The Hellenic National Week was held between March 21th and March 24th 2016 at the College of Europe, Bruges Campus.
This national week main characteristic, will be remembered by Coe students as the one of abundance of food and drinks. The objective of this week was to promote Greece and Cyprus by proposing special events and by offering Greek coffee, ouzo, and Greek food in order to offer students the opportunity to learn about Greek and Cypriot culture. The theme of our week was “Live your Myth for a week”” with Greek Gods and Goddesses coming to Brugge.
In addition, we offered one week full paid vacations, at Molivos Hills Apartments in Lesvos on a lottery. Each entry ticket cost one euro and the benefits have been offered to a charity in Lesvos. Also, through the Hellenic Society, we created a booklet that where all the Greek and Cypriot students proposed some places in both countries in order for our friends to visit us this summer. Thanks to our sponsors we managed to have many events with many different activities.
The events were as following:
Monday March 21st 2016, “High-Level Conference: ‘Money and Democracy: the euro dilemma’” and “Traditional Greek Dances Lessons - Ouzo night”
Our distinguished speakers were: Margaritis SCHINAS, European Commission Chief Spokesperson. Angelos PANGRATIS, former Ambassador and Head of the European Union to the World Trade and also Expert Member of the European Investment Bank and Nikos CHRISTODOULIDES, Spokesperson of Cypriot Government. After the conference we served light snack offered by the nationally renowned Greek restaurant STROFILIA and some delicious and FREE Greek wine! The same evening, we hosted in Huyze Cools traditional dance lessons with plenty of free ouzo and food from the Olive Tree, in order for everyone to be able to show his skills on Tuesday’s party!
Tuesday March 22nd 2016, “Kafeneio: Language cafe” and “Greek Night: Party with ouzo”
On Tuesday afternoon we hosted at Phoenix café a language café serving free coffee and food. During this event some of us taught our guests some useful phrases that probably will be of use during this summer in Greece or in Cyprus. Greek Coffees such as Frappe were also offered! More than 400 Greek iced coffees were prepared on the spot for our fellow students. After this nice experience, we organized a “Greek night” party with plenty of free ouzo, Greek music and a lot of fun at “Entre Nous club”. Everybody was holding shoulders and moved around forming a circle large as the club.
Wednesday March 23th 2016, “Hellenic Lunch at the Canteen” and “CineClub”
On Wednesday the canteen wore blue and white, and smelled like tzatziki. Greek salad with Feta was served as a starter, as main dish “Pita Souvlaki” with pita that we ordered from Greece and the vegetarian option was “Gemista with Haloumi”. The Cypriot dessert that topped this nice experience is called “Doukissa”. The smell we refer to was due to Pita bread and tzatziki being present on every table in order for everyone to taste it. In the evening we organized a CineClub night where we watched the movie “My big Greek Fat Wedding”. Once the movie was over, we offered free wine and we danced Greek dances all together.
Thursday March 24th 2016, “Discovering Greece and Cyprus” and “Hellenic Bar Night”
The last of our events was held in the Dijver foyer. On that event we promoted Greece and Cyprus with videos, promotion material from both countries and by serving good Greek wine with Feta cheese and Cypriot Haloumi. The smell of halloumi led people from the library to dijver foyer. Greek strategy to massively attract students at the foyer. On Thursday night, as per usual, we had the Bar Night with a special theme: Greek Night. We noticed the enthusiasm of students each time syrtaki played. Therefore, once again, everyone had free ouzo shots and we all danced Greek dances till the end of the night.
For more information, you can visit our national week page on Facebook.