Wow. Just over a month left. I still can’t believe how ridiculously fast things are moving here. It still feels like we were just getting situated in our apartments. In a small way, I’m ready to go home, but for the most part, I’ve really fallen in love with this place. Sure, it gets a little old when no one speaks your language fluently, but I love the culture and the lifestyle here. I’ve always said I want to live in a city when I get done with school, but never really knew how I would like it. These past few months have been an affirmation in a way, of my desire to live in a city when I finish up in the next few years. The homesickness has pretty much subsided for the time being, and I’m doing much better in that aspect than I thought I would. I guess I’m having so much fun here that there’s not much time to think about what I’m missing back at school. That being said, my roommates and I were talking the other night about what would make this experience better, and we all agreed it would be having our friends and family with us to share in it. I miss everybody at home a ton, and can’t wait until Christmas with my family and then going back to school to see everyone.
Lately, it’s kind of been the same schedule that I wrote about before…no need to re-hash the fact that Greek class still kicks my but on a bi-weekly basis for an hour and a half at a time, the rest of the classes are a joke, and life here is a big party. All in all, things are awesome.
The one pretty exciting/unique thing I did this weekend was attend a Greek basketball game. I’d been planning on going to an Olympiakos game since day one, so it was sweet that the schedule worked out so that I could go. I got a ticket for 20 Euro and when I walked into the stadium, I knew it would be different from an NBA game. The first thing I noticed was that the place was full of smoke. It was like a bar full of 10,000 people puffing away on their cigarettes. Apparently, it’s ok to smoke in an arena. The next thing that was totally different, but ten times better than the NBA atmosphere was that there was a fan base that was so intense that the only way to describe them would be to use the word rabid. These guys were freakin nuts. I mean, we’re talking drums, flags, and banners hung out with pretty bold statements like THE KING OF EUROPE IS HERE and some Greek statements that I wouldn’t feel comfortable writing on here. The best way I can describe it would be that it was similar to the soccer firms of England. They chanted and sung back and forth across the arena and again, said some stuff that wouldn’t be suitable for a family-friendly blog like this one. The girl I went with told me that a few years back there was a stampede of the court after Olympiakos won the Euroleague championship and several people were trampled and killed after the fan section rushed out of Gate 7 of the stadium. I guess that explained all the GATE 7 signs hanging around the fan section…it’s like they were advertising the fact that they were so nuts that the opposing fans better not forget that a few years back they trampled and killed some people. Simply nuts. They would have put Flanagan’s Freaks back at RV to shame, and that’s saying a lot. We got to our seats and saw that people were sitting in them. There was thing number three that was different from the NBA. Apparently you get tickets, but only the section applies. “Seats don’t (expletive) matter here you (expletiving expletive)” was the response I got as I tried to get the guy out of the seat that I payed for. Turns out, he knew English pretty well. At least a few words I guess. I got some strong language from some people behind me for blocking their view of the Olympiakos dancers, who would have been arrested for indecent exposure in any arena in America (there’s difference number 4). So, it turned out we had to find new seats and I found myself moving up to the third row and getting stuck in the heart of the fan group. It was definitely an experience, to say the least. I chanted, clapped, and sung with them for the first half so that I wouldn’t wind up like any of those people from Gate 7 a few years back. Needless to say, we moved after the first half. All around, though, it was a great game. It was cool to see how transcendant sport is, and how, although we were thousands of miles away from where the game originated, it was still the same. There were still pick-and-rolls, iso’s, and low post moves. People still hated the refs, and the fans still booed the other team (they also threw stuff at them (difference number 5)). It was also cool to see American players over here…pretty well known guys, too, such as Josh Childress, and several others who had pretty solid pro and collegiate careers and were easily recognizable names in the basketball world.
That was Thursday night, and I’ve basically spent the last few days just hanging out around the city and with my roommates in the apartment. There was a group that went to Ireland and Rome this weekend from within our study abroad group, so it was a pretty slow weekend. I tried going to church yesterday, but we got there only to find it was “St. Andrew’s Day” (a holiday, I guess, in Greece). So instead of church, there was a picnic. We’re gonna go back next week because it seemed like a pretty solid evangelical church…
I’m starting to get pumped for the next few weekends…First, I’m heading to Italy (Rome and Venice), then on the last weekend that we’re here I’m meeting up with Ben and Kristy Williams in Berlin, which should be an awesome time. Hard to believe I only have two more weekends left in this awesome city…I’d better put together a Christmas list.
Peace,
Ryan
P.S. check out the pics on facebook i put up...Around Athens is the name of the album...Kind of a visual representation of this post...
