When you actually feel like you're in a whole new world--Macedonia <3

I know this post is a little late (sorry dad) but I have been away from technology for a bit because (1) wifi was a little shaky (2) I was living it up and didn't want to stop...like for real I didn't sleep a lot, but if you read to the very end of this post you'll get a great story about that.

This post will be a little all over the place, so sorry about that and I hope I can effectively communicate all of the things I learned in Bitola. 

All year when I met with the fellows there was a theme to all of our conversations. We would spend some time making a meal together, eating and talking about our projects and are conversations almost always ended up talking about a very idealistic lifestyle that we all wanted but never could figure out how to obtain. Less technology, even though we see the benefits of communicating with the world, not completely abusing the world and spending more time outside, taking to invest in relationships...that kind of thing. My time in Bitola was like that and it felt like a dream. Things would happen and I would just be completely mind blown that such a pure lifestyle exists in this crazy world.

Alexander the Great is a pretty important guy

I met my host, Ana, last summer when we were studying in Germany together. She was my best friend in the program even though we could never understand each other perfectly because, let's face it, my German isn't the best. But we were close and saying goodbye last summer was really sad because it was a friendship I didn't want to see end and I thought to myself "when the hell will I ever find a reason to go to Macedonia" and I could only imagine she was thinking the same about the US. So I am just so happy that she wanted to show me everything her beautiful town had to offer. 

(me and Ana...we're so damn cute)

I stayed in Bitola (after flying into the capital, Skopje) which has about a million people in Ana's house with her parents. They were amazing, both accountants, I got to stop by their office on my last day, it was really cute. Ana's mom (she has a really long last name don't make me try to spell it please) spoke a little english but she mostly just told me I was pretty and that I had to keep eating and it was great. 

dinner<<333

Why can't our money look this cute?! (about 60 of these thingys is equal to one euro)

After dinner my first night (hell yeah home cooked meals...you really can taste the love). Ana's mom told me to put on my trainers and come on...so after deciphering this and putting on some yoga pants and sneakers the three of us went on a walk through downtown, stopping a million times to quickly catch up with everyone on the street and walked into the mountains surrounding the city. 

We ended at an outdoor theater that was one of Ana's favorite places (shes a diva) and she explained how her and her friends (and moms) cleaned up the whole theater because the city neglected it so that they could put on shows. It was the cutest thing ever. 

The view of Bitola (well, you can't see it but the point is nature, okay?) from the end of our walk. 

On the way back (this was like, a long walk by the way) I was struck by how many people were doing the same thing, just walking and being with people outside (and I could tell who was doing the same thing because everyone was wearing 'trainers' or like track suits, yeah, I was interested in how the whole city got the same memo on walking outfits).

Man, this is hard to write, I just keep getting really excited about everything. 

Alright, here are some beautiful pictures of Ohrid while I pull myself together (about an hour away from Bitola, we spent a day there to visit new friends!)

I make the view 

that's real, guys. 

(btw i got some new pants in Greece because I'm assimilating)  

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Alright so some of the conversations I had. These are in a different format because I was often in a conversation and people would just say things and also I talked to people for multiple days in a row so I'm going to just write down some of the biggest take aways and a few observations, sorry.

This is the first place where American culture was not uncomfortably looming in the not so distant background. All of the soaps that were on and reality shows were all Serbian. It was really refreshing. When we were hanging out with friends the songs were all traditional (yet, hip) and very uniquely Macedonian. I watched a room full of people root for the Macedonian singer on the Serbian (I think) X-factor. It was amazing, but I don't think he won :(. Everyone talks about their President and speaks in a very communitarian tone, also refreshing. 

Ana talked about the fact that Macedonia is starting to feel a strain from migrants, but this wasn't in terms of the EU at all, or even acknowledge that the EU is currently working on it. It seems from the people I've talked to that they are glad that they're a part of the EU, but it really plays no role on them culturally or socially. 

