“Unfortunately, none can be told what the Army is…

…You have to see it for yourself.” Paraphrasing this line from The Matrix, I intent to give you a glimpse of what I (and many other young men) went through for 9 months. Well, for others is 3, 6 or even, hear hear, 12 months :-O

Since I was blessed with 3 wonderful brothers and sisters, I served for 9 months – more than enough, if you ask me. My sentiments to those who still serve and will be serving in the near future.

I am done since August the 7^th. So, I decided to write about it, mainly because I wanted to tell others about my experiences and secondly, because I wanted to restart my blog. This is better for you of course, since, if we met face to face, you would have to listen, even if you were bored to death, but now, you can just close the page. Of course, my blog won’t be just stories from the Army; I will try to expand to topics. Besides, I am also gonna write about movies, books, human relations, missed job opportunities, vacation reports… well, you get the idea.

If you are Greek, then you probably know what this whole idea is about. If you are a foreigner, then let me tell you that joining the Army is both an obligation and a duty, when you are a Greek citizen of course. After reaching puberty, you can expect that a certain letter will reach you as well. In it, there will be the date and place you must go and begin your training. This will be more likely on a logical distance from where you live. If you have reasons that hinder your presence at said time, like studies or job or some family issue, you can ask for a temporary cancellation and join the Army several months or years, but YOU. WILL. SERVE.

Unless of course you are a “visma”. Named after the Greek word for plug, this means you can plug into some connection to an uncle, friend or your mother’s second cousin’s neighbor, anyone who’s dealing with the Army can, theoretically help you. Theoretically being the key word. New soldiers and their parents ask for all kinds of favors, like sending their son “someplace good” or giving him more days off. I will dedicate a whole blog post about them in the near future, ‘cause they are simply hilarious.

That’s for today. This post may seem a bit boring, but I assure you, it was just a general introduction, mostly for my non-Greek friends, and things will get funnier after the next post. See you in a couple of days then!