Source: <a href="http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=16214&picture=shocked-woman">Shocked Woman</a> by Petr Kratochvil

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:FD_1.jpg

I know, I know...the media's been full of stories about tourists must be careful when coming to Greece now-filling them with horror stories of flying Molotov's, teargas and strikes.  Well, let me re-assure you: as a British gal living here, this does NOT happen every day and actually, because so many people have been 'scared off' coming here (especially Germans, apparently), then the prices are even lower, thus better for everyone all round.






Now back to my point: it's not the Molotov's you want to be careful of, it's the bread! Now, I have images of you all thinking that "Leaving Cairo..." has a witty tale to tell about being poisoned by bread...no, we're back to language.  Let me explain:
"Bread" in Greek is "Psomi" (it is, really...trust me).  But a certain part of a male's anatomy is "psoli."  Can you see much difference between the two pronunciations??  Can you??  And there's me, happily ordering 'psoli' in my favourite restaurant, only to be met with peals of laughter...tears streaming down the face of my (usually) friendly waiting team.  Luckily, as this is my neighbourhood restaurant that I frequent from time to time, once the laughter had died down, they kindly explained my linguistic slip.

So to all those of you who're planning to come to Greece this summer (which I hope you will):

1) Read this post about whether you should still come here or not for a holiday
and
2) Remember: don't order 'psoLi.'  If you think you'll have problems remembering which one is which, then just think of the 'l' as a phallic symbol.

All the best to you and I hope to see you in Greece!
Bex.

This was originally posted back earlier this year.  I've decided to repost it.  Why?  Well, tonight I went back after having not visited it for about a while (belt tightening measures needed).
I decided to treat myself - and oh what a treat!  I ate a new artichoke green salad with the creamiest cheese you've ever tasted!  It wasn't feta and I couldn't decipher from the menu what cheese it was, but it literally melted in the mouth!

Then came the pork chops in orange and honey sauce with caramalized little onions and new potatoes.  I was in HEAVEN! And the nicest thing?  They're don't bat an eyelid when I ask for "paketo" ie: can I take the rest home with me.  Some restaurants in the UK are snooty about such requests.

So!  Enjoy my original post and please try this out when you come to Greece.  Kalo vradi everyone (Goodnight everyone).

________________________________________________________________________________

I don't know why I haven't written about this place sooner. In the Spring of 2010, an old work colleague took me to a local taverna/restaurant in my neighbourhood. Located about 10 minutes walk from a busy thorough fare, yet in a lovely quiet platia (square), Tzitzikas ki o Mermikas is a delightful find...

The name is Greek for those animals that make the high pitch screeching in the trees in the summer. Most people think these animals are Cicadas' - they are in some countries. It's hard to find an English translation for the Greek name of these animals (any Greek person reading this care to provide one?)
And did you know they make this noise to cool themselves down? Anyway, I digress:

Tzitzikas ki o Mermikas has 4 restaurants in Athens in total: Halandri, Syntagma (in the centre and popular with tourists), Kifissia (in the Northern suburbs) and Ano Patissia. The one in my neighbourhood is less touristy, therefore I love to treat myself and frequent it whenever I've had a bad day in the month and want to cheer myself up. I'm lucky: the staff have got to know me now and we often chat, and if I'm lucky, I get a free dessert too!

Decorated with food stuffs from the 1950's, the place has a homely feel.

The menu is varied, offering Appetisers, fish, meat, salads and a variety of wines. My favourite is the spinach, pomegranate and bacon salad with balsamic dressing, croutons and fresh Parmesan cheese. Of the meat, I invariably go for "Chicken Mastihato" - a sweetish chicken dish cooked in fresh cream, Chios mastic alcohol and set atop a nest of kantaifi pastry (the stringy pastry you see with Baklava Greek desserts sometimes). Oh it's DELICIOUS!

Food can be a little pricy - but offers are frequent, eg: 2 dishes for 15 Euros.

Menu in Greek and English

My favourite spinach salad - mouthwatering, literally!

Not only is the food delicious at Tzitzikas ki o Mermikas, you are paid attention to, receive good service and most importantly - friendly too. It feels like I'm going to a friend's house for a meal.


So, enjoy the pictures and make sure when you come to Athens, you visit this highly recommended place.

I wrote a post here about how to get into TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language).  What I neglected to mention was how TEFL can teach you so much about a culture and how they think.  Case in point:

Undertaking a Listening exercise with a group of adults (aged between 19 to 30).  The speaker says 25th December.  The question asks for the date, so the correct answer is 25th December, or Christmas Day (if you happen to know that 25th December is Christmas Day).
We come to check the answers.  One student says "24th December."
"No" I reply, "the answer is 25th December."
"So would I be wrong for writing 24th December? It's only one day out after all."

