Greek In the Big Apple

Summer in New York is well dreadful and horribly sticky and smelly and  hot hot hot! (I was trying very hard not to say this about my adopted city but unfortunately its the truth) I did however enjoy moments of late summer evenings when the intense heat would cool down and the sound of my fan would buzz in the evening air. Central park in the evening with people strolling with their friends after a night of theater at the Public, people running in droves to hang out in the grass to catch a ray of sun during their lunch hr at work, and the weekend escapes to the near by beaches.... beautiful music in the air at Prospect Park Bandshell..... just how the city comes to life after a dreary winter season.... and it was exciting ! my New York summer was about  Long walks with friends near Astoria park in Queens.... beating the heat with an iced tea at a near by restaurant  quiet moments at the roof top of friends taking care of one of my favorite doggies  and breath taki

December 1st  2013…… a year of the Yogirabbit in the Big Apple. This post was very difficult to compose... To put it mildly, I was sobbing half the time I was putting this together. So many emotions have come up. I have now been in New York City and the U.S a full year….This year has been one of discovery, joy, pain, doubt, tears, laughter self exploration, new and old friendships. The stories are many and the ups and downs more than a roller coaster ride at a theme park.  The anecdotes of my day to day life here could fill the pages of a tell all funny memoir. I have had many disappointments but also plenty of pleasant surprises to balance the hardships. I left Greece Nov 30th 2012 arriving on a sunny Sunday afternoon on December 1st with so much apprehension, fear and joy for the unknown and what would lie ahead. I had no job, no clear vision of what I wanted to do here but with a great sense of adventure and purpose. When I first arrived there countless friends and acquainta

I have had the opportunity to be out and about in New York a lot lately. Noticing the city again for all its strange and wonderful moments. I had been "absent" for a while and not really looking or observing the city for all that it had to offer. Yes its crazy and hectic and very hard and expensive and competitive and absolutely heart breaking some times to maintain a life here but for all its difficulties it has moments of calm, joy, and laughter. There are intriguing, interesting and kind people who have shared their stories with me embraced me in their lives and showed me their special New York hideouts. This past month in pictures exemplifies that for me, and it made me observe and understand why I came here in the first place…. so I will let the images speak for themselves.  and the New York love story is a complicated one :)..... I am grateful to be here even through there are tough and confusing moments, there are also moments of pure joy and bliss. In the end it is a

Its November in New York City and the time is near for the holiday season to begin. The days are getting shorter the temperature is getting colder and the signs of winter are showing on the fallen leaves and the bare branches. There is a beautiful tapestry of colors and smells that evoke the slowing down of nature...All nature is going into hiding, and somehow so are we. Spending more time indoors, drinking warm tea, reading a good book, and quietly reflecting on the closing of another year. I took a stroll with a yoga buddy near Williamsburg Brooklyn the other day, and walked by a small quaint park, a hidden gem in the midst of the hipster pomp and circumstance that colors much of what Williamsburg has become. Tucked between the arty lofts and semi illegal apartment complexes was a beautiful little slice of nature. Couples were walking hand in hand with out a care in the world and little kids ran with glee through the piles of fallen leaves. It was calm it was exactly what we neede

Its 12.30 am Halloween Night, and I'm out walking a dog for a friend of mine... in Chelsea. I usually am not up this late…. I keep yogini time. Sleeping at 10pm and waking up in the wee hours of the morning before the sunrise to prepare for daily practice. I don't go out much in the city and certainly not in Chelsea, so this was an experience reminiscent of my teens and early 20s! I've done my fair share of clubbing back in the day, New York, London, Mykonos,  and Athens. I've had my taste of late night parties in some basement somewhere with crazy music and even crazier outfits. Strong and vibrant memories of the Limelight in 1997 when it was an AMAZING club with music that made your want to dance all night. Yes then god was truly a Dj. It was full of all sorts of people from every walk of life. Gay, strait, transexuals, guys in leather pants and dog collars, women wearing as little as possible, flashy wigs and bright red lipstick. Every expression of creativity

October 28th, 2013 It's been a very rough couple of weeks here in New York,  I have been moving around from place to place, no real home, and in constant search of some proper fulfilling and steady work to support myself. On the other hand I'm convinced, there is some purpose to this nomadic life that I've chosen. Or has it chosen me? Either way, I am learning a lot about resilience and perseverance. Some amazing friends have become pillars in this shaky new life, while helping and supporting me in so many wonderful ways. I know that any struggle that I may face, is worthwhile. It was a shock to the system having to look at myself in a new light after being in a haze of balancing my existence half here and half back in Greece, talking daily with people in Athens. I had to make a choice and look at things differently if I was to make the most of this. Homeless yes, jobless yes but not with out the energy and the means to make something interesting happen! It will mak

Cakes and Dog Parks.....my new york rant My latest journey in to the world of employment in New York City ever since my return in September was an interview at a east village bakery. I went on a whim and applied for the simplest job skill wise that I've had since college. I went into the bakery today dressed as well as I could for a customer service position and spoke to the manager who was at least 10 years younger than me and probably paying for grad school with this job. I don't mean to be bitter or coy but hear me out. I have been unemployed,  or how the tough as nails- look good even though you feel like shit crowd say- between jobs for two months now, and I have found myself in the dilemma of why I came into this city in the first place. I left Greece to make a new start... yes I never thought it would be easy but now its entering its eleventh month of humbling me into wondering how low can one go?  I've discovered many wonderful things about this grand city but a

