#w1d

I don’t want to talk about the fear of the unknown that filled my heart the moment I boarded that plane. Deep down I knew I could face everything. I don’t want to talk about the challenges that came up at the beginning, about how difficult it is to get used to the rhythm of the city. Not even about how lonely you feel even though beautiful people surround you so quickly. I just want to talk about the images that fill my mind when I close my eyes. The sea of Thermaikos Gulf on a sweet summer night. The look in my dogs eyes when I opened the door the first time I went back home. The warmth of a mother’s hug that can instantly heal wounds that have formed over months. I will never forget the laughter of my grandfather the first time I saw him on Skype. “Roulal koita! To paidi!” And then tears…

With a view beyond the view: the sky that collapses the boundaries between ‘here’ and ‘there’, no matter where ‘here’ and ‘there’ might be.

With the sounds of cars being no different from the waves I listen to when I lie down in the summers. With birds that come and go. With trees that have silently observed millions of moments of movement. They have set deep roots, and have grown wise trunks and their branches have grown so far away that no-one knows anymore where they have reached. With a sun that is there even when I cannot see it. With thoughts about a country that is asked to satisfy the voyeuristic crowds with one more performance of ancient tragedy about dilemmas that have never ceased to trouble the human mind.

-I lose you, I find you. Are you there? -Go, live, become!

I waved goodbye for one more time to all these familiar faces and places, an integral part of me, what I call family.

I should get used to being apart from all these by now; or maybe not? I arrived in London the 25th of August 2015. I am still experiencing this shift inside me, a challenge that I willingly grabbed by the horns and accepted, as I believe in evolution in all sectors in this life, moreover in my work. I am a guide-dog mobility instructor for visually impaired people. Yes, I adore my job and want to be able to offer through it, at any given moment or place. I try to live in the here and now, exactly like my dogs do in training. Maybe this is the best lesson they’ve taught me so far. We all are visitors in this life anyways, just passing through, let us make the best out of it and leave our mark in every possible way.

I could sit for hours telling you the story of our life.

But since one picture is a thousand words, look again at the photograph that comes with the text. The way you look at us and what you see of us, has to do more with your own experiences and perception and less with what is actually real. Where we came from, where we met, how we arrived here, it doesn’t really matter. Our identity is constantly changing. Our future is being made today based on what we choose, experiences as well as random incidents.

I have been asked so many times and wondered myself how I can live in a place with so little ‘blue’. London is a city with an almost permanently grey sky that hides however an extremely colourful spectrum of faces, languages, food, music, theatre, painting... It is a multi-coloured mosaic of images, smells and sounds from all over the world that accepts and embraces everything different and new.

Hemingway was referring to Paris but I feel the same way about London every time I come back:

‘We always returned to it no matter who we were or how it was changed or with what difficulties, or ease, it could be reached. London was always worth it and you received return for whatever you brought to it.’ (Ernest Hemingway, ‘A Moveable Feast’)

I left because a very good job opportunity came up and it was attractive enough for me to decide to pursue it. However, even just the idea that someone would go abroad for work, at a time when pretty much everything was available to you in Greece, sounded pretty outrageous. Obviously today things are very different in Greece, but reactions tend to be equally polarized: now I am being told that I am lucky to be here and to not have to experience the pressure that our people in Greece have to endure. It feels really bizarre and it annoys me to hear that, especially in the last few years, as this kind of statement has become all too common for those of us who have left the country and made their life in some foreign land. I guess we have a very different definition for luck. Even us “foreigners” experience the Greek crisis, just not in the same way. The emotional transition from one country and everyday life to another is a challenge. You need patience, persistence and clear goals, especially in the beginning. My parents and my oldest friends may be in Athens still, but my life is in England. Which is why, when they now ask me if I ever think about going back to Greece at some point, not wanting to sound too absolute with my response, I say: “I am not planning to”.

Vassilis Korkas / Translation tutor

I left Greece about 4,5 years ago, March 2011. My birthday is in March so I had a birthday and farewell party in one. One of my best friends in Athens reminded me of that. London is a big black hole that sucks out your energy and at the same time, replenishes it by a hundred times. A colourful kaleidoscope not for the faint hearted. Greece is my childhood years and my parents, my friends, summertime, the sea. Also the place where I felt useless and hopeless for a very long time. I still feel like that as things have not changed but have become worse. London is my safe place and my home now. My everyday life is here and the truth is, we only have a story to tell when we visit Greece.