A World that Revolves Around Leisure

Over the last twelve weeks I've come to realize that leisure plays a very important role in every individual's life. The way leisure is experienced by every person is unique and different from any other individual, because of the fact that someone's leisure can be seen as strange or boring in the eyes of another. On the other hand, I've come to learn this semester that looks are sometimes deceiving. For that reason, I've come to understand that even though an activity looks pointless or boring, if I really took the time to apply myself and forget about what others would think of me or how dumb I would look participating, than I would be able to experience leisure. Throughout most of my life I've been the type of person that would play any type of sport yet when it came to certain activities I was somewhat shy to participate. I never new why then, but I've come to realize that because I've been playing competitive sports most of my life, winning was constantly on my mind. Therefore when a new and different activity would come up I would hesitate to participate because I wasn't sure that I would win. This semester was a life-changing period of time in my life, because I've truly come to understand and enjoy leisure more than I've ever had before. Leisure has become a very key attribute in my everyday life, because as a student studying is a full time job and every time a leisure activity would come along, I would do my best to participate in it since I would use it as an outlet to forget about school for a moment and just focus on having a good time. Unfortunately the time has come were being a University student can be very difficult and were panic sets in along with 5 pounds of caffeine in almost every students body. That time is other wise known as the exams at the end of the fall semester or as leisure constraints to every student’s life. Getting through all of these exams seems almost impossible at first, yet once they are over, there will be a tone of stress that will be taken of every students shoulders. In order for all the students to come back to University the next semester sane, they will need to at least experience some sort of optimal arousal that will help clear their mind of all that is bad and fill it with only positive feelings. In my case, getting these exams over with is highly anticipated on my part, because once they are all done I'm taking a trip down south to Cancun, Mexico with three other friends were I will be hopefully attending the best week of my life. Finally, I've come to realize that being leisure educated and trying new things such as paintball in my case, can be a lot of fun if you're just willing to try it out. At first the thought of paintball in my point of view was stupid as all I thought would happen, was that someone would eventually get hurt because paintball looked and sounded like a dangerous game. Once we got to the paintball location I noticed that there were many types of paintball games that involved a lot of strategy, which made me eager to want to learn and play.In conclusion this course has helped immensely become more leisure educated and on top of that become myself a leisure educator. My whole life I've played sports and always worried about the end result, which was about winning. I believed that if I won I would be happy, but I've come to understand that winning isn't everything and sometimes just participating feels just a good and sometimes even better. I also pride myself in teaching individuals some of attributes that helped me become the athlete that I'm today. I've always love to teach individuals new things because it usually puts a smile on their faces which then puts a smile on mine. Also these new things that I teach them usually intrinsically motivates them to keep coming back and playing some more, because once an individual sees improvement they usually want to keep improving.
Happy holidays and a Happy New Year!

After a few months of being single I'm back in a relationship which has its advantages of course, but also has some disadvantages, because before I could do anything I wanted without consulting anyone about it. For instance this week I really wanted to go and see the movie Transporter 3, yet my girlfriend decided that we had to go see the movie Twilight. I find that I'm a reasonable person so I told her that she could pick the movie this time yet I could pick the next one. The movie Twilight was very disappointing in my point of view since the story was pointless and concept of the movie wasn't that great. The story is about a family of vampires who leave with humans in a small town were apparently there is never any sun. The vampire falls in love with the new girl in town. The girl finds out that he's a vampire with incredible powers and they fall deeply in love. The family of vampires approve besides one of them who has made it he's priority to bite the girl and drink her blood. The movie was boring but making these sacrifices for someone who's special to me was worth it at the end because of the quality time that we spent together. Even my girlfriend found that the movie wasn't that good and she appologized for it and I remember telling her that it didn't matter because there will be times were we won't both be having fun with an activity but just the fact that were together is more than enough for me. Besides we had more fun playing aracades and air hockey which made the night memorable after all.

