Greek For A Day!
The Ya'ssoo Greek Festival kicked off this weekend in Ann Arbor at the Saint Nicholas Church. The word "Ya'ssoo" is an all-purpose meaning for "hello" --"goodbye" and "to your health.
I checked out the festival on Saturday.
In true "Syma" form, I headed for the food first!
The first thing I devoured was Baklava and a Greek coffee frappe.
The Baklava was perfect, not to sweet, not to hard! The portion was huge. The coffee was perfect to cool me off on that hot afternoon.
Folks were so friendly! So many people asked my why I came all the way down to Ann Arbor for their festival. I explained to them how much I appreciate Greek food and culture, plus this is a great way for me to discover more about Metro Detroit!
It was great to see Father Nick Kotsis again.
If you remember, he was on the CW50 show "Street Beat" and invited me to check out the festival!
He is very kind, asking me about my family and keeping them in his prayers.
After starting with dessert, I decided to eat a Gyro. It was delicious! A little messy too, but I am not complaining. I had enough napkins to clean up!
While I was eating, I got to enjoy dance routines performed by St. Nicholas GOYA dancers.
It was so nice to see second, third, fourth generations of Greek-American kids showing off their culture.
There were no plates to break (as they do in Greek culture) during this joyous occasion.
BUT at one point, someone was carrying many plastic trays and accidentally dropped them, creating a huge crashing sound. If that happened to me, I would be mortified. But after half a second of silence, everyone started clapping, whistling and yelling "OPA!!" I wish I had people yelling "opa" and clapping for me every time I drop something. That happens often since I am slightly clumsy.
Overall, it was a great experience. From what I hear, there are other Greek festivals that take place over the summer. It is safe to say, I may check those out too!
Special thanks to Andy Cotitsas for letting me know about this event!
