The border

This is the time. I am now in Alexandroupoli, up in the Greek - Turkish border, and will be stationed here for the next 5 months or so, with a month's interval of going back to Lamia for some extra training.

My biggest worry before coming here was the people I am going to meet here. The reason is that in my specialty in teh army, which is to handle the supplies warehouses, there's only 4 new people that were coming to this camp. This meant that i was entering a complete new environment, in a given status quo, where we are the only 4 new ones. To tell you the truth, back in the training camp it was much easier to make connections, since everyone was in the same stage = newies in the army, clueless of what this is all gonna be about. And as I already have some very good memories from training camp, I was worried that this might be spoiled by a harsh experience at the real camp, which is also quite far from home.

The first two days have shown me that this is going to be an experience I will be able to handle easily. Already got a couple of people to talk with, I know the whereabouts of the camp, and there's a couple of friends as soldiers or working in the nearby area, so when I get an evening off I can hang around with them.

The city has around 80,000 ppl population. The winter should be expected to be quite harsh, though probably with no snow, as Alexandroupoli is near the sea. The good thing is that I will be gone for the second coldest month of the winter, February, going to Lamia, so this makes things much easier for me. Only have to deal with the cold, wind and rain in January, and hopefully for not very long all through March. The first week we are given the evening out of the camp (have to be back in the room by 23:45) to integrate and see a bit of the city, which is not bad at all. It assimilates Thessaloniki quite much, although in a much smaller scale. Another good thing is that I will be able to update my weblog as there is also an internet center in the camp, also check e-mail and stay tuned as much as I can to the real world outside. So, send me e-mails :-)

Also got a few days off in the beginning of January, to visit my parents and take a couple of exams in the University.

So that's news for now, next posting to be made soon...