I wish I knew what the songs were!

For me, being in Greece means being in the birthplace of not only philosophy, but athletics. I also am blessed to have been in Spain while they were in the process of winning the World Cup. Last week, one of the study abroad students here took it upon himself to collect money from all of us to buy tickets for a soccer game, Athens vs. Thessaloniki. Imagine my excitement when we approached the Olympic stadium last night.

After some confusion on the metro, we were a little late, so as we approached the Olympic stadium we could hear the chanting and the drum-pounding already, from the metro station. We hurried (I ran) to the entrance under huge metal archways proclaiming the pride that Athens had when they hosted the Olympics in 2004. We had field level seats, which is not really ideal (it's hard to see the whole field), but at half time we managed to squeeze up to the balcony railing amidst hardcore soccer fans.

Honestly, the game itself was not the most exciting part. They tied 0-0, so...yeah. I think spectators at a tie game should be refunded. But there were 2 red cards and a near-fight, so there was definitely excitement.

It was just so cool to be in that atmosphere! I've watched many futbol games, but I've never actually watched anyone kick the ball THAT far in real life. The view from up top was awesome, and being an actual spectator was surreal. I wish America were as hyped about soccer as Europe is, because being inside that huge crowd, where there were at least five different songs they were singing, they were throwing flares into the field, the amount of times I heard the word "Malaka" is the same amount of stars in the sky...it was really fun! What really has me feeling lucky to be there is that it was the Olympic stadium...the Greeks probably don't care, but as an amateur athlete who was screwed out of the Olympics by incompetent pole vault coaches (!) I felt like I was standing in a place of pure honor. Wouldn't you? To be in this place where the greatest athletes in the world once competed, it was a wonderful feeling. I wish I could have seen more of the arena, like the pool or the courts, but seeing the track was obviously the big thing for me.