basketball and other adventures!

Since I’ve last written to you guys, we’ve had two games. We lost both games, but perhaps more frustrating than losing, is that we could have and should have won them both. On Wednesday, we played Panathanaikos, arguably the best team in our league. We were only down two points going into the fourth quarter and then they just ran away with it. We had too many turnovers and gave up too many offensive rebounds. They had so many fans at the game! I was shocked at how well they traveled. The entire game, their fans were singing, cheering, and beating on a large drum. While it was really hard to hear the plays that my teammates were calling, it was a great atmosphere to play in, maybe even one of the craziest ones I’ve ever experienced.

After our game Wednesday, we had a quick turn around and had to play again on Saturday. On Saturday, we played Proteas Voulas, another really talented team. We got down early and started to come back, but they kept hitting shots and getting offensive rebounds. We ended up losing by 11. While I hate losing, I can see that our team is making huge improvements over the first couple of games we played when I first got here. We will also finally be getting our head coach this week. This will be the 3^rd/4^th coach since I’ve been here. We have a coach that has been practicing with us, and then one that has been coaching us in games. I’m excited to see how we will bounce back from these games and tackle the rest of the season and how we will respond to the new coach.

Still no internet at my apartment- I’m getting very friendly with the workers at the VS Café! However, I do know that the CARDS ARE IN THE WORLD SERIES!! And Mizzou Football is 7-0!! It is such an awesome time to be a sports fan in Missouri! I love keeping up with them and wish I were home to partake in the celebrations! I hope it can continue!

There is less than two weeks until my sisters come! They could not be coming at a better time! I cannot wait for their arrival and will probably cry when I see them. I think this is the longest I’ve ever gone without being with family and I must say that I don’t like it one bit! My mom is coming in a month and I’ll be home for Christmas in two months! Considering that I used to see my mom about 2 times a week when it was basketball season, it’s weird to look up and not see her in the stands.

The TV in my apartment gets about 6 channels and the only one in English is CNN… so I don’t watch much TV. Today (Monday) was my first day volunteering at the American school this week. I had really little boys today, 6 and 7 year olds and they are full of energy! I’ll go back on Thursday and help with boys that are a little bit older. I’m really excited about this opportunity!

That’s it for now!

Checking in!

I realize that I haven’t written in awhile so I will try and update everybody on what has been going on!

We played two weekends ago against Athinaikos, one of the best teams in the league. We had just played them the previous weekend and lost by 20 so I knew it was going to be a good game. We started out really strong and built a pretty good lead in the first quarter. At half time, we were up by 6 I think. They started coming back in the third and fourth quarters and we ended up going into overtime. We won! This was a big win for us and all of my teammates were so happy! This game was a ‘cup’ game. Since we won, we will play another cup game on December 22nd, the day before I come home for Christmas!

I still don’t have Internet at my apartment so I have been frequenting the VS Café quite a bit. They are a bar/club with darts, pool and billiards tables, ping-pong tables, and of course, Internet! I usually go there every day for a couple of hours and sip on a cappuccino. For 2 Euros, it’s worth it to walk the 20 minutes there and back everyday so I can talk to some people back home. I’m REALLY hoping that I’ll get my Internet at my apartment here in the next few days because all of the workers are starting to recognize me and don’t even have to ask what kind of coffee I want anymore!

Since I don’t have Internet, I’ve been reading a lot more. I started and finished 6 books in one week. I also play countless games of Solitaire and FreeCell on my phone or iPad. And I have some movies that I bought through iTunes, even though I’m pretty sure I know every line to just about all of the movies I have! Of the books that I have read, I would highly suggest reading The Fault in our Stars by John Green. I’ve also read Wild by Cheryl Strayed and Untouchable by Scott O’Connor. These books were so good that I would catch myself reading until 2 in the morning and then picking the book back up first thing when I woke up in the morning!

We were supposed to play this past weekend against Panathinaikos, the best team in our league. We played them a couple of weeks ago in a preseason game and lost by 15. There have been some issues with the gyms being sanctioned to play in so we couldn’t play our game on Saturday like we were supposed to because we couldn’t find a gym to play in. Now, we are scheduled to play against them tomorrow (Wednesday) at a different teams gym. I wish I could explain to you better what is wrong with the gyms but I don’t even know so I can’t exactly explain it to you guys!

I’m still learning some Greek words! I can now count to ten and I am picking up on some of the words that our coach uses frequently in practice. Right now, I’m working on perfecting ‘thank you.’ In conversations that my teammates have, I pick up on some words that sound familiar but they speak so quickly that I can’t understand a lot of it.

I’ve learned how to ride the Athens Metro! I know how to get from the metro station near my apartment to the Acropolis! I also know how to get to the American Community School of Athens! Coach Bruno knows the Athletic Director there and got me hooked up with a meeting with her. I went there on Monday morning and am going to start helping out after school with the high school girl’s basketball team when their season starts. Right now, I’m going to help out with little kids, like first through third grades. Every Monday and Thursday, I will go out there in the afternoon for a couple of hours and help teach the little ones how to play! I’m really excited about this because now I won’t be bored in my apartment every day. Also, hopefully I’ll be able to meet some more Americans, or at least English-speaking people living here!