Source: http://youngglory.blogspot.com/2011_08_01_archive.html

"Er yes, you would be wrong for writing 24th December.  Why?  Because the person said 25th December."
And yet still this person insisted why should they be wrong, when just one day makes no difference?

A thought struck me:  "How long is a fortnight?" I enquired
"About 15 days" they said.  Well technically they're right...it is ABOUT 15 days.  And then it hit me. 
Remembering my experiences in supermarkets and taxis, Greeks tend to round up or down to the nearest 5 and be very approximate in things. 
Example: You go food shopping.  You pay, you need 3c change.  You don't receive it.  Or something is 5.48 Euros.  You only have 5.45 Euros.  They won't bother you for the 3c if you don't have it, often you're waved away with a "Den Pirazi"

This must permeate every aspect of Greek life.  Hence the "why does one day make a difference?"
Well, it does if you're undertaking a Listening exam and need to write EXACTLY WHAT YOU HEAR.

I wrote another post about idiosyncracies' here, way back when I first started this blog.  Feel free to add any of your own to my Comments section.

I'm a very lucky girl!  A couple of months ago, I featured this blog post, about what to love about Greece for Xpat Athens, an Athens based website especially designed for expatriates living here.
Anyway, my post won a free fish spa!  Thanks Xpat Athens!
I've not really won anything before (except maybe as a kid at the fair, and even if I did win a goldfish, invariably it'd be dead by the time I got home).  So imagine my delight when I received the email informing me of my win!

Relaxing surroundings

Nice garden to relax in

Off I trotted today to the Athens Fish Spa, located right near the Acropolis.
Originating in Turkey, and practised across the Far East, this is a natural pedicure and very good for you, I was informed.


I was greeted by very friendly staff, who instructed me to wash my feet in a nearby basin...and then I was presented to the fish!  Sitting on a long bench, I tentatively lowered my feet into the tank, and the little blighters (Garra Rufa fish, to be exact) suckered themselves enthusiastically onto my feet and lower legs and for the next 30 mins, they feasted off my dry skin - and feast they did!  I noted if I splayed my toes, they even took to swimming in between them!



Was I scared?  A little, at first.  But then I discovered it tickled more than anything and once I got used to it, it was kind of relaxing. 

Afterwards I treated myself to a foot massage for 12 Euros, then a toenail paint for 5 Euros. 

I also discovered they do full body fish spas!  Here you can see the tank one is immersed into.

Full immersion tank...

Will I come back?  I think so...I enjoyed the experience and liked the rejuvenating effect on my feet and the little pressure points these tiny fish stimulated.

For more info about the Athens Fish Spa, do click onto the link above for their Internet site.

Thanks Xpat Athens, and thanks Athens Fish Spa!

...with these waiting to greet you!

I stepped out to my local supermarket the day after the elections.  My neighbours still greeted me: "Kali mera!"  The man that sells flowers at the end of my street said "Good morning my sweetheart" in Greek.  People still continued with their lives - with a slightly weary smile, nonetheless, it was still there - the smile.
The international press has vilified Greece for not doing the 'responsible' thing by voting in PASOK, for shunning the political system and punishing them.  Er, I'm sorry - but why is everyone so surprised??!!!  Are you BLIND to what's going on around you?  Clearly Greeks are expected to role over and expose their bellies in submission to the Germans and IMF and continue to have their bellies rubbed by these institutions...to say "It's OK for you to keep tightening the belt on us."

Unfortunately it appears there is no political party that can be trusted.  And if the top is corrupt, what can you expect from the people at the 'bottom'?  A dear friend gave me a perfect analogy: "Shit floats, and sticks together."  No further words needed on that subject, it says it all.

I wrote a post back in July 2011 about Breaking the Spirit. What I wanted to say was that my observations of the Greek people throughout these awful times is that I have yet to see a spirit broken (aside from the media reported suicides we occasionally hear about - tragic).
It appears that Merkel and Lagarde don't like to see people sitting drinking coffee, laughing and slapping each other on the backs.  We are all supposed to be near the brink of suicide in their eyes.

And people in these times have less reason to laugh, to be happy - and I equate this not just to Greece, but worldwide.  Multinational companies engage in unethical business practises to reduce their staffing levels: by making working life hard and difficult for people so that they leave, saving the company money so they don't have to pay redundancy pay.

