July 18, 2008

Photo Gallery: GALLERY

Micheal Bramos--July 18, 2008

My summer has been flying by so far, I have been on the go since the summer began. The first six weeks were spent at summer school with almost all of my teammates taking classes and working out. I feel like that went pretty well, and I was excited to finish because it will be the last time I take summer classes ... kind of weird to think about that.

Probably the most exciting part of my summer was my trip to Greece from June 27-July 8. This trip was so last minute that I got my passport the day before I left, so I just barely made it. The trip was sponsored by a group called AHEPA (American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association), and everything we did in Greece was first class.

Besides being on the plane for way too long--I think the flight was close to 11 hours--and the seven-hour time difference, which was tough to get used to, it was one of the better experiences of my life.

We stayed right in downtown Athens at a very nice five-star hotel. The team was made up of 10 guys from around the United States with Greek heritage. Most of the members of the team were from Division I schools, and we had about three from Division II schools. We all got along really well, and we only had two practices before we started playing games, so it was tough to get used to each other in very short period of time.

We arrived on Saturday (June 28) in Athens and our games were on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. We lost both our games on Tuesday (July 1) to professional teams. We lost the second game by two points, but we started playing a lot better by the second game.

Thursday (July 3) was the big game as we played the 21 and under junior national team of Greece. It was very cool as we played in the Olympic Arena where all the basketball games were held in Athens for the 2004 Olympic Games. We ended up beating them by 10 points in an upset win as I don't think they really like losing to Americans on their home soil.

On Saturday (July 5), we played very well, and we beat another pro team by about 25 points, so near the end of the trip we started playing well together.

Besides the basketball part of the trip, they kept us very busy. We had personal tours of the Acropolis, Parthenon, the Parliament Building and other places which were cool to see first hand. Visiting the Acropolis was neat because it was raised on a mountain and it overlooks the whole city of Athens surrounded by the mountains. We were also able to make it to a couple beaches throughout the week and even to an island on the Sunday before we left.

The island was awesome, and we got to rent some four-wheelers to drive around the island which was a lot of fun and not something you get to do everyday here. The scenery in general on the island was unreal and we only got to see half of it. We also attended a few banquets and barbeques sponsored by AHEPA as they were holding their national convention the same week. They seemed really into basketball and were very excited to have us at these events.

Overall the trip was a great experience, and I was glad to have had the opportunity to be a part of it.

This is not where my summer ends yet, though. I got back on Wednesday, July 9 and my sister was married on Saturday, July 12. It was a good time, and everyone had a lot of fun that day.

Things are finally starting to slow down for me. The rest of the summer I plan on working out at my high school during the week. We have a place on Lake Huron up in Northern Michigan, so I will probably go up there as many weekends as I can.

While it's been an exciting summer, I'm looking forward to getting back and working hard in the fall to produce a championship next March. Hope everyone is having a good summer.

This is a continuation of a series of updates from the Miami University men's basketball players throughout the summer.