We are still looking for our first win as a team in the regular season. If you remember, we beat Athinikos in a Cup game, but that is different than the regular season. We have played 5 games but haven't won yet. When you come from a teams like Rock Bridge and DePaul where you expect to win all of your games, it's hard to adjust to not winning. Of course we lost games when playing for RB and DPU, but we never ever started out 0-5 or ever lost 5 games in a row in any season. I hate losing. I feel that we are so close to turning our season around so I am trying to be optimistic about this.
I've mastered the Metro system! Every Monday and Thursday, I take the red train to Syntagma and then transfer to the blue train towards the airport in order to get to ACS (American Community School). The train system is very similar to that of the el system in Chicago so it was pretty easy to pick up on. I don't want to be too adventurous just yet but I feel much more comfortable going places.
For example, I went from my neighborhood to the Acropolis a few weeks ago by myself because I wanted to do something during the day. It costs $12 Euro (about $15 American dollars) to go up to the top. I carted along my camera and made the sweaty trek to the top. In order to get to the top, you have to walk up a very steep hillside. You walk past many very cool historic sites, such as Dionysus' Theatre and other smaller structures. While a lot of the walk up is ruins, you can still see and appreciate the beauty and hard work it took to construct the entire Acropolis. Depending on how long you stop to take pictures, it takes about 30 minutes to walk to the top but once you're up there, the views of Athens and the Parthenon itself are worth the 12 € and hike up the hill. To say that the views are breathtaking is an understatement. I never realized how large Athens was until I went to the top. I had one of those 'holy shit' moments. It hit me that I'm living in such a major part of history. I was walking amongst the things you see pictured and written about in books. Some people will never have the opportunity to see this with their own eyes. While its hard to be away from friends and family, my solo trip to the top of the Acropolis helped put things into perspective and was life-changing. I sat at the top over looking the city for probably an hour just reflecting on how blessed I am to have this incredible experience to live in a foreign country for 8 months and to live in a city so enriched with history. I realized how privileged of a life I have had leading up to this thanks to my parents and my family and I realized how truly amazing this experience is. It's a once in a lifetime kind of thing that I'm really glad I've been given the chance to capitalize on.
On November 1st, my sisters arrived in Athens! They spent a few days in Rome visiting the Vatican before finally heading my way. The day that they arrived marked 6 weeks that I had been in Athens. They could not have come at a better time. They got in on Friday night very late, about 11 pm and I met them at their hotel. I was so happy to see them that I started crying in the hotel lobby when they walked in!! I couldn't believe that they were finally here in Athens and that I would be spending a whole week with them! They got to see me play a game on Saturday and on Sunday we took a day cruise to 3 islands, (Hydra, Poros, and Aegina). On the day cruise, we spent a couple of hours on each island where we took lots of pictures and shopped lots! We bought some great souvenirs for friends and family back home and of course for ourselves.
Monday, we thought we would check out the Acropolis museum to get a background of the artifacts found there during excavation before heading up to the top. However, the museum had other plans. It's closed every Monday! So instead, we headed up to the top of the Acropolis! While going to the top by myself was great, it was really nice to be able to share that experience with my sisters, too. We spent a couple of hours walking up and at the top. After that, we went to lunch at a restaurant in the Plaka. This was about the time that my sister Liz discovered her love affair with tzadziki. For those of you that don't know, tzadziki is a kind of sauce that is made with yogurt and cucumber and some spices. It's commonly used when having souvlaki or gyros. However, Elizabeth would order entire plates full of it to eat with some pretzels and the rest of her lunch or dinner.
Tuesday we did some shopping and then went back to the Acropolis museum and spent a couple of hours walking around and looking at everything they found during excavation. It was incredible to me to look at all of the statues and relics found. The detail in the statues and carvings and paintings is astounding. It took them years to build everything, and you can tell. There was a lot that I couldn't look at because there was so much there, but now I'll have other things to spend longer looking at and reading about when my mom comes in a few weeks! At the end of the museum tour, we stopped in the museum bookstore and I bought some books about Greek mythology and the Acropolis and the museum. I'm really interested in all of this and am excited to read about it. With all of my new reading and researching about the Acropolis, my sisters and I were joking that I could become a tour guide for anybody that comes to visit! So, if any of you come to Athens while I'm here, let me know and I will be your private tour guide!! :)
On Wednesday the weather was pretty crummy so we decided to shop our way through the Plaka. There were a lot of stores very close to our hotel so we just shopped up and down Ermou street. On Tuesday when I had to leave for practice, my sisters discovered a rug shop, called The Loom, and had made quick friends with its owner, Theo. They each bought rugs for their homes and thought that I should have one for my apartment here, that I could then take home with me in the spring and put in my future home/apartment. We visited Theo at the rug shop where I proceeded to buy two rugs and then had lunch at his Aunts restaurant in the Plaka. We also stopped at a home goods store to buy some things for my apartment.