Which brings me to two of the most interesting take aways. One of the first people I was talking to asked me what I thought (I had been in Mac for about twenty minutes and awake for like 24 hours) and I said I really liked the mountains. He responded with: yeah, well, we're a really poor country, but we are good. ...I didn't think much of someone just telling me that I was in a poor country. Like, it doesn't look poor, but by the end of my time there I learned that Mac isn't poor, but the outside percieves it as being poor and therein lies the problem. Although, I'm not really in a positon to be the poor police. But I was struck by how the outside world, which really doesn't talk to or about Mac, like, ever, treats it.

Example (and Buffalo people will understand this better): if you have ever better to Niagara Falls there is  a thing called "cave of the winds" where you can walk behind the falls and its cool and they give you special "cave of the winds" sandles so you don't fall/ruin your shoes. After they ask that you donate these shoes to help those who need shoes...

I was walking around a store and found an entire corner of these shoes...what? This is where they are choosing to send the sandels? So that was weird for me. Like, it just seemed like America decided one day, oh, hey, you guys really need these shoes, here!!!!!!!!

I also did not see any homeless people or any street peddlers. I did see some Roma riding by in a horse drawn carriage. 

Fun fact: Macedonia applied to be in the EU in 2001 but has not been accepted yet...see Greece crisis (although I learned that Greece doesn't actually acknowledge Macedonia as its own country, but as former Yugoslavia, interesting). But everyone still had feelings on Europeanism and things so we are going to roll with it, okay?  

The students I talked to were excited to travel, but they mostly traveled around Europe on scholarships, some even saying they would go to America but it would just be way too expensive. Ana was traveling to Turkey on vacation as soon as I left. So I wonder how much the free to move around the Europe really impacts people in Macedonia, because people don't seem to be traveling too much except for school (which is a good thing but on my travels I've met plenty of Brits, Spaniards, Germans and Italians traveling all over the place for leisure...maybe I'm looking in the wrong places, but I wish I met more Macedonians (as I generalize alll of the people of an entire country)-- I love them. 

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Another conversation that just happened without any kind of prompting was about the environment. I was talking to one friend about how he thinks America is single handledly destroying the planet and uses wayyyy too many resources and needs to calm it down. Using Macedonia as an example of like, whyyyy can't you guys be more like us? All we do is waste (I agree...it was great, I think he was expecting me to disagree and I was like, no, just please keep talking this is great). I brought up how we can't even have our mountains because we keep blowing the tops off of the them to exploit them and then we just looked at the city that was surrounded by them and felt sad. 

I remembered how some of the people I talked to in the west talked about the policies restricting green house gasses and how some of the newer countries will have to catch up...but it seemed to me like the west is really the ones who need to catch up. I think if the east wanted to invest in more infrastructureit would naturally be more environmentally conscious because the surrounding seems like such an accepted part of life here, its subtle, but strong. 

(friends--the two guys were playing their violins on the street between sititng with us, they were really good)

So, I leave Macedonia just completely confused about this idea of unity. Everything was so wonderfully different and culturally vibrant and new to me. I don't know, I'm still trying to piece everything together in my head. 

the view from my host family's house

Although I guess I do need to say that leaving Macedonia was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do...

I had a plane at 9am to catch in Skopje, a three hour train ride from Bitola. So, seeing as this was Ana's last night in Bitola and with her friends until October? We decided to stay and catch the 3am train to Skopje and I would still have three hours before my plane would take off. 

(see train ticket: don't even get me started on the language--like what are these letters? I've been told I have a great accent and I know some really important terms, practically fluent, it is a beautiful language to speak though, I honestly couldn't spell a single word though). 

We stayed up, had a great time, got on the train and fell asleep. Four hours later I wake up and the train isn't moving. Yup, the train broke and I'm sitting there like, hmm, this is problematic. After an hour and a half of sittiing there with no real understanding of whats happening and just being very tired I pull out my emergency phone and call my parents because that seemed like the right thing to do. It was. They're the best. "Hey, so, I'm fine, but I'm going to miss my flight to Budapest, please advise, I have no internet and no real phone service here." The whole time I'm just sitting there like, mhmm, yup this is Mac's way of telling me not to leave.  

