Bazoukia, Soccer Game

So there's this very popular dish here called Gigantes and they're basically just really big lima beans. They're really yummy so I decided to COOK THEM! I found a recipe online and went to the supermarket and got all the ingredients. I was determined to cook them right and have them be soft. So I soaked the beans over night and alll day until they expanded and got really big. Then, I cooked them for an hour and made this yummy sauce with tomatoes and onions an garlic and then baked the sauce with the beans for an hour. I took them out and I was so excited/nervous because I had made them for Jess and Lizeth too. And they turned out semi hard :( I was so disappointed and sad that night haha. I so wanted them to be well cooked!! and soft and restaurant-like haha. But MY APRENTS COME IN A WEEKS SO I GET TO BE COOKED FOR AGAIN!! :)

Then on Friday, a group of us went to a bazoukia. A bazoukia is like..a sit down club kind of..Well a mini concert. Basically, there are singers who perform the entire time and the rest of the area is covered in tables where you sit down and watch with a drink. The charge is 25 euro per person, and that gives you a table. The closer the table to the stage, the more money it costs. And, these are like well known performers too. There are also girls who walk around with baskets of flower heads that men usually buy and throw at other girls they think are pretty. A basket of flowers will cost like 200 euros. At the end of the night, the girl will casually look to see who threw the flowers at them, and if she doesn't think he's good looking, she will just leave. Of course, these flowers are thrown on stage to the performers too, but how ridiculous is that?! 200 euros!!

Then on Sunday night, I went to my first football game! :) Olympiakos vs. Panionios. These are all club teams and Olympiakos is supposed to be really good. So we went, despite the FREEEZING COLD and ominous storm clouds. Surprisingly it did NOT rain. It drizzled for a bit and everyone huddled under their umbrellas, but the entire game was sOO COLD! we got there an hour and a half early to get seats, so we sat in the cold for an hour before the game even started. Then the teams finally came out and started warming up and fans just started throwing stuff onto the field! Like toilet papers, water bottles, cups, brochures, ANYTHING THEY COULD FIND basically and NO ONE STOPPED THEM! it was so normal to them! The toilet paper was just rolling around on the field as the wind blew. There were ball boys that would occassionally run onto the field during stops to pick up water bottles and stuff but it's so stupid! Why would you interfere with the game and do that?! it's ridiculous. They started chanting things in Greek, and people were holding flares, and flags. It was pretty cool :) The game finally began, it was kind of slow at first. but it picked up. We didn't stay for the entire game, but by the time we left it was 3-2, Olympiakos. By the end of the game, I couldn't feel my feet or hands. I didn't remember how it felt like to be warm! haha oh and I also bought an olympiakos jersey to wear, like later on my own time :) We weren't allowed to wear any colors that would show we supported any of the teams because the fans are very intense and sometimes there are riots after games.

Well that was my weekend, wasn't very productive. I studied on Friday and Saturday because I have 2 midterms tomorrow. Sunday was basically the soccer game. THEN WE'RE LEAVING FOR BARCELONA TUESDAY NIGHT/WEDNESDAY MORNING AT 3AM AND STAYING THERE UNTIL SUNDAY NIGHT!! I'M SOOOOO EXCITED :)