Last wednesday me and a couple of my close buddies decided to go karting in Hochelaga. The Location is very nice and is even open 24/7. Go karting is a great activity were I got to drive a smaller version of a car that goes up to 70 km an hours. One of my favorite hobbies is to just get into my car and go for a ride because I love driving. This activity gave me that oppertunity to drive and have a great time doing it. My friends and I amounted to 5 people and we decided to let another group of individuals join our race so in total we were 10. We decided to have a grand prix race which consisted of 25 laps plus 5 laps in the beginning just to warm up and get used to the track. The 5 laps in the beginning really helped me get used to the car and the circuit. At first I was often pressing the break on sharp turns yet after the first 3 turns I decided to just let myself go and just press the gas at all times. Once the race started I was flying a head of most of my competition, who were really good at karting since they have been doing this activity often for a very long time. Once the race was over I had finished in 3 rd place but 1st amongst my friends.
Overall I had a great time and will probably be heading back over there really soon.

For my new activity I decided to go and try paintball with a few of my good buddies. I never liked war games because of the fact that I'm 6'7 and I'm probably the easiest target to hit in the whole world. To my surprise I had a blast. The paintball location is called SXC Paintball and is located right next
to the Transcanada Highway next Cote-Vertu. The difference between this paintball and the others, is that that this paintball is also called "speedball". The reason it has this name is because as you can see from my pictures with the blown up squares, the territory in which we play is fairly small compared to other paintball locations. In other words,
speedball comes from the fact that every round ends quickly because the distance from the opposing team is just a couple of meters(30-35 meters). So once you get shot in paintball you have to wait for the round to be over in order to play again, which is why speedball is great because the rounds end quickly, which leaves more time for shooting each other. Unfortunately this location only has one stage that could be transformed with other inflatable objects to different types of stages. For instance, they have a blown up castle were they plant a flag in and the first team to capture that flag wins. Other fun interesting games like that are some of the pleasantries that I encountered.
Overall I had a good time, there was a lot of laughter involved, but getting back to my point previously I still was the easiest target and I think there wasn't one round were I didn't get shot. With that said I still think that I would do it again yet I think I would increase my chances just a little bit more and play on some terrains with more space, so that I can have a few more places to hide in.

Ever since I could remember the most important thing that was and still is constantly on my mind is having fun. Before taking this course, fun I thought could only be experienced when I was playing sports. This semester I have a much more opened mind in participating in leisure activites, because I've come to understand that leisure has no time frame, and could be experienced at any moment, all I have to do is acknowledge it. For instance, when I first heard that we had to start a blogging site and post stories every so often on it, I remember clearly telling myself that this was going to be a waste of time. After posting my first few bloggs I began to really enjoy myself as I began paying close attention to the activities that I participated in. If I think about it, I actually wanted to participate in more activities just so I could write about them in my Blog. Also, because I'm the type of person who loves to try new and exciting things, I began to look at some of the posts that my classmates had posted on their blog sites in order to try and get a few ideas for activities that me and my friends could participate in.
To continue, looking back over the last few years, I can remember more than a few times that me and my friends spend hours doing absolutely nothing, because of the fact that we couldn't think of anything to do. A couple of weeks ago, I was with my friends and the same situation came up and we couldn't decide what to do. At that moment, a light bulb went on in my head as I remembered telling my friends that what we were going to do was that everyone had two minutes to come up with a few ideas of what we could do at that time. After a few minutes went by, everyone had their turn to say what they felt like doing, and a couple of minutes later we had decided and were on our way to go bowling. I remember telling myself, "wow, self-determination, it really works" and it still does because every time there's nothing to do, we come up with a few options and decide which idea is the best at that given moment and time. Another way that self-determination has helped me become leisure educated, is by making me realize that focusing a little more on school work can really help me accomplish much better grades. In other words, because I'm the type of person who loves having a good time, I often decide to chose various activities over studying. This semester I have begun to chose to study over certain activities which has really helped me get much better grades. Furthermore, another way that I've learned to enjoy my leisure activities, is by ignoring my external competence. Ever since I could play I've always wanted to be the best at whatever it was that I was doing. Even if it was my first time trying something, in my mind I had to win and there was no other option. For most of my life, I've been adding pressure on myself to win that sometimes I would lose just because the pressure was to much to handle, which made me feel even worst because I hate losing. Over the last few months I've learned to have fun and not worry about the outcome. With this new way of looking at situations, I often find myself enjoying the activity much more than I ever did.
As for my values, I realize that the time that I spend with my family and friends is priceless. I've come to understand that it's not what I'm doing that makes an activity exciting, but instead its actually the people that I'm with that make the activity fun and exciting. For instance, just looking over the past few months there are various activities that could of been boring but because I was with the people that I love the most in the world they all ended up being great.

