Saturday, July 07, 2007

Life in Ancient Korinth

Having visited Greece over the past seventeen years, I’ve been able to see some pretty dramatic changes. Many have taken place just in the past ten years since I lived here last. I think the Olympics had a lot to do with it, with lots of new construction and infrastructure improvements. But you can also observe the effect that joining the EU has had on Greece. In many ways, Greece is doing better – there’s more money to go around and money from the EU for infrastructure improvements. Also, being on the Euro means the currency holds its value much better than the drachma did.

Unfortunately it also means that everything costs more – for an American tourist at least. A frappe that used to cost 50 cents is now the equivalent of $4US. Beers that were $1.50 are now $6. That’s hard for the American tourist, but the prices are about the same for European travelers here. And, I can’t complain too loudly, since folks in the village are obviously doing well – there’s clearly more money here now.

Most of the problems (for me) actually result from American monetary policy that seeks to keep the dollar undervalued. Coupled with a weak US economy (and everyone outside of the US recognizes that its weak), this makes it expensive for an American in Greece. That’s too bad since it used to be such a bargain!

Old friends in the village remember me though, and overall, I’m rather surprised. I mean, it has been 10 years! But folks here seem to make it a point to learn faces and remember others. I guess too that I’ve spent so much time here in the past that I’d become a bit of a fixture, rather than someone who just passes through. Nikos still has his restaurant (although he’s thinking of moving into lodging), and John is now married and has kids! Themis is Themis.

But everything changes and this is merely the result of change that I expected when Greece joined the EU. Other things have changed too. The plateia is now closed to through traffic, which is nice. But transportation overall in New Korinth is much more difficult as you now need to go to one of three bus stations or two train stations to go somewhere. I console myself by observing that even the Greeks don’t know where to go; but I cannot imagine getting around here now without some Greek language skills, and I’m concerned about it making life too difficult for students to study here in the Spring. I have other ideas for basing the program though…