- Posted by:
- anjci
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- Annual newsletters
Dear friends,
2008 is almost through. I am counting the hours till 31 Dec, to catch the flight to Vienna and welcome the New Year – 2009 – in the city of sophisticated royalties, beautiful romance and perfect winter. While I am ticking off my winter luggage essentials – like ten changes of bikini and shades – I would like to draw a thick line beneath the setting year, 2008, and wish all of you every blessing in the year to come. May 2009 bring you every joy, every desired change and every bit of love and happiness… I am running ahead of myself though – let me start at the beginning.
Disappointingly, 2008 has not brought any changes in my life so popular among my closest friends – I have not got married (or even engaged, shamelessly) and have not had children. To make the matters even worse, I am not even yet pregnant! Apologies – I am certainly positively looking into the future and am hopeful to be able to announce such news in the next few years. For now though, I seem to have hit all other popular targets: left the job I had been unhappy about for a while, moved to another country, and have dedicated plenty of my time to travelling, reflecting on the past and seriously thinking about the next steps.
The beginning of 2008 was professionally demanding and otherwise difficult, as I continued to work on a challenging project at UBS Investment Bank Utilities team in London at the expense of any social life. The year progressed positively, however, as the project was closed, successfully, in late February, bringing me the necessary professional credit and putting an official end to the six months of pain. I dare say that, in the midst of global financial crisis, any serious work for me ended at that very point. Whatever was left for the next couple of months never even closely compared to the absolute private life disaster of the preceding half-year.
After some short weekend trips out of London in early 2008 – Lisbon and Thessaloniki – I finally fulfilled my year-long plan of visiting the Middle East, and travelled to Jordan for just over two weeks in April. For most of the time, I stayed with the Melhem family, the head of which, Dr. Ghazi Nahar, I had the pleasure of meeting the year before in Penang, Malaysia. Jordan hit every hidden chord of my heart. I remain forever grateful to Ghazi – and to the rest of the Melhem family – for the time spent together and for their wonderful hospitality. I hope that our paths will cross again soon. Shukran!
Immediately upon my return to London, I was notified of my redundancy from UBS Investment Bank, which put an official end to my two-year half-hearted employment with the company. The decision I took at once was to take some time off to discover the long-term country of my interest and dreams – Greece – and to try to settle there, to live through the ailing UK markets and to, very thoughtfully, “see what happens”.
The first important step I took was upgrading from my Nikon D70s to a much more impressive Nikon D300. Nikonaki, I love you! In the meantime, I also managed to see several very special friends on my visits to Norway, Scotland and Lithuania, as well as interview trips to Stockholm and Moscow. The particularly moving experience was accompanying Aneta during her wedding in Kaunas – the first out of five friends’ weddings I did not have to cancel in the last two years for work reasons. Thanks to everyone for the wonderful time together!
While making preparations for the big move out of London, I happened to fly to Athens for a long weekend to catch up with more friends – when I was lucky enough to meet a very special person and friend, Manolis. Upon my soon-to-follow return to Athens, we quickly joined our forces to explore the Greek islands together for most of the summer. Wherever I was not able to get company, I managed trips around Greece on my own. The list of places visited never fails to impress the most-travelled of my Greek friends, and includes, among others, Rhodes, Patmos, Leros, Crete, Evia, Lefkada, Ithaca, Kefalonia, Hydra, Naxos, Paros, Tinos, Andros, Mykonos, Santorini, Thirassia, Folegandros, Sikinos, Sifnos… I am grateful to everyone whom I met over the summer, and whose advice I have used to help me plan the tour of the country of my dreams. Greece has fulfilled every one of my expectations, and I hope to take our very special relationship one step forward by (a) becoming truly fluent in Greek and (b) settling here professionally, over the course of 2009.
As the summer was drawing to an end, I managed to spend some quality time in my parental home in Riga and to visit another country very close to my heart – Finland, where I had studied during 2004-2006. Thanks to everyone I was able to meet during my visits. I hope I will be able to see more of you early in 2009, when I am planning new visits to Riga, as well as Vilnius.
I returned to Greece in early October to find the weather way beyond my best Latvian summer expectations… clearly not the most suitable time for a dogged job search. I did manage a few interviews amid the freshly continued discovery of Greece, including the (absolutely unbeatable, my eternal Greek number one) Zagorochoria, as well as Chalkidiki and East Macedonia, Arcadia, Mani, Argolis and Monemvasia in the Peloponnese, Nafpaktos, large Epirus hubs of Ioannina and Preveza, revisiting my favourite of all Greek cities, Thessaloniki… the list goes on and on. This country never fails to amaze me!
Before I seriously focused on my job search in Athens, I had a wonderful opportunity to set my foot, for the first time, in former Yugoslavia, and attend a conference in Croatia. The conference was organised by HAKFAS, the Croatian arm of TFAS (The Fund for American Studies), and centred on negotiations. As much as I enjoyed strolling around the capital city of Zagreb and Tito’s favoured Brijuni islands off the Istria Adriatic coast, I remain absolutely speechless at the truly special experience from the conference itself. Unreserved thanks to all co-participants for your company and for opening my eyes and re-shaping my world views in a number of ways. I hope to discover more of the former Yugoslavia region over the course of 2009, and pray to see many of you again very soon!
Inspired by the Croatian experience, I fought hard, upon my return to Athens, to define my presence in Greece more clearly. A number of key interviews brought me forward in the Greek market and helped me to build the necessary networks. I dare say that, at the dusk of 2008, I am closer to being fully employed and settled in this country, than ever before. If everything goes according to plan and bureaucratic obstacles (not that uncommon in Greece) stay out of the way, I should be starting full-time work in Athens in February. Before this becomes reality, however, I would like to pay my final pre-employment tribute to all the special people I know in London, with a short visit planned in late January. If you are in town then, please get in touch using any of the contacts below. I hope to see many of you soon.
Those of you wishing for a visually friendly accompaniment to this newsletter are welcome to check my “Goodbye, 2008…” photo album series on Facebook, as well as my frequently updated Flickr page at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9899582@N05/sets/.
As I am soon heading out of the door to catch the flight to Austria, I would like to wish everyone a very HAPPY NEW YEAR, every blessing along the way and many positive changes to accompany this new season. May 2009 bring all the encouragement and strength you require for any serious decisions you are contemplating in the next year, and by this make all such successful.
Many thanks for your presence in 2008, with special thanks to my closest friends. Keep in touch!
Much love from Greece,
Anna/Аня/Άννα
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