I had a dream last night that Hayley from Paramore was having a poolside concert at the hotel my school was at. She sang "High School of the Dead." It was pretty awesome. (And I don't even follow Paramore.)
Today's story is based on "Europe Wrangles Over Greece" by Marcus Walker and Charles Forelle.
I still own nothing. Which is probably for the best.
They'd sort of agreed on what to do for the bailout package in the short term. They knew that they'd have to talk to the creditors and convince them to help fund Greece themselves without making the country default, which was fine in theory. As for how it would work in practice? That had been tabled until July in favor of other topics, mostly talks with Greece's government.
Italy got that, but it didn't sound like Greece would be able to repay everything even if they agreed with a solution- at least, that's what he thought default meant. During the meeting, everyone avoided the possibility that Greece might need even more money soon. At least the IMF had finally agreed to contribute.
"Hey, Germany," he said as the meeting started to disband. "What if Greece needs more money after we bail him out?"
Germany gave him an odd look. "Let's just put that thought on hold for July."
Prussia stepped behind Italy and clapped him on the shoulder. "It's okay, Italien! The awesomeness that is me was at this meeting, so it'll never fail! Kesesese~"
Italy was worried now. Prussia didn't sound right. "B- but, no, really! The budget ministers really don't think what we're trying to do will-"
Germany took a deep breath. "Italien. It's going to be all right. We can wait."
"But they're going to run out of money in July! And if the government collapses-"
Prussia pulled Italy up from his chair. "Hey, I think I see Spain and Romano over there! Let's go say hi, Ita!"
Prussia was silent as he guided him through the gaggle of countries to the back of the room. Then he spoke:
"You're not a kid anymore, so I don't know why I shouldn't tell it to you like it is. First of all, we're going to be hit hardest by Greece's problems. Plus we haven't figured out what to do if any of the things you mentioned will happen- Boss Merkel just dropped the plan we were working on for a while, too. So we're stressed. Oh, yeah- was it you or Romano who went to the G7 the other day?"
"It was Romano, and he said the details are confidential."
"Yeah, that's what my bruder said. Okay, so at least we haven't heard anything bad, right? Maybe they came up with something awesome and can't tell us for some reason. Really, try not to worry too much. We'll just keep the meetings going, and we'll keep talking to Greece about the money we talked about last year."
"But what if it all goes wrong? What if the eurozone . . ."
Collapses, they both thought.
"We've survived awesomely enough without it before, right?" Prussia fingered his Iron Cross absentmindedly. "It would be tough. It would totally suck. But we'd all survive, and sooner or later we'd be awesome enough again to try again. That's one awesome worst- case scenario, kesesese~"
"Yeah . . . you're right . . ." When he thought of it that way, Italy felt hopeful. Everyone was working very productively. In his free time (always nice to have a brother to switch off with), Italy could make his best pasta recipe and serve it at the meeting.
"Oh, yeah. I almost forgot. Hungary's going to pass the Presidency of the Council of the EU on to Poland at the end of the month, so I was thinking we should have an awesome dinner party like we did in December. You wanna plan for that during lunch today?"
"Yes, sir!" Italy saluted (Germany'd told him "Left hand," right?) and went to go talk to Romano about filling in for him on the 29th.
Ugh, I didn't really like this one. The article was really confusing for some reason, and I don't think I set it up well. It's probably the last of the Greek Developments Arc (wait, it has a name?) until they deal with the specifics of the bailout package, but that doesn't mean I'm abandoning Europe. I'm excited for the Power Trio of the EU Council that's coming up- Belgium, Hungary, and Poland. That's going to be insane(ly awesome)!
Reviews are uber- appreciated! I like hearing what you guys have to say, especially cultural facts. Thanks!
