An αθηΝΕΑ Kind Of Week

Introductions first. αθηΝΕΑ (pronounced a-thi-ne-a) is the free daily newsletter that supplies Athenians with their dose of news, every day, just in time for their lunch break. While it may only be available in Greek for now, we couldn’t think of one good reason why English speakers living or somehow connected to our beautiful city shouldn’t have access to its content. Thus, through today’s column, we present to you our first write-up of αθηΝΕΑ’s best and most relevant content, to be published exclusively through XpatAthens.

While we were patiently awaiting some solid news on the financial future of Greece to emerge from the negotiation that would not end, we had some time to read. We started with this piece in the FT, in which an Italian economist basically tells Greeks to reform or kindly leave the Eurozone. What did the international media’s Greek darling, our finance minister Yannis Varoufakis, have to say about it? He sent out some pretty contradictory messages to our lenders, basically asking Germans to lead, while accusing them of being butchers. Oh, and we - as in the Greeks - also managed to piss off our only remaining ally in Brussels, Jean-Claude Juncker, so there’s that.

Enough politics, what else went on this week? For one thing we felt extremely jealous of our friends in London, who get to visit this participatory art exhibition. We also got a wonderful book recommendation (Primates of Park Avenue), about women who have it all and also get bonuses when their kids perform well in school, as well as a ton of music recommendations, some taking us back to the late nineties, others more contemporary and some that truly made us wonder!

What are your thoughts on the Caitlyn-Jenner-breaks-the-internet phenomenon, whose aftermath was still being felt this week? We sure loved John Stewart’s thoughts on the matter, and found ourselves slighty irritated by this op-ed piece. It’s not that we didn’t think Elinor Burkett made some valid points, she just missed the point overall, as was articulated by Jill Filipovic in a truly brilliant article in Cosmopolitan of all places.

As we speak, we are frantically packing for a lovely weekend somewhere warm, and are wondering if there’s any chance our voyage could be as fun as that of EasyJet passengers who witnessed Kate Moss calling their pilot a basic b*tch. Speaking of the female bro, here’s a College Humor video-guide on How To Tell if You’re a Basic B*tch, in case you were wondering.

Let’s leave vulgarity aside and once again focus on the serious stuff: the G7 vowed to finally do something about climate change, which according to Oliver Burkeman is kind of a must since we, as humanity, are a bunch of climate change deniers at heart, ‘hardwired to shirk existential challenges'.

Last but not least, we got some helpful tips on how to avoid mosquito bites (hint: don’t move, don’t drink, don’t speak to anyone) and learnt from the Buddha of breaststroke himself that maybe our swimming skills weren’t so advanced after all.

Want to hear more from a8hNEA? Let us know by email: ideas@xpatathens.com.