Uncle Bill By Charlie

An ancient temple from Athens

In ancient times, Greece was a large empire `surrounding the Mediterranean and Black seas. It ruled its large area for centuries. In147 BC, however, the Roman Empire conquered it, and even its large area became just another province in the Roman Empire (Greece Enchantment of the World).

Currently, Greece and Turkey have a relationship that is not very friendly because there is a big dispute over territorial boundaries. There was militaristic force used by Turkey, but now they’ve started to have peaceful debates on the matter. Another country Greece had issues with in the resent past was the Federal Socialist Republic of Macedonia (FSROM). Macedonia was once owned by Yugoslavia and Greece but when Yugoslavia split up the Yugoslavian owned area of Macedonia became the Federal Socialist Republic of Macedonia. The FSROM used the 16-pointed star of Alexander the Great as their flag, Greece hated this because Alexander the great was a Greek national hero and Macedonia was a Greek name. But now they’ve changed the name and the flag and the relationship is improving (GEOTW).


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Greece’s economy was terrible after WWII, but they’ve come back from that crisis very well, greatly due to government-employed jobs (GEOTW). Agriculture is also a major job in Greece (2007 World Book). In 2002 100 drachma (drak-ma) was only worth 26 US cents! Nowadays Greece uses the euro (GEOTW). One euro is $1.49 (Marta a foreign exchange student from Spain who apparently knows the exchange rate).

In 1986 Bill Maniotes, my uncle, decided to leave Greece and come to the USA. He decided to leave because the university system was better here back then. Though he was sad to leave his family and friends, he was anxious to make new ones.

He decided to go because there was better education in the USA than there was in Greece. He wanted a chance at better education, so he applied for a university. He came because he felt that the university system was better here.

All Bill took with him was his clothes. He was sad to leave the house he was used to. At the same time, he was exited to live on his own. Over all he was happy to go.

When he arrived he enrolled in the University of North Carolina Greensburg. He lived in a dorm so he had a roommate. It was easy to make friends there because everybody was feeling the same way because they had all just left home. It was also nice to belong to the International Student Association, where he met students from all around the world.

When he left he had no idea whether or not he was going to stay, and he felt he had a lot of time to decide. In the end he decided to stay because there were better jobs in America, also, at the time (before our economy was messed up completely by a certain someone AKA bush, and Greece didn’t use the euro yet) the USA’s economy was a lot better. Also Bill met Leslie (my mothers sister) and they got married right after college, four years ago my aunt Leslie gave birth to my little cousin Lilly =).