kicked out

the day after charlie left was the next game, and it was the first of two where we weren't allowed to have fans because of what happened at the last home game.  to make matters even better, it was against the number 1 team in the league, so fans would have definitely been a plus.  because we are family of the players, we have always been allowed to go watch regardless of the penalties against the fans, so stasa, nikola's wife maja ("maya") and i went to the game anyway.

we found our seats and were ready for the game, when this guycomes up to us and tells us that we can't stay.  we tell him that we are the player's wives (a little white lie never hurt anyone), but he insists that we have to leave because we're not on the list.  meanwhile, keep in mind that there are two cypriot women who came with another - "too good for everyone else" - player, (i say women because they were old as heck), who are still in their seats after having spoken to this guy.  it's pretty much just the five of us in the section we're sitting in at this point.

cico starts to talk to the guy about how we are there with apoel and we have always been allowed to stay, but the guy says that they wont start the game until we've left.  stasa tells him that we will leave when "everyone else does."  she was intent on the fact that we were not going to leave if the other player had (another) advantage over everyone else with his prima donna treatment.  the guy turns to the women and tells them in greek that they have to go... probably something along the lines of "these assholes are talking shit" (greeks love to swear).  they leave, so we do too, and we decide to go to second cup and get coffee and ask them to put the game on the tv.

it ended up being a pretty nice time.  i had just met maja when we got there because she only got to cyprus two days prior to the game, and it was a good time to get to know her a little.  she is serbian, and her english isn't the best, but it is definitely understandable.  because she knows she's not perfect with the language, though, she is very shy to speak it.  with stasa there to speak serbian to, we didn't do much talking directly to each other, but it was alright because i wasn't exactly conversing with her in serbian, either, ya know?

at the end of the day, we lost the game (though we gave up a good fight), and we headed back to the gym to meet back up with the guys.  when we pulled into the lot, we saw a bunch of people coming out of the gym who had obviously been there watching the game.  we weren't exactly the happiest campers, as i'm sure you can imagine.  come to find out, there was a "list" that we needed to be on (bullshit, i'm sure, since i know for a fact that the people we saw weren't connected in any way to the committee or to the camera crews).. note to selves, make sure we're on this make believe list for next time!

ya win some, ya loose some, eh?

xox k

just a bunch of hooligans

the next game was against aek again, but for a cup game, separate from the standard league games.  it was home, and we had to win it by at least 4 points to win home court advantage for when we played them in the first round of the playoffs for the league.  you can ask me the details of how it works and why, but i really just don't know.


the game was going well, but as usual, the end of the game meant we dropped our level of play and allowed the other team to make a major comeback.  with three seconds left on the clock, the refs made a terrible call, that could have very well meant the difference between us winning by enough points to get the advantage and having to play away for the first round.


the crowd. went. insane.


trashcans thrown over the railings onto the courts.  screaming, yelling, whistles, air horns, fire crackers.


the aek players all jump the railing and run for the locker rooms to make sure they're safe and the fans can't attack them.


the refs run out, and the crowd swarms after them.  one ref is held against a wall by a guy with his fist around the neck.


absolute madness, and i was trying to take pictures.. typical.  these guys were trying to see through the tunnel to find the refs and throw things at them, i think.

so, while we're waiting for the game to continue, it's basically a joke in the gym.  one of the players, dullis (don't know how to spell) is actually sitting up in the stands with his girlfriend.  you can see him in the pic above, starting to climb over the railing.

ben's lounging in the middle of the floor, staring into oblivion.  even after they start to get reorganized, stasa and i are down against the railing talking to the guys, etc.  there was pretty much nothing professional happening at all, to say the least.

finally, the game resumes (for the 2.6 seconds that are left on the clock) and we win, but not by enough points to win the advantage.

c'est la vie..

xox k

shopping and a road trip

a few days later, the boys had a game in larnaca against a team called aek ("ike").  stasa and i decided that we wanted to make the trip down to watch the game, but that before we went, we wanted to go downtown and do a little bit of shopping.


ben and i had to go to the bank, so stasa and i arranged to meet at noon at the starbucks downtown and then head from there.  ben dropped me off, and stasa was already waiting, ready to go.  we spent a couple hours wandering around the shops and ended up with a couple of cute finds each.  when it was about time for the guys to go to the gym for the bus, we grabbed a taxi to head back to stasa and cico's apartment, and then went to the gym with cico.


finally, the guys were boarded on the bus, we had the car turned around and ready to follow them, and we were ready to go!  the trip down was interesting, following behind a massive red bus that was weaving in and out of traffic and around the roundabouts like a crazy person, but we made it down there safe and sound.