So after sitting on this train for like an extra three hours (there was even a time when the broken train started moving in the opposite direction -I don't know about you, but this seems like a step in the wrong direction) we made it to Skopje. Ana had to run because she had to catch her bus to Turkey, there was still hope for her. 

I went to the airport and went up to the desk and they looked at me and said, wow you JUST missed it. ...yes nice airport people I am so aware of just how close I was to making this plane, when do I fly away from here. ...next plane is in ten hours, will take me to istanbul and be there at midnight, flight to budapest is seven the next morning. Oh and you can't buy a ticket here it has to be online or on the phone. -____________- "do you have wifi here?" "no" "okay" -__________________________________-

I'm going to call this place "rock bottom" because I was really really really tired. So parents coming in strong again got me the ticket for my plane...in ten hours. I cried and ate a muffin (sad muffin) and then I looked at the window and thought two things (1) the view from rock bottom really isn't that bad and (2) YOU WIN MACEDONIA I'LL COME BACK

this is what rock bottom looks like

so yes after new levels of "i don't care of what people think about me," washing down a muffin with tears, sleeping on a floor, reading a lot of my book I made it to Istanbul. Where I basically repeated myself. except I took an airport shower (like a real one, this is a nice airport guys). 

Spoiler alert: I made it to Budapest. And I will go more in depth in another blog post but since I'm talking about Amanda's sleep deprivation I'll keep going. I land in Budapest, I accidentally take out 100000 HUF than i mean to out of the atm (only like 300 euros, which is still bad but we'll live) I figure out public transportation and I make it to my hostel and a nap is the only thing on my mind. I get to the hostel "hi you can't check in for three more hours" -eyes roll to the back of head to accept death gracefully- 

I accidentally walked eight miles around Budapest and then at long last, I could check in and find my bed and I love it very much. 

#dramatic 

(there may be more edits to this because I'm sure I'll wake up in the middle of the night like I FORGOT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING!!!) 

(still don't really believe i'm in Greece tbh)

Alright- big day! Bought some deodorant and made it to the Athens school of business and economics (you can decide which one I'm more excited about). And we will all be happy to hear that it doesn't look like a decrypted bombed out hangout for young adults. Rather, this one is still in the "city" part of Athens, although I wouldn't call it down town. It's lively. Whereas the other one was wayyyy more residential (and terrifying?). There is still graffiti in and out of the buildings and its covered in more varied political flyers--but, all in all, I'm getting a much better vibe.  

The first guy I talked to, George, was more of a story teller and he was a little bit older so here goes that. George is half-British and half Greek, he was raised in London but has spent almost all of his adult life here. He said "whenever I get into the cab and the driver hears my accent he asks 'what are you doing here, you're crazy!'" -this is in response to the Greek economy he let me know. To which George responds back "you have a European id why don't you just go to London?" and the cab driver says "because its cold in London and this is where my family and friends are" and George says "I also hate the cold and all of my friends and family are here too!" and that's a cute story of Greeks wanting to hold on to their culture. The economy came up and George had a lot of opinions. He took a "whatever happens, happens" stance, there doesn't seem to be a lot of public support one way or another (and by public meaning that I can has easily see it on the streets). I read that 70% of a public opinion poll wants to stay in the EU but George thinks that most Greeks want to be independent but are just really nervous. Either way, the short term is going to be really bad. He talked about the bribery system and how it is a problem in politics, but everyone does it, no matter the occupation, its just that it leans more to favor the politicians. So if they changed the system now it would just continue to hurt the everyday people. 

