My Life In Ruins: How Georgia Found The Pullman of Her Dreams

June 10, 2009

Hey, so we've got tickets to a sneak preview of Nia Vardalos' new movie, My Life in Ruins.  You remember Nia Vardalos, right?  The woman from My Big Fat Greek Wedding?

Oh yeah, I've heard about that, so is it like a sequel?

No, same actress, different character.

Yeah, because I was about to say, didn't she die at the end of My Big Fat Greek Wedding?

No, I'm pretty sure she didn't die at the end of My Big Fat Greek Wedding?  What movie were you watching?

Oh, well, nevermind.  So what's this one about?

Well, from what I've read, it's kind of like How Stella Got Her Groove Back, except that "Stella" is "Georgia" and "Groove" is "Kefi" and "Jamaica" is "Greece."

The above exchange took place on at least one occasion prior to our viewing of My Life In Ruins on Wednesday night.  Thankfully the movie isn't a sequel of My Big Fat Greek Wedding and not as simple as our off-the-cuff explanation to those Greek American friends of ours we were trying to get to come out to the screening.  (more)

What is πάμε?

June 1, 2009

One of the reasons we began DCGreeks.com almost 8 years ago was to eradicate what separated Greek-American young adults in the DC area.  Whether it was being from Virginia or Maryland, going to St. George or St. Sophia, or being Spartan or Cretan, we sought to ignore all these barriers and to simply celebrate what we all had in common in the hope of bringing the community closer together.  Along the way we've helped promote almost every type of event that has taken place in this town, from Greek nights to dinner dances, to Greek festivals, concerts and beyond.  In attending more than our fair share of Greek events though we've started to see that while there is some crossover appeal to certain events, for the most part, the old distinctions have still remained.  We've also come to realize that as diverse as the Greek community is here in DC, it can easily and understandably fall into a rut in terms of providing opportunities for Greek-American young adults to get together outside of the typical and sometimes stereotypical settings. (more)

Spending Memorial Day Weekend Without Clearwater

May 26, 2009

"I'm not even supposed to be here today!"

Young Adults Join AHEPAns to head to Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day Saturday

It was late in the afternoon on the Thursday before Memorial Day and I found that line from Kevin Smith’s independent film classic, Clerks, running through my head as I put the finishing touches on settling a lawsuit that had consumed my weekdays and some weekends since the cold days of February. Every year since 2004, my brother and I as "The Guys @ DCGreeks.com" had spent Thursdays before Memorial Day in Clearwater, Florida for their YAL Convention. Actually we used to arrive on the Wednesday night before Memorial Day, settling in for what always was an eventful 5-day weekend of enjoying the Florida sun, sea, and sand, surrounded by hundreds of fellow Greek-American young adults from all over the country. We had known since before last summer had ended that Clearwater was officially cancelled, even offering the Clearwater church to take it off their hands and donate the proceeds back to the church, in a last-ditch effort to save the event and perhaps help steer it back to its calmer beginnings or even the tamer version of the weekend we first encountered back in 2004. Yet despite knowing that we weren’t going to be at Clearwater this year it still didn’t set it until we found ourselves actually working, and working hard for that matter, not as The Guys @ DCGreeks.com, but at our day jobs on the Thursday before Memorial Day. (more)