• At home – Second and third days/nights in Greece

    After an amazing day/night in Thessaloniki, Kostas and I drove to Xanthi, my home city (just a couple of hours from Thessaloniki). My family house is actually 5km out of Xanthi, in the beautiful village of Petinos (photos of the place where I grew up will come with my final blog entry). It was sooooo…

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  • First day/night in Greece

    I don’t expect all nights are going to be like my first one in Thessaloniki because if that’s the case, I’ll need to take a vacation immediately upon my return to Seattle 🙂 Wow! The welcoming was amazing. Kostas picked me up from the airport and we headed towards Thessaloniki while listening to Radio Republic.…

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  • First part of my European trip

    Despite a rocky start to the trip due to the jet-lag and a cold, I now feel so much better and I am ready (and very excited) to see my family and friends in Greece. I am currently at the British lounge at Gatwick, waiting for my flight. The meeting in Cambridge went great. The…

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  • Weekend trip: Cascade Loop

    I spent this weekend on the road. It was absolutely great! I wanted to get out of Seattle, listen to some live music, ride, smell the forest, write, think, etc. etc. It’s sooooo liberating to be on the road. It’s refreshing to meet new people, dance, philosophize, and put life into perspective 🙂 In all…

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  • A quick trip to Europe

    I am off to Europe in few days. My previous team, External Research in MSR, is organizing a small event in Cambridge, UK, to discuss all the great technologies that they have been developing over the last few years, for some of which you can blame me too 🙂 I am going to focus on…

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  • It’s sooo good to be on the road again 🙂

    I am doing the Cascades loop this weekend on my motorbike. It feels sooooo good to be on the road again. I spent most of my day at Lake Chelan at the “Rhythms on the Lake Music Festival”. Beautiful music and lots of dancing. Met new people and felt totally alive!!! 🙂 I am going…

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  • The importance of friends in my life

    I try my best in my life to be a good friend to everyone. Sometimes I do mistakes. I seriously apologize to those whom I might have hurt. I do hope that in most times I am someone to whom my friends can count. Over emotional times, I realize how lucky I am to have…

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  • Photography from my friend Kostas

    My best friend Kostas Amoiridis is a photographer (mostly fashion) back in Greece. The photo at the corner of this blog was taken by him, for an interview of mine in a Greek magazine (plus some others for other similar occasions… the ones where I pose 🙂 Kostas is absolutely fantastic… personality and talent!!! I…

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  • Transitioning to a new role

    I know it hasn’t been long since I moved to Bing from Microsoft Research but things don’t always work out as originally planned. I learned a lot while at Bing but my primary goal of getting experience in delivering a large-scale service wasn’t being realized. Furthermore, the work I wanted to do around many ideas…

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  • Evergreen State Fair and The Pretenders

    I had never been to a farmers’ fair here in the US until last Saturday, when I visited the Evergreen State Fair. It was lots of fun :-)… Many different types of animals, art stands, food, music, events, and many-many people 🙂            Last Saturday, my summer of concerts continued with The Pretenders. It was…

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