My beautiful fiance.

     More than anything in my life, I wanted to meet someone and feel that absolute certainty, that I had met a partner in life and love.

   My previous relationships, as nice as they were, had a common thread running through them; a gentle undercurrent of disappointment that I tried to silence .At the same time, I was trying to glean relationship wisdom from wherever I could, but it seemed like all the wise people were divided cleanly into two camps.  There were the people who said things like "Once you meet the right person it would be the clearest thing in the world" and from the other end I had people who said "Relationships are about compromise and sacrifices. If you break up with a woman who wasn't perfect you will regret it for the rest of your life". 

   It was a sunny day in August, when I finished with my work that afternoon and I went to visit my cousin. My cousin told me that she was hanging out with her friends at her place and I realized that was a good idea to go there and hang out with them. When I first met Sandy it was the scariest moment of my life; because from the moment I met her I knew that she would change my life. 
  Before her in my relationships I wasn't  paying that much attention, because I knew those are not going to last. When our eyes crossed together I felt something in my stomach. I can't explain that feeling even now. I start talking to her because I wanted to find out more about her and her life; I  mostly wanted to know if she was in a relationship. Thankfully she wasn't. I asked her if she wanted to date with me and I got an answer - a big "YES" with a beautiful smile on her face. After hours of talking and talking I had to go; because it was already five o'clock in the morning. Before I say good bye I grabbed her and gave her one of the biggest and most passionate kisses that I could ever give to a woman. As soon as I got home I couldn't sleep; I was thinking of that all night. I fell in love with her at first sight.

On our first date

   Now we have been together almost five years. We have been through a lot, nice days and bad days. Our first obstacle in our relationship came when I had been called by the army for my duty. Then we weren't together not even a year but our love was stronger than the distance and she had the patient to wait for me. That means a lot. I cant imagine any other girl doing the same thing. After the army we were together again and happy because we had each other besides us. 
   Life had even harder plans for us and the army wasn't the hardest one. After the crisis in Greece I had no job or a degree to find one. My family moved to the United States and I had to follow them for a better future. That future I built in my mind with her. When I left Greece I left my whole soul and my mind over there because of her. It was the hardest moment of my life. We stayed apart for another year; again our love was stronger than the distance and she came and visited me. When she came it was Thanksgiving and I had a surprise for her. I gave her an engagement ring and told her that I wanted her to be my wife and live with me for the rest of her life. On her face she had again the same beautiful smile when we had first met and with tears in her eyes she said yes.  

Here is when I gave her the ring

   Now I am trying to finish with her paperwork to bring her here and stay with me and I am not going to leave her alone never again in my life. I love her so much and I want her to be the mother of my kids; because a woman like Sandy Iwill never find again.

New chapter in my life.

    Starting a new chapter in my life is not that simple. I left my country to come to the United States for a better future; I can see that the future is coming but not as soon and it is not as simple as it seems. To succeed here I need to educate myself, be patient and make the right moves to bring that bright future that I want in my life.

    My life now is in a routine; I have a job and I am going to college. I am working at a local diner which is located in Wilton, Connecticut as a waiter. I don’t like it that much because I didn’t mean to be a waiter but this job pays for my tuition fees and I am glad for that. Also I am a student at Housatonic Community College. I am taking two English classes to improve my English language. At this point of my life I am living with my mother, my step-father and my three brothers in Stratford, Connecticut. It’s hard for me still living with my parents because I am a grown up and I could have my own place but this is hard to archive because a small apartment cost a lot and I don’t have the money or the right job to be able to rent one.

     In the near future I see myself still in college for my bachelor degree in Web Development, which is something that I wanted to do from the day that I came to the United States and I realize that this is the right job for me. While I am at this point of my life I want to have a job based on my education and it’s going to be something that I am not going to be bored.
    Between all those I have a fiance too; that I want to bring her here and live together the rest of my life with her. To bring her here we need to get married; we both want that, we need to be patient because the paperwork takes some time to be done. I am planning to do all those things in 3 years from now; be with my wife in our own apartment, have a better job and complete my bachelor degree.

Me and my beautiful fiance.

    I hope to succeed and live a simple life with my wife and my kids; but kids are not in the near future right now. I have to be patient, find a better job so I can earn a good amount of money and be able to rent my own peaceful place, to raise my kids with love and live my whole life with my beautiful wife that I love so much.  

Paradise for me is my home town.

I am very fortunate that I was raised and lived in this place. My home town, Vrontou Pierias is a small city with not over five thousand people, located at the feet of the tallest and biggest mountain in Greece, the great mount Olympus where the twelve Greek Gods lived, and Poets wrote Greek mythology. I can easily say that my home town was blessed, everything is beautiful and the plants are growing fast in the fields. Most of the people there are farmers or they have big fields with kiwis, grapes and tobacco.

Mount Olympus has many secret places that you can visit or even climb. There are so many paths that I can follow and lead me to amazing places. Churches have been built at the edge of a big rock, at the gorge of the mountain or near a small river. There are so many places in this mountain to describe to you but if I do that it will take me two days of typing. Sometimes when I wanted to relax, to clear my mind and get some fresh air I went to the mountain with my bike and I sat on a rock with the view of my town and the sea. It was so quiet the only thing that I could hear was the music of the birds.

From the other side of the mountain we have beautiful seas and plazas with crystal clear water that you can swim and enjoy the sun. One of the greatest feelings that I’ve ever had was when I was swimming at the sea with 90 degrees and I could see the top of the mountain full of snow. I felt excitement with that beautiful view in front of me.

