Athens, days 11, 12 & 13: What day is it?
Somewhere along the line I stopped keeping track of the date and time The only reason I still wear my watch is to cover up the insane watch tan on my wrist. Also, there’s no way I could ever cheat on my wife by hiding my wedding ring, as I think you can see my ring tan line from space. Not that I would even think to attempt something like that to begin with.
Speaking of my bed: at 4:30 AM, yesterday, I made the mistake of rolling over to the middle of it. Now, know that my bed is actually two twin beds, on wheels, pushed together. I’ll let you imaginations complete the rest of the story, but as I told everyone, it was quite difficult to go back to sleep after that.
They like their starch over here. The bed sheets are like sandpaper. My laundry has been coming back with my t-shirts like cardboard. When I put them on, I feel like I’m wearing paper.
At this stage in the Games (Closing Ceremonies are on Monday), there aren’t a whole lot of issues left to troubleshoot. There has been a lot of standing around, floating from venue to venue, most times not even touching a GMS computer at all. There are a lot of other issues that we’ve faced, of which I don’t want to go into detail o this site. It’s been a challenge, and the seasoned team members are going crazy with all of the free time we’re left with (it’s not supposed to be this slow for us).
Yesterday (day 13), I played “bodyguard” for Apryl. It was her last day (she flys home this morning), and Reuben gave her the day off to go sightseeing, shopping, etc. To make sure she wasn’t floating through this (crazy) city alone, I went with her. After seeking out some people she wanted to catch up with, we headed into Jumbo. Jumbo is a cross between Toys R Us and Ikea, where the top floor is all toys and the bottom floor is all home goods (weird). After she loaded up on gifts for her 2-yr old daughter, we hopped onto the Metro to Plaka. Plaka is a neighborhood made up of narrow streets and a ton of shops selling a million different things. Very neat to wander through there.
I’m making a list of things that I want to do as soon as I get home. When I read through it, it’s definitely a sign that I am getting a little homesick. Mostly? I miss my bed, my own shower, and my wife. Let me rephrase: I miss my wife, my bed, and my own shower.
I’ve taken the lazy way out, so you’re stuck with my camera phone pics for this post. It’s hard to keep shooting pictures when I keep going to the same venues and don’t necessarily see anything new.