¡OPA!
When I made the decision to move to Olympia and attend Evergreen, I was very sad to leave my comfy life in Seattle. I loved my community college, my little basement apartment with a private yard, my perfect student part-time job waiting tables at The Continental Greek Restaurant on the Ave in the U-District. It was a difficult decision to make... but the one thing I couldn't give up was my job. Many people have asked me why I still continue to work in Seattle, and besides the fact that it's the perfect weekend job, it allows me to keep in touch with my friends and family in the city, and gives me the opportunity to earn a decent chunk of change in a short period of a couple of days; besides all that, I have an amazing time while working.
The Continental is owned and operated by first-generation Greek immigrants, and they have been in operation at the same University District location for more than 30 years. The food is delicioso and six days of every week they host language conversation groups. Thursday night is Spanish Night, my favorite night to work. But, every once in a while, Demetre, my manager, will host a singing group that comes to the restaurant to play Balkan folk music. They sing songs in Serbian, Croatian, Greek, Bulgarian and other Eastern European languages. When they come to sing, The Continental comes ALIVE!
The busiest/craziest/funnest/most intense night I ever worked was a couple of Saturdays ago, and wow! was it ever an amazing night. We were actually filled to capacity and had to turn people away! That didn't stop people from standing outside on the street listening to the music through the open front doors, and watching though the large glass windows from the sidewalk. I opened more bottles of wine than ever before and got to listen to beautiful Balkan folk songs while simply just doing my job. There was singing and dancing and overall just the most incredible positive ambiance happening that evening. ¡Qué buena onda!
I've never seen so many people in the restaurant before!
My boss, Demetre, on the left dancing with one of his friends.
Eventually a large circle of people formed and they danced traditional Greek dances! ¡OPA!