New York has the tendency to suck you in and fully absorb you.... I've been away for quite some time from writing down my thoughts and ideas and sharing my images of New York and of this little adventure and I must explain why.... It all started with the first days of spring. I kinda fell in love one might say with the change of the weather and also fell in love with this city... and as one falls in love one forgets to do the basics. You are completely and utterly absorbed, you forget to eat, sleep is not an option and constant stimulation and exploration of this new love came to take over my life. I saw only this new love as the beginning and end to my day.  I am discovering new things about my object of affection. New corners and streets to this city and new friends to explore it with. But like any new love you tend to see only the good sides. this new love is demanding with your time wants your full attention and acts like a little child when you ignore it. Like any new love

This past week I celebrated my 35th birthday in New York City with a group of lovely friends old and new spanning 13 years of living and going back and forth between Greece and the United States. There was a moment of realization that I've come back to where this life of living and being in two places started. I spent my first New York birthday with some of those same friends 13 years ago at a small underground bar in the Village where we all were a little younger and more eager to face life and its strange twists and turns.... but here we are and still enjoying every moment wherever we might be. And now that we are all here smiling and enjoying each moment as it comes, I raise my glass to my fellow travelers. Cheers and thank you for one of the best birthdays one could ever ask for.  Ευχαριστώ πολύ όλους τους φίλους μου... μακρινούς και κοντινούς που μου έστειλαν την αγάπη τους και την ενέργεια τους... και στα επόμενα 35 εδώ θα είμαστε. :) 

Friday March 9th leaving the city on an Amtrak train bound for New England. I find myself back in familiar and familial territory this weekend, traveling by train from New York to meet my parents and good family friends in Greenfield Massachusetts. Train travel in the U.S can be an interesting harrowing, and educational experience or just a plain drag depending on what you want out of traveling. Many commute with trains every day others take long distance trains from city to city... Train travel is quite different here than in other countries in Europe I've been too recently. France for instance has an extensive, well developed, high speed and modern train system, people rely on the TGV for fast reliable travel between cities in France as well as Belgium.  Greece on the other hand does not... Train travel in there is frowned upon and very badly maintained. Very few use trains to travel from city to city and those who do don't have a very pleasant experience to recount. It

Filoxenia /Gratitude φιλοξενία / ευγνωμοσύνη  I have now been in New York for three months, and after many weeks of searching, I have finally found my little corner of the city to call home...What one may call a room of one's own.  When looking back at the past three months the generosity the open hearts, the open homes, and the care I have received from my friends here in the city has been the corner stone and building block of my new life here. It brings me to tears to realize that without these wonderful and amazing people I would not have been able to survive let alone get a start in this new path. There are old friends who have opened their homes, supporting me in this effort by reassuring me while lending an encouraging word at moments of doubt, and new friends who have helped me in small and big ways from helping me find work, to looking for a home and listening to my rants in order to keep me sane and focused on my goal of transition. I don't know how I could

Early morning in New York City is a rare time of day. It's an opportunity to see and be a part of a rare ritual of moving from night into early morning even before everyone else starts their day. This beast of a city moves at a rapid rate at all hours of the day and night but there are those few hours just at the edge of dawn where the city is almost quiet. For the past couple of weeks I've been waking up at 6.00am heading to morning Mysore Ashtanga practice at the Ashtanga Yoga New York studio on Broome street... the studio is run by Ashtanga Yoga veteran teacher Eddie Stern. He along with his wife and a team of lovely assistants have been my yoga family since the first week of my arrival here in the city back in December. Every yoga student needs a yoga family and since I've been here they have been my yoga family. Now that I walk in the studio I see some of the same people every day doing their Asana practice and in a rare moment of coming in to the studio at 6 am I w

The past week has been a rich example of cultural references and discussions with old friends and new acquaintances of what it means to be a New Yorker, an American and where most of us "come from". My good friend Suzy was joking recently that I'm "fresh off the boat" and in a certain way that is quite true. Although I've lived half my life here in the U.S. I've always lived a double life. I'm half Greek half American and I've had a life in both the U.S and Greece. Something the differentiates my upbringing from many other Greek/Americans is that I have lived studied and worked equally in both countries, I call both countries home and I consider both English and Greek to be mother tongues. No one in New York is "from here" yet all who live in this great metropolis relate to being New Yorkers. This city is one of the most diverse in cultural and language examples. The neighborhoods are defined by their cultural identity. Brighton Beac

Last weekend I made a brief escape from New York and hopped on to a north bound train into the the familiar landscapes of my childhood. One good thing about loving the city, is that you can leave it for a while and come back to it with a new perspective. Managing to distance oneself from busy city life, is a healthy balance for all new yorkers... Some don't feel the need to ever leave... they find their quiet moments within the city... others like to take a brief weekend, a breather if you will in order to appreciate it more when they get back. I've heard of countless stories... for and against this theory of escape. Some choose to go to the furthest reaches of Manhattan into the area of Inwood and the Cloisters, others to the southern tip of Brooklyn into Brighton Beach and Coney Island... The distance is insignificant to the change of scenery. My personal escape had to do with child hood memories. When I first moved to the United States back in 1991 with my family we chose t

Its a bitterly cold January evening as I'm sitting in the warm and comforting kitchen of a very close family friend. Tonight I'm enjoying one of the calmest weekends after a quite some time. So much has happened since I last posted and I've had a brief absence from this blog... I have been gathering  so many thoughts and put together a lovely tapestry of images in my mind to transfer onto the page but I've really have not had that quiet moment until now to write...so here is a catch up post after almost three weeks... I've been in New York and general north east of the U.S for almost two months, and it feels like a very short amount of time, but also long enough to start to feel incorporated into the every day life and I dare say almost feeling at home. I've discovered and have been shown some beautiful corners of the island of Manhattan and have visited four of the five boroughs... I still have to take the Staten Island ferry to the fifth borough of the grea