The next guy I talked to was named Photus (I swear to god I'm not making that up but I probably spelled it very wrong). He was so happy to talk about how hopeful he was for the future and that our generation is really going to change things(!), but he admits he isn't very political. He wants to stick it out in the EU because "it can't get worse, we're already at the bottom!" so with that kind of spirit everyone should just keep moving forward. He thinks that Greece is just stuck right now and not moving forward on any fronts: socially or economically. When I asked why he thinks Greece should stay in the EU (which I realized after I asked was a super pointed and loaded question seeing as there is a meeting going on RIGHT NOW discussing it) and he said "because it feels safer" What about it feels safer? "I don't really know what, I guess there is just safety in numbers? being in a group is always better" I agreed.  I tried really hard to get some more info from him but he was just like "politics is boring" (No it's not Photus--it is the most unboring thing ever). Either way we had a really nice discussion and I like his optimism and general excitement for life. 

Okay John and Nik. Admittedly not my best job...but I don't think it was the most awkward experience of their lives so we can take it at that. John was sitting alone when I started talking to him and then his friend Nik joined in and we chatted about some things. They both spoke english but neither of them was very confident and thats what I think the biggest problem was (note: they are not the problem, I just didn't get too much information). Here are some snipits that I took away. John is glad that Greece is in the EU but can't explain to me why. Nik thinks that Spain and Greece are like the same because there is the same climate so the countries are similar. (It is interesting that out of the one thing I can pull from these guys they do sense a divide in the EU but also a sense of shared experiences with Spain. John likes the environment. Well done, Amanda! 

Well, you live and you learn.

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It's been amazing being a city where it all began. Today I stood on a rock that was apparently where Saint Paul gave his very first sermon. The first Olympic village.  I saw the ruins of the first democracies and where Socrates imprisonment was (probably). I watched a lightning storm blow in and could actually see individual lightning bolts and thought about life in this spot 3500 years ago and how it was thriving, but in such a different way from the way it is now. History is really cool guys.

But then, I was listening to the BBC report on how it had been 800 years since the Magna Carta had been signed and how that was truly the beginning of democracy and government. And I was like "what?--hey, hi, Greeks? Romans? Remember them?" and then the report proceeded to talk about how the Greek and Roman cultures and traditions don't really translate to the western world and western democracy. They ways of life are just too different! -_____- 

I'm not completely in support of this worldview, but I think it shows a subtle divide between Western Europe and Southern. How the West has just abandoned all of its roots views itself as entirely self-made.

Off to Macedonia tomorrow for my second home stay of the trip! So excited to see my friend, Ana, who I met last year while we were studying abroad together in Germany. She wants to show me what Skopje is really about and says we can go to her moms house! I'm very excited to see student life and real life in Mac and cannot believe that its actually almost time to go! Note: of all of the many many travelers that I've met and talked to, I haven't actually met anyone who has gone to Skopje. So I'm here to put it on the map!!  (Not that Ana hasn't already done that, but I'm planning on telling everyone everywhere how great it is!) 

It's all Greek to me!

(Other possible titles for this post: "I sweat like a gorilla: the ballad of 'i broke my deodorant today'" and "ohhhhhh we're half-way there....ohhhh-hooo*sobs*")

Let me first start off by quoting the great American poets Jason Derulo and 2Chainz: 

"Been around the world, don't speak the language, but your booty don't need explaining"

while its true that most body parts don't need to be explained...I do find that speaking the language would really come in handy for a variety of reasons. Regardless, I'm doing my best to pick up a few words of Greek here or there and always try to say "efharisto" (thank you) to everyone that very patiently has to come to English for my sake. 

Well, here I am. Athens. A place where Greek yogurt is just called yogurt. The place that brought about the beginning of democracy as we know it. The rich history of people who figured out so much so that we didn't have to and a culture that reflects it. and..the half way point of my trip (what?!?!).  

This is the view from the roof of my hostel--yeah, I didn't even have to work for this picture. 

I arrived late at night from Barcelona (getting onto the metro at about 10pm). I was a little nervous, as I usually am about what the public transportation is going to look like, especially later in the night on a Monday. The metro was PACKED. While I was trying to figure out how the hell to get to my hostel because the metro stop they said to get off at didn't seem to exist tons of everyday Greeks were hoping onto the train to join the airport crowd*

*I ended up using common sense to find the hostel, it was a breeze, but sometimes that one moment of uncertainty can be a little unsettling. Don't worry, like I said, common sense kicked in just in time. 

