My Greek Life. The Money And The Matters.

A quiet night in Rhodes, while sitting on our toiletseat-less apartment's balcony and enjoying every little breeze that comes by. Days are incredibly hot here, and drains the energy right out of you. Although life here gives a lot of it back too.

Today after yet another trip to the ATM I started to add up the sums of my bankaccount and got to calculating the difference between money and life. And the balance of it. We need money to survive, that's a known fact. But do we need more than the basics? And what are the basics for a human being? I had a conversation with a Greek friend today whom I recently met, and who has been living here for 5 years now. There's a bar nearby the hotel where we all work and I never saw him there, so I asked what the reason was. He usually goes out in Rhodes town, but his payment didn't get in yet - and he works 7/7. No day off. For 5 years, except for the first year when he got here because then he was an apprentice chef, and they get a day off a week.

My good friends at the watersportcenter have a day off, and I as an animator am intitled to a day off too, and a night off. We have a 09h to 23h job, with some intervals - which I really enjoy. For example, I have time off from 17h till 20h every day. Couldn't miss that. It's the time I look forward to the most, because then I usually go windsurfing, work-out or just write and check my mails. But then I get started again, and finish at 23h. And my pay.. Well, let's face it, it's crappy. So is everybody else's, and almost everyone of us left a pretty wealthy country to come over here.

But my days are so full here, and life is so enjoyable. Everything about life on this Greek island is rich. Except for the actual cash, including my own bankaccount.
Then again. What if I had a nine to five job like I did back home for two months, a full bankaccount and a bottomless pit of worries and complains? Like most of the tourists who come here, really. The ones we all work for. Putting it on the scale, this life here wins. Full monty.
And not having too much money - let's say only the basics, is incredibly necessary. Because if we did have more cash, life here wouldn't be this sweet. The little things in life get appreciated, and you get to understand what really matters.

Our daily life in the boiling sun, being it on the boat or on the beach. Our trips to the beerbridge, playing "who can trow a cigarette the furthest" and listening to sweet tunes. Our barbecue-evenings at Monolithos mountain. Singing, playing guitar, and watching the most amazing sundown you've ever seen. Our nights in Lindos, when we treat ourselves to incredibly good and fine cuisine, after weeks of crappy hotelfood.
This is the life. And there's nothing else like it.
I can resume it all in one sentence I said earlier today. "There is nothing more enjoyable to life than the people you can share happiness with, and the creations that tickle your senses."
And as the admirable Ellen - a Belgian girl who moved here two months ago for Basti, my German windsurfteacher - said at my collegue's goodbye dinner yesterday: "It's all love."
And there is no greater truth than that.

Always yours

Joles

My Greek Life. The First Chapter.

So I'm in Greece. Rhodes to be exact. The village of Kiotari to be even more precise.
I'm working as an animator for Belgian and French hotelguests, doing a really sports-orientated program.
Didn't know I had it in me to be so in shape, fit and energetic. Taking care of your body is indeed of great importance. And it gives you an amazing feeling. You are the owner of your own body, soul and mind.
I've been here for 17 days now - and at the end of this month I will have lived in Greece for 6 weeks.

Today, while I was on the speedboat taking pictures of a couple having a ride on the crazysofa (not what you might be thinking), I realized that I can't imagine living anywhere else than on the beach. Or atleast near one. The gift that nature has given us is so immense and so intense, really there are no words for it. It's truly breathtaking, and the realization of the transcendent force nature has on us is one to be incredibly grateful for. Life on the hills, life in the water, and the beautiful, beautiful sky. And the sun, which is another phenomenon to be grateful for, because without it, we wouldn't exist.
 Days can be long and tiring working as an animator, aswell as short - time really does fly by when you're having fun - and a true boost. I got so attached and used to this life in such a short period of time, adapting to life in the grey citystreets is going to be a great task.

I also got my flightconfirmation to go back home mailed in today, which sounds like such a weird and abstract idea to me right now. I'll probably be looking forward to it the last day of my stay here in Greece - just to see everyone I love again, but then again, that will only take a second.
I do look forward to see and feel that one person in particular which I have an incredible connection of pure love with. Which means another flight. After 6 months of not seeing eachother and not feeling eachother's presence, I can't wait for it. I am counting the days to see him back again, I must admit.
Every person is unique and has the power to leave a great impact on you. And there are thousands, if not millions of those around. And you should let them make that impression on you, aswell as you should try to leave an impression on them. But in this great present, to me, there's no one like the one I met on the crossroads of Amsterdam.

For now I'm going to enjoy every second of life here on the Greek island of Rhodes, and live - truly live.
Wherever you are, being it a grey city or an island of blue - do the same. Live.

J.