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Latvia

Just a short update. I've flying to Latvia in three hours. I'll be living in Riga for a bit. Now you may be a little confused since my initial Belgian training shouldn't end until NEXT week, and I wasn't supposed to fly anywhere until next month. Frankly, I'm confused too. I guess I got promoted. Anyway, just wanted to update y'all. I'm frantically packing and getting ready, so I don't have time to say anymore.

This just in...

Ok, after a ton of im's and wall posts, I probably should update my blog with my newest job opportunity. I flew to Atlanta last week to interview for an international marketing firm. (They aren't based in Atlanta, that's just where the recruitment happened to be.) It also happened to be where Bonnie is living, so I totally got to visit her! (More on Atlanta fun times later.) After an information session, group interviews and a personal interview, they offered me the job! I will be moving to Belgium to start my two week training in the middle of August. The training will be at their offices in Overpelt, the Flemish part of Belgium, an hour from Brussels and 45 mins from The Netherlands. They own an apartment complex nearby, which is where I'll stay, along with the other newbies. I've actually been in contact with this company since last year. I really liked them, but I already had a job lined up in Greece, so when they told me of the recruitment this past weekend, I jumped!

After my training, I'll have anywhere from four to 12 weeks of on the job training, where I'll be placed with a team somewhere in the world. They have teams in most every country around the world, so the sky's the limit. After that I'll have my own team, again, in a country somewhere. I'm terribly excited.

So, you ask, what is it you'll be doing? Well, I'll be an International Project Consultant, which you're thinking doesn't explain anything, and you're probably quite right, so I'll give you an overview. I'll be creating, designing and writing reports on the country I'm stationed in for magazines and newspapers like the New York Post.


And now for something completely different. Fun times in Atlanta! After my interviews on Friday, Bonnie showed me around Atlanta. It's a beautiful city with no more than 10 square feet ever without a tree. It's so green and leafy. When we had just flown under the cloud cover to fly into Atlanta, all non-native Georgians gasped at the sight of all the trees. We could hardly see the roads and buildings there was so much foliage. One lady said longingly, it's like Northern California. We're so rain deprived here it's pathetic.

Anyway, Bonnie took me to The Varsity, a local favorite! I tried the Frosted Orange, the chili cheese fries and a chili cheese hot dog. The FO was like a dreamsicle in a cup. Absolutely amazing. It has such a fun atmosphere. And the workers wear the cut little paper hats and belt, Whata ya have? to those ordering. It's quite the place. I thought it was absolutely, insanely busy while we were there, with over 27 registers open and lines spilled out into the dining room, but Bonnie assured me it was quite slow!

After eating we went downtown to this way cute planned city-within-a-city. It reminded me of San Francisco as all the houses were smooshed together and painted pretty colors. I had my first experience at an H&M. It was a fun shopping center with local artisans setting up around the street.

The End of a Season

The season is ending. The restaurants and hotels are closing and so is mine. The town has completely died. Where once there used to be bright and cheery hotels and restaurants are now only dark and empty shells of buildings. It's kind of creepy. And yet... I like to walk around at night because it's so peaceful. There is no one around. There are probably only 30 tourists in the entire town meaning, the beach is perfectly quite and empty. It's just me and the moon. And the moon is quite bright. I enjoy my late night walks.


Remember the colorful umbrellas and lounge chairs? Well they no longer line the beach. Now it looks like a regular beach, but I'm so used to it being covered with chairs and umbrellas that now it looks naked.


I was overlooking the beach taking the above picture, when I realized I was Queen of the Island. So I took a pic. Guess where the camera was.


And here is where all of the beach stuff went. Just piled up next to the side of the hotel next to us. It's odd and sad, but colorful!

Alpha Beach Hotel

This is my new hotel. I have an entire apartment to myself. It's so fabulous. I'm now in another city on Rhodes called Kolymbia. This is a really sleepy town. It's so cute and quiet. At this hotel there are a lot more Greek people working here. There is one guy from Serbia who's teaching me Serbian, one chic from Poland, one couple from Bulgaria and one chic from the Czech Republic and then one Greek/American chic. She grew up in Maryland and then moved back to Greece when she was 14? or so. It's a fun group.




This is the palm tree lined walk down to the beach. I enjoy it.



This is the front of the Alpha Beach Hotel. Those bikes are for the tourists to rent. The first one is the one I use (although, I get it for free).



This is the backside of the hotel. We are situated on a slight incline, so the steps at the end of the pool go down to the beach, bar and activity center.

This is the beach from in front of another hotel down the beach. Check out the color of the umbrellas and lounge chairs.


Now here is the exact same beach looking to the right. Notice the color of the umbrellas here. I never asked how the colors work, if a certain company or hotel has dibs on a certain color, or if it's to keep the beach looking like a rainbow. Who knows. But I thought it was interesting.

The Brits Love Me!

As my last night with my co-workers in Ladiko, we all went out for the last night. So as I was walking to the club with my Polish buddies, these two British chics starting talking with our group and when they realized I was American they absolutely loved it, and wouldn't let me stop talking. They actually said they loved my accent! Usually I'm the one fawning over theirs, but there you have it, they love me back. It was quite fun, although they didn't talk as much as I would have liked.

Meanwhile, clubbing with a bunch of crazy Polish co-workers is interesting. Not all of my co-workers were Polish, some were from Slovakia and Bulgaria, but they were all crazy. If you ever get the chance to go to Poland, or speak with Polish people, I would definitely recommend it! They sure know how to party.

Kos

Kos is a really small island in the Dodecanese in the Adradic Sea. It is 4 miles from Turkey. On a clear day you can see the cliffs of Turkey! That is where I flew first. Then I went to the town of Marmari. It's a cute little town where the main mode of transportation is ATV. :) For the tourists of course. I stayed there for a few days until I wasn't jet lagged anymore.
This is the sign that greets you when you get off the plane at the airport. It's dark, because the airport hadn't even opened yet. And yet, I was there...


This is a pic from the dock to catch the ferries in Kos Town looking towards Turkey. That's how close Turkey is!

I could cry

I figured out how to put the language back to English! Oh happy day. I have no idea how it changed in the first place! I figured it was because I was in Greece, but even when I came back to the states, it didn't go to English. So now I'll write about my time in Greece!

Help, Blogger's gone Greek too!

So, I haven't posted for a while, because Blogger has decided to only display Greek. I'm still not sure why. When I said "Go Greek" I meant it purely as a fun headline, not literally. And I can't seem to fix it. Mclissa had the bright idea to just learn Greek, but that doesn't seem to be working. Anyway, I finally figured out which link to click on to post something, so I guess now I can post again. But it's a pain.