As a little girl growing up in Washington DC it was always my dream to eventually move to Greece Having vacationed in Crete religiously every summer I knew that one day I would end up on this mythical island where everything seemed heavenly After graduating from Washington International School I set off for the other city I loved New York where I attended New York University There I studied Business Administration Art and Hellenic Studies at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study It was at NYU that I was able to cultivate even more my fascination with Greece and more specifically with Crete I tried tapping into my roots by becoming president of the Hellenic Heritage Association a club for students of Greek origin on campus and I started to learn about Modern Greek history and focused my studies on Modern Greek identity I spent my weekends at Greek clubs in Astoria Queens and you could say I was as much in the Greek world of America as I could be at that point Shortly after graduating I put off my dream of moving to Greece and took a job in real estate marketing and sales That is when reality hit All of a sudden there werent enough hours in the day and stress was the adrenaline that kept me going Greece was far from my mind According to American culture I was exactly where I should have been I had a great job with a salary that I hadnt even dreamed of at 21 years old My job was defined by long hours and high levels of stress with the not so infrequent phone calls from developers cursing and wondering why a deal hadnt gone through Summer came around and I was determined to go to Greece I had five working days vacation time so I took a ten day trip to Cretemy shortest ever Although many of you reading this may think that ten days is plenty of time I was used to at least a month on the island that was my second home I left Crete that summer with the usual feeling of emptiness but this time that feeling was just too consuming I started thinking about how my life would end up If I stayed at my job I potentially could have had everything set the economic crisis hadnt set on at this point Id have a great job in one of the best cities in the world where I would be living the over glorified Sex and the City lifestyle But then what This question plagued me Was this it What about my plans to try out life in Greece I examined the people around me and focused on their preoccupation with material things and started to become worried that this superficial life would get the best of me I had to get out of there I had to live out my dreams before it was too late But what would I do in Greece Now is the time for me to tell you that in 1993 my father established the Manousakis Winery here in Crete But all I knew about wine was how to drink it in hefty quantities As I was struggling with my decision to move to Greece my dad had been planning to build a new winery in Crete We spoke about the possibilities and he suggested for me to head the building of the new winery in order to get a taste of what construction is like in Greece because as hard as it might be in the States he said it will be 10 times harder in Greece So the plan was that after the completion of the new winery we would explore real estate opportunities So after 6 years of living in New York I packed up my bags in August of 2007 and left the city that never sleeps and arrived to the city that has a daily 3 hour siesta This is when I got my second dose of reality It is important to keep in mind that for me Greece and especially Crete was number one It was paradise I couldnt imagine that anything could go wrong in this land of perfection I started working as of September 1st At that time my family was still visiting from the States and my job basically consisted of going to meetings with my dad and trying to get familiar with the different people the wines the lifestyle etc A few weeks later the time came for my dad to leave and all of a sudden my schedule was pretty empty Still being a New Yorker at heart I had no idea what to do the anxiety of not having stress was overwhelming The laid back attitude on the island started to suffocate me I would go run errands the few I had at that point and the shop owner would invite me to sit down and have a cup of coffee COFFEE In the middle of the day How can I possibly relax with a cup of coffee during business hours These thoughts occurred daily for me It took me quite some time to realize that I didnt need to go at warp speed in order to get things done here Each day brought along a new problem I was trying to get adjusted on many different levels I had to learn to do business in Greek Not only that but I had to learn the Greek way of doing business in Greek I also had to sort my personal life out From getting my national ID card to paying my first months rent I was moving blindly and was perpetually confused Coming from a city where every transaction is done online and all information about documentation needed for certain services can be found simply by clicking submit made me feel completely lost my first few months here I would call friends to ask them where the bank was or where the tax office was or where I had to go to pay my phone bills I would call to be reminded of the word I needed to say when I got to the customs office in order to send an order of wines to Cyprus It was madness I had never felt so out of my element in all my life The shock hit me hard because I thought everything would be easy I made the assumption that things would flow just as smoothly as they did for me in New York Boy was I wrong As the months rolled by I slowly started to understand what to expect in different situations and that allowed me to focus on the winery I deal with the business aspect of the winery the marketing the PR the accounting etc Being that I had never studied anything about wine I was once again a fish out of water I started reading articles on the wine world and meeting people with a great deal of knowledge of the industry and all of a sudden 1 1 started to equal 2 again The world of wine is so rich and complex that I can say I have never been bored The lifestyle that managing a winery offers is one that the New York me could only dream of for about 15 seconds a day The brand name of our wines is Nostos This seems rather fitting in this story because the word nostos means returning home in ancient Greek and is the root word of nostalgia My decision to come to Greece has been in its own way my return home or at the very least my return to my roots After nearly two years of living in Chania I can say that the shock of having to wait 6 months to get internet has worn off and that all of the amazing things that this island has to offer in terms of quality of living outweigh the hassles that you need to overcome in order to get the ball rolling Most first generation GreekAmericans dream of moving to the Greece that their parents left Most come thinking exactly as I did Greece is heaven A lot of them leave after having dealt with similar aggravations as the ones I mentioned above But for everyone who is considering taking the leap I would say go for it One quote that has stuck with me is something that one of my coworkers said to me just before I left New York Sometimes you need to change things up give yourself a bit of a scare to feel alive