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.

Mini-trip to England

I met up with a few ex-UWaterloo students in England a few days ago. Jennifer and Kevin actually work there. John flew over from Sweden and I from Greece.

We visited Stonehenge for 2 days and the remaining 2 we stayed in London.
Jennifer and Kevin were very good hosts, taking us to all must-see places and giving us very good historical information for each. We had our private guides to all museums. Kevin had tons of info on the Egyptian culture as well as the English dynasties. The stories were very entertaining.

London was rather expensive, but overall the trip was totally worth it!

Below Kevin is taking a picture of the rest of us.

Island Hopping 2007

Francis visited Greece this summer and we together embarked on an island hopping trip to several Greek isles. Our trip lasted close to 10 days and included stays on non-islands.

We first visited Possidi, a rather large camping in Halkidiki occupied mainly by University students. Thousands of them. Our main activities included swimming, sun-tanning, beach volleyball and some partying. Francis and I took part in a beach volleyball tournament, but actually lost in the first game. We had rather good opponents and didn't play our best either. The game was close but we both think we could have actually won... Me losing a serve near the end didn't help either, and would under other circumstances have invoked an at-least-a-troisième dumb bitch cheer.

Following our devastating defeat, we left for Athens via train. The plan was to take a ferry from there to Mykonos early in the morning, but luck would have other plans for us, as we lost the ferry. We had to wait till the afternoon to eventually arrive to the island. I liked the island and its windy weather. It was quite crowded, with Italians holding the majority in the population pie. We visited beaches, but overall our trip was not very eventful, perhaps cause we only stayed there for a day and a half.
Naxos was our next stop. A pleasant surprise awaited us: A beach volleyball court at the beach next to our hotel. A chance for redemption! We ceased the moment and immediately challenged any player in the vicinity. The challenge was a success. We effectively decimated every team willing to stand in our way. Go G-Unit Mini!
The second day in the island involved climbing a mountain to eventually reach the Cave of Zeus. The cave was rather large, dark and kind of scary, especially when the bats living there felled threatened by our presence and started making noises, presumably to scare us of.
Santorini was next. I will make the bold statement of saying that it is the most beautiful place I've seen in the world. The natural beauty coupled with breath-taking cliff views are simply phenomenal. I doubt any picture can actually convey the reality. Do visit this island if you ever have the chance!
Our stay in the island ended with some mad dancing. Go G-Unit Mini, once more!


Francis continued his trip to Crete and I returned to my hometown, Thessaloniki.
Overall a very enjoyable summer excursion!

Paris, the highlights

For this once, I am not referring to miss Hilton's hair.
Instead, I'm referring to the Paris vacation which is now nearing its completion....

Our team managed to finish 8th out of 10 in the tournament's A league.
We could have done better, but our performance on Saturday was way below what it should have been. Sunday however, was a different story! A feisty G-Unit put forward a recital performance against the then 2nd team (who would eventually finish 4th), and we scored an important victory with two winning sets, 20-13 and 20-09. You can see the happiness reflected in our faces below.


The New Inside-Joke quotes

• Oh come on, people are dying back here!
• Just buy shorter shorts...
• - Dan, Dan, Dan, Danny, Danny, Daniel, Daniel wake up! - Whaaaat?!?!?! - G-Unit needs you.
• That's not classy...
• Bravo!!! [frantic clapping ensues]
• When I was in Jamaica...
• Do you like Bob Marley?
• Pita Bread!!!
• Fifth... [delirious laughs ensue]
• Dear diary...
• We ought to talk!
• - Mercy! - Beacoup, Beacoup!
• Bagel. Oh god, I keep getting this picture in my head...
• What's a guy gotta do around here to get a gommage?
  

The Cheers

• Ace, Martina! M.A.R.T.I.N.A. ACE! Ooohh!
• Dumb bitch [clap, clap, clap], Dumb bitch [clap, clap, clap].
• - Au sigming! - Ping!
• Allons, energy!!! ooooOOOOOHHH
• Barbie, Jouie! Hi hi hi hi hi.
  

The Classics

• - Didn't your mama teach you how to show affection? - Well, she did, she tried, it didn't work...
• Talk, talk, talk... Just too much.