No news is good news

(This is Marco hi-speeding it around the corner as we play catch with him)

Well I can honestly say I have never appreciated hi-speed wireless internet more in my life.  After having multiple shut offs of our Internet stick we decided to upgrade to the better, faster, more reliable conn-x Greek wireless internet.  Who knew you could find this in Greece!  While we were away from cyber space we did a lot of reading, watching tv shows, water polo, shopping, coffee drinking, bowling, playing with Marco, hmmmm, what else?  Two Saturdays ago Lauren was in town for a game against Elsie's team so she stayed the night over and we all went back to the beer factory and had dinner and listened to some live music and then hit the town.  It is amazing what a bunch of Americans look like running around Patras.  I don't think the town knew what hit them :-).  It was a lot of fun.  On Wed. Brian played Faliro again for the cup and they lost 9-8 in the last minute of the game.  There was some controversy though b/c apparently a player on Faliro played who was supposed to be suspended so they are fighting the results so that NOP can play in the cup.  Brian's coach has been in Athens for a court case over the matter.  They take this stuff very seriously!

This last Sat. Brian played PAOK.  It was probably the most exciting game yet!  Brian played great and scored 3 goals but they tied 12-12 and there was an UPROAR.  The refs were TERRIBLE.  It is a known fact here in Greek water polo that the home team gets somewhat of an advantage with calls etc.  It is true for every team and it is accepted and expected.  But in this game the refs were calling all sorts of kick-outs on NOP, the home team.  Even in the last minute of the game and the fans rushed the pool and were screaming their hearts out.  Even I, the novice water polo fan that I am, noticed how ridiculous the refs were being.  Both Brian's asst. coach and manager got red cards from the bench and had to leave the pool deck and sit out the next game.  At the end NOP's president lost it at the delegate who is in charge of watching over the refs during games to make sure they are doing a good job.  His face turned all red and his voice filled the giant pool.  It was quite a scene.  Apparently playing in PAOK is a joke as far as the advantage they get and how obnoxious their fans are, so it really isn't fair.  The funny thing is Layne Beubian, another American on the national team plays for PAOK, and he told Brian after the game that he thought they got jipped.  There is always someone to blame I guess.  It was still a good and exciting game.

After the game Ian, Elsie, Brian and I went to dinner and then went bowling.  Bowling is one of my favorite things to do here.  We are getting pretty good at it too!  The place where we usually go was hosting a bowling tournament though so we went to a different place that we had scene but never been too and it was just as fun!  The manager loved Brian, of course, and bought us drinks.  We had a great time.  Romana, Josef's gf, was also in town this week and on Sun. we went bowling with them again!  Afterwards we went to Elsie's game and we said goodbye to Ian.  That night we went and saw The Dutchess, before hand hitting up the bowling rink ONE more time :-).  Brian scored a 154 and I scored a 120!  I think our best scores ever :-).  

On Mon. Josef, Romana, Brian and I, plus two other guys from their team, went back to Kalavryta.  Yes, after such a short time we sacked up and went back, the correct way, which was much less painful and a much shorter drive.  This time we actually went up to the mountain to go snowboarding.  It was a fairly small mountain, well in comparison to Mammoth I guess anything is.  But there was a lift that went all the way up to the top of the mountain and it was a really fun run down.  I had fun with the boys who were all beginners and who were happy to laugh at themselves at every fall.  We were on the slopes for a few hours and then headed back b/c the boys had practice that night.  We stopped at a really neat restaurant on the side of the mountain heading home and had a great meal.  This picture above is from here.

On Wed. Brian played Heracles and they won 18-9, obviously an easy game.  Yesterday they were supposed to play Olympiagos, the best team in the league, but they had a euro league champions cup game and they had to reschedule.  This Wed. they head to Athens for a game against Panionios, which will be tough.  They are doing well though.  They are tied with a bunch of other teams for 6th place right now and the top 6 teams head to the championships, so they have a chance!  

I will  be more on top of my blogging now that we are back online, yahoo!