Its cold here. Really cold. Now before all you in Iowa freak out and tell me to suck it up let me just explain. So it doesn’t snow here really and the temperature is probably more than 30 degree Fahrenheit. BUT, it isn’t the same when you don’t have warm buildings to go between.
Concrete buildings don’t hold the heat very well. That means that my apartment, despite the central heat on and my air conditioner heater on, is still often times too cold for me. I like the heat jacked up! And the gym, it gets cold. No heat, its freezing outside, and it too is made of concrete and plastic windows. Not exactly insulated. I’m just waiting to bust out the full sweatsuit, gloves, hat, long spandex, for practice. I don’t care if I look like a tool.
Last year we played against one of the worst teams in the league when it was freezing out. The thought of taking off my warm-ups was about too much to bear. My dad was here and I could see him stomping his feet and buying coffee just to stay warm despite his winter coat. I eventually had to strip down to my uniform and play. Not cool! I couldn’t feel my hands so my strategy was to just get fouled and go to the free throw line where I could warm my hands up. It was unbelievable. I couldn’t believe we were playing a game, a game that counted! Can you imagine ISU playing a Big 12 game in Hilton with no heat?
Our club has an outdoor pool. Its is nice and when I first got here I was there all the time. That’s when it was sunny and warm. Now its freezing and people are still in the water for lessons or practice. Little kids swim around and I’m wondering what the hell their parents are thinking letting them swim outside in this weather. Yeah the water is pretty warm but you gotta get out at some point. And whether the showers are warm is up for question. They turn off their water heaters here and sometimes they forget to turn them back on.
But that’s nothing compared to what I saw yesterday when I was down at the sea. It was beautiful out but colder than shit. In my down coat I was still cold. Lo and Behold people are swimming in the Aegean! I look out and see a guy with flippers on swimming around and right next to me are two women changing out of their swimsuits on the beach with the cold wind blowing on them. Are they crazy? No, they are called winter swimmers and swim all year round. I suppose it reminds you that you are alive. Right before you can’t breathe from the cold.
All in all though, it is still pretty here. It may be cold but many days the sun is still shining. It does rain here and supposedly there will be snow, at which time everyone will freak out, stop working and cram into cafés all over the city. Much like Seattle, Athens isn’t prepared for snow. But I can’t complain too much about the cold because I can still bundle up and head down to the sea where the wind is blowing, the sun is shining, and crazy Greek people are swimming.
Friday, November 26, 2004
Monday, November 22, 2004
Sometimes you win, Sometimes you lose, Sometimes it rains
Losing really sucks. I might not feel like I let my whole university down but I still hate the feeling. Things are different as a professional. You are getting paid to win games and you change teams every year, sometimes more often than that. So the loyalty and connectedness with the program isn’t as strong. Yet, losing is still losing and it sucks.
We lost yesterday to my old team by 5 points. Last week we won by 3 against one of the best teams in the league. How the weeks change! My whole outlook on things is determined by Sundays game. My dad can tell two words into our conversations how the game went. Last week the sun was shining, the birds were chirping and life was good. This week after the game I returned to an empty apartment, it was freezing outside, and all I can do is think about every stupid thing I did in the game. If we had won I would be thinking about how I scored 20 in the first half but instead I am so mad at myself for not scoring 20 in the second half.
My teammates are all great and my coach’s and managers are real supportive and all. But I have about had it with talks from various people within the organization. They talk about how it is okay because we played a great team and we almost beat them. They go on and on about how it is early in the season and we are just coming up from the second division so keep playing hard, the wins will come. Freaking puke me! These talks are no doubt supposed to raise our spirits but all it does is piss me off. I don’t want to hear about how it is okay to lose because it isn’t and maybe that way of thinking is the reason we are doing it.