I was wondering why there were so many people going on the metro at this time of night (closing in on about 11pm) and today I came across an article/interview that I think gave a pretty good answer. The caption was "I work 18 hours a day and can hardley provide for my family." (BBC) But I will get back to that article a little later on because, it's apparent, these are hard working people and the system is failing them. 

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Before I started my trek here I was a little pushed back on my day because my phone battery died in the night and my alarm didn't go off...not that I think that would have changed anything because the five Brazilians I was sharing a room with had a flight to catch and were in and out of the bathroom for two hours...so it was for the best that I just laid in bed and let them get their lives together. They left and this was probably the only time I had a whole hostel room to myself AND this is a nice hostel room (it's like a hotel room that has three bunk beds thrown in it). and BONUS! the Brazilians left a big bottle of body wash and conditioner which mean that I am finally super clean and have conditioned hair for the first time in over three weeks. Unfortunately I sweat like a gorilla on my way to the University so that feeling left pretty fast but good try...my hair still feels great.  

So, first stop, right out of the gates, I am at one of the apparently many University of Athens Campuses. Wow for starters this was a hike and a half to get here...I don't even think I'm on the campus I intended to be on I think I'm on the one thats like a half mile closer. The man at the hostel who helped give me directions here said that the "local one" was close but that it was mostly for seeing things. I think I'm still going to try that one out tomorrow because this one was a journey through a desert. 

 

Center square of campus

Now I've only seen one campus so far but oh my god is this different. Small things like, smoking inside and having board games at cafe tables are striking me as hugely different. I'm in a building that is joint student center and lecture room space. One of the first thing I noticed was that the walls outside the buildings are all covered in graffiti...when I first got here and didn't see any people I was like, hmm, is this place deserted? That would suck but then one of the doors was open and I heard voices so I walked in...the inside of this building is COVERED in flyers on a variety of topics and more graffiti. There were three tables of people talking about their flyers, which seemed to range from not allowing children to be soldiers to solidarity movements. There are also signs banning graffiti...its working well. Either way this space and these people seem very, very socially active. ...but noticeably (but I can't guarantee this because I don't speak/read Greek) there were no signs about the Greek economy, Charlie Hebdo, ISIS or anything that can be considered "western" or a threat to western countries.  

(there were actual people walking around the campus--which was why I knew it wasn't deserted...it actually had a a very pleasant spirit in areas where there were a lot of people and social interaction...just had to look for it a little bit)

When I walked in the room with the cafe (I got a huge ass sandwich and a large iced coffee thing for 3 euro...this is great), I noticed that everyone at the tables were very involved in things. Like three tables of people were super into their backgammon game and another table of six was playing cards. I am in a new world. I can't think of one place of America that does this at noon on a Tuesday.    

I was honestly really thrown off when I got to this campus. The buildings looked like the windows had been smashed in and the amount of graffiti made it seem like this place wasn't monitored. I turned around and walked to the edge of campus before I made myself turn around. I'm glad I did! The two people I managed to get to talk with me for a while had a lot to say and were interested in what brought a big bad New Yorker to this campus and were really nice to me.

Kickin it back with this cat 

#1 

Talking to Diminka was fun. She seemed very intimidated to be talking to someone from New York (what is still always a mystery how most people don't know it is alsoa state) but she was really helpful. 

I asked about the posters everywhere in the school and she said, yes its very politically active but that is because the political parties pay for everything. At this university we voted to have all of the posters taken down, but they are still up everywhere. Interesting. 

She said that social progress in Greece is going well but she thinks that the recession is holding everyone back and it is very hard to do anything without any money or support. 

the European Union is really good at creating opportunities for good social progress but because of the economy they can't really act on it the way that they want to..its not the same as it is in the northern countries. and it could work better, but because of the democracy (democratic system of the EU) it isn't really working to help us.

--the people in the southern countries more readily identify themselves as regionally different than western countries who usually identify the problem by the country it is in. I think there is a sense of unity within some of these southern countries.