My message to everyone: don't let these corporate bastards grind you down and destroy you.  Take a lesson from the Greeks - drink coffee, be happy.



Souce: http://www.zazzle.com/vintage_i_love_greece_photosculpture-153550503430590769

April 2012 was a big month for me...I lost my A-Z Blogging virginity!  Blogging daily throughout the month of April, with Sunday off for good behaviour - phew!
Thanks to the the A-Z team for creating this idea and supporting us all the way through the process, I couldn't have done it without their support.

The aim of my posts was to introduce Greece and the Greeks to the world, a place that I now consider home, despite being British.  I hope I managed to capture the essence and truth about this country to people, and judging by the comments received, I think this was achieved successfully.

I met some great blogs and people along the way: Journaling Woman with her great "Stories of the Ruralhood", a 'Brothers Grim' style.  I looked forward to her new missive every morning.
Transitional Woman gave me food for thought with her musings, and was spot on with a lot of her observations about life in transition.
Jen at Living Life to the Full also gave food for thought and is a strong woman with her anecdotes whilst Liz in Tenerife mirrored my thoughts about life as an expat in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain.

And finally, a huge "Thank you" goes to singer, songwriter and author Jessica Bell for introducing the A-Z Challenge to me in the first place, for liking my blog and for believing I can finish my book!

The key to successfully finishing the Challenge, I think, was to prepare the posts in advance.  I tried this as much as possible- and succeeded for the most part (bar the odd day).
OK, so I didn't come away with over 100 followers, but to me the important thing is to get more traffic of people GENUINELY interested in my blog, who will want to come back and visit it regularly. 

So thanks, all of you.  My new friends, followers and to the new blogs I've discovered along the way.

Will just about recover before 2013 rolls around!

Phew! WHAT a month April has been!  You'll have seen I 'blogged' from A-Z last month, having taken part in the A-Z Blogging Challenge 2012.  I was an A-Z 'virgin' and had great fun, blogging every day of the week - a first for my blog.  I met many new bloggers along the way and hopefully helped promote the loveliness of my adopted country and her people, Greece and the Greeks.

Along the way, I found many people asking about how to get involved in TEFL work, so this post will hopefully enlighten you all a little more.


You'll have seen from my profile that, after a varied career in my native country, I decided to take off and do some travelling.  Hence my first foray into teaching English: 4 months in Sri Lanka pre-tsunami.
After a decade of flitting here, there and everywhere, it seemed that I had finally found my 'calling' - teaching suited me...I loved the kids and loved nurturing their enthusiasm and passion.  However, I didn't want to teach back in my own country, I wanted to combine teaching with learning about and living in different cultures, hence I knew I would be better suited to EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teaching.

Upon my return to the UK, I earnestly researched to find the right course.  Here's some invaluable advise to all who're thinking of undertaking EFL work abroad as a career:

There are many organisations that offer TEFL courses (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), but in order to be accepted anywhere and have no restrictions, you need to undertake either the Cambridge CELTA or Trinity TEFL.  Look at the British Council's site for more information on both these qualifications. 
Once you're armed with one of these, you're ready to throw your dart at a world map and take yourself off (within reason, obviously!).  The CELTA and Trinity course usually require you to have a university degree as well.

The next thing to be aware of is the visa restrictions of countries.  For example, many North Americans will find it easy to get work in South America, but harder to find work in European countries.  This is not due to qualifications, but the visa requirements of that particular country.  So do your research.

As mentioned previously, there are numerous organisations that offer their own TEFL qualifications...off the top of my head, Cactus TEFL and i-to-i TEFL offer such courses.  They are usually on line courses and don't offer face to face instruction whereas a one month CELTA or Trinity TEFL includes a certain amount of face-to-face observed teaching contact time, with 'real' students. 
These other qualifications are not without their merit, but just be aware you will be restricted to where you can work and probably only apply for jobs through these organisations.  They will offer a job finder service, placing you in 'their' schools.


www.tefl.com is another website offering invaluable information to any perspective teacher.

Now based in Athens, Greece I have to say, I love the work I do.  Greece is a country that is very much exam focused and driven, but my training has allowed me to include flexibility within my teaching timetable and allow creative thinking, to develop young minds.

To those of you thinking about this as a 'serious' career, do please make sure you choose to take either a CELTA or Trinity TEFL qualification...and whether you end up in Europe, the Far East or South America, good luck to you!

Any further questions, do feel free to email me - email address can be found on my front page.