The worst part is that I have a whole week to think about it. We play once a week. Sometimes we have “friendly” matches which are far from friendly and do little to erase the bad memories from the weekend before. Friendly games are such a joke. We usually play horrible teams and drop to their level of play. Last week we played 16 year old boys. And let me just tell you that 16 year old Greek boys don’t play like Americans of the same age…… Take a normal 14 year old Greek boy playing ball. By this time in the states, a fourteen year old kid has probably developed the fundamentals of the game and is now getting a feel for how to move right. He’s imitating Allen Iverson and Kobe Bryant. Perhaps one can argue that this is the worst thing for a developing basketball player but on the other hand, he’s learning how to move right. A lot of the boys at that age here in Greece, look clumsy and uncoordinated. Their fundamentals aren’t better and they certainly aren’t learning how to imitate anyone very well. Plus, they haven’t really realized yet that they are going through puberty, their bodies are changing, and deodorant is now a necessity. The whole gym stunk of B.O.
But back to my point. A whole week to think about a loss is no fun. I try to keep things in perspective. I here all the “its just a game”, “you need to let it go, its over with” but I’ve never been very good at that. I guess it would be easier if we weren’t losing games that we had no chance to win. If we were really a second division team and couldn’t compete that would be one thing. But we can beat these teams, I think it is just a matter of my team really believing that we can and should win. I guess that takes time but I’m really impatient. Okay, enough bitching. This is the life I choose and I love it… most of the time.
We lost yesterday to my old team by 5 points. Last week we won by 3 against one of the best teams in the league. How the weeks change! My whole outlook on things is determined by Sundays game. My dad can tell two words into our conversations how the game went. Last week the sun was shining, the birds were chirping and life was good. This week after the game I returned to an empty apartment, it was freezing outside, and all I can do is think about every stupid thing I did in the game. If we had won I would be thinking about how I scored 20 in the first half but instead I am so mad at myself for not scoring 20 in the second half.
My teammates are all great and my coach’s and managers are real supportive and all. But I have about had it with talks from various people within the organization. They talk about how it is okay because we played a great team and we almost beat them. They go on and on about how it is early in the season and we are just coming up from the second division so keep playing hard, the wins will come. Freaking puke me! These talks are no doubt supposed to raise our spirits but all it does is piss me off. I don’t want to hear about how it is okay to lose because it isn’t and maybe that way of thinking is the reason we are doing it.
The worst part is that I have a whole week to think about it. We play once a week. Sometimes we have “friendly” matches which are far from friendly and do little to erase the bad memories from the weekend before. Friendly games are such a joke. We usually play horrible teams and drop to their level of play. Last week we played 16 year old boys. And let me just tell you that 16 year old Greek boys don’t play like Americans of the same age…… Take a normal 14 year old Greek boy playing ball. By this time in the states, a fourteen year old kid has probably developed the fundamentals of the game and is now getting a feel for how to move right. He’s imitating Allen Iverson and Kobe Bryant. Perhaps one can argue that this is the worst thing for a developing basketball player but on the other hand, he’s learning how to move right. A lot of the boys at that age here in Greece, look clumsy and uncoordinated. Their fundamentals aren’t better and they certainly aren’t learning how to imitate anyone very well. Plus, they haven’t really realized yet that they are going through puberty, their bodies are changing, and deodorant is now a necessity. The whole gym stunk of B.O.
But back to my point. A whole week to think about a loss is no fun. I try to keep things in perspective. I here all the “its just a game”, “you need to let it go, its over with” but I’ve never been very good at that. I guess it would be easier if we weren’t losing games that we had no chance to win. If we were really a second division team and couldn’t compete that would be one thing. But we can beat these teams, I think it is just a matter of my team really believing that we can and should win. I guess that takes time but I’m really impatient. Okay, enough bitching. This is the life I choose and I love it… most of the time.
Thursday, November 11, 2004
The Sights and Smells of Athens....
Living in Athens is stimulating for a number of reasons but the olfactory sense definitely gets its fair share of excitement. Because of this I decided to dedicate a whole entry to the smells of Athens because frankly I can’t deal with it all alone.
