He's back in action!

Almost one year ago I came to study in Greece. At that time I had never lived outside of Boston, I had limited travel experience and my knowledge of a language other than Greek consisted of 6 forgotten years of Spanish. Now that the year has gone by, I’ve acquired somewhat of a sense of living outside of my comfort zone, I have done a bit of traveling and my knowledge of Greek is, well, slowly beginning to catch up to my knowledge of English (this is not necessarily a one way street...in other words, English is also running to meet up with Greek :)).

But seriously, I never lived alone--always with family or close friends. Moving to a foreign country, foreign culture, foreign language and living...alone...was a transition...is a transition. None of this is to brag. 2 years ago I would have laughed at the thought of doing these things. God is good. Thank you.

Thessaloniki is suffocating in humidity. It’s actually getting better, and it’s really not all too bad. Tonight was the first major protest in a while. Still need to find out what they were protesting. There was a big convention, with big political names in town. This is probably what it was about. Cops in riot gear abounded throughout the streets...actually more than I have ever seen. We walked across Egnatia--the main drag--after the protests had ended, and inhaled the gaseous wasabiness (otherwise known as tear gas) that gave us a good sinus flushing. Mm, mm, good! Needless to say, on the way out to the seaside, as we passed some riot police, the topic arose of anarchy, freedom and order--what are they really and where do they come from. We (meaning myself and the friends I was with) were discussing the fact that these principles can often be assigned to the “other,” which could be the government, other people, institutions, the armed forces etc etc etc. In other words, when we discuss these principles, and even ACT on these principles, we rarely consider ourselves as being the primary mover and instigator. I could be causing anarchy? I could be playing a role in freedom? No, these are outside of my domain--things that I can enter into but do not create or diminish myself. But alas, they are. If we do not, as my friend said, enthrone Christ as the head of...what...government, institution, family, OURSELVES...then we are creating anarchy. Also ties in to how each member of the Church is a PIECE of the Body of Christ. The more that each peace sees itself as a responsible member (both for the sins and forwards movements that it makes) the more the body can work together for its goal.

Anyway, enough soap-boxing: just some interesting conversation. We also talked about the need to be real with yourself, with your friends, with God. Nice conversations.

School starts in a few weeks. Greek for real now--masters classes. It will be a challenge for the first year, but what better way to learn a language?

Try to post some thoughts and nice experiences from the summertime.

Ok, more to come soon hopefully :).