My sisters are coming in 18 days!! I cannot wait for them to get here! I know we will have a lot of fun visiting all of the sights and shopping. And I can’t wait to speak unbroken English face to face with people!

This Friday will mark a month that I have lived here. After the first couple of days, I honestly didn’t think I would make it this long. Every day things get a little bit easier and I am becoming more comfortable in my surroundings and how to get around. The encouraging words and notes from back home do not go unnoticed, either. I’m sure when I get Internet in my apartment I will be the happiest person in this city! That will make it easier for me to get in contact with people back home. I always have to be conscious of the time change before texting somebody or calling them on FaceTime. My mom and I also figured out how to call my Greek cell phone from back home! She got a plan that allows her to call for like 30 cents a minute or something so it’s nice that she can call me even when I don’t have Internet. Today, I finally got the letter that she mailed me a couple of weeks ago! It was so awesome to walk downstairs and have mail! I’m hoping that there will be a care package or two (wink wink) sent my way during my stay here. :)

That’s all for now. Thanks for checking in!

Greek life, lately

What an eventful filled couple of days I have had since I last posted! We had another preseason tournament, our coach got fired, I’m starting to find my way around a little bit better, I figured out how to work the hot water in my apartment (!), and we all went together to dinner as a team! Let me break this down a little bit more.

This past weekend we had another preseason tournament. This time, the games were held at the gym of another team. On Saturday, we played the host team and lost by a lot. It was brutal. Nobody played well and we couldn’t hit a shot to save our lives. We played again on Sunday and personally I thought we played better. We still lost, but the margin wasn’t quite as large and our shooting and defense was a little better. After the game Sunday in the locker room, the general manager of our team told us that he and the president of the club would be taking us to dinner on Monday night instead of having training. I was really looking forward to this because I hadn’t gotten to spend much time with my teammates outside of practice and I thought this would be a good chance to get to know them a little better.

Usually during the day I watch a movie or a T.V. show that I have on my computer or iPad in the morning and then head out around noon for lunch. I walk to the main street, Agiou Dimitriou, and try to find a place where they speak a little bit of English. While I am VERY glad that a lot of people speak English, it also surprises me when so many people do. I am in their native country expecting them to speak my language. However, I’m NOT complaining about them speaking English J Anyways, on Monday I had lunch and then decided to head to one of the internet café’s around 6 so that I could use their internet to check my phone, but mainly to download the series finale of Breaking Bad (HOLY EFF). The coaches told us that dinner would be at 9:30 and I thought since the restaurant was right next door to the internet café, I would kick it for a few hours with my cappuccino and internet connection and then walk over to dinner.

9:25 rolls around and I decide that it’s a good time to head over to the restaurant where I’m sure some of my teammates are waiting. I walked next door to find nobody from my team. I tried to ask the owners of the restaurant what time they were coming but since they didn’t speak much English, they didn’t understand what I was trying to say. I waited and waited and waited for the team to show up. After about 30 minutes and 10 games of solitaire on my phone, I realized that I was not in the right spot. Since I don’t have any numbers yet in my Greek phone, I couldn’t call or text anybody to ask where I should go. One of the men affiliated with the team called the restaurant when they realized that I was temporarily missing and came to pick me up.

It took us awhile to finally find the restaurant because the streets are so confusing and there are lots of one-way streets here. When we finally got to the restaurant, the girls had already all eaten and were sipping on cocktails. They ordered me one immediately and I was served some large plates of various meats and a delicious salad. The restaurant was awesome! It was on the top of a hill overlooking all of Athens and a huge port for boats. I could see the Acropolis right in the middle of everything and the girls also pointed our some other notable places. The music was good and the environment was so live. Even though I’m really frustrated that I missed so much of dinner with my teammates, we still had a great time together. It was fun to laugh with them and be with them outside of basketball. There are some major goofballs on the team and it was fun to hang out with them. And they are all trying to teach me some Greek! I can successfully count to 5, I know how to say ‘yes’ and ‘no’ and I know how to say ‘goodbye.’ While it’s not much, I still feel pretty accomplished!

While at dinner, I was informed that our coach had been fired. This came as a pretty big shock to me seeing as that I had only been there one week and I have never had any real coaching changes in my life. I had the same head high school coach for 4 years and the same head college coach for 4 years. Some assistants came and went but for the most part, everything was very steady. This is a professional business and things like this do happen, but I never thought it would happen to us, or the week before our first regular season game. They are searching for a new coach for us and in the meantime, one of our assistants stepped up and ran our practice last night. I thought it was a really good practice, a lot more intense and focused than the couple of practices we had last week. I’ll be curious to learn who our new coach will be.

That should be all for now! My sisters have officially booked their flights to come visit (WOOHOO) and I think my mom is in the process of booking hers (DOUBLE WOOHOO). Since the government back home has shut down, if anybody wants to come visit Greece, I will welcome all guests with open arms! J Although you’ll probably need to bring an air mattress or stay in a hotel haha!

I also want to say thanks to everybody that has reached out and contacted me since I’ve been gone. I know it’s only been a week, but your kind thoughts and words manage to put a big smile on my face and remind me how blessed I am to have such wonderful people in my life. I’m a really lucky girl.

Geia sas! (That’s goodbye in Greek! And it’s pronounced like yay-sas)