Second in The World

Sotiris and I took part in a beach volleyball tournament at the end of last May (2008). The tournament took place in a complex called "Mediterranean Κόσμος" which translates to "Mediterranean World" but its common name, the one everyone refers to it as, is simply "The World".

The tournament lasted two days, had 16 teams and was played in a double-elimination setting. On Saturday we won our first game by default and lost the second one. Our performance was quite bad. Sunday was a very different story: The stakes were high as we had to win all games in order to get to the final. And so we did. But the highlight was the final itself...

We played against two very good players, Akritidis and Naziris, both of whom have consistently won medals in Greece's North Cup in the past. One of them however had not trained during the year, due to army obligations. Both Sotiris and I put forward our best selves and probably played the best beach volleyball of our lives against the excellent opponents. The first set was very tight for its entire duration and ended with a slim 2 point difference in their favor although we were leading the score for most of the game. We lost the second set with a higher difference (close to 5 points) which was indeed quite expected both due to the quality of opponents but also because the body was weak, even though the spirit was willing (we had already played 9 sets before that). And just like that, we became second in the world!

Le me elaborate on the pun:
Greek, being a highly inflected language and quite strict with its syntax, would not allow us to play with words like that and mislead the public on our achievement. In Greek, we are forced to say "Δεύτεροι στο Κόσμος" [Deuteroi sto Kosmos] as opposed to "Δέυτεροι στον κόσμο" [Deuteroi ston kosmo] but in this case I choose English and say, with great pride, "Second in the world".

Here we are, Sotiris and I, second in the world...

Paris Reloaded (aka 2008)

Yet another G-Unit reunion took place in Paris on May.
Our mission was simple: Get 5th place in the volleyball tournament, a long-standing hope ever since last year's trip. We failed...
What we didn't win in the tournament's placement though, we won in fun, new friends and hope that we will keep on improving and that in 3 year's time we'll get first place: See, we got 6th this year and we want to believe in math, patterns and their inevitable consequences.
Karim, that means you need to practice thrice per week, every week of the year, and not just one.
:p

In retrospect I do think we all played well, but the truth of the matter is placement is not important as long as we have fun galore. And that we did.Following the long standing Inside-Joke-Quotes Paris tradition I present some below:

• Annoying Conversation in the Train-Tram-Metro, you name it.
• And then she was like... blah blah blah
• And I was like...
• And then she was like so whatever...
• Like... like...
• We'll do this the engineering way: Proof by Example.
  
• I think we should have blocked that guy's line.
• Yeah? You think? Give me an Example...
• Karim's funny bitchy moments.
  • Eddie: Sorry guys, my fault...
  • Karim: We know...
  • All: [delirious laughs]
    
  • ... time passes, several plays take place ...
    
  • Gus: Nice dig Karim!
  • Karim: I know...
  • All: [delirious laughs]
• Enough said.
  • Bonjour...
  • I'll bon your jour!
    
  • Koutchi, Koutchi...
  • Koutchi, Koutchi, kou...
  • In face of you, the palece of ...
    
• French 101.
• Allo, qui est a l' apareill?
• C'est moi Filippe, et toi?
• C'est moi Corrine.
• Comment ca va?
• Ca va bien et toi?
• Tres bien.
  

And one of the trip's funny highlights which I couldn't have described better myself, so I'll use Dan's narration.

Gus, god bless his innocent friendliness. Upon arriving to Paris a day early, he sees an Italian volleyball team that he recognizes from last year. He approaches to say hi. The Italians have no clue who he is. He lifts his shades. Still nothing. He smiles, shrugs, and walks away - ego bruised. This becomes the weekend's best joke.

A true believer

G-Unit rules!
They put the 'team' in volleyball's 'team sport' qualification.
Playing with them reminds me what Volleyball is all about. Although they haven't coined the term "let's just help each other" they are the embodiment of its meaning.

We had two excellent tournaments in Canada and managed to get 3rd out of 36 in the first and 2nd out of 21 in the second. During the tourneys I was once again reminded that team play is all that really matters, and ever since I am a true believer!

Here I present to you, G-Unit, around the time when I first met them.