Item 1 is of course the bathrooms. I don’t think I can accurately portray how disgusting they can get over here. Porta Pottie comes to mind. Rarely is their any toilet paper but this of course can be easily remedied by carrying tissue, a nuisance but well worth the effort. I cannot, however, carry disinfectant. Call me OCD but I don’t like using a bathroom that hasn’t been cleaned in ages, where the whole room reeks of stale pee. This is caused by a number of things. First of all they don’t flush toilet paper but place it nicely in the open garbage can next to the toilet. And for extra fun they have Turkish toilets in some places which is a porcelain hole in the ground. These are particularly fragrant, because the walls and floor are splattered in pee. And to top it all off, they either have no faucet at all or one that is extremely dirty with no available soap. Wet naps and tissue have been a live saver. Now I just need a nose plug.
Item 2 would be the body odor. I’ve never had a teammate or even played against anyone with body odor over here. The young girls are very clean and always shower. However, I haven’t had the same experience with personal hygiene in all cases. The metro is especially nauseating. It gets really bad in the summer when it is hot and sticky and everyone is standing in a close compartment with no air conditioning. Without fail someone will have their arm up in the air to hold on to the bar and I will have my head as close to a window as I can get so I don’t pass out. The other day in the bank I sat next to a lady, about 50 or 60 I suppose. She sat down next to me as I waited 45 minutes to withdraw money (pretty standard wait over here). Anyway she placed her large purse on her lap and proceeded to lift up her arm on my side and dig for who knows what at the bottom of that purse. She couldn’t find what she was looking for but her arm stayed up there, flapping up and down and pushing the air closer to me. It was absolutely disgusting. I’m sitting there thinking how in the world can a woman smell that bad. It wasn’t humid outside and she didn’t look like she was much into exercising. How long exactly and with what amount of laziness would it take for a woman to smell that horribly? A man might be able to pull it off in a few days if he wore the same clothes and didn’t shower. A woman? I’m guessing upwards of a week or more. Gross.
Item 3 is pollution. There are a lot of people in Athens. Traffic is horrible so cars idle and emit exhaust right in your face when you walk down the street. I don’t know how strict their emissions standards are because the pollution can get bad downtown where there are a lot of cars and scooters.
Item 4 is cigarettes. The sad part is that I have become very accustomed to the smell. I still don’t like it, but where as before I could smell a cigarette from across a restaurant, I now smell them all day long and fail to notice. People smoke everywhere here except on public transportation (but the B.O. makes up for that). Movies have intermission for smoke breaks, people smoke on their scooters, at sporting events, at their job, every restaurant, club and café. They blow smoke right in your face and in 10 months of being in Greece I believe I have been asked once if I mind. Taxi drivers love smoking and hate for their back windows to be open. This makes for a fun trip. My teammates smoke before the game when they are getting taped, halftime if they feel like it, and for sure after the game while we are all trying to shower. And while I have learned to deal with it at some level, there are certain types of cigarettes that smell especially foul. I don’t know what the difference is, and its ridiculous that I actually know there is a difference, but it there is one.
Item 5 is my own personal rant. On my latest bus trip, 10 hours each way to be exact, I had the privilege of having my air scented. They have “air fresheners” here that spit out a scented mist every so often. This particular fragrance was spit out every 15 minutes and smelled of fake citrus and cheap women’s perfume mixed together. The mist was released into the confined area of the bus and attacked your nostrils at every breath. It was like catching a really foul smelling hair spray just released into the air and tasting it on the back of your tongue. My whole trip was broken up into 15 minute segments. I could have probably told you what I was doing at each air freshened quarter of an hour.
So, it can get kind of nauseating sometimes. But then I go down to the sea and breath in the fresh air from the water or go to a taverna and smell the Greek food cooking. So, I can’t complain too much.
Saturday, November 06, 2004
Greek Life
The way in which I was shaped by my culture is obvious to me every day. So many of the things we think or do, we assume to be in our nature when in fact they are a direct reflection of the society that socialized us. I am reminded constantly that I am a product of my culture in good ways like our value on hygiene and cleanliness and in bad ways like in our fascination and addiction to money and stress. Its becoming painfully obvious to me how much this particular aspect of American culture is in so many ways warped.
