being an expat and losing touch with the everyday world you left behind, to a certain degree, go hand-in-hand.  

As American expats we've lost touch with the familiarity of doctors, dentists, and hairdressers we had visited for years. We've lost touch with routines of shopping at the corner supermarket, visiting the dry cleaner and filling the car with gas at the regular service station. But with each of those has come the challenge and exhilaration of creating new familiar and favorite routines in the Greek world.

What has been tough is losing touch with friends and family. 

We knew it could happen.  We'd read the articles about expat life and knew that losing connections with friends back home and loneliness can bring down the most enthused expat. Yet, as with all unpleasant possibilities, one reasons that it couldn't possibly happen in your world. 

Losing Touch

'Losing touch' with friends is quite a widespread phenomenon apparently experienced by many of the 230 million expats worldwide.  And with 18 percent of those expats being more than 61 years of age, they likely have a good number of friends and family with whom they want to keep in touch.

Loneliness is often cited as one of the most difficult aspects of expat life. The inability to make new friends and the absence of family and longtime friends are often the reason expats choose to return to their home country. 

Friends at Your Fingertips

So, when you look at the speed and ease of communication afforded by today's technology, there is really no excuse for losing touch, is there? 

With a scroll through Facebook and Instagram postings we are able to celebrate birthdays and holidays, graduations and weddings. We can share in the sorrow of loss and send well-wishes to those who are ill.  

US, Canada and Greece - we talk face-to-face twice a month on WhatsApp

WhatsApp, Facetime, Messenger and other such programs allow us to visit face-to-face with friends no matter where in the world they are living. And doing so is always a day-brightener!

 

Weekly email 'coffee klatches' keep us in touch

Even writing emails - now thought of by young people as a somewhat old-fashioned communications tool-- keeps us up-to-date with the comings and goings of friends.

Luckily, we have a cadre of dear friends who are committed to keeping in touch while we are in Greece. Several of us write emails as if we were visiting regularly together over coffee. We chat face-to-face with others. Skype has made texting together was easy as if we were just across town. 

Emails, photos and Skype keep these childhood friends together

Staying in touch is done both with precision regularity as well as at random out-of-the-blue contacts. Now, despite being thousands of miles apart, we are up to date with each other's lives, everyday activities, travel, health, even weather. 

As the years have passed my definition of 'staying in touch' has become so relaxed that it includes writing a comment on a FB or blog post. 

Poof! Just like that, they are not heard from again

Yet it has been with some incredulity that we've realized there are some -- thankfully, not a lot of --friends with whom we have simply lost touch.  Poof. Gone. No communication from them and no response to attempts to reach them.

Moving On

An article in Expatica.com, a website 'by expats for expats', offered an interesting take on losing touch: 

 'Don't be afraid of losing friends who won't or can't commit to keeping the connection. . .it gives you more time to invest in those who are willing to make the effort,' it offered.  

Reasoned one expat about the topic of lost friendships on Reddit, an American social news website, 'People's lives go on and you've moved a different direction. Many friendships are based on common experience and close proximity.'

'It's hard to stay in touch with all the friends we make through life. Scientific studies show we maintain 150 relationships at any given time in life,' wrote another.

One of the most obvious bits of advice offered to expats is to quit fretting over those who've dropped out of sight and make new friends.

Friends in the expat world

A meet up of multinational expats on Easter afternoon in the village

 

As of last year, according to the World Population Review, there were 23,297 American expats living in Greece.  The number pales in comparison to the 799,248 living in Mexico, but still, it seems like quite a few to those of us who are a part of that statistic.  

Morning coffee at the beach cafe with friends

In our slice of Greece, we have a diverse blend of expats friends including Americans who hail from the Pacific Northwest, California, the Southwest and Northeast.  Those from further afield hail from Canada, Belgium, Turkey, England and elsewhere.

Thankfully our expat life in the rural Peloponnese has been filled with new friends, both expats and Greeks. Although making friends takes time, just like it did back in the old world.  

We find that the lifestyle here probably has us socializing more with friends here than we did back in the States as logistics of getting together are so simple. 

An evening spent with neighbors is always a great evening

Our Stone House on the Hill is set amid eight other homes on a short stretch of road just outside the village. Our neighborhood is an international one with France, Britain, Peru, Germany, Greece, Switzerland and America represented. We are blessed that we are surrounded by kind and caring people and that we have all become friends.

 Silver and Gold

A toast to lasting friendships - old and new

Back in the 1960's Girl Scouts in America had a song they'd sing around a campfire that was a simple ditty with a powerful message:

 'Make new friends but keep the old. One is silver and the other gold.'  

It could be the theme song for expats. 

And with that thought we close for this week and send wishes for safe travels to you and yours.  We are heading off on an adventure. . .one that we said we'd 'never do' and yet here we are doing it! We will tell you about it next time!