Dimitris

If I had a dollar for every time someone apologized for their english for no reason I could fix the Greek economy 

Anyway, Dimitris is an engineering student here and he felt very disconnected with the politicians in Greece. A lot of the minorities are getting very frustrated. He doesn't think the Greece is progressing socially because there is more violence, more crime and no money! --fun thing to here while I'm sitting on a college campus that looks like it was bombed out during World War Two-- anyway. He said that there is hope for the European Union, it just needs the right people. He feels like Greece and Greeks are not really being represented because those in charge for Greece are so out of touch with people and don't see the problem. A lot of people just think the politicians are just stealing. I asked more about specific social legislation going on in the EU and he said that they aren't really focused on that because they don't really have the opportunity. 

But he likes being in the EU and wants to stay in it, he sounds like, and I'm extrapolating, if that wasn't obvious, the change needs to come from inside the country in order to better progress on the continental scale. 

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Sorry this post is a little scattered, I feel like I'm going at a million miles an hour. With how much culture I'm trying to absorb and new schools to find and oh my god still can't wrap my head around being halfway done!!

It would be cruel if I didn't share some of my food with you though...here is a gyro (with french fries in it!! 2 euro!)

mmmm chicken solvaki

frozen yogurt with pineapples is acceptable for breakfast when its 8am and already upwards of 85 degrees. 

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Okay, now back to the Greek crisis. The news I have been following has been following the Greeks and the PMs descisions for awhile now, but it is really starting to pick up. As I mentioned before, June 30th is the deadline for paying back the debt of 1.6 billion euros and up until this point they have paid back about 300 million (btw all of this has been up on BBC news which is primarily what I've been using). While the Greek PM (who seems a little out of touch, according to the students I talked to) has not been too willing to comproise, the Greek central bank today said that this could be a painful to the Greek economy (and therefore the Greek people--who are already struggling). 

I'm still trying to get a feel for how tensions in the city. I've seen professors, priests, students, shop keepers, and chefs everyone is just doing their thing...and their thing seems like a whole lot of work already (and in terribly hot weather I might add).

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I went to the Acropolis today because its supposed to rain tomorrow (sending thanks up to you guys in Mount Olympius) and I think that will be a great day to talk to people...you have no where to go, it's raining. 

I was just floored with the beauty of climbing the Acropolis and seeing the Parthenon...absolutely amazing how people did that like THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO!

Here are some pictures of me losing my mind because I'm so excited by #history

Humor me.

*Warning: selfies ahead* 

Dionysis Theater

Gaudi is my king

When I posted yesterday I was feeling a little worn out, it was Sunday, a good day to just chill out and that was my plan. Rest, tapas, call some friends...

I was walking to get lunch (also known as the first meal of the day...oops) and then I realized that, I've seen this too many times. So I turned around in the middle of the street and got on the nearest metro. 

I got off a few stops away near where Parc Guell is. I figured I would just walk around there for a bit, grab a bite to eat...still nothing too strenuous. I was wrong. This park is a mountain. I hard core hiked for two hours around this bitch and I loved every single second of it!

The last set of steps I had to climb (out of about 150) before reaching the park itself. 

the incline is a little more servere than the picture shows, especially if you didn't bring water because it was kind of a spur of the moment thing (don't worry there were fountains that I made good use of).

Finally I made it to the park and it was so so so beautiful, I can't believe I almost left this amazing city without stopping by. For starters the big city feel of Barcelona is gone the architechure has notably shifted to a more "old Spanish residential" feel. I was not in Cincinnati anymore. The view that this mountian climber got, though was more than worth it...

oh heyyy Barcelona...you are looking nice today

I WAS THERE! I WAS THERE!

crappy panorama

But wait! Besides all of these nice views of the city this park was also Gaudi HQ! I saw his house and his Park Guell project. I think I'm in love with him. I didn't get a good close up because I didn't have much euro on me and didn't want to trek back empty handed so I got some cheapo shots

Gorgeous, right?! Sorry I'm so cheap guys.

