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

a whole lot of rain... and wine

so apparently as much as it "never" rains here, when it does, it really does.  from the time kyle got here on sunday morning until pretty much friday, the skies were gray and it was raining on & off.  rain, for me, has always made for a lazy, relaxing, do-nothing type of day... and this entire week was pretty much just that.  


every morning i would wake up, look outside from the bedroom & decide that the day was forfeited to the rain.. i mean come on, how much fun can exploring be when you're soaking wet, cold, and cranky?  it'd be one thing if we were staying local, but to really adventure out means long car rides, and i wasn't motivated by sitting on the ride back soaked to the bone like a wet dog.


finally, come thursday, i'd had enough of sitting cooped up inside (as was my choice) and decided to see what eboni was up to while the boys were at practice.  turned out her & irie were just sitting at their apartment hanging out, and so i grabbed a bottle of wine & headed out for the two minute journey walking to their house.


"nim! nim!"  irie's excited to see me, but can't quite grasp the "k" at the start of my name... which i love.  ben's more of a "enn" too.  irie isn't even two yet, but knows all of our names and can put them to our faces.  she's literally better than i am at the names of the guys on the team (maybe not quite but i'll give her that one).


anyway, first things first was to pour a couple glasses of wine, followed by about five house tours given by irie.  "momma dadda room, irie room, momma dadda room, irie room.  oooh noooo!! wa wa! oooooh noooo!! ooooh noooo!!!"  i guess eboni had mopped the floors earlier, and irie was telling me that the floors were wet so be careful (wa wa is water).  i'm sure they had been dry for a few hours by now, but hey... can't be mad at the girl for trying to keep me safe!  she's way too smart for her age, i swear.


we sit & enjoy a bottle of wine and an adorable little girl, and before we realize it, kevin's home from practice.  i was like, "you're home early!"  wrong.  evidently, hours had gone by & we didn't even realize it.  


ben calls from downstairs to tell me he's here, (i had asked him to pick me up there on his way home), but there's still a good bit of wine in my glass, and i'm not about to waste it.  he & kyle come upstairs for a bit while i finish, and we introduce kyle to irie.  a few minutes later we head out because it's way past dinner time and everyone was pretty hungry by then. eboni & i decide to hook up the following morning for a grocery shopping & coffee date before the fourth basketball game.


we leave, and i feel great to a) have gotten out of the house and b) have someone other than ben to have meaningful conversation with.  it's actually amazing to have someone that i get along with so well here too, especially since she's done the same leave work behind, go abroad with a basketball player, enjoy life thing too.  some of the conversations we had that night will be with me forever, i just know it... and i love that.


note to self:  do this every night while the boys practice.


xox k

new roommate

sunday morning, we thought we were going to be able to sleep in because ben didn't have practice until later on in the day.  you can see where i'm headed here: we thought wrong.  at 9am, we got a call from his assistant coach, darren, saying that he was bringing us a new roommate.  booo!


milos, the roommate we started off the season with, was sent home about a week prior because he had been injured and the committee wasn't pleased with his performance or something stupid like that.  he immediately signed onto a different team, and had 17 pts and like 8 rebounds in his first game... their loss! 


anyway, darren gets here at like 9:30 with kyle, who made me very relieved.  you can imagine i wasn't a very happy camper when i found out we were getting someone new, but kyle is very easy to get along with and is from a culture very similar to ours, so we're kind of getting on more like roommates than different people living in the same apartment.  hard to explain, really, but i think it was difficult with milos being serbian.  he is a great guy, don't get me wrong, but with the language barrier (his english is WAY better than my serbian, but still not perfect) and the difference in typical routines and stuff, it was just tricky i guess.


kyle is from canada and went to school in the states at long island u, which is really close to where i'm from.  his dad is english, so he and ben also have that in common.


over the last week that he's been here, i think we've gotten to know quite a bit about each other and the way we kind of function/things we've been through, etc, and it's wound up being kinda nice switch up having someone else to chat with rather than just the two of us.


i suppose i'll learn to deal with it.... ;)


xox k

a nice, local day

friday was a gorgeous laid-back day for the two of us.  yes, we had gone to pick up ben's keyboard, but apart from that, we just stayed close by.

remember that amazing gyro i had from the spot across the street that i mentioned we hadn't been back to?  we went back.  and remember the park that i loved across the street that we hadn't returned to?  we went there, too.  as a matter of fact, we got the gyros from thomas' snacks, and then we went to eat them on a bench in the park.  it was great!

we came back to the apartment afterwards, because there were an overabundance of flies and i was beginning to be very very tired of getting eaten alive.  on the balcony off the kitchen, we put two of the chairs from the kitchen table, and that really ugly podium column thingy that i said was really really heinous in those photos of the apartment way back when... remember that?  it was the one that i said i'd really enjoy throwing off the balcony.  well, we decided to not throw it off the balcony, but rather use it on the balcony.

anyway, we figure it's still a beautiful afternoon, and we make a coffee and sit out there enjoying the sun and chatting.  when the sun goes behind a cloud, i decide it's way too cold to be sitting outside, as i often tend to do, and we head back indoors.  i'm pretty much a baby like that.

sometimes a nice uneventful day really pans out to be lovely, don't you think??