stasa parked the car, and we were off to find our way into the gym (which is way bigger and much nicer than ours, by the way).  we get in and find seats, and are ready to go.  the boys start warming up, and a police officer comes over the the two of us.  he asked if we were here supporting apoel, which obviously we were, and told us that it would be safer for us to move to the other side of the gym.  i couldn't help but think that this was going to be an interesting night...


anyway, he walks us down a set of stairs, through a few back hallways, and stasa and i are kind of looking at each other like, umm is this the part where he kills us?  we go through a set of double doors, and we are on the court!  he leads us across the court - literally - and then through more doors, up more stairs, and into the seating area opposite where we were before.  we were two of like ten people sitting on that side, and there were gates separating us from the other side.  fans must be pretty crazy, eh?


now can i just say, this gym, nice as it may be, is absoluuuutely freezing.  freezing!  we were sitting for a few minutes before we realized it, but then our fingers and toes started to go numb.  because it was a nice day out, i was dressed completely inappropriately for the temperature, in a mid-thigh dress and a cardigan, and i pretty much wanted to kill myself.  at halftime, we went outside so stasa could have a cigarette, and it was literally warmer out there than it was in the gym.  i wish i was kidding.  we would up going to the car to get her huge winter coat to use as a blanket, and for the second half of the game, we did just that.


the end of the game was a nail biter.  we had a pretty big lead throughout most of the first half, but apoel has been pretty notorious for messing it up towards the end of the game.  low and behold, they did it again.  the last minute or so was back and forth points where apoel and aek shifted a point here and there for who was in the lead.  stasa and i were going absolutely mental watching and trying to figure out what the outcome was going to be.  


luckily, we won!


we headed back to nicosia, again following the bus, and the committee ended up giving everyone money to go enjoy a meal or drinks or something to celebrate.  we headed to bennigans, a nice irish restaurant kind of like an applebee's type place, and spent a few hours relaxing and enjoying the night!


i'm really starting to get used to this lifestyle!  a girl definitely can't complain.... ;)


xox k

groceries & basketball

friday morning i head over to eboni at about 10:30 to trek out for some groceries.  she goes to a different grocery store than ben & i had been, and said that they had a lot more "american" options and selections, and i was really excited about some normal mustard (the stuff we had was terrible).  irie stays with kevin, and eboni & i hop in the car and are on our way.


i guess there's not really too much excitement that i can write about regarding grocery shopping, but it was definitely a nice switch to not have my 5-year-old in tow.  ben's hilarious when we're shopping.  he's the kind of guy that thinks if we have three apple juices in the fridge we're low, and comes to put three more in the cart.  i say no, ben, we have three at home, and he replies, "oh okay, so just two then?"  you catch my drift.  it's also torture trying to explain why we don't need five cadbury chocolate bars, four nestle crunches and a bag of sugar coated gummy things.  i literally have him saving his change now, and he can count up his pennies and buy candy bars when he gets enough.  seriously.


we grab some groceries, grab some coffee, and head home.  i'm really excited because i bought a roast pan & a casserole dish to add to the massive collection of two pans that they gave us in our "furnished" kitchen, and i can't wait to cook something fun.


eb drops me back off and mister benjamin comes down to help lug the stuff up the stairs (i'm afraid of elevators).  the plan is that eboni will come back around 6:30 ish to pick me up for the game.  she drives... i'm too scared.  cars here are on the wrong side of the road, the driver sits on the wrong side of the car, it's just a mess.  so basically she has driving duty.  it's probably better that way, too, because i wouldn't want the responsibility of irie's life while i was trying to figure out what side of the street oncoming traffic is coming from.


benboy & i relax for a bit, have a quick bit of food, and then he's off to the gym to get ready for the game.  eboni comes a bit later, and we head that way, too.  i asked irie where we're going and she gets all excited, "baball!"  eboni says, "who are we going to watch?"  i'm expecting "da da" but instead, we get "ogo, nen (ben), jb, da da..." i told you she knows everyones names!  seriously this kid is a child protegy.  she's not even two yet!!


the game starts off well, but it's not long before i'm not paying as much attention to it as i am to miss irie.

 seriously, tell me she's not precious!!!  eboni too.... ;)

i forget the rest of the game, really, but they won and then we went out to dinner on the committee at a yummy place that i have no idea the name of.  whenever we've been taken out with the team, food has just continuously piled onto the table in massive quantities.  i think they must pre-order what they want served and just say not to stop bringing it until they tell them to.  that being said, i got a little nervous the first time because i'm such a picky eater (i don't eat animal products) and i didn't want to offend anyone by not really indulging in the foods they were so proudly offering us.