I was raised a capitalist. I was taught that working hard is honorable and that one should get just rewards for their efforts. I was taught that making money is important, that success is often times measured by how much stuff you have in relation to those around you. I was taught that when you reach a certain age you are on your own financially and that you then get a job, a car, a house and every month you make money in the first to pay off the second and third. And the bigger the checks of all three the more successful you are. The better your life is. The more others envy you.
I’m glad I learned these lessons despite my obvious criticism. I’m glad I was raised in a capitalist society where I was taught the value of hard work and the importance of money. Without these ideologies we probably wouldn’t be the most powerful country in the world, at the forefront of technology with people in all fields leading the way in the world. But there is a breaking point. Where money and things are put ahead of happiness and experiences. There’s a point where the capitalist mentality takes over. Where material items attempt to mask the absence of truly important things in life. Where people work long hours at a job they hate so they can buy a really nice house that they never get to spend any time in. Where driving a nice car and going into debt is just a way of life. Where we like the fact that we are the most powerful country but don’t wonder why we don’t strive to be the happiest country.
I’m not above being materialistic. This is the girl that spent $120 on a pair of jeans and swears to this day that they are worth every penny. But I am seeing a different way and while I can’t ever completely let go of the ideologies of the cultures I was born into, I can learn to embrace a different way of thinking as well. Because the fact is, I like nice things, I like money, I like hard work, but at the end of the day I know that none of those things can replace having the time to go out to coffee with an old friend, grilling out in the summer time with my family and then taking a walk in the neighborhood I grew up in, or simply sitting by myself and reading a good book. No material items can ever be compared to experiences, memories, and the sense of serenity that comes from truly knowing what is important to you in your life.
In Greece people don’t have a lot of money. Well, some people do but on average people make about 12,000 euros a year. Minimum wage is 550 euros a month I am told. My one bedroom apartment coast 500 euros a month. So they have learned to live with less. They live in small apartments usually living at home well into their 20s. They drive little piece of shit cars or scooters and judging from the looks of them they don’t spend a lot on clothes. Its not that they aren’t materialistic or capitalist, its just living in a shabby apartment your whole life and driving a beat up car (or none at all) is expected. They don’t have to keep up with the Jones’ here (or the Paniotopolous for that matter). So, people don’t work so hard. They might not live in a really nice house but they actually spend time in it. They don’t work so hard to pay off a mortgage that they don’t even have time to enjoy it and they don’t stress about every little thing. They don’t seem to worry about retirement as much or making rent. Money here isn’t exchanged on strict time schedules or with harsh repercussions for tardiness. Its seems everyone at any given time is owed money and owes money.
I swear the lack of stress here is the reason people live so long. It has to be. I mean they smoke like chimneys and their medical care doesn’t look like its leading the world. But they don’t worry about things. Its super annoying at first because they don’t stress about anything, even when its your money, or your plane ticket home for Christmas, or your work visa but at the same time its nice to be around people who aren’t on edge all day long. Time to them isn’t measured in dollars and cents, its measured in enjoyment. And it’s a good way of looking at things. I look back on my memories from last year in Greece of from my memories in general. I don’t reminisce about great shopping trips or assign value to my experiences based on how many things I owned at the time. My time turned into my memories, none of which I could ever put a price tag on.
So instead of working really hard for more money to buy more things, Greeks use the money and time they have for great experiences. They may leave their little apartment at 10 o’clock on a week night and meet friends or family at a taverna. They’ll drink wine, laugh, share stories, sing, dance, yell at each other without reserve and eat wonderful food for hours. They may stop work in the afternoon and meet a friend for coffee on a sunny day. They may be wearing an ugly outfit and returning to a simple home but they are sitting there surrounded by people they love, happy. Extremely happy. They aren’t stressed about a car payment or how they are going to pay for the brand new flat screen they just bought. Their only concern is being in the moment, living life to the fullest every second and having as much fun as possible.