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

the hunt for a music store

monday & tuesday wind up being completely taken over by ben's hunt for a music store.  he's decided he needs a new keyboard, and once he makes his mind up about something, it needs to be done.  now.  in all fairness, i'm exactly the same way, so i guess i can't really complain.

monday, he googles music shops & comes up with what he thinks it the right route to get to a few to check out.  he take the picture on his ipod, and we're on our way.  little did we know that we would be spending the day driving in circles, wandering aimlessly with zero resolution.  we've already established that this is not one of my favorite things to do, so naturally, i was just enthralled.  we get home that day without finding a single music shop.

you can imagine my excitement, then, when we wake up the next day & he wants to go try again.  he takes another picture on his ipod, and draws out a little bit of a map on paper for us to navigate.  this time we do find a couple shops, but neither of them have any of the type of equipment he wants, they're just for instruments like guitars and drums rather than the fancy shmancy midi-controller a-b s-d 2249 my-keyboard-is-better-than-your-keyboard thingy that he wants.  one of the shops he found online is a dj store, and it sounds a bit more promising.

we can't find it.  again.  i say to ben, i think we've gone too far on this street and we were supposed to be back there (pointing back across the main street to the opposite side) but he just makes a right turn and carries on driving without purpose through streets that we've already established aren't the right ones.  eventually, he comes up with this great idea to go back over the main street to have a look at what's on the other side.  sound familiar?  yea, my thoughts exactly.

we go back, find the place, and i try to not say "i told you so."  this is a very difficult thing to abstain from once you've spent some time with mister benjamin, you see.  

anyway, we go in, the guy looks up the fancy shmancy midi-controller a-b-c-d-23526 super cool keyboard, and tells ben he can order it for him.  he decides to have a think about it & call the guy the next day if he wants to place the order.  very mature decision, if you ask me.

wednesday, rather than calling, though, he wants to go in.  this is now the third day, in a row, that i've been in the car on a hunt for music stuff.  i'm overjoyed.  i guess it's the price i pay for all the amazing things he does for me. (that was my sappy love-bird bit.. it doesn't happen very often).  we order the keyboard, and he says it will probably be in by friday.

it is, in fact, in on friday, and we go back again to pick it up & pay for it.  just to clarify, we've now spent 4 days out of 5 in a week, sorting out the keyboard.  

he better freaking play the thing.

xox k

aphrodite's rock, paphos

sunday the 6th is another day off, and we decide to hook up with kevin, eboni, & irie for a bit of an adventure.  i had read about aphrodite's rock, and the pictures on google images looked absolutely breathtaking.  i knew it was a longer drive than the majority of the trips we'd been taking, but i figured it'd be worth it if we got to spend the majority of the day down that way.  i think it was about an hour and a half to aphrodite's rock, and another half to paphos from there.  we get in touch with the crew in the morning, and decide we'll set off at 12:30.

we decide to take separate cars in case irie gets sleepy or something & they need to leave early, and we set off.  about an hour into the trip or so, there's an exit for a scenic route i read about online, and we decide to head that way.  granted this way was probably much lengthier, but it wound up being gorgeous.  we pulled off the street a few times for photo opps, but mostly trekked our way through rolling hills, in and out of the view of the gorgeous mediterranean coast.

we've been traveling on this scenic road for quite awhile, and i start to get nervous that i've navigated wrong.  normally, i wouldn't care, but i feel like with the others in their separate car behind us, i really want to get it right.  just as i start to get really anxious about it, we pull into another lay-by to check out the view, and we realize we've found it!!

i had never heard the story of aphrodite until i became interested in checking out this part of the beautiful cyprus coast, so for those of you who, like me, haven't heard it, here's the short version.

greek mythology has it that aphrodite was the goddess of love and beauty. apparently, she was born at this very place when she emerged from the sea foam a fully grown woman and was escorted to shore on a shell.  the story says that if you swim, nude, around her rock (the middle of the three in the photo above), you will remain young & fertile for eternity.

we hung out at this vantage point for a bit, enjoying the scenery before deciding to head down the hill to check it out.

everything about this place was just gorgeous!  i loved the way the sun shone above the rock as we came down the hill to the beach.

from up above, i was almost disappointed in the prominence of the rocks... i had anticipated them being huge and really pronounced along the shore, and they were beautiful, but they weren't.  when we got closer, i finally got my "wow" moment.  look how small those two people walking in front of the rock look!  every bone in my body wanted to climb it, but the sign on the side that said not to wound up getting the best of me.

the view of the beach with the rocks behind us, looking towards paphos.  the beach was amazing, filled with beautiful beach stones that ben decided to collect.  he filled his pockets with huge rocks to the point where i thought his shorts were going to fall down.  i still have no idea how they stayed up... there were seriously a lot of rocks in there ...rocks that are now sitting on our bedroom floor collecting dust.  personally, i chose a few smaller rocks with the idea that maybe they'd make nice pendants (which they are proving to do quite well), and i found a piece of sea glass!  it's the first and only piece i've found since being in cyprus.  again, what a lovely pendant it has made.

eventually, irie has had enough of throwing the rocks into the water (i'm pretty sure this was one of my favorite things to do when i was little, too) ... actually, it is still one of ben's favorites, which is probably another reason why he & irie get along so well!  we decide to head out and make the remaining half our trip to paphos to see what that's all about.

we get there just in time for the sun to begin to set, and it's absolutely beautiful. this coastal area of paphos is soo picturesque.. i'm really not sure why i decided to not take out my camera as we were driving through, (since i'm a firm believer that one can never have too many photos), but for some reason i didn't.  these were taken along the sea-walk, as we were heading to find a place to eat.

we stumble across a cute restaurant with a large open-air area (where i took the picture above from, actually), and decide to eat there.  the menu looks amazing, and believe me, it was.  all of the food i've had since i've been here has been outstanding.  i'm beginning to feel extremely lucky that there isn't a scale in our apartment!!

another beautiful day with great company... what more can a girl ask for?

xox k