Last night I went to an election party hosted by Democrats Abroad, in the event room of a hotel in my neighborhood. It was 16 euro for a "real American buffet," "a variety of entertainment," and--obviously--coverage of the election. I can say without a doubt that it was worth every lepta.
The food was comfortingly American (caesar salad, hotdogs, hamburgers, chicken wings, onion rings, etc), made more authentic by the fact that it was all-you-can-eat. Oh America. I stuffed myself like it was Thanksgiving (which I won't get to enjoy this year, so I don't feel guilty).
The entertainment was much more than expected; when I first got there, the chairwoman of the organization, Yvette--a tall, imposing woman with a lot of energy--was giving a speech, and I was worried that it would be a night of political talk. But then she started belting out the National Anthem. And then she brought her band on stage. Turns out she's the lead singer of "SouLuv," a jazzy little band that proceeded to play popular American cover songs. With a political twist. Before one song, Yvette said, "This next one is for all of the Republicans...and Democrats...who just don't know how to act!" It was a Macy Gray song mashed up with O-Bam-A chanting. In a later song, "100 Days, 100 Nights," she managed to work in lines about Romney.
After SouLuv's rousing performance, there was a brief magic show performed by the best magician in Greece. And side, 1-on-1 magic shows with magicians throughout the night.
People watching would probably have been enough entertainment in itself (the demographic was a strange one...lots of old Greek men and women, random assortment of middle-aged expats, very few young people).
Looking over at the buffet at one point, I noticed that one woman had picked up the serving spoon for the "guacamole" (it's a crime to call it that, because it contained only a tiny proportion of avocado, but I'm guessing that's what it was supposed to be) and tasted it, as if she were tasting something that she were cooking. With the serving spoon. And then put it back into the dip.
My favorite moment, though, was watching a Deaf Greek man, who had propped up his smartphone against his wineglass and was Facetime-ing his daughter, using Greek sign language to describe the events on the TV screen of an election halfway across the world. All kinds of communication devices wrapped up in that.
All in all it was a surreal experience, made more so by the fact that the East coast polls didn't close until 2 AM and therefore the actual exciting happenings weren't until I was thoroughly delirious from lack of sleep; CNN's announcement projecting Obama as the winner was not until nearly 6:30 AM, and by this time I had drunk three cups of tea and a cup of coffee. Sitting in my living room at home and watching the newscasters playing around with their smartscreens, changing states red and blue and yellow and pulling up percentage breakdown after percentage breakdown and speculating (and then announcing) the future of the country is weird and unreal enough; sitting in a hotel in Athens, with a random assortment of 20 strangers, while the rest of the city (and country) slept, made it infinitely more so.
I'm really glad Obama won, if for no other reason than to see people's celebration dances. An old man, decked out in a full tux, jumped/motioned as if he was either spiking a football after making a touchdown, or really struggling to start a lawn mower, then proceeded to shake his tailfeathers and bust out any/all of his dance moves. Yvette started shrieking and shimmying and then chanting, "Yes we did. AGAIN."
The food was comfortingly American (caesar salad, hotdogs, hamburgers, chicken wings, onion rings, etc), made more authentic by the fact that it was all-you-can-eat. Oh America. I stuffed myself like it was Thanksgiving (which I won't get to enjoy this year, so I don't feel guilty).
The entertainment was much more than expected; when I first got there, the chairwoman of the organization, Yvette--a tall, imposing woman with a lot of energy--was giving a speech, and I was worried that it would be a night of political talk. But then she started belting out the National Anthem. And then she brought her band on stage. Turns out she's the lead singer of "SouLuv," a jazzy little band that proceeded to play popular American cover songs. With a political twist. Before one song, Yvette said, "This next one is for all of the Republicans...and Democrats...who just don't know how to act!" It was a Macy Gray song mashed up with O-Bam-A chanting. In a later song, "100 Days, 100 Nights," she managed to work in lines about Romney.
After SouLuv's rousing performance, there was a brief magic show performed by the best magician in Greece. And side, 1-on-1 magic shows with magicians throughout the night.
People watching would probably have been enough entertainment in itself (the demographic was a strange one...lots of old Greek men and women, random assortment of middle-aged expats, very few young people).
Looking over at the buffet at one point, I noticed that one woman had picked up the serving spoon for the "guacamole" (it's a crime to call it that, because it contained only a tiny proportion of avocado, but I'm guessing that's what it was supposed to be) and tasted it, as if she were tasting something that she were cooking. With the serving spoon. And then put it back into the dip.
My favorite moment, though, was watching a Deaf Greek man, who had propped up his smartphone against his wineglass and was Facetime-ing his daughter, using Greek sign language to describe the events on the TV screen of an election halfway across the world. All kinds of communication devices wrapped up in that.
All in all it was a surreal experience, made more so by the fact that the East coast polls didn't close until 2 AM and therefore the actual exciting happenings weren't until I was thoroughly delirious from lack of sleep; CNN's announcement projecting Obama as the winner was not until nearly 6:30 AM, and by this time I had drunk three cups of tea and a cup of coffee. Sitting in my living room at home and watching the newscasters playing around with their smartscreens, changing states red and blue and yellow and pulling up percentage breakdown after percentage breakdown and speculating (and then announcing) the future of the country is weird and unreal enough; sitting in a hotel in Athens, with a random assortment of 20 strangers, while the rest of the city (and country) slept, made it infinitely more so.
I'm really glad Obama won, if for no other reason than to see people's celebration dances. An old man, decked out in a full tux, jumped/motioned as if he was either spiking a football after making a touchdown, or really struggling to start a lawn mower, then proceeded to shake his tailfeathers and bust out any/all of his dance moves. Yvette started shrieking and shimmying and then chanting, "Yes we did. AGAIN."
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