SPECIAL DAY IN GREECE

Two days ago Greek people were getting BUUUUSY!!! On March 25th, the country celebrates two things at once:

1. Greek Independence Day- historically
2. The Feast of Annunciation- spiritually, because on this day in the Greek Orthodox calendar, the archangel Gabriel appeared to the maiden Mary and announced the news that she was pregnant with the divine child... with this "a new spirit was about to be born in Greece".

I wanted to use this day of celebration and appreciation here in Greece to answer a question that one reader had asked me a while back (sorry for taking so long to reply, Michal, but I could never find the right timing). The question was: "what did make u to choose greece as next station?"

Well, the easy thing to say would be "only God knows why", but I know that you wanna know a little bit more about my thinking process and motives. So, I'll give it a try to put them into words...

When my agent first called me and told me that I had an offer from Greece, I was a little hesitant. Simply because I had never played in Greece before, never really had followed the Greek league nor had any experience about Greece... in 2003 I had been to Greece once for the FIBA Cup-- ironically to play the team in Glyfada back then... that's all.... so for me it was all very unfamiliar.

I started giving it a second look though, when I saw the effort that the management of Proteas was making to bring me here after they had found out that my contract in Valencia had ended. I felt valued and honored... definitely a good baseline ;)

So I started asking some of my friends who had played in Greece before, and via facebook I then contacted Ashley and Emily, who at that point I didn't know. Everybody had only good things to say... I was getting a little angry, because I had set my mind on not coming to Greece... and then last but not least one of my ex-teammates and Greek friend Anastasia Kostaki guaranteed me that I would have a good time here, and that this club would really be good to me... so ultimately I decided to opened my heart to giving Proteas a chance.

Even though I had some other offers, I woke up one morning and all of a sudden had this peace about coming to Greece. I went with that gut feeling and signed the papers... Thankfully in my career I can say that this feeling has never led me astray... THANK YOU GOD!!

Today I am just happy to be here. Sometimes in the professional basketball world (we can't forget that IT IS a BUSINESS) the goal is so present at all times that the journey gets overlooked... and I believe that life is about enjoying the journey... and I am happy to be brought "back to this truth" here at Proteas. Yes, basketball is about the results... I understand that... I am a competitor... I loooooove to win and hate to lose... and here at Proteas, despite the ranking, I do feel like a winner... I feel that EVERY DAY we are getting better, and it's a good feeling.

I am so grateful to have the opportunity to live in a country as beautiful as Greece for a part of my basketball career.... I was told before that it was beautiful, but I didn't know it was THAAAAT beautiful!
Thanks to the staff of Proteas for having me and for letting me be a part of this great journey in the history of your club.

And thanks to my lovely teammates-- Greeks and Americans-- for being such great women, for all the laughter and the hacking in the practice... ahm, I mean... for working hard each and every day!!!! YOU ROCK.... WE ROCK.... let's go PROTEAS!!!

A LITTLE BIT HURT

So as I was going through my weekend routine of checking several European game results, I came up on this website... where on the Women's Basketball page, there's a photo of a cheerleader... and not only is it a cheerleader, it's also titled "The beautiful side of Basketball"............................................ ................... ........ ....................................... ................................. .hhhhmmmm........................... definitely 'FOOD FOR THOUGHT'!

GIRLS NIGHT OUT

On a "wild night out", Ashley, Emily and I decided to go to...... THE MOVIES.... yeah, that's right.... ROCK 'N' ROLLIN' IN GLYFADA!!!
The new movie out here in theatres (thank God for original movie theatres here in Greece!) was the following one with Adam Sandler and our lovely Jennifer Aniston: 
Initially I was a little worried about the corny-factor as well as worn-out jokes, BUT I must report that this movie was just adorable. I loved the plot, the actors/actresses are beautiful to look at, and the scenery is breath-taking.... a great movie for a girls-night-out :)

IF YOU HAVE 1.5 HOURS TO SPARE...

....check this out:

YEAH.... I WAS "THAAAT GIRL"

So at the beginning of the week, I was invited by one of my teammates to her birthday party... and because we were having a free weekend without a game I ended up agreeing to come, which IF YOU KNOW ME is a total exception... (I really don't like to leave the house past 9pm.... don't judge me!!!)

So anyways, when I got the invitatition my teammate said "come Linda it's going to be fun... it's also gonna be carneval, so you can get dressed if you want, but you don't have to!!!"
Well, and unlike my other teammates I must have not heard the last part too well.... lol.... so to make a long story short: I WAS THE ONLY ONE to dress up for that party.... Muhahahaha! There's always a first (-and I am happy I had mine far far away from home, where nobody knows me... lol).

It was half as dramatic after all, because there was indeed an actual 'Carneval theme' at the cafe that we celebrated at.... and I ended up not being alone... phew!! Here are some pictures of a picture puuuuuurfect evening with my ladies :)

getting the party started... here I was still wearing my gloves...
later on it got a TAD BIT too warm for them ;)

that's how I like to hang out... good company ;)

Thaelia is trying to scratch my little kitty nose

Cat Woman and Barbie- the birthday girl... it was great, thanks for the invite!

home made tail ;) gotta show it off

Mati and Me

The Kate and William of Proteas Basketball... my dream couple :)

Ash- the MN Gopher and me

Rumba, Lil' One and me... I don't know if a mouse was taking this picture, but my eyes are unnaturally wide open... eeek

Reina, our physiotherapist who is taking good care of me

As I ended up on the dance floor, I was happy I brought this bad boys....
My compression socks!!!  LOL

after getting jiggy with Will Smith and raising the roof with Public Enemy, it was time for a good ol' TIMEOUT

last but not least, I add this photo so you could see that I was NOT the only one dressed up... lol