And what a nice way of looking at things. Its more an eastern way of thinking. Where being in the moment, not letting life pass you by is critical. The Buddhist mentality. And I really believe in that. Its important to plan for the future, its important to think ahead but so many of us seem to be waiting for life to begin. We are living right now, this moment is our life! We don’t have to wait for “success” to be happy. Being happy is success. But us and our western way of thinking believe that “oh I’ll be happy when I get that new car, when I own a house, when I get a new job, when I have money.” Sure its good to have goals, aspirations, but the journey is important too and no one said you can’t enjoy life while you are working to move forward.
Of course as in all things there is a balance. Being productive and working hard is important. And don’t get me wrong, money is important. Being poor and living in a little apartment my whole life doesn’t appeal to me. But working a job I hate so I can accumulate more stuff doesn’t either. I want money but I want time also so that I can really enjoy life with the people and things that are truly important to me. When it is all said and done, its true, our time on earth isn’t measured in dollars and cents or material goods, but in love, laughter, and memories with those dear to us.
As my good friend Mindy says……
Find a moment…
I was raised a capitalist. I was taught that working hard is honorable and that one should get just rewards for their efforts. I was taught that making money is important, that success is often times measured by how much stuff you have in relation to those around you. I was taught that when you reach a certain age you are on your own financially and that you then get a job, a car, a house and every month you make money in the first to pay off the second and third. And the bigger the checks of all three the more successful you are. The better your life is. The more others envy you.
I’m glad I learned these lessons despite my obvious criticism. I’m glad I was raised in a capitalist society where I was taught the value of hard work and the importance of money. Without these ideologies we probably wouldn’t be the most powerful country in the world, at the forefront of technology with people in all fields leading the way in the world. But there is a breaking point. Where money and things are put ahead of happiness and experiences. There’s a point where the capitalist mentality takes over. Where material items attempt to mask the absence of truly important things in life. Where people work long hours at a job they hate so they can buy a really nice house that they never get to spend any time in. Where driving a nice car and going into debt is just a way of life. Where we like the fact that we are the most powerful country but don’t wonder why we don’t strive to be the happiest country.
I’m not above being materialistic. This is the girl that spent $120 on a pair of jeans and swears to this day that they are worth every penny. But I am seeing a different way and while I can’t ever completely let go of the ideologies of the cultures I was born into, I can learn to embrace a different way of thinking as well. Because the fact is, I like nice things, I like money, I like hard work, but at the end of the day I know that none of those things can replace having the time to go out to coffee with an old friend, grilling out in the summer time with my family and then taking a walk in the neighborhood I grew up in, or simply sitting by myself and reading a good book. No material items can ever be compared to experiences, memories, and the sense of serenity that comes from truly knowing what is important to you in your life.
In Greece people don’t have a lot of money. Well, some people do but on average people make about 12,000 euros a year. Minimum wage is 550 euros a month I am told. My one bedroom apartment coast 500 euros a month. So they have learned to live with less. They live in small apartments usually living at home well into their 20s. They drive little piece of shit cars or scooters and judging from the looks of them they don’t spend a lot on clothes. Its not that they aren’t materialistic or capitalist, its just living in a shabby apartment your whole life and driving a beat up car (or none at all) is expected. They don’t have to keep up with the Jones’ here (or the Paniotopolous for that matter). So, people don’t work so hard. They might not live in a really nice house but they actually spend time in it. They don’t work so hard to pay off a mortgage that they don’t even have time to enjoy it and they don’t stress about every little thing. They don’t seem to worry about retirement as much or making rent. Money here isn’t exchanged on strict time schedules or with harsh repercussions for tardiness. Its seems everyone at any given time is owed money and owes money.
I swear the lack of stress here is the reason people live so long. It has to be. I mean they smoke like chimneys and their medical care doesn’t look like its leading the world. But they don’t worry about things. Its super annoying at first because they don’t stress about anything, even when its your money, or your plane ticket home for Christmas, or your work visa but at the same time its nice to be around people who aren’t on edge all day long. Time to them isn’t measured in dollars and cents, its measured in enjoyment. And it’s a good way of looking at things. I look back on my memories from last year in Greece of from my memories in general. I don’t reminisce about great shopping trips or assign value to my experiences based on how many things I owned at the time. My time turned into my memories, none of which I could ever put a price tag on.
