Din Grecia cu dragoste / From Greece with love

Grecia: masline, portocale, turism.
Mie cam atat imi vine in minte atunci cand spun Grecia. Dar mai sunt si altele: uzo, feta etc. Pe restu’ urmeaza sa le descopar.
Am sa incep prin a va spune ca sunt bine, asta ca sa nu fiti ingrijorati. Am plecat din tara cam stresata si m-am ales cu o gastrita de toata frumusetea. Norocul meu e ca pot manca aici si de regim, adica la micul dejun o tin pe lapte, unt, cascaval si paine graham, iar in rest am avut paste cu cascaval, supa de linte, un fel de tocanita cu piept de pui, salata greceasca (seamana cu cea orientala), mancare de cartofi etc. O sa-mi fie dor de o supa à la mama mea, sau o ciorba acra (pe care inainte o ocoleam). Pe aici nu se fac ciorbe, supe ... uneori, iar angajatii nu au voie sa-si gateasca.
In hotel nu prea vin turisti in perioada asta, mai mult in weekend-uri cand mai fac unii reuniuni de afaceri, prezentari, conventii. Vara vin echipe de baschet si handbal in cantonament, se mai fac nunti, botezuri sau se mai gaseste cate unu’ plin de bani sa stea aici (acum e unul pe la etajul 1 si hotelul are peste 100 de camere). Salariul meu e de 650 de euro, dar apartamentele din hotel costa cam 1000 de euro pe noapte. Apartamentul de lux costa 1400 euro pe noapte (si in weekendul asta a fost ocupat), asa ca puteti face si voi comparatie: cat de bogati sunt unii si cat de saraci suntem noi. Ceea ce vedeti acum la televizor e adevarat: greve, foamete, totul foarte scump. Azi , spre exemplu, functionarii publici au fost in greva, iar noi 3 (suntem 3 romance aici, 2 cameriste si o maseuza) trebuia sa mergem la politie pentru acte. Ne-au amanat pe maine dimineata pentru ca nu se lucra.
Sa traiesti aici e foarte scump. Hainele si incaltamintea sunt foarte scumpe, mancarea e scumpa si nu cunosc ceva despre care sa se spuna ca ar fi ieftin. Spre exemplu:
- O pereche de pantofi piele – 50 euro
- O cutie de lapte proaspat de vaca 1 litru– 1,40 euro
- O sticla de dero lichid de 1,5 litri – 12 euro
- O copie xerox – 15 euro centi
- Un tuns, vopsit, suvite, (par mediu) – 90 euro
- Bilet autocar Salonic-Lamia (300 km)– 23,60 euro
- Bilet autocar Lamia- Karpenisi (70 km)– 6,40 euro
- Bilet autocar Karpenisi-Atena (300 km)- 22,30 euro
- Bilet autobuz in Salonic – 50 euro centi

Salariul minim brut in Grecia este de 1000 de euro, din care statul va opri 30% pentru ca atat reprezinta aici asigurarile de sanatate si sociale. Grecii care nu fac fata in tara emigreaza in America. In hotel lucreaza greci, romani (mai e un baiat roman la spalat vase), albanezi si bulgari. Ca si prin alte locuri, se fac diferente intre angajatii localnici si cei straini. Grecii de aici au salarii mai mari decat strainii desi lucreaza doar cate 7-8 ore pe zi si au 2 libere. Strainii lucreaza cate 10 ore pe zi cu o zi libera pe saptamana. Am totusi avantajul ca pauzele pentru micul dejun si pranz se incadreaza in programul de 10 ore, ceea ce inseamna ca lucrez efectiv doar 9 ore. Nici pe alea nu le-am lucrat pentru ca trebuia sa raman de una singura, fara o camerista veche langa mine care sa-mi arate si sa ma verifice. Cica sunt in periada de training acum. Norocul meu in acest moment e ca nu sunt camerele ocupate, deci nu ne omoram cu munca, inca. In contractul meu scrie ca sunt camerista, dar aici a fi camerista inseamna sa faci menajul hotelului, in zonele unde au acces clientii, de unde deduc eu ca sunt mai mult menajera, femeie de servici decat camerista (de la teoria invatata in facultate pana la practica din hotel e o cale foaaaarte lunga). Si, surpriza surprizelor, aici nu se vorbeste limba engleza, deci ne intelegem ca in turnul Babel. Norocul meu, inca o data, ca una din cameriste stie putina engleza pentru ca lucrat in state o perioada. Eu si cealalta camerista romanca ne-am lipit de ea si invatam meserie. Altfel nu stiu cum am fi putut sa invatam ceva. Cea care imi e sefa habar n-are engleza sau alta limba straina, numai managerul mai rupe cateva propozitii si cu una din fetele de la receptie, in rest... sunt bata cu totii. De aici trag concluzia ca eu vorbesc engleza mai bine decat toti. Asadar, ce caut eu aici? Glumesc. In hotelul asta nu vin turisti straini, cei care vin sunt cu totii greci, iar bacsis se face mai rar.
Mica noastra comunitate romaneasca se intalneste seara, dupa program la cafea si ne mai vedem la masa pentru ca mancam la aceiasi ora, ne mai intalnim si seara in una din camere ca sa mai stam de vorba, sa depanam amintiri, sa plangem dupa familie si lucrurile de care ne e dor. Imi lipseste tata cu care sa ma mai cert din cand in cand, dar care ma proteja intotdeauna, imi lipseste mama, prietena mea, cu care ma sfatuiam intotdeauna si care stia sa ma impinga de la spate, imi lipseste sormea cu care sa impart totul, mai ales patul, imi lipsesc Asi si conversatiile noastre pe net si la telefon, imi lipsesc colegii de munca si activitatea fata in fata cu clientii, vorbitul foarte mult.
Deci... e binisor pana acum, ma adaptez. Ce sa zic... o sa mai scriu. Pe curand.