what i've found, though, is people are very, very accommodating to other people when it has to do with food.  remember when i said they do what they want and don't care?  i was kind of exaggerating anyway, but it definitely doesn't apply to eating.  one of the guys on the committee picked up on the way i eat the first time we went out, by noticing what i was choosing from the table, and then it was game over.  he ordered up another feast for me that was completely vegan-friendly, and it was unbelievable.  this time when we were out, he again came up to me, "you're vegetarian, yes?" and then had the owner of the restaurant (i think) come by to tell me what they could make up for me.  it's been amazing! 


i am slowly starting to stray from my vegan diet, though.  i've found that there are so many traditionally greek and cypriot dishes here that i really feel i should try in order to completely throw myself into their culture.  i think that a lot of the reasons that i began the journey with the vegan diet were very much revolved around the american meat & dairy industry, and don't necessarily apply as strongly in other countries.  i do still very much believe in the reasons why i began the vegan diet, and i'm not completely giving up on it, i'm just working on finding a balance, i think, between being true to what i feel and believe about the animals, as well as what i believe about learning other cultures and traditions.  that being said, i still have zero intentions of eating meat.  after seven years, i think it would take a lot more than a change in culture to get me to change my mind on that one.


speaking of food, eboni and i decided over our wine the other night that we are going to put on a big thanksgiving meal for pretty much anyone on the team that wants to come.  i'm excited.  kind of strange to think that this will be my first self-prepared thanksgiving dinner, rather than being home with my parents!


guess we're growing up...


xox k

85th anniversary for apoel

wednesday night, we were told we had to go to a dinner for the 85th anniversary of apoel (the club ben plays for).  in reality, we weren't very excited about it - except for the free food - but decided to make the best of it.

we get there, and the place where they're throwing the party is beautiful... i'm excited now! ;)  i really have no idea what they were saying when they came over the system to speak about the club and stuff, because it was in greek, but the food was amazing, and we had a nice night out socializing with the other players on the team and their families.  we sat with kevin, eboni, and irie, and another guy on the team named ogo.  

after eboni & i had ordered our second glasses of wine, ogo decides he's going to try it.  just to preface, ogo isn't a drinker.  moreover, ogo is definitely not a wine drinker.  he goes to get a glass of wine.... this is after his first sip.

he was like, "it's a terrible taste, but... i want more."  decided he was going to finish the glass.  i'm not sure whether or not he did, since by then, i moved on to playing with my new best friend, irie.  not sure what was up with the face-making, because she loves cameras and seeing herself on the screen once it's been taken.  second thought, maybe that's why the silly face.

this one was taken after we'd been bouncing around, dancing, jumping up and down, and flying through the air.  it was a really late night since the dinner began at 9, and she was just about to fall asleep in my lap.

beennjaminnnn???  i want onnneeee!! 

xox k

an oven & a game

don't think i mentioned this, but when i got here, benjamin told me that the oven was broken.  apparently, the light would go on inside it but it wouldn't get hot no matter how long you left it on for.  i'm a huge fan of cooking, and really enjoy stuffed peppers, mushrooms, apples, etc, that are made in the oven.  because mister benjamin is not typically a moron, i took his word that it was broken.  

we had been on top of the assistant coach, who handles arrangements like these, to make sure that the fixer upper guy came to look at the oven and get it working again.  evidently, the team paid the guy at the beginning of the season for all of the minor things he would have to do to maintain the players' apartments, which, in my opinion, was the the wrong way to go about it.  add to that the fact that everything here takes at least 2 weeks to get done from the time when you start really nagging, which we hadn't begun to do yet.  it got to the point where ben finally told the coach that if the guy didn't come over in the next week, he was going to go see him personally and tell him to come fix it.  he was here four days later.  sometimes ya just gotta take matters into your own hands.

anyway, the doorbell rings and the guy is here to have a look at the ac unit in the living room, which hasn't been working properly, or at all, for that matter, and the oven.  he fiddles with the ac for a bit & decides that it's not something he can fix and he'll have to call the company themselves to come check into it.  he then goes to the oven, and turns it on.  let me repeat: he goes to the oven, and turns it on.  benjamin, in all his glory, didn't turn the oven on the right way and concluded that it was broken.  we have been living, at this point, for three weeks without an oven that i was under the impression was not working.  amazing.  

i decide to skip the part where i explain to ben how to work an oven, because i can't believe that at 24 he still couldn't figure out how.  i'm being a bit of a prick here, really.... the reason he didn't get it to turn on right is because there's a safety feature built into the timer dial on the oven so that you have to put the timer to a certain setting in order for the temperature dial to activate and heat the oven.

