Friday, June 27, 2008

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...

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

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.