In my childhood me and my friend were free; we had that freedom that the kids in a big city don’t have. We were ridding our bicycles or playing soccer in the middle of the street without a problem or fear that a car could hit us. It is a friendly environment to raise your kids, but you have to work hard at the fields to be able to feed your family and that’s the hard part of the story. Fields of kiwis, grapes or tobacco are hard, you have to be there all day working hard. All that is summer time work with the sun above your head and burning your back, it’s hard to do work under that situation.

Now I am here at the United States, everything here is different; kids here don’t have that freedom and the people are not enjoying life. They are living to work not to work for living and they dont do anything to enjoy their life.

I left paradise because of the crisis in Greece and young people like me don’t have future there.   The only place that I could work over there was the fields and I didn’t want to spend my life working hard in a field to earn a small amount of money to feed my family. I wish everything was different; I wish I could stay there, find a good job and stay at this paradise with on my right hand the mountain and on my left the beautiful seas.    

Proud leader of an armored tank.

Armored tanks are made to be driven by strong men; and I am proud to be one of them. I served in the Greek National Army for fifteen months as a second lieutenant and I feel proud.

I was the leader and the head of my tank, the name of it - Leopard 2 A6HEL. When I first stood in front of it I felt small and weak. It was more than ten feet heigh, it weighed more than seventeen tons and it had 1,479 horsepower. All that made me feel tiny and scared, but inside I felt excitement because I knew that I was going to be the leader of that big monster.  

Leopard 2 A6HEL

One day in November we had a big practice at the base and we were going to shoot with real missiles, twelve each. I caught myself being nervous and scared, because that was my first time sitting in the leader’s seat. I was the commander and I had to give the correct orders to aim and shoot the targets. In every round we had to shoot 4 targets when we were on the move; and that’s really hard to do, because it’s difficult to aim and lock the target while you are on the move. It was my turn now, me and my crew descended into the tank and we were waiting for the green light from the captain who was on the radio. While I was sitting in the tank and waiting, I could easily hear my heart beating so hard and I thought that it was going to come out of my chest. 

Here I was taking driving lessons of an older version tank.


After a few minutes we started moving and shooting targets. I had the control of the gun and I did pretty well in every round. Firing with that big gun was really noisy and I could feel the power of the acoustic wave hitting on my body. After our last round I heard from the radio - “Congratulations, Congratulations, you hit all the targets” it was our captain, I felt so proud at that time because we actually hit all the targets at once; and it felt so good to hear my captain giving me congratulation, when I knew that I did well.

That was one of the greatest moments of my life and I am not going to forget it. I want to tell these stories to my kids and my grandkids and make them feel proud about me, because serving my country is an honor for me and my family.

Leaving Your Homeland Is Hard

LEAVING MY HOMELAND

 

Moving to another country was not easy at all. It is basically like starting a whole new chapter in your life. I lived in Greece ever since I can remember. I spent 21 years of my life surrounded by family, friends, and familiar places. I knew that at some point I would have to move out of the country and come to the United States since my mother had already moved; however it did not seem real until the day before I was going to board the plane and leave Greece behind me for a long time. The day before I left, I decided to spend the day with as many friends and family as possible. There was a strange vibe in the atmosphere and time seemed to go by very slowly. I thought the more time I spent with the people I loved, it would be less difficult to say goodbye.

The day I was flying out, my closest family and friends came along at the airport to say goodbye. It was all laughs and jokes, and none of us were thinking of the fact that we would not see each other for a long time. This all was until the announcer spoke on the loud speaker calling all the passengers on my flight to start boarding the plane. Everyone got so silent that I could hear my own heart beating so hard and so fast like I had never felt it before.

I started hugging and saying goodbye to everyone. I was still keeping strong and I had not yet broken a tear but not until my fiancé’s turn came to say goodbye. She was full of tears and could not say a word. I gave her the biggest and warmest hug I had ever given her in the three years we were together. I could not help it and I broke out in tears.

The announcer called the number of my flight again and asked all the passengers to board the plane immediately. I took my bags, said goodbye, and walked towards the gate. The airport was small, and I could see everyone while I was walking towards the gate. My fiancé was now crying on my father's shoulder while everyone else was waving their hands towards me.

Now sitting on my seat in the airplane, the only thing that was in my mind was how it would be when I got to the States. I was so excited to see my mother and my brothers, I had not seen them in over two years and the excitement was growing even bigger as the airplane was moving towards my new homeland.

The trip was long and very tiring; time seemed to be going backwards and I could no longer sit in the airplane. The nine hour trip seemed like days. When we landed we had to wait in the plane until it was our turn in the economy class to get off. My excitement was over the roof and I could no longer stand there waiting. We got off; I checked in with immigration, took my bags, and I walked towards the exit. When I exited, I stood there frozen waiting to see familiar faces; I was scared that I would not recognize them since it had been so long, but I guess you never forget your mother's loving face.

Life in the United States is much different than life is in Greece. People only mind their own business and it seems that they are on "fast forward" mode. I have been working since I arrived at a local diner and I am now going to build my future. Going back to school at the beginning seemed like a crazy idea and I thought that I would never make it a day back in a classroom; but here I am now, going strong, and I do not want to change a thing.

   
   

Welcome

Welcome to my blogspot. Here I am gonna share with you my story line so far.