320 acres of adventure
i'm resolving to be better at documenting things, especially the weird and bizarre, so! my labour day weekend! it was all kinds of fun and strange and exciting! i got to go to minnesota (for likely the first and last time, and to be honest i wouldn't have gone at all anna hadn't just moved back and was willing and able to put me up). i had a voucher from southwest from the one time we were stuck in an airport for 6 hours because of a flight delay, so that combined with a horrifyingly early flight out thursday and the last flight home sunday brought my airfare to a grand total of $30. i love travelling cheap. never mind that the uber i took to the airport thursday morning cost me just about the same.
ANYWAY. i landed at msp at 8.30 in the morning, and anna picked me up. with stella. which, i forget after living with my roommate how awesome it is to be around people who don't have pets? especially dogs? and how annoying and cumbersome and noisy and pungent (oh my god so gross) it is to be in a home with a dog. or in a car with a dog. or at a restaurant with a dog. or at a festival with a dog. BUT NONETHELESS. free lodging. i will take it. and be as patient with the animal as a i possibly can. while shoving its face away anytime it gets too close to my mouth. DOG KISSES ARE NOT SANITARY THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
so we headed back to anna's place and then got ready to go to the state fair. which is apparently 320 acres in size? WHICH IS A LOT OF ACRES??? we parked at anna's mum's place so that put an additional 25 minutes on our walk and oh my god that doesn't seem like much but at the end of a solid 9 hours of walking it made me want to cry a little bit. which i valiantly did not. so we got to the fair, and it was huge and filled with crazy wonderous delightful things! (i have a handful of pictures that will maybe go up on facebook or twitter at some point, but who knows with me)
first, the food: WHO KNEW FAIR FOOD COULD BE SO DELICIOUS? CERTAINLY NOT ME. we had mini doughnuts (not my favourite, but they were fine), a crocodile sausage (which was seasoned so beautifully but very tough), loaded tater tots (which were genuinely some of the best tater tots i have ever had, and i have had a lot of tater tots), garlic fries (which were great because FRESH GARLIC ON ANYTHING IS GREAT, and the slice of green apple that came with was genius), a scotch egg (i never actually like them as much as i think i will, but it was good!), a literal OVERFLOWING BUCKETFUL of cookies (which grew on me even though they're not my favourite things) which was ridiculous, we had to give away like 20 to random people because the bucket lid WOULD. NOT. CLOSE. and i was not going to eat 20 cookies, that way lies insanity and a terrible sugar rush and subsequent crash.
SPEAKING OF SUGAR RUSH-CRASHES, i must pause my weekend recap to say that i had an insanely delightful birthday week! i really wasn't expecting to do or get anything, but i had a fancy dinner at elizabeth with cara (and oh my gosh HOW GOOD WAS THAT FOOD, ZUCCHINI PASTA, FERMENTED CABBAGE WITH BACON AND CHEESE, LOBSTER THAT WAS TO-DIE FOR, ALL THE VEGETABLES I DIDN'T THINK I WOULD LOVE BUT I DID), and she got me a tiny set of adorable erasers shaped like stationery, plus a s'mores cupcake and two cookies. none of the latter are things i would generally eat, but they were pretty good. and then i met yasmeen for lunch at au cheval (that duck heart hash was tasty!) and tea and dessert at the allis (where they serve basically the BEST afternoon tea i have ever had). and she bought me a mint-green purse that says i am very busy and is essentially the story of my life. how these people know me so well after just about 13 months of friendship is beyond me but they are amazing and i love them. if i keep anyone after i head back to singapore, they will be it. on my way home i bought a mint chocolate cupcake and a vanilla creme brulee tart from bittersweet pastries, because i figured that would be my only birthday treats for the rest of the week.