As everyone knows this Friday is Halloween which means that there will be various parties going on. This year me and my friends will be attending the Halloween Party at Moomba. At first I had no idea as what I was going to go as... until I got my inspiration from watching the movie Saw V! In order to pull this off I'm going to were a black suit, a red tie and the mask that I bought. In other words its going to look a little something like this...

On Friday Night I was trying to figure out what me and my friends could do instead of going out clubbing. Suddenly a brilliant idea hit me... We Should Go Skating!!! So we searched the internet and found the perfect location to go skating in and it was called the Atrium 1000 de la Gauchetiere. This indoor ice rink is located downtown and the best part about it was that it was open until midnight. To make things even better there was a dj spinning music the whole night!
Upon arrival we entered the building put on our skates and right away we hit the Ice which was in great condition. What made the night really fun was the fact that the three girls that were with us had never skated before and my two guy friends and I had been skating for years. The girls were very nervous at first because they were scared of fallin but after a few lessons from us the girls were skating on their own, having a blast.Which just goes to show us....
My hockey stick.... 250$, My skates...650$ teaching someone how to skate... PRICELESS!!

Yesterday was the long awaited home opener for the Montreal Canadiens, here at the Montreal Bell Center. This year is considered to be one of the most special years for the franchise as they are celebrating their 100 year anniversary and luckily for me and two other friends we were lucky enough to find tickets to the first game!!! The city of Montreal is known for having the loudest and most loyal fans of all time in the NHL. On wednesday night, things were no different as 21,273 people were in attendance to watch the Montreal Canadiens faceoff against one of their biggest rivals the Boston Bruins. Everyone in the stadium was excited and nervous at the same time because the fans and the Canadiens know that this year could be that very special year were they can win the Stanley Cup.
For those who think that watching a game on television is the same as experiencing it live those people have never been to a Montreal Canadiens hockey game. The crowd is defening, the action is non stop and once the Canadiens win the celebrations begin in and out of the Bell Center.
The home opener was a great experience for me and friends as it was our fourth consecutive home opener in the last four years. What could I say, I guess LA VILLE EST HOCKEY!!!!

After closely looking at my every day leisure activities over the last few weeks, there are various interesting facts that I learned about myself. To begin, I learned that I'm the type of person who is very open minded to any kind of idea or activity. Everytime an activity is brought up, I'm usually the first person to try and convince my other friends that we should participate. Ever since I could remember I've been this way, and the reason for this I think is because having fun to me is probably the most important thing in the world. All of the activities that I particapate in come from intrinsic motivation, because I participate in order to enjoy myself and not because of anything else, such as rewards, prizes etc. Of course there are very few moments in my everyday life were extrinsic motivation comes to play were the activity that I'm perfoming is done because of the benefits of the activity and not the enjoyment. For instance, going to the gym is done out of extrinsic motivation because I don't really enjoy myself, but at the end of the day my body is healhier and I feel better about myself.

In my early teen years, I really had a life filled with countless hours of leisure activities, such as playing sports competitevely or just for fun with my friends, hanging out at the mall or arcades or just sitting down laughing about life. Now a days, life is much more complicated than it was before. The priorities in my life have changed and now the most important aspects in my life are succeeding in school in order to get into a career that I will enjoy, going to work in order to pay my bills and finally participate in leisure activities in order to keep myself grounded and satisfied. It is now that I realize how much a trully value every second of leisure that I get, and that every time I have some free time on my hands I try my best to fill it with leisure. Just as Csikszentmihalyi stated, " one person might enjoy free time while another person may be bored when there is nothing to do". (Dattilo, p.5)