i start going to town making stuffed peppers for dinner that night, deciding that since he has a game, we will be able to come home & just pop them in the oven for dinner!  soooo excited, you have no idea.  plus, we've been eating stove-cooked meals for so long now, that i think anything out of the oven would have been phenomenal! 

time comes around to head for the game, and we do.  i sit with my favorite new friends, well, my only new friends really (they'd be my favorite anyway), eboni & irie.  i spend most of the game obsessing over how freaking adorable she is.  seriously tell me you don't want to put this little one in your pocket!!

benboy has a great game... lots of minutes, points, rebounds, blocks, blah blah blah... all that basketball jazz.  to top it off, they win.  i'm a really really happy camper when it's all over, as is he.

we go home, pop dinner in the oven and enjoy a very yummy meal, if i do say so myself.  it's been yet another amazing afternoon & evening with my boo!

xox k

opening game, the making of friends, & clubhouse dinner

monday, sue was planning on getting to us somewhere around noon, but with the way the buses were going, that turned into 12:30, turned into 1, etc.  eventually ben & i decided to lay down for a nap while we waited so he could get some rest for the game, and we could just kind of relax for a bit.


we get a text from her when she's down the street, get up, and head that way.  just as we catch up to her, she shows us a shopping bag with a KETTLE!!!!!! ben & i are by no means cheap, but we couldn't find a kettle that didn't mean paying a million dollars, and since we're not making lifelong investments while we're here, we couldn't really justify paying 50-60 euros for something that may or may not come with us when we leave.  somewhere in passing, we had mentioned it to suz, because she found a deal on one & bought it for us! such an amazing house-warming gift... we're so used to downing tea & coffee by the gallon, so it was seriously such a practical, amazing thing for her to bring us... i'm thankful for it about 6 times a day while i'm enjoying my teas & coffees!


we head up to the apartment, put the kettle on and chat for awhile.  after a bit, i make dinner (nothing fancy by any means, as we have to go grocery shopping) and we eat before heading out to the game.


until now, the only other girlfriend/wife i've met was the one of a serbian player, who barely speaks english.  their daughter, nina, is somewhere around 9 months i think and is the happiest baby i think i've ever seen.  as lovely as she is, it's very difficult to build a relationship with her because of the language barrier.  before tonight's game starts, though, we meet one of ben's teammate's wife & daughter.  eboni, kevin's wife, is somewhere around my age and from california, where i lived for a year and a half.  perfect!  finally someone i have something in common with.  irie, their daughter, is going on 2 soon, and is absolutely adorable.  she's got just enough of an attitude to keep her interesting, but warms up to you & is such a little love bug.  i'm thrilled at the thought that we might finally have people to hang out with!


the game has its ups & downs.  ben starts, but doesn't see much playing time... we chalk it up to it being his first game as a rookie, but are all somewhat nervous/upset about what the implications could be for the season.  at halftime, irie met nina, and gave her a kiss on her hand.. as well as sharing her half-eaten cookie..... so freaking cute.

they won, so we are all invited to go with the team & the committee to a dinner at the clubhouse, and do a pretty good job of keeping our heads up.  one of the guys on the committee finds out that i'm vegan and orders up a frenzy of greek vegetarian foods for me to try: baked mushrooms, peppers, salad, the works. petrou, the guy who takes care of the team equipment and stuff, teaches me how to eat it like a greek: drown it in oil and squeeze a lemon on top.  absolutely amazing. somewhere in the middle of dinner, sue got a terrible headache and had to leave the table to go get some fresh air, so ben & i kind of rush to eat and dismiss ourselves to take her back to larnaca.  truth be told, i was starting to get a headache myself, so it was good timing.


we get in the car and head back to the apartment to pick up her stuff before we head back down to the hotel, and my headache is getting MUCH worse as hers gets better.  i almost stay at the apartment and let them go on their own, but don't want ben making the return trip alone, so i stay.  as we make the trip down, i have my head in my hands covering my eyes from any bit of light, and occasionally a hand over an ear to make an attempt at blocking out any noise from their conversations. absolute agony of a migraine in the making.  by the time we get to the hotel, i'm visibly sick, and need a pit-stop in the restroom before attempting the return trip, which is absolutely no better.


we get back home, i crawl into bed, and don't get out for approximately 24 hours.  


tuesday is a day off from meeting up with sue, so i literally stay in bed for the majority of the day.  the one good thing about the day, though, was the sunset!!

xox k