Application for Greek Nationality, Continued.

December 5^th, 2019, - day dawns and it’s time to present myself at the local administrative offices to demonstrate whether my knowledge of Greek language, history, geography, politics, culture, etc. is good enough for me to continue on the nationalization process.

Nice, sunny day but Z has to search for a parking space, so alone I negotiate my way through the human wall – mainly Asian applicants for rights of residence – which makes access to the entrance challenging. At our venue, a rather charmless corridor, I find other British nationality-seekers: 3 with appointments at 8.45; 3 at 9.00; 2, like me, at 9.15. looks like this is going to be one long day!

 About one hour in, and by way of distraction, I decide to record our group while we wait – smiles masking our anxiety. But these smiles suddenly changed to a range of quite different expressions, on seeing a grown woman exit the interview room in flood of tears. :o  I do wish I’d recorded those expressions too!!

                                             

We are taken into a room individually and asked to fill out an official request-form addressed to whichever Ministry we choose, making some form of request. I am assured I can complete the form in pencil and I request that the Ministry of the Interior look favourably upon my application for nationality. On leaving my room I realize I’ve made a spelling mistake – oh horrors! So when I’m recalled and requested to complete another form in pen this time, I’m delighted and do a bit of deft amendment to the offending word!

 At around 12 noon, when the Boss-Dude announced they were going to have a break -!?! – Z who was white-hot with real irritation on the delay, ironically asks if the break is for them or us L.  I have to restrain him from making further comments – that dude is going to be interviewing me soon  … -ish.

BD calls in the penultimate interviewee and advises me I’ll be asked to recite the National Anthem, I respond I’ll sing it if they’d like. At 1.30 it’s my turn to be called in. Previously I had decided not to do any rehearsal while waiting, in case I foul up and cause myself real anxiety, so I go in praying my retrieval skills will operate, but my recall is definitely misted by adrenalin flow.

There are two interviewers: BD and a lady of nil-expression - assumed, rather than botoxed -  and a third lady who is laboriously recording by hand my every response. We begin with BD asking me questions of personal information: my work, where, length of residence in Greece, marital status, home ownership, what difference will Brexit make to me. As I’m responding I catch a look made by Lady 1 to Lady 2. It’s a facial expression of pleasant surprise, so that calms me a little as clearly she thinks my Greek is okay- phew!

Then we move on to check out my geographical gen. I’m asked to list neighbouring countries, the geographic departments of the country, the seas that wash it, the island groups as well as the names of some of the islands.

They are very good at their job: If you make a mistake – I had the gall to assign the island of Ikaria to a completely different island group, even going so far as to move it into a different sea! – they gently question your response, giving you time to self-correct if you can, and they also have prompts at the ready.

I’m asked about the two major airports in Greece and when I respond ‘Spata’ for the Athenian one, L1 responds ‘Sparta?’. I say, ‘No, Spata, the area  it’s in.’ Then I realize that they wanted the real name ‘Eleftherios Venezelos’ as they want to me to give further information on its namesake, the politician during WW1. He’s a favourite of mine so I’m happy to identify him in a picture and discuss the high and low points in his career. While in full-Venezelos-flow, I catch L1 gesturing to L2 to stop writing down what I say. I take that as probably meaning they have enough data on me now to come to a decision on my performance. Is that positive or negative - who knows? But what it means for me is that L2, now freed of her recording duties, starts pitching questions at me too. And they are fairly relentless and hurl questions at a fair pace – gulp!

I’m asked about the mode of government - that’s easy: Greece has a Presidential Parliamentary Democracy, but, as you can imagine, in Greek it’s even more of a mouthful. I’m two-thirds through the phrase when I stop and realize I have to start again. I had been listing these long adjectives with masculine endings, but the Greek word for democracy is feminine so they all had to agree! I’m asked about how the parliament operates and to name the political parties represented in it. I am a bit thrown, however, when I’m asked to name the Prime Ministers since WW2. This is neither in our information booklet, nor have I studied it, but I praise Zeus for nepotistic political tendencies and from each of the families Papandreou, Mitsotakis and Karamanlis, I manage to harvest two or three names which cover a fair span of time.

Being their ‘last victim’ as I announced myself initially, I naively thought I might get a short interview, but no, these questions just keep on coming. BD asks me if Greece has had any Nobel Prize winners. The nice thing about that mode of questioning is you say ‘Yes’ and it feels more positive and less confrontational  than saying ‘Name …’ I answer that both Seferis and Elytis were awarded Nobel Prizes for Literature. My continued response ,’… and George Seferis won the award …’ is interrupted by L2, saying ‘”You think I’m interested in when he won it?’. I’m so shocked by this I ask her to repeat her question, which she does. To which I reply, ‘Okay then, I won’t tell you.’

And that was the end of my interview, just as the clock struck 2.00!!

Below we have a wee post-exam wind-down!

                                                 

To be continued ……

 …….19^th June and ….the results are out and I’m in.        

          My knowledge was deemed satisfactory enough for the naturalization process to continue.    Yay!!!