"All I wanna do is have some fun... I got a feeling I'm not the only one" Sheryl Crow

Last week we went to watch my friend Josh play volleyball. His team is actually the team that my coach Loizos used to set for! It was a really fun environment with a completely packed gym and drums playing! I brought my Nikon D60 to take some pictures. It was my first attempt at taking action shots, but by the 3rd game I was doing much better with it. I am proud of some of the pictures I got. Here are a few of the pictures from the game (Josh is #18). I also have a link to more of my pictures in the picture column on the right of the blog.

It was an interesting ride to the game considering it started to rain and my roomies car is so old and beat up that the windshield wiper flew off of its track and got stuck on the side mirror of the car…

I wasn’t sure if we were going to make it but we did, barley! The game was a ton of fun and the boys fought hard, but unfortunately lost in 4 sets. After the game we went to dinner with my roomies and Josh’s cousin who is visiting from Australia. She was an awesome girl who told us a bit about her journeys backpacking through Europe. We also talked a lot about the difference in how we say certain things and about what it is like to live in different parts of the world. The do NOT say “shrimp on the Barbie” they don’t even say shrimp! They are prawns….BUT they do call the grill a Barbie! They also eat kangaroo! Eww, but I kind of want to try it!

We moved into our apartment the next day which is on the other side of Larnaca and pretty close to the gym.  I would say we are about a 3 minute drive to the gym  which will be nice for practice and games. I still don’t have my car so I have been walking around to get acquainted with my new neighborhood. There is a soccer stadium right in our back yard. It will be interesting to see this quiet and peaceful neighborhood come to life on game day! Our apartment is probably the largest I have been in anywhere I have stayed in Europe/ It has a super nice kitchen and not only a living room but also a dinning room! My room is really nice with a lot of closet space. On the other side of the room there are these two double door that I assumed was another closet and when I opened them I found…. A bathroom!! I got the master suite!

Yesterday was a ton of fun also! I went with the basketball boys to my coach’s house for homemade chili, cornbread, cobbler, and brown Sundays! Kendra (coach’s wife) has to be one of the best cooks ever! I am so glad that we have been invited back again. Loizos took us out for a drive after dinner and we went to some amazing spots along the coast. We saw where we are going to learnt o scuba dive as a well as cliff jump! There were also these amazing caves up in the hills as well as down by the sea in the side of the cliffs! My favorite stop was to see where Loizos purposed to Kendra. It has to be one of the most beautiful parts of the island and he told us he was very confident in his pick for a proposal location because, “she couldn’t say no” hehe. We also drove down to this amazing part down on the water where there is this huge gated off area with giant antennas. It is for a “French radio station”, however that has to be some crazy cover up considering there has never been a French song or even word spoken on any of the radio stations… dun dun duuuuuuuuuuun! Anyway, the sights were absolutely gorgeous but it was getting dark so I didn’t take pictures..but the boys and I have already planned a full weekend trip down that way so I will get a ton then. For sure some videos of the cliff jumping!

After our excursion we came back for desert and some more ESPN! We hung out, talked, shared stories and of course had a tiara dress up party for Loizos’s daughter. She is such a little sweetheart and I was so happy to see her running around and playing since she was in the hospital only a few days ago not feeling well. It was hilarious though because we were watching TV and she was on the couch with me and the boys. She was trying to put a tiara with this little comb on Terrance (he is bald, so as you can immage that wasn‘t too comfortable)…anyway all of a sudden a big AHHH CHUUU… and she sneezes all over him. It was hilarious, but he was a good sport about it.

We got another history lesson about Cyprus…last time it was the forbidden city, this time MAFIA!!! We learned all about the local Mafia and their cover businesses! It was crazy hearing some of the stories! It is amazing because the more I learn about Cyprus (good and bad) the more I want to know. It has such a rich culture and history because it has been over taken by so many countries! Like the story of why there is a giant infestation of CATS! These things are EVERYWHERE… and like HUNDREDS of them! I guess when the queen of England came here back when the Britts had control of the island she brought with her cats. The people liked having them because the would kill of the snakes! So now a days people leave the cats be since they know that the cats will make sure there are no snakes…I mean it makes sense to me! I would rather have cats galore than snakes! EWWW

We started watching the discovery channel which was probably the funniest part of our day considering all of the comments being made.

“Look.. Look look.. That dude is riding a freakin rain dear!!”
“Uhh Ohh that doesn’t look like its going to be good… -Hey if Rodoulph gets it…we have to change the channel”
“ohh ohh yeah itchy booty”
“he can smell what?”
“eeewww what the heck is that thing”

…anyway you get the picture….

On our way home we entered the 1st round-about and GRRRGGGCLUNKCLUNK the car stops! Apparently the radiator hose blew and we were trapped! Not the best place to get stuck late at night in the middle of the roundabout! We figured out that the hose for the radiator blew, so there was not much we could do to fix it. We called Loizos who came to the rescue and helped the boys get the car down the out of the round about and into a safe place…oh and since it never rains here of course it had to start to down pour during all of this. The cops drove up and checked on us and then randomly got in their car and ditched out… thanks a lot guys! NOT… Thank goodness for Loizos and our club president who drove us home to Larnaca!

Today I am just hanging out with the roomies getting all settled in and making a list of stuff we want to get at IKEA to make our house a little less grandma-ish… Josh is convinced that an old woman died here…we named her Dotty, because all of this old stuff was left at the house including a bath robe, panties, and some nasty food in the freezer! However I am wondering what kinda Grannie it was since there is also a giant hooka and dirty magazines that we found in the house as well.. hmmmmm