So instead of working really hard for more money to buy more things, Greeks use the money and time they have for great experiences. They may leave their little apartment at 10 o’clock on a week night and meet friends or family at a taverna. They’ll drink wine, laugh, share stories, sing, dance, yell at each other without reserve and eat wonderful food for hours. They may stop work in the afternoon and meet a friend for coffee on a sunny day. They may be wearing an ugly outfit and returning to a simple home but they are sitting there surrounded by people they love, happy. Extremely happy. They aren’t stressed about a car payment or how they are going to pay for the brand new flat screen they just bought. Their only concern is being in the moment, living life to the fullest every second and having as much fun as possible.
And what a nice way of looking at things. Its more an eastern way of thinking. Where being in the moment, not letting life pass you by is critical. The Buddhist mentality. And I really believe in that. Its important to plan for the future, its important to think ahead but so many of us seem to be waiting for life to begin. We are living right now, this moment is our life! We don’t have to wait for “success” to be happy. Being happy is success. But us and our western way of thinking believe that “oh I’ll be happy when I get that new car, when I own a house, when I get a new job, when I have money.” Sure its good to have goals, aspirations, but the journey is important too and no one said you can’t enjoy life while you are working to move forward.
Of course as in all things there is a balance. Being productive and working hard is important. And don’t get me wrong, money is important. Being poor and living in a little apartment my whole life doesn’t appeal to me. But working a job I hate so I can accumulate more stuff doesn’t either. I want money but I want time also so that I can really enjoy life with the people and things that are truly important to me. When it is all said and done, its true, our time on earth isn’t measured in dollars and cents or material goods, but in love, laughter, and memories with those dear to us.
As my good friend Mindy says……
Find a moment…
Friday, November 05, 2004
Full Court Press
The following is an article I wrote for the online publication Fullcourtpress. I think you have to be a subscriber to get access to it so I'm putting it on my blog. Most of this is sentiments I expressed last year but now I have the wisdom of hindsight so its a little different.
When people find out that I play professional basketball in Greece they immediately want answers. What’s it like? Do you love it? How is the food? The money? The level of play? What are your teammates like? How do the men act? They ask these questions and more. I articulate answers as best I can but really the experience is dynamic, capricious, and constantly reinventing itself. My first year, you could have asked me if I liked it on a hundred different days and I would have given a different answer every time.
Yes, it is a dream come true. It is exciting, romantic, and fascinating. It can also be lonely and depressing and uncomfortable depending on the day, the hour, whether you won or lost, whether you are expecting a visitor from home or saying goodbye to one. The emotions and moods are unpredictable and somewhat uncontrollable. The first few months are the most difficult. You live your life under a fog of uncertainty. The tiniest expectations you have about everyday life, people’s behavior, the nuances of a society, the cultural roadmap, are all thrown away and everything is up in the air. Each time you step out of your apartment, you are uncomfortable and on alert.
This is my second season playing basketball in Greece so my perspective has changed quite a bit. I love it here now. What a difference a year makes! This time last year I was confused pretty much all of the time. From the appliances in my apartment, to what to buy at the grocery store. From practices, to navigating the city. From opening a bank account, to taking a taxi, everything in life was more complicated. And then there was the slight problem of a language barrier.
Obviously, there was a great deal of culture shock involved in my transition. Living in a country is far different from visiting one. In the beginning I liked it here, it was exciting. I was taking pictures at the Acropolis with my college teammate, Tracy Gahan, who lived in an Athens suburb and hopping over to the Greek islands on a day off. It was great. And the crazy things Greek people did were amusing, comical. I felt so lucky to be a professional basketball player. What a life, I thought. I’m getting paid for this? And then reality hit. I was stuck here for 8 months. Then the crazy things Greek people did weren’t so amusing and everything wasn’t so exciting, it was just uncomfortable.
