Shooting a show with Brett for a Greek television show on Nova Sport! She just beat me in some "fake" pool/billiards but it was all for the show...have to let her win sometimes ;)
About to head off to practice to get ready for our next match on Sat. Its our last home match with out our fans due to the penalty of last seasons events. Can't wait to have them on our team in the upcoming matches.
Keep your fingers crossed!
Friday, October 29, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Byzantine Castle of Thessaloniki
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
First match
Started the 2010-2011 season with a 3-1 W vs Lamia last night. We did not have the best start as anxiety kicked in and it was a restless couple days leading up to the match. This season I think we have a good opportunity to do well but it is going to depend on the way our side plays and concentrates...As well as keeping healthy.
We lost the first set after leading 14-11 last night. In my opinion we were a little scatter brained in the first set and really hurt our selves with errors in serve, reception and attack. In the next three sets we put together a lot of runs using a little more placement with our service and block. After we gained the lead each set everything was rolling and our team played with a lot of confidence.
Lamia's team has two other American players. Andy Hein and Will Price. It was nice to see Heiner again as well as meeting Price for the first time. It is Will's first season over in Europe and he has a bright future ahead of him. Andy played well in all that he could control. I think the setter could had used him a bit more in their offense but I'm not really sure they have spent enough time together to feel comfortable. I'm sure they will balance it out as the season continues.
Keep your fingers crossed for the rest of the season!
We lost the first set after leading 14-11 last night. In my opinion we were a little scatter brained in the first set and really hurt our selves with errors in serve, reception and attack. In the next three sets we put together a lot of runs using a little more placement with our service and block. After we gained the lead each set everything was rolling and our team played with a lot of confidence.
Lamia's team has two other American players. Andy Hein and Will Price. It was nice to see Heiner again as well as meeting Price for the first time. It is Will's first season over in Europe and he has a bright future ahead of him. Andy played well in all that he could control. I think the setter could had used him a bit more in their offense but I'm not really sure they have spent enough time together to feel comfortable. I'm sure they will balance it out as the season continues.
Keep your fingers crossed for the rest of the season!
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
So fresh and so clean
We had a lady come and clean our apartment today for the first time since living here. One of our assistant coaches brought over our new house cleaner around 10 this morning. Brett, Kristin and I figured we would get out of her way while she went to work so we decided to head over to IKEA to pick up a few fixing for the place. We are intending on having visitors for the entire month of November and want to make it as comfortable as possible for them. One can only take so much of Ikea however and by the third section of the store my knee's and back were pretty tired. Word of advice for those that need to go to Ikea: have a plan of attack and keep moving.
After Ikea we headed over to a restaurant for lunch and coffee called Casual Living thinking we would be able to be back after the house cleaner was done and gone...nope. This lady went to town! She doesn't speak any English so the communication was limited to "nie and ohi" which means yes and no in Greek. I'm pretty sure I spelled no wrong but you get the point. She was here another 3 hours the place is sparkling. Feels so good to have a clean house!
Genius!
After Ikea we headed over to a restaurant for lunch and coffee called Casual Living thinking we would be able to be back after the house cleaner was done and gone...nope. This lady went to town! She doesn't speak any English so the communication was limited to "nie and ohi" which means yes and no in Greek. I'm pretty sure I spelled no wrong but you get the point. She was here another 3 hours the place is sparkling. Feels so good to have a clean house!
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Almost Halloween
Last week our team had 4 matches in a row...Wedn, Thurs, Fri and Sat. We finally have a complete team with the addition to our Argentinian player showing up after the World Championships and our new OH replacing our Cuban player Alex. Our new player is Ryan Owens from the USA...We are def going to need his hitting abilities this season and its nice to have another American around for conversation.
The tournament was more of a training period than a serious situation. With Rodrigo and Ryan just arriving they were thrown into the mix pretty quick but only for a few sets to get acquainted with the guys and team. We played each team to the max but only won 1 out of 4. By the last day everyone was zapped and tired. Our middle blocker Sergiu from Romania hit a quick set in the 4th set and threw his shoulder completely out of the socket. Needles to say he is now using a sling to keep his shoulder in place for the next month. Such a bummer as we start the season this coming monday and we could really use him. This past monday in training we lost another middle who hit his hand on our second setters elbow while doing warm up blocking and shattered a bone in his right hand. He's wearing a cast and in a sling as well. We are down to our last two middles.
Brett and I have our friend Kristin visiting from California for 10 days. We all decided to buy some pumpkins from the market yesterday and carve them up in celebration of Halloween. We are going to have a contest over facebook to see who did the best job. Pretty sure I got this one in the bag though...sorry ladies.
We haven't ventured out of Kalamaria much but are looking to drive down to the center of Thessaloniki in a bit to check it out and grab lunch. Not looking forward to the traffic but it will be good to be out of the house and make a quick Starbucks stop to get some more ground beans for the house. I'm addicted to coffee for those of you who didn't know.
The tournament was more of a training period than a serious situation. With Rodrigo and Ryan just arriving they were thrown into the mix pretty quick but only for a few sets to get acquainted with the guys and team. We played each team to the max but only won 1 out of 4. By the last day everyone was zapped and tired. Our middle blocker Sergiu from Romania hit a quick set in the 4th set and threw his shoulder completely out of the socket. Needles to say he is now using a sling to keep his shoulder in place for the next month. Such a bummer as we start the season this coming monday and we could really use him. This past monday in training we lost another middle who hit his hand on our second setters elbow while doing warm up blocking and shattered a bone in his right hand. He's wearing a cast and in a sling as well. We are down to our last two middles.
Brett and I have our friend Kristin visiting from California for 10 days. We all decided to buy some pumpkins from the market yesterday and carve them up in celebration of Halloween. We are going to have a contest over facebook to see who did the best job. Pretty sure I got this one in the bag though...sorry ladies.
We haven't ventured out of Kalamaria much but are looking to drive down to the center of Thessaloniki in a bit to check it out and grab lunch. Not looking forward to the traffic but it will be good to be out of the house and make a quick Starbucks stop to get some more ground beans for the house. I'm addicted to coffee for those of you who didn't know.
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