Greek Independence Day

So for those of you who aren't Greek, or who don't live in Greektown, March 25th is Greek Independence Day. We live right off the parade route that happens every year on this day. In fact they close the street right in front of our house. Of course, if you know anything about March in Chicago you know that it is a cold, gray month and the day of the parade is normally freezing. I always feel so bad for the girls in the Greek outfits on the floats.

So this year they decided to have the parade on April 25th. I'm sure it was because they thought the weather would cooperate. And wouldn't you know it April 25th was a windy, sleety, cold Sunday. We didn't even go out on our porch to look at the parade. We just watched from inside our cozy house. This year I felt bad for all the businesses who no doubt were counting on a big revenue day. We did bundle up to walk to church and caught a few bikes waiting for their owners to finish a big Greek meal, no doubt. Aren't they cool!

I guess we will all have to wait for the Greektown festival the last weekend of August for a warm Greek festival. It is always one of the last we go to each summer and a little bittersweet.

On another note, I think it would be cool to learn Greek to communicate with some of the business owners, and older folks of the neighborhood in their native language. So I asked a local cafe owner how difficult it is. He said second only to Cantonese. Yikes! There goes that idea. I guess if we decided to live here forever, I might give it a go but with Brian's family's language being Cantonese, I figure I already have a challenging language to learn.