As I'm getting older, I've come to realize that there a many more reponsabilities in my life now than there were before. Unfortunately with all of these reponsabilities my leisure becomes constrained. Just thinking about this last month there were several occasion were my friends had planned some very interesting activities like going camping, playing paintball and going go-carting, yet I was unable to join them because of school studies or because of work. I've come to comprehend that now is the time in my life were I'm not always going to be able to enjoy every moment of life, but when I really need to "stop and smell the roses" I'm going to have to in order to at least feel happier on the inside. Which is why that for the last three years, I've been going on vacations at least once or twice every year. In the last three years I've been to Varadero, Cuba for two weeks, Florida for 6 weeks, Cancun, Mexico for two weeks, Greece for 7 weeks, and I'm planning to go on vacation during the winter and summer break. The winter will be somewhere down south and the summer will be Greece and Dubai. The reason that I believe that vacations are important because they make me forget about my everyday life of work and school and bring me to a peaceful state of mind were leisure is once again my first priority. Besides in a few years I will be working in the career I chose and will probably get married and start a family which will probably leave me with even less leisure to myself in the beginning, but hopefully things will eventually once again take a turn for the best and my life will one day be filled with endless amounts of leisure, just like my early teen years were.

For the second year in a row my friends and I are joinning the hockey league at the Bois-de-Boulogne Cegep. This year were back and we only have one thing in mind and that's to win the whole tournament. The league is known as the LHBNF(Ligue Hockey Ball de la Nouvelle France) and consists of 16 teams playing 15 regular season games and a few playoff games in order to determine who the best team in the league is. Last year my teammates and I, also known as the St-Real Ryderz entered the league for the first time and ended up finishing 3rd in the league. I led my team in goals and points scoring 44 points in 15 regular season games and 11 pts in the playoffs until we were eliminated in the semi-finals by the team who won the championship.Entering this league wasn't only to kill time, because for two years now my friends and I are closer than ever and every week we play together we have a great amount of leisure to talk about for exactly one week until the next game is played on Sundays.
LET'S GO RYDERZ!

Ever since I could remember, Sunday's have always been special in my family. When my father first came to Canada the sport that he enjoyed the most was the game of Football. My father and I have been watching Football together since I was just a couple of months old, and continue to do so today. Watching football every Sunday has become a great leisure experience that look forward to every weekend. Spending time with my father laughing, drinking some beer and just talking about life is something that I will always cherrish, and will hopefully be able to enjoy with my son one day.

Playing sports is probably one of the most important attribute in my life, because it has helped me become a much better person. It has helped me stay out of trouble, stay in shape and stay in school were I'm currently getting my education. Also, sports help bring leisure to millions of people around the world. Ever since I could remember I've played every sport I could possibly think of from basketball, to baseball, to hockey. Playing sports I belive is crucial to a young individual's life because he learn's about discipline, he learns how to be more confident and he learns how to interact with others in a group. All of these attributes are very important later in life in order to be successful.Brief I believe that sports should be a part of everyone's life because they help lead individual's into a much brighter future.

The night life in Greece is one that I've never ever seen before. Unlike the nightlife here in Montreal which begins at 11:00 pm and ends at 3:oo am, In Greece the nightlife begins at 1:00 am and ends the next morning. The picture above was taken by me in Kalamata, Greece in a ancient castle that was kept annd turned into a club/ restaurant in the day.

This was one of my favourite leisure activities that a had a chance to perform while in Kalamata, Greece. There is a boat that travels up to 70 km an hour that pulls the four plastic tubes that Me my brother and my two cousins were lying on, for a 15 min trip that is very diffiicult to hold on too. I personnally flew of the tube like 5 times, which made the leisure activity even more fun for me since there was a challenge fo me to hold on without falling off.
What a Great Day!

This summer was one that was filled with great thrills and numerous amounts of leisure activities.What really made this summer really special was the fact that I was able to go and visit most of my family back home in Greece. Upon arrival I knew that this summer was goign to be special because the weather in Greece is always warm and sunny, and the beaches don't hurt either!Greece is a country were people love the sunshine, the beaches and the nightlife. Lucky for me and my younger brother we were lucky enough to have a few cousins who are all our ages. Therefore we were able to experience a variety of the best that Greece has to offer.

Testing Testing 1,2,3!