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Webcam update: On home island, Greek student Athina changes plans

By: The Associated Press

Posted: 08/9/2012 4:52 AM | Comments: 0 | Last Modified: 08/9/2012 4:54 AM

In this photo taken Saturday, June 30, 2012, Athina Prassa poses for a photograph during an interview with The Associated Press at her apartment in the Agios Panteleimonas area of Athens. Athina Prassa is on her home island of Lemnos, soaking up the Mediterranean sun after graduating from university in Athens. But it’s not exactly vacation for the 22-year-old English grad. She’s overjoyed about landing a waitressing job at a crowded cafe that will help her save money to get by from day-to-day when she returns to the Greek capital in the fall. (AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis)

ATHENS, Greece - Athina Prassa is on her home island of Lemnos, soaking up the Mediterranean sun after graduating from university in Athens.

But it's not exactly vacation for the 22-year-old English grad.

She's overjoyed about landing a waitressing job at a crowded cafe that will help her save money to get by from day-to-day when she returns to the Greek capital in the fall.

Times were so tough for her in Athens, living on a budget of 50 euros ($60) a week, that she sometimes forgot the taste of meat. Now Athina is finding that Europe's devastating financial crisis has hit the idyllic Greek islands as well.

"We have half the tourists ... than we had last year," she says. "We hope we can manage, we hope we can work things out."

Athina has had some time to think about her future: She has revised her plans to focus all her energies on a hunt for full-time work when she goes back to Athens.

With the job outlook so weak, she figures she'll have a better chance picking up freelance work as an English tutor.

"But at the same time I will try to look for other jobs, because I have no idea what's going to happen."

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