I think the adjustment for me came at various levels. First of all, post college life is a struggle for everyone, athlete and non athlete alike. For the first time in my life I was living alone, without roommates or family, and somehow I had to learn to entertain myself. I didn’t even know what free time was because since I was twelve years old I had been running around from practice to school to eat to study. And I liked it that way. I liked going going, and doing doing, and being productive and busy all the time. But all of a sudden I found myself post college in a foreign country with 21 hours of free time everyday, no one to spend it with, and without the large focus of basketball season as I always knew it. Yes, I was still playing basketball, but it is so very different over here. I was used to the stress and adrenaline high of a season, the exhaustion, the ups, the downs. Here we were practicing two hours a day and playing once a week, rarely traveling. I didn’t know what to do with my time without that stress of a season or at least the anticipation of one.
I felt unproductive and wondered what I was doing with my life. The next four years weren’t planned out like they had been in college and since the basketball wasn’t at a higher level I didn’t feel like I was moving forward. I wasn’t in school so I didn’t feel like I was improving intellectually either. I felt stagnated. I told myself to be grateful I wasn’t job searching or working a 40 hour week but I still felt like I wasn’t improving myself. I was seeing a beautiful country, experiencing a culture, and visiting ancient ruins and yet at 22 years old I couldn’t help feeling like a retiree who was walking around the house all day, wondering how to now fill up their time.
There were days when I wouldn’t talk to a soul until practice at night. I couldn’t call home because of a ten hour time difference and after checking my email when I woke up I couldn’t expect communication from anyone until late in the day. Its not like I sat around the house and looked at the wall. I would go to the gym, buy groceries, or go out for coffee and read a book. But doing everything by myself, all the time, having no one to laugh with, share stories with, wasn’t really my style. Some days it bothered me more than others but slowly I began to actually like my own company. But in the beginning I didn’t know how to deal with virtually no social interaction.
As time passed I became less and less focused on what I didn’t have in my daily life and more focused on what I did. I stopped comparing Greek professional basketball to college ball. I stopped expecting the same feeling of loyalty when I put on my jersey, that my teammates would be heartbroken if we lost, that everyone in and around the program was focused, goal oriented, and worked hard. Instead, I began to take it for what it was worth and truly appreciate the opportunity. The things that I once hated about being over here I started to love. I started loving the fact that I can sit down and read a novel for hours in the sun, sipping coffee. I can go workout and then stop at a bakery and get fresh bread in the morning with no one rushing me. I can go to the outdoor market all by myself and look at all the vendors selling beautiful fruits and vegetables in every color you can imagine. Then I can go home and cook a meal in the quiet of my apartment. Whatever I want to do I can do.
What I didn’t realize at the time was that being productive and growing as a person was happening every second. The stress of living in a foreign culture was forcing me to learn and grow and mature in ways I never knew possible. Of all the classes I took in college, of all the books I had read, television shows I seen, conversations I had had with others, not one of them could ever teach me the lessons I learned while living on my own in country so different from my own. I was being productive every day, moving forward, I just didn’t know it.
When people find out that I play professional basketball in Greece they immediately want answers. What’s it like? Do you love it? How is the food? The money? The level of play? What are your teammates like? How do the men act? They ask these questions and more. I articulate answers as best I can but really the experience is dynamic, capricious, and constantly reinventing itself. My first year, you could have asked me if I liked it on a hundred different days and I would have given a different answer every time.
Yes, it is a dream come true. It is exciting, romantic, and fascinating. It can also be lonely and depressing and uncomfortable depending on the day, the hour, whether you won or lost, whether you are expecting a visitor from home or saying goodbye to one. The emotions and moods are unpredictable and somewhat uncontrollable. The first few months are the most difficult. You live your life under a fog of uncertainty. The tiniest expectations you have about everyday life, people’s behavior, the nuances of a society, the cultural roadmap, are all thrown away and everything is up in the air. Each time you step out of your apartment, you are uncomfortable and on alert.