And since this blog is becoming ever more media inclined, what better thing to do than to share a song capable of conveying some of the feelings G-Unit induces.

Dragonette - True Believer

On GASS Conventions

It's been occupying everyone's mind lately, that much is obvious. Fans across the world have been anticipating this convention for a while now. I am of course referring to the latest GASS convention which, with only its third occurrence, has swept the world by surprise and has everyone asking for more. In this post I shall try, to give to you the history and significance of this recurring event.

The GASS conventions were established as a means for four University of Waterloo (UW) alumni to meet annually. Gus, Albert, Steve and Sinan all completed their studies at UW (three Computer Scientists and one Actuary) and subsequently parted ways to split all over the globe. Two remained in Toronto, ON while the other two headed to two different parts of the US. It wasn't until the first GASS convention that the four of them met again.

The first GASS convention took place in Montreal, QC in the Summer of 2006. Its importance was immediately apparent and a pact to guarantee its recurrence was established.

The second GASS convention took place in Niagara Falls, ON in the Spring of 2007. One of the four founding members (Gus) was quite far away at the time (Greece) and consequently was unable to attend. Petitions raged on whether there should be a renaming of the convention but, as any astute reader can notice, the proposal would have raised many eyebrows and was quickly dropped. The name would remain the same with the prospect of the missing member return at a future convention.

The third GASS convention took place in Washington, DC in the Spring of 2008. All members were once again present and able to witness the cherry trees, a gift from Japan to the US, blossom.

The archives and proceedings of the convention are not easy to be found. But after thorough scrutiny of the press I was able to unearth a picture from their latest convention, which I am posting here to prevent it from getting lost forever.

It does conspire, but humorously so

"When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it."
- Paulo Coelho

I had heard the above mentioned quote in the past and even then thought it sounded really good. Very optimistic and positive. I will now tell you a story that reinforces Paulo's belief, but with a twist. The story goes like so:

Once upon a time there was a volleyball player named Gus. Like most volleyball players he trained regularly and occasionally watched professional games. During one of the professional games, when PAOK wasn't doing too well, Gus heard one of the players say 'Come on guys, let's just help each other'. The words felt profound. You would expect everyone in a team sport to 'just help each other' but there are times when it doesn't happen. Gus felt inspired by the player's words and thought he ought to get a picture or autograph.
Weeks passed and due to work or other commitments Gus couldn't go to watch PAOK. Things changed though, a couple of days ago. Gus went to PAOK's arena and hoped that by the end of the game, he would find a way to enter the main Gym and ask for a picture. To his great surprise, Grigoris, his team's physiotherapist was in the main Gym. Grigoris used to work for another team, ARIS, but had switched teams a couple of weeks back. Gus and Grigoris spoke and everything was arranged: Gus would go in the gym at the end of the game and get his picture. The game hadn't started yet and Gus saw a lady that he had seen in the past. The lady spoke English and French and seemed to know the players. Gus thought: awesome, the lady might actually help in the pic. So they talked and she offered to help with the picture. Awesome!
The game that followed was a very good one. PAOK ended up winning 3-1 while offering a great show. At the end of the game the girl started talking to the Canadian players and nodded to Gus, who went there. The girl took the picture, Gus thanked her and the players and left thinking how lucky he was that the universe had conspired to help him achieve his goal.
Gus then went down town to meet up with Harris. He found parking space very easily and thought 'Wow, things are only getting better today'. He parks and is about to leave the car when he realizes his wallet is missing. He searches the car, but nothing. The wallet was gone... nowhere to be found. The universe's services are kind of expensive he thought as it did conspire but at a cost.
Harris arrived at the parking lot and after searching some more, both of them decided it was a good idea to head back to the Gym and look there. So they went, arrived at the Gym's parking lot and started searching. Nothing. They went in the Gym which was still open. The Gym's guard turned on some lights, Gus went to his seat and started searching under it. Nothing. He then searched behind it, and there it was! The full wallet with nothing missing! AmaZING!

It does conspire, but humorously so!

As for the picture, appearing from left to right:
Alex Gaumont Casias, Gus the Goose, Louis-Pierre Mainville