Letters Between Friends Archives - Page 5 of 13

Letters Between Friends: THE PUNISHMENT

April 23, 2016 by Lindsay

Ah HA! You were late too! Beware! Your punishment is coming….but ummmm then I was two days late posting, so…then there’s that…

Dear Lindsay,

Ha ha HA! You were late writing to me, and so I — wait. WHAT DAY IS IT??

Alright, so I am ALSO a day late in writing to you. I do not have nearly as good of excuses are you did, but I’ll offer them anyway:

I forgot.
Last night I went downtown to the anarchist area of Athens.
When I got back to my room, I had to figure out a tax nightmare with my mom.
Mostly I just forgot.

Sorry! I sadly but curiously await my punishment.

AS FOR YOU.

Lindsay’s First “Letters Between Friends” Punishment

Created: April 22, 2016

Must be completed by: April 28, 2016

I hereby challenge you to “take” me to Avanti’s! I want a full-scale documentation of the food, our “conversations,” and whatever else necessary to make me feel like I got to hang out with you and eat some sweet, sweet Avanti’s bread.

Okay, now that that’s done…how are you? How is it finishing up at DHS? I know you love the kids there a lot, and leaving them must be hard. But I also know that you have some really cool future options, and you must be excited to see where they will go! You must be feeling all the emotions!

(By the way, I left you a video message on Skype. Did you get it? Maybe that’s another way we can keep in touch, since we can never seem to coordinate Skyping at the same time!)

Um, me? What a week! We just finished our first full week at HD, and I really love it. The classes are super interesting, and I really enjoy sitting with other women, discussing how the world feels crazy and our desire to have some kind of control can be twisted into something unhealthy (cigarette addiction, work addiction, shopping addiction, *coughNetflixaddiction*). It’s so cool to have a job where we literally just discuss all the ways we are weak and encourage each other to become stronger through education, community, and God.

I hope someday you’ll be able to come to HD and experience it too! There are some dreams in the works of getting together teams in the US to work on landscaping or designing our rooftop space, and I keep thinking about how fun it would be if some Woodlanders came! Like I said, it’s still very new and tentative, but…pray and dream with me!

I love you, dear friend, and I can’t wait to go to Avanti’s with you.

Tricia

Letters Between Friends: MENTAL BREAKDOWN

April 7, 2016 by Lindsay

Music Playing…”Should I stay or should I go now?!” They wrote a song for you Tricia!!

LINDSAAAAAY,

Are you ready for a mental breakdown? Because I’ve been riding one for about a week now, and there is nothing else in my brain other than “WHAT SHOULD I DO??”

Should I stay in Greece after this year? My gut says, “Yes!” because already it’s so obvious that one year is not long enough to really sink my teeth into House Damaris, or to truly start feeling at home in Greece, or to go everywhere and see everything and befriend everyone! But if I say “yes” to staying longer….that means figuring out HOW. Because I’m a foreigner living in Greece, and I need permission to stay. And I’m also working for a mission organization, and they would have to approve me to continue working with them (and maybe change the terms of my working for them – I don’t know!). And I’m also here relying on the generosity of others, so I would need to fundraise again.

(I have started talking to my professional supervisors about all of this, don’t worry. Dina said, “Of course you are staying, I don’t want you to ever leave.” Argyris said, “Maybe you will marry a Greek man,” to which I replied, “I keep telling you to set me up!” to which he changed the subject because here, like everywhere else, there are very few single Christian cool guys to match with the enormous amount of single Christian cool girls.)

It turns out it’s super hard to live in a foreign country and work for a mission organization! Life does not run as smoothly as when I was a counselor or a librarian or a secretary!

But also – it’s SO COOL. I’ve had meetings just about every day this week as we prepare for House Damaris to start, and I LOVE IT. I love starting new organizations! I love the chaos and the organizing, I love the planning and re-planning, I love the smell of excitement (and fear) in the air. It’s SO FUN, and I can’t wait to see what it’s like when the intense AHHHH feelings turn into more routine schedules etc. So I want to stay. For one more year.

BUT DO I!?

What I’m really scared of is this: what if staying for another year includes having to return to the US for six months or a year (to do fundraising and figure out visa stuff)? I don’t think I could do it! Although I’m not in an emotional place where I want to stay somewhere forever, it sounds EXCRUCIATING to live in the US for six months, get all attached to everyone again, settle into a part-time job or whatever, and then WHOOPS, go back to Greece and try to catch up on everything I missed. That sounds awful, awful, awful. But can it be avoided?

I don’t know. The future is scary because it is unknown. The unknown is scary because I cannot control it. I would like to be a chill person who’s just like, “ah, whatever happens, happens” but that is so not me. I am more like, “AAHHHH, WHATEVER HAPPENS, HAPPENS!”

*blergh*

So, dear Lindsay, please tell me what to do. With the caveat that, while I would LOVE to live in the same city as you, there is pretty much no way in hell I will set up permanent residence in Peoria while absolutely everyone from my childhood is married to each other. I know how to avoid SOME mental breakdowns. So other than that….help?

Love,

Tricia

Letters Between Friends: HOW A DAYDREAMER LEARNS GREEK

March 24, 2016 by Lindsay

Tricia writes this week, on Letters Between Friends, about Greek wonderlands both in reality & in her dreams… 🙂

Dear Lindsay,

A couple weeks ago my friend Anthi said, “Do you want to go to a young evangelical conference near Corinth? It will be three days at a five-star resort for € 105.”

Obviously I said YES, PLEASE. Take a look at this place!

Screen Shot 2016-03-21 at 9.27.16 AM.png

Two nights here for € 105! That’s about $65/night. That’s a BEST WESTERN in the US or THIS in Greece. *sigh* I love my life here.

There are two problems, though. The first hiccup is that the conference is in Greek, so I doubt I’ll learn much. Which is, you know, actually really sad for me! I love learning, especially about theology! The second is that it’s supposed to rain in Corinth on Friday and Saturday. When it gets to be too much listening to Greek, maybe I’ll sneak away for some pool and/or seaside lounging, soaking in the….rain. Haha!

But really, it hasn’t really bothered me – not knowing Greek. Another non-Greek at the school gets frustrated when everyone around us is speaking Greek and she says, “Οχι ελληνικἀ!” (“No Greek!”) if it goes on too long. But it’s never bothered me, mostly because I take the opportunity to plaster on my polite smile and then let my brain fade into daydream-land.

The problem is that now that I am learning Greek, people will ask me, “Did you understand that?” and I have to snap back to reality. If I answer honestly with, “Uh, no, actually, I wasn’t paying attention,” then I get scolded and told, “You have to keep your mind on all the time!” Which I do, for like five minutes, and then I get back to deciding what movie I’ll watch next on Netflix (I re-subscribed to Netflix now that my Greek class is over! And because season 2 of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt comes on next month!).

Even though I’m okay with sneaking off for some me time in this GREEK WONDERLAND, I will try to engage! I will try to meet new people! I will try to actually listen when they speak and possibly even answer (even if it’s just “παλἰ, παρακαλὠ” – “again, please”). And if it’s overwhelming, I’ll just go sit on one of those terraces and listen to the sea and let the windy rain whip my hair into a rat’s nest and think, “MY LIFE IS AMAZING,” as I ignore the Greek conversations around me.

Love,

Tricia

P.S. I keep seeing all these cool Mary Kay pictures and comments on Facebook! I want to know more about what’s going on with you and your new business!!

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Letters Between Friends: THE PUNISHMENT

Letters Between Friends: MENTAL BREAKDOWN

Letters Between Friends: HOW A DAYDREAMER LEARNS GREEK

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