Last month Matt and I flew to Athens, Greece where he had a job interview. It was crazy how it came about. In the middle of this past summer we came to a point where we had enough of Dublin. This was because summer is the WORST season in Ireland. Never have I seen such erratic, unpredictable, and miserable weather as an Irish summer. Wind, rain, and then more wind and rain. You cannot plan for anything because the weather is constantly changing all day long. Anyway, in the midst of this we started talking about where else we thought we might like to live. Oddly enough we both felt drawn to Greece- Matt for the weather and beach and me for the biblical history. So Matt contacted a heart hospital by email just to see if they would even hire an English speaker. Low and behold they emailed him back and said they would hire an English speaker and that they were looking to hire a perfusionist right now. They wanted to meet him the following week. That wasn't going to work so for us so instead he sent them his CV and they scheduled to fly him out to Athens for an interview. I did not go with on his interview to Ireland but I thought I had better go with to Greece. We were really excited but did not know if we could handle a non-English speaking country. This seemed to be the biggest obstacle.
We did as much research on Athens as we could before we went. We heard many things about the city- mostly bad things like how crowded, noisy, and polluted it is. We arrived at night so we didn't find out too much the first night but we did go out and have some good Greek food. The next two days Matt was at the hospital for his interview. We went and explored the city at night. My first impression was that it was really big, dense, and loud. It was also dirty and run down looking. And the Acropolis was hard to see because of the height of the buildings in the city center. To begin with I wasn't too thrilled. The one thing I did like was the landscape which reminded me a lot of Turkey and even Tucson. I was leaning towards Dublin until I walked down towards the harbour at sunset and then rode the light rail along the coast out into the suburbs. Then I began to like it.
On our last full day in Athens we went to the archaeological museum where I saw many things from ancient Greece- things that were in the market place Paul walked through when he came to Athens- idols and altars. After this we went to the Areopagus where Paul preached his famous sermon in Acts 17. I sat on the Areopagus and read this sermon aloud. It was awesome!! We then ascended the Acropolis. I expected this to be an impressive site but once I was actually up on top I couldn't believe how utterly spectacular it was!! Looking out over Athens was just amazing. There are a few ancient structures left on the Acropolis but the most impressive by far is the towering and mighty Parthenon. I could have sat there all day taking turns looking at it and then out over the city to the sea. After exploring the Acropolis we headed over to the ancient agora where Paul had walked upon his arrival in Athens. It is just ruins now but an exciting place to see nonetheless.
Matt was offered the job in Athens but no decision has been made yet as we are waiting to hear back from the hospital regarding some questions we had. Whatever ends up happening will be okay with me. I think it would be an adventure to go live in Athens for a while but if that is not what God has for us then I will be content in Dublin as I have finally made a home here.
Enjoy the slide show. The pictures with me on a large white rock formation are of the Areopagus where Paul preached- SO COOL!