Gaudi's house AND my thumb...no autographs, please.

Man, I love this park

part of the mountain that is this park

me enjoying my decision to not chill out 

how much do you miss this face??!

so after being thoroughly tired out by this adventure I headed back to the hostel (very hungry)

just the motivation I needed to climb the hills all over here (I think the only place this grafiti is acceptable is Malaysian mountains, btw)

Then I needed to go check "eat as many tapas as humanly possible on your last day here" off my list. I did. I didn't even care that I was eating by myself, I went to two tapas places and just went for it. I only took some pictures though, sorry, again :( 

sideways tapas

when you eat alone you're allowed to have dessert every now and then!

AND NOW! Here we are, Monday afternoon. I'm headed to the airport very soon but I was hell bent on getting a tenth intervew in Barcelona, especially after I messed Valencia up so bad:

"habla ingles?" "no" "okay"

"habla ingles?" "si" " can you help me with my project" "i'm from mexico" "dammit" 

another shoutout to EU hostel people who helped me improvise! 

Anyways, its a weekday which means there will be people on a college campus!! I'm finally making a routine of getting my ass to universities on weekdays...so I hope to keep this up! Woohoo!! I knew I wasn't going to have a lot of time to try to get a lot of interviews, especially since I stress about finding airports/have a hyper need to get there very early (not the worse thing) so after walking around for 20 minutes I found Niladi (there is a 100% chance I spelled that wrong)!

#10 

I began explaining my project and Niladi immediately jumped in with "I think the EU could be better" she talked about how Spain, and particularly young professions are struggling economically because of its association with the  EU. She said that its hard for young people to be finacially strong enough to move out of their parents homes. She thinks that Spain has an important role to play in the EU, along with Italy, Portugal and Greece...the ones in the south. So there is some sense of identity there, perhaps? With the European south? Interesting. 

I asked if she liked the social policies of the EU and if they were important. She said that, yes, socially, the EU is much better than economically. It is important for the EU to stay connected that way. But economically, not helpful. 

--

and I can't say I completely disagree with this stance. Two things in the news have been pointing me to trying to form an opinion on the true importance on the EU. The first thing is the Greek economy. Luckily I will be there from the 15-19th, which leaves a whole week and a half until a compromise has to be made and the PM said that he wants to wait until creditors become more resonable (my dad likes to point out that there might be riots/strikes if the compromise isn't suitable for everyday people). So fingers crossed things stay calm on that front while I'm there, but, at the same time, tensions are going to be high when I go to talk to people so I'm going to have to be careful with how I approach these conversations. The economic future of the EU is rocky in the south and east...what does it mean that the newer countries aren't strong enough to join the monetary union? and that countries in it are defaulting out? I don't really think the identity of the EU can be based on the economic security of the union. 

However, I think the real future and identity of the EU has a place in the social policies. This belief has been strengthen by the people I've talked to specifically in terms of the climate policies and the migrant policies. Although, I still hold that the EU already has a culture of being more sustainable than the rest of the world asking about these two policies together has helped form a better understanding of contributing factors of a common EU. 

Kind of off of that, I was listening to the news the other day when I heard how Austrialia is handling the refugee crisis. Abbott is encouraging the EU to take a harsher stance, like he is, against refugees and smugglers. I'm glad that the EU is a united front on this because if these were individual countries acting they might be more easily swayed to take a harsher, inhumane stance, like Austrailia is. 

Note: Austrialia government just paid a boat of refugees to turn around and go back #what and the island off the coast of Austrialia where some of these boats have made it have been deemed a violation of human rights and integrity by the UN. Tens of thousands are just being kept on this island in terrible condition, with nothing. That was one of the most heartbreaking newsstories I've ever heard and I'm glad that the UK, Ireland and Germany have sent fleets to join the countries in the south and work on this issue together, instead of leaving the countries on their own to struggle. 

Okay. That's it for now. Next check in will be in Greece, I suppose!! :D