...

Greece: olives, oranges, tourism.
This is all that comes in my mind when I say Greece. But there are other things too: uzo (traditional Greek alcoholic drink), feta cheese. And I will discover the rest of them.
I will start by telling you I am alright, because I don’t want you to be worried. I left the country being so stressed and I ended up getting the nicest gastritis ever. I’m lucky because here I can eat diet food, I mean in the mornings I’m having milk, butter, cheese and bread with seeds, and at the other meals I had chicken, soup, Greek salad, potatoes, pasta with cheese. But I will miss my mom’s soups and her sour ciorba (Romanian sour soup, similar to Russian bors). Here they don’t make ciorba, soups … sometimes, and the employees are not allowed to cook.
Tourists don’t come so often in this hotel in this season; they come mostly on the weekends for business meetings, presentations, conventions. In the summer basketball teams and handball teams come for training, they do weddings here; baptizing or sometimes it happens that very rich people come to stay (now we have only one man on the first floor and the hotel has over 100 rooms). My salary here is 650 euro, but the suites here are over 1000 euro per night. The luxury suite costs 1400 euro per night (and people stayed in it this weekend). So you can compare how rich are some of them and how poor are some of us. What you see now on TV is true: strikes, hunger, everything is expensive. Today, for example, government employees were on strike, and the three of us (we are 3 Romanian women here, 2 chambermaids and a masseuse) had to go to the police for paper work. They said to come back tomorrow because today no one is working.
It’s very expensive to live here. Clothes and shoes are very expensive, food is expensive and I don’t remember someone ever saying there are cheap things here. For example:
- Pair of leather shoes – 50 euro
- A bottle of fresh milk 1 liter – 1,40 euro
- A page copied – 15 euro cents
- A hair cut, painted too – 90 euro
- Bus ticket Salonic-Lamia (300 km) – 23,60 euro
- Bus ticket Lamia-Karpenisi (70 km) – 6,40 euro
- Bus ticket Karpenisi-Athens (300 km) – 22,30 euro
- Bus ticket in Salonic – 50 euro cents
The minimum brut wage in Greece is 1000 euro and 30% will be detained for health and social insurance. Greeks that don’t make it here immigrate in US. Here work Greeks, Romanians (we are 4, 3 girls and one boy), Albanians and Bulgarians. Similar to other places, there are differences between workers. Greeks work only 7-8 hours per day and have 2 days off while foreigners work 10 hours per day with only one day off. I have the advantage that breaks for breakfast and lunch are included in those 10 hours, which means I work only 9 hours. I haven’t worked all these hours until now because it means I would have to work by myself, without any old chambermaid that could verify me or show me how to do everything. It looks like I’m on training now. I’m lucky that now rooms are unoccupied so I’m not working like crazy, yet. In my contract says I’m a chambermaid, but here to be a chambermaid means you have to clean all the places that are accessible to the customer, so I guess I’m more a maid then a chambermaid (there is a very big difference between what I learned in school and what I have to do here). And, big surprise, here they don’t speak English so we understand each other like in the Babel tower. I’m lucky again that one of the chambermaids worked in the US and knows a little bit of English, so she is teaching us. I don’t know how else we could’ve learned anything. My boss knows no other language then Greek, only the manager and one of the receptionists are able to speak a bit. The rest of them none, no English. So I’m starting to ask myself: what am I doing here? And here come only Greek tourists, no foreigners, so the possibility for tipping is very little.
Our little Romanian community meets every evening for coffee and during the day when we eat. We eat at the same hour. We also meet in the evening in one of our rooms and talk, remember things, cry after our families and the things that we miss. I miss my dad and the fights we used to have, but he was always there to protect me; I miss my mom, my friend that always gave the best advices and pushed me; I miss my sis and the way we shared everything, especially the bed. I miss Asi and our conversations on the phone and internet; I miss my work colleagues and working face to face with my customers and talking very much.
So… it’s good until now, I’m trying to adapt. What else to say… I’m going to write again. See you soon.