Dancing and Drinking as the Greeks Do

One of the ways in which our group was able to capture the Greek cultural experience was through dancing and drinking as the Greeks do. At one point during our trip, we were able to go watch a group of traditional Greek dancers:

This inspired us all to learn simple versions of some of these dances! One night in Nafplion, at one of our pre-arranged fancy, multiple-course meals, we got to try it out for ourselves:

Greek Dancing! (that's me between Dan and Kyle)

After learning some sweet moves, a lot of the people in our group were inspired to break out into dance at random moments in the trip :) here's a taste of what that was like:

Kristine and Kimi dancing (in their Greece National Soccer Team jerseys) in the middle of a restaurant in Crete

Robyn, Spencer, Andrew, and Karey dancing on the ferry
... Why yes, this was just after Ouzo Hour, why do you ask?

Kat and Molly showing off their skills on the ferry

Besides learning some traditional Greek dancing, we also wanted to try our hands at some traditional Greek drinking! Wine, ouzo, metaxa, raki, and mythos beer, among others, helped make some lasting memories on this trip (for some of the students, these memories are a bit blurry lol):

Drinking and playing cards in the hotel in Arahova
It was POURING rain outside, so they let us hang out in the lobby all night
and drink free wine
Good or bad idea that they gave us endless amounts of wine...
The world may never know.

Our resident Greek girl, Danielle, posing with her Greek beer, Mythos in Santorini

At a wine tasting in Greece :)
Just making sure you can't see through the red wine!
(my camera was broken at this point, so I don't have any cooler pictures,
but you'll get that sad story in the next post)

Joe giving a toast at dinner on the last night of the trip- YAMASSS!!!

  At one point in the trip, a great tradition was started: OUZO HOUR. Although it almost always went on longer than initially intended, this time brought several of the students closer, and gave everyone a chance to hang out with Joe and listen to his stories (the more appropriate topics include the time he spent in Greece in 1986 as a graduate student, things he's noticed on our trip, the myths behind the ancient sites we visited that day). My camera was broken for the first few days that I attended Ouzo Hour, but here are some pictures from some that I was able to capture:

Dan and Brandon at the last Ouzo Hour of the trip

Dan secretly pouring ouzo on the ferry...
(we weren't always allowed to bring our own
ouzo to some places, so this is how we got around that)

...SUCCESS!
(side-note: those blue containers on the table contain THE MOST DELICIOUS juice I've ever had.
And that wasn't just the ouzo talking)

I admit this wasn't the MOST academic part of the trip, but I definitely learned a lot because of these moments. The Greek culture isn't all ancient ruins and artifacts. Some of their traditions are alive and well today. Taking part in their traditional dancing, and having a few sips of their famous assortment of alcohol is just one small part of the traditions they keep today, but it definitely had significance for our group during this trip.

And after all, part of our assignment was to emerse ourselves in their culture, so I definitely think it was logical to dance and drink as the Greeks do ;)