Kalo Pascha! Happy Easter!

So, the adventures in the last week:

Going to Sami
Greek Easter
Bazoukia dancing
An Easter potluck
Writing a 10 page final

That’s it, have a nice week!

Haha, just kidding. I’ll fill you in a little.

Last week we found out that our break has been extended by two days—right after I bought my ferry ticket. I wanted to try and capitalize on the extra time, so I went back to the office to see if I could change it. No luck. Go to Sami, you can change it there, they said. Sami is the port town/village on the other side of the island—about forty-five minutes by bus. So Thursday afternoon, I hopped on the bus and went to Sami! Now it was the afternoon, but since we were arriving at 1:45 I hoped to make it before the dreaded siesta time. No such luck! Although the posted sign said that lunch break was from 2:30 (45 minutes later than I arrived!), they were already gone. *eye roll*. Naturally. So I went to my favorite gyro shop, where they told me the ferry people would be back after six (the posted sign says five). My bus left at 3:45, leaving me with an unchanged ticket but delicious gyro.

Making the most of my time, I wandered around and took a picture of the bench I fell asleep on last time. I strolled through the residential area, stealing a lemon as I went :). It was outside of the fence! Well, halfway. And I could see that the owners had let some fall, so they obviously didn’t need them all. As my departure drew nigh, I stopped by a little bakery and picked out a pastry I’d never seen before. As I sniffed it my entire face was filled with powdered sugar and cinnamon. Delightful!

It was a lovely adventure. I should leave Argostoli more often.

Saturday night was the Greek Easter celebration. As promised, the town smelled of lamb and firecrackers abounded, but I have the feeling I missed something. We saw the end of the procession with the priest and everyone holding their Easter candles, but we were told there would be midnight church services, and didn’t find them. Too bad.

But midnight was not the end of our night. Oh no, not in Greece! Apparently Greeks are the most hard-core of all the night owls, even in the famously late-living Mediterranean. So as a group, we went to Maria’s brother’s Bazoukia. Maria is our dance teacher, and a bazoukia is where they play live, traditional music and have traditional dancing. When we arrived at 2:00 a.m. we were told we were too early, and by three we couldn’t stand it anymore, and the Americans hit the dance floor. We actually danced the most of anyone there, even in the traditional dances. We saw guys do the traditional zebekikos, the solo, interpretive dance of pain so traditional to Greece, and some of our guys tried it as well. When someone does one everyone else kneels on the floor and claps, throwing carnations when they’re impressed.

I don’t know if I should tell you this, but when we left the sun was rising! Sometimes life amazes me. And if you’re wondering, we weren’t the last to leave ;).

After a bit of sleep, we had an Easter potluck at our professor Nikos’s home. Nikos is a prof at Western Washington, but this year he and Cynthia are on sabbatical, living in the home they built in his ancestral village of Troianata. They have the most perfect, lovely location. It overlooks a surreally beautiful valley of olive trees and pastureland, and just over the hills is the sea, which we discovered on our hike after dinner. Also seen: the cycloptic walls! Apparently these walls, snaking across the hills like the Great Wall, date from Minoan times or before, and are made of such large stones that no one but a race of giant Cyclops could have moved them. I hope to visit them soon.

For the potluck Katie and I made Baklava—Ashley’s recipe—from scratch, without a basting brush and with only a toaster oven! ‘Twas fantastic, and turned out to be quite a hit :D. (for those of you who don’t know, baklava is richly sweet Greek dessert made with layer upon layer of philo dough, cinnamon sugar, and walnuts, and our recipe puts a lemon syrup on top. MmmMmm!)

This entry is getting long, but I would just briefly like to record for posterity the strange sight I saw yesterday. As I was walking to the classroom I glanced up and thought I saw a string of flags across the street that had never been there before. On further inspection, I saw that it was a row of perfectly spaced pigeons (those nasty flying rats) on a telephone wire, sitting in what I can only assuming was mourning for a fallen friend, who lay squished on the road below. LOL.

Yassas!