With the help of my sisters, we have completely redecorated my apartment! I got rugs, a table cloth to cover up my Rubbermaid kitchen table, fabric for another piece of furniture, an accent pillow, new sheets and a new blanket, wall decorations, a couple of baskets, and more odds and ends. While I thought my apartment was fine before they got here, they have helped make it feel much homier. I didn't realize how much of a difference a few little things would make but I'm very glad they helped me fix it up!
The weather on Thursday was much better so we decided that we would go to the Panathenaic Stadium, the only marble stadium in the world and home of the first modern Olympics in 1896. It was also used in the 2004 Olympics that were held in Athens. But before we could check that out, we had to camp out at my apartment for a few hours so they could finally come set up my Internet at my apartment!!!! After 7 long weeks without WiFi, I'm finally connected back to life in the States without having to frequent the VS Cafe and without going to practice 2 hours early! (I won't share on here the other measures I went to in order to check in back home!) Tears were also shed on Thursday when I finally connected to the Internet in my apartment. It was the first time I could FaceTime with my mom and show her my apartment so I really enjoyed that. I'm looking forward to sharing it with the rest of my family and my friends!
When I moved to Athens, my sister Liz found this awesome website by a guy named Matt Barrett called the Athens Survival Guide. His site has been somewhat of a bible for me since I've moved here and I've used it to check out restaurants and places to visit. He has great suggestions of things to do and visit while you're here. One of the places on his site that he talks about a lot is called Melissinos Sandal Shop. I suggest that you guys Google the shop and check it out! It's a really neat shop that makes leather sandals custom fit to your feet. We went in on Tuesday afternoon after the museum and spent about an hour in there having sandals custom-made for us. And I'm not exaggerating when I say custom-made in my case. They didn't even have any sandals in my size to try on in any style so they had me step on a base and measured where the toe-piece should go. Then they nailed and glued the shoes together to make them perfect and constantly had me trying them on during the whole process to ensure a good fit. Mar and Liz both got 2 pairs of sandals and I'm sure I'll go back for another pair before I leave! I decided on the 'Jackie O' style while Mar and Liz each got the 'Cleopatra' and another pair. Mar got the 'Jackie O' as well and Liz opted for the 'Aristotle' as their second pairs. I've thought that these would be great gifts to get people, but part of the charm of the shoe is having it fit to your feet. It's an awesome experience! I'm looking forward to taking my mom there, as well! Melissinos sandals have been made for the Beatles, Barbara Streisand, and many other celebrities. Pantelis Melissino is the current member in a line of sandal makers from his family to run the shop. Seriously, google the guy. He writes poetry, paints beautiful art, and makes sandals. He's a pretty cool dude. And we had the pleasure and fortune of sitting with him while he and one of his assistants made our sandals.
Friday morning came much too quick after a week long of fun with my sisters. Although my body, sleep schedule and wallet will be glad to be getting back on their schedule, I'm really sad they left. We had a game this weekend in Thessaloniki, which is a 7 hour bus ride away from Athens. This meant that we had to leave on Friday for our Saturday game. Liz's flight was early Saturday morning so I had to say goodbye to her on Friday. I'm not exactly sure what she did on Friday afternoon and evening, but I'm sure it involved more tzadziki! Mar's flight wasn't until Sunday morning so she came on the trip with us. She rode the bus with the team and stayed in our hotel with us. I stayed in her room because I wanted to spend more time with her!
It's hard to have my sisters leave, but a shining light is that my mom is coming in less than 2 weeks! Considering that I used to see my mom 2 and sometimes 3 times a week during basketball season, it's crazy to think that it'll have been 9 weeks since having seen her. She'll be here for 10 days and then I'll be heading home for Christmas 3 weeks after that. I have a feeling that these weeks leading up to going home for Christmas are going to fly by!
Hopefully, I've covered the major things that have been happening in my life since last updating everybody! For those of you that would like to see pictures of my time here, I have an album on Facebook with quite a few pictures in it. Add me on Facebook to check out the pics!! I just downloaded an app on my iPad for blogging so I'll try to start including some pics on here as well. Thanks for checking in and here are a taste of the pictures in my Facebook album! Go check it out!
This a picture of the Parthenon. They are working on restoring parts of it, which is why there is so much scaffolding up
Sitting on the Queen's Throne at the Panathenaic Stadium
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