This is my second season playing basketball in Greece so my perspective has changed quite a bit. I love it here now. What a difference a year makes! This time last year I was confused pretty much all of the time. From the appliances in my apartment, to what to buy at the grocery store. From practices, to navigating the city. From opening a bank account, to taking a taxi, everything in life was more complicated. And then there was the slight problem of a language barrier.
Obviously, there was a great deal of culture shock involved in my transition. Living in a country is far different from visiting one. In the beginning I liked it here, it was exciting. I was taking pictures at the Acropolis with my college teammate, Tracy Gahan, who lived in an Athens suburb and hopping over to the Greek islands on a day off. It was great. And the crazy things Greek people did were amusing, comical. I felt so lucky to be a professional basketball player. What a life, I thought. I’m getting paid for this? And then reality hit. I was stuck here for 8 months. Then the crazy things Greek people did weren’t so amusing and everything wasn’t so exciting, it was just uncomfortable.
I think the adjustment for me came at various levels. First of all, post college life is a struggle for everyone, athlete and non athlete alike. For the first time in my life I was living alone, without roommates or family, and somehow I had to learn to entertain myself. I didn’t even know what free time was because since I was twelve years old I had been running around from practice to school to eat to study. And I liked it that way. I liked going going, and doing doing, and being productive and busy all the time. But all of a sudden I found myself post college in a foreign country with 21 hours of free time everyday, no one to spend it with, and without the large focus of basketball season as I always knew it. Yes, I was still playing basketball, but it is so very different over here. I was used to the stress and adrenaline high of a season, the exhaustion, the ups, the downs. Here we were practicing two hours a day and playing once a week, rarely traveling. I didn’t know what to do with my time without that stress of a season or at least the anticipation of one.
I felt unproductive and wondered what I was doing with my life. The next four years weren’t planned out like they had been in college and since the basketball wasn’t at a higher level I didn’t feel like I was moving forward. I wasn’t in school so I didn’t feel like I was improving intellectually either. I felt stagnated. I told myself to be grateful I wasn’t job searching or working a 40 hour week but I still felt like I wasn’t improving myself. I was seeing a beautiful country, experiencing a culture, and visiting ancient ruins and yet at 22 years old I couldn’t help feeling like a retiree who was walking around the house all day, wondering how to now fill up their time.
There were days when I wouldn’t talk to a soul until practice at night. I couldn’t call home because of a ten hour time difference and after checking my email when I woke up I couldn’t expect communication from anyone until late in the day. Its not like I sat around the house and looked at the wall. I would go to the gym, buy groceries, or go out for coffee and read a book. But doing everything by myself, all the time, having no one to laugh with, share stories with, wasn’t really my style. Some days it bothered me more than others but slowly I began to actually like my own company. But in the beginning I didn’t know how to deal with virtually no social interaction.
As time passed I became less and less focused on what I didn’t have in my daily life and more focused on what I did. I stopped comparing Greek professional basketball to college ball. I stopped expecting the same feeling of loyalty when I put on my jersey, that my teammates would be heartbroken if we lost, that everyone in and around the program was focused, goal oriented, and worked hard. Instead, I began to take it for what it was worth and truly appreciate the opportunity. The things that I once hated about being over here I started to love. I started loving the fact that I can sit down and read a novel for hours in the sun, sipping coffee. I can go workout and then stop at a bakery and get fresh bread in the morning with no one rushing me. I can go to the outdoor market all by myself and look at all the vendors selling beautiful fruits and vegetables in every color you can imagine. Then I can go home and cook a meal in the quiet of my apartment. Whatever I want to do I can do.
What I didn’t realize at the time was that being productive and growing as a person was happening every second. The stress of living in a foreign culture was forcing me to learn and grow and mature in ways I never knew possible. Of all the classes I took in college, of all the books I had read, television shows I seen, conversations I had had with others, not one of them could ever teach me the lessons I learned while living on my own in country so different from my own. I was being productive every day, moving forward, I just didn’t know it.
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