Mondays are pretty great here in Athens, well, at least the evenings are! Every Monday night we planned to gather for a weekly potluck. Last night our room of four made some tasty pasta with red sauce and sausage (it was a little on the spicy side too). All of the other rooms contributed to our weekly feast with things like nutella cookies (SO good), homemade strawberry jam and pear jam with bread, toasted nutella sandwiches (we have a thing for nutella here if you haven't noticed already...), and a variety of pastas. Now that I think about it, I wish I had taken a picture of it so I could share it with you! I'll make sure to bring my camera next Monday.
One of my roommates seems to be crazy about coffee (even though the coffee itself is sometimes what makes here crazy). Even though I'm not that found of coffee, she somehow convinced me to come with her and some other friends. I had previously seen glimpses of coffee places while exploring Athens and I though I knew what I was getting myself into, but it's a whole different story when you're actually going inside to experience it along with lots of other locals who almost seem like regulars there.
But get this, the food isn't even the best part of Monday evenings (crazy right?). It's the sense of togetherness and family that comes along with it. I know, it can be hard to imagine how a group of 20 UNF students and the Kaplan klan can all get along at once, but being able to experience the wonderful world of Greece, has brought us together into one big family!
These Monday night potlucks gives us the perfect excuse to enjoy each others company and share dishes and our daily experiences with each other. After dinner comes the fun part! You would think with all the delicious food consumed we would be rolling on the floor cradling our full tummies, but not quite! Now it's time for a fun physical activity (it doesn't make any sense to me either). Last week some of us stayed downstairs and decided to dance to some of the fun classical songs we have had stuck in our head, including Journey songs (dance party!). And since this week we decided to enjoy the lovely Greek weather (it's not humid here) and dine outside on the lawn, we broke out the soccer balls and frisbees for some friendly competition. Some even were brave enough to visit the local futball field a few streets down from the dorms and ended up playing with some of the Greek kids that live in our neighborhood.
Here is a link of some funny video clips that someone took while we were outside playing soccer (I'm not in any of it but it's funny to watch!)
All this talk of family and social gatherings got me thinking about how people who live here in Greece socialize.
One of my roommates seems to be crazy about coffee (even though the coffee itself is sometimes what makes here crazy). Even though I'm not that found of coffee, she somehow convinced me to come with her and some other friends. I had previously seen glimpses of coffee places while exploring Athens and I though I knew what I was getting myself into, but it's a whole different story when you're actually going inside to experience it along with lots of other locals who almost seem like regulars there.
Picture in your mind what a common Starbucks looks like in the US. Okay...got it? Now, take that image, and ready, throw that image completely away. Here in Greece coffee places are mainly located outside (don't worry the weather is really nice here, and it never rains in the summer), and consist mainly of couches! The best way to describe it is like a bunch of mini living rooms all crammed together.
So with the seating consisting mainly of couches and lounging chairs you would think that it sounds more like a hangout place than a coffee place and you would be exactly right! It's so different from the American view of getting coffee where we mainly just go get our order of caffeine and head to work or school. Another thing that I've noticed is that people stay for hours on end at these places! Even when we go and talk for an hour or two, the majority of people that were already there in the cafe still haven't left, and we end up leaving before them! So next time you head for coffee with one of your friends maybe try doing it the Greek way and stay in chat for a while. You may get the stink eye for staying longer than the usual customer but who knows maybe you'll get some good conversation out of it :P
I got to end the day with a trip to downtown Athens where we climbed up the mountain to get a good view of the Akropolis and we were able to watching the full moon rise above the mountains! A once in a lifetime experience :)
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