And the package is off...

Yes, it is officially done. All 3.1kg of paper has been submitted today to the Processing Centre in Mississauga. Or should I say, we gave an arm and a leg to have it couriered to the Processing Centre. It will be there on Wednesday. Now all we can do is wait.

I have found an online forum where other pending immigrators gather and share the experiences and stories. It has been very helpful to be able to ask questions of those who have gone before you, I've become somewhat addicted, and now show a healthy sense of paranoia based on the stories you hear of people being rejected. What I do need to keep in mind however is that many of these relationships started online, have been short in duration and the two parties have spent little time together. While I don't presume to judge whether or not they have a bonafida relationship, I can see where some skepticism might come in on the part of Immigration Canada.

Anyway, now we are waiting the first phase ~ basically that the Gov't of Canada thinks that I can sponsor Akis to live in Canada. Once that is approved, then his file will go to Rome for processing of his application. Here's hoping that time flies over the next few months!

Ironically enough, tonight as I'm flipping through the TV ~ cause I look for anything in English ~ the movie de jour, Green Card. Somehow fitting...

Will let you know how it all pans out!

Final family gathering

The island tour came to an end for Dad, Jane, Flo and John on Monday morning when they flew to Athens from Rhodes. With a day to spend in Athens and after doing a lot of whisking around on the islands, we decided that we would all meet in Plaka for dinner. Akis and I headed in on the train and met them at one of the souvlaki places we often went to. Akis’ parents then joined us so that they could all get together one last time before the Canadian contingent flew out. When Frosso and Mike arrived, they gave us crap for not going to have dinner with them ~ apparently there was Moussaka and Stuffed Vegetables. I think they immediately thought of the HUGE spread we had the other day for lunch and the family could only imagine what Frosso had cooked this time! However Flo did say that her Tzaisiki was the best she had while in Greece.

We then moved on for Coffees. I felt a bit bad for Akis’ Dad who doesn’t speak English. Here he was in Plaka ~ Old Athens ~ and everyone around him was speaking English. As we headed to the Coffee Shop, Mike was speaking to Dad in Greek saying that they had a lot of good food to eat, and I forgot what it is like to not understand anything in Greek. So I translated what I could understand, and then when we got to the tough stuff, we just smiled and nodded.





It was nice that they could all see each other again. Definitely a good time.

Cape Sunion

Anyone who has spent any time with me knows that I LOVE road trips. I don’t know if it came from Liz and I wandering aimlessly West in the Tempo when Liz was certain that there must be another Albuquerque, and that the CAA route couldn’t possibly be taking us through New Mexico, or if it is just the desire to see new places. Akis on the other hand isn’t always a fan of the road trip. Our last road trip to Long Beach had him reclining the passenger seat and taking a wee nap.

I convinced Akis that we needed to head out on Sunday for a bit of an adventure, so we got into his wee Hyundai and drove south. I know that if you make it to the end of the peninsula, you hit Cape Sunion, what better place to head on a Sunday afternoon. As we started to drive it was coming onto 1pm. OK, we’ll head down the coast and then find a cafeteria or taverna and have a coffee and some lunch once we get there. The coast road is beautiful, but very windy. It reminds me of the Sea-to-Sky highway up to Whistler without the mountains. As we saw signs for Cape Sunion, we kept our eyes peeled for the outcrop of beach that would house the much anticipated coffee houses. Then we realized that we had in fact missed the turn, we headed back to correct our course. The course correction did in fact lead us to Cape Sunion, however we were shocked to discover that all that is here is Poseidon’s temple, one restaurant and one kiosk. Nothing else. So much for finding our coffee shop by the beach!






We decided while we were there that we might as well take in the sights… Hey, how often do you happen to stumble upon Poseidon’s temple??