WRONG. tuesday morning i literally wake up to a mysterious phone call from a lady who's all "are you home right now? i have a delivery for you." my sleep-addled brain takes at least 45 seconds to process that this isn't some kind of bomb threat, and then i figure out it must be cake. i would have suspected a present but ups isn't usually great with calling beforeheand, and she said she was coming from the south side of the city instead of a nearby post office. SO. i quickly figured out my family had sent me a strawberry shortcake, which turned out to be SO DELICIOUS oh my gosh, but also HUGE and also i was leaving for minnesota thursday morning, which meant i basically ate like 3/4 of a cake in 2 days. no joke. i had so much sugar all since dinner on thursday with cara that i was legitimately getting headaches on and off everyday. sugar crashes are not fun, i would not recommend them. at the end of the day, though, my roommate comes home BEARING CHOCOLATE BANANA PUDDING oh my gosh, she is so great, i ate that too despite the already dangerously high levels of sugar in my bloodstream. i know FANTASTIC people.
ANYWAY. back to minnesota (even though it seems suddenly less exciting after all that sugar talk). apart from the food, which was great, i saw ALL THE WEIRD THINGS. there was a maternity barn, where people would go to see ALL THE VERY PREGNANT ANIMALS AND WATCH ALL THE LIVE BIRTHS?!?!?!?! i got to touch a newborn piglet which was SO CUTE I WANT A PIGLET AS A PET but oh my god that was insane and kind of horrifying but also really neat and although i'm curious i'm very pleased i didn't get to actually watch a live birth because that sounds scarring. we also saw a llama obstacle course, which unfortunately sounds more exciting than it actually is, since all the llamas are supposed to do is be calm and not react to any of the obstacles around them (like having water sprayed on their legs, or having their ears touched, or walking over branches or through hanging pool noodles, or having a blanket tied to their backs, or having empty milk cartons dragged beside them as they walk).
there was also a reptile enclosure, which was tiny but holy shit SO AMAZING, some of the hugest/longest snakes i'd ever seen were in that little building, and they also let you climb into a pen with a giant turtle and PET IT. i should be less excited about this considering we have a turtle at home that we can pick up and pet at any point but THIS WAS A GIANT TURTLE AND I GOT TO PET ITS SHELL AND ITS HEAD AND IT WAS AWESOME. i love giant animals. i want all the giant animals.
we also saw a horse show, which was boring, because all they did was alternate between trotting, canting and walking, sometimes backwards, so. we went on a GIANT slide, which i began to regret signing up for as i walked to the top, and even more as i sat down on my sack. i need to remember not to do that again. none of these things are actually fun in my old age, and they are bigger health risks than i'm willing to take anymore because i am actually a wuss.
we also went to see the education building, which i thought was going to be lame and ridiculous, but housed some of the COOLEST THINGS i have ever seen. like the robotics competition, where two high school teams built cars that played tag and went over rough terrain and VERTICAL PARKED and were generally just too cool for life. there was also tons of art by kids from kindergarten through to high school and i genuinely do not know if i have or ever will be at any point in my life surrounded by that much raw talent ever again. IT WAS AMAZING. IT WAS RIDICULOUS. IT WAS THE BEST THING. (also now i have an actual benchmark for how good theteacherspet's artwork should be at popslashhigh and it is HIGHER THAN ANY BENCHMARK I HAD EVER SET FOR HIM BEFORE.)
but my actual favourite part of the fair was getting to see all the acts sprinkled across the fairgrounds. there was a family trampoline act that was pretty great, especially for a free act, and the two sons were current and/or once guinness world record holders for the highest trampoline jumps? which was cool. the friendly family rivalry made me a little nostalgic, even though it is clearly played up for the crowds and the show. there was also a dog show, where the dogs competed to see how far they could jump (into water) to catch a frisbee, and also performed adorable tricks and were generally very cute. THE BEST SHOW OF ALL THOUGH???? THE LUMBERJACK SHOW. oh my gosh i need a lumberjack boyfriend. there is something very attractive about a man who can fell a tree, or climb one at lightning speed, or carve things out of tree stumps, all while making hilarious and terrible corny jokes. NOT TO MENTION THEY ALSO HAD TO THROW AXES AND I THINK THIS IS NOW ACTUALLY A THING THAT I AM GENUINELY ATTRACTED TO. oh my gosh that was so great. the lumberjills were awesome too, they did log runs and sawed wood and tried to run each other off logs and it was GREAT??? where else in the world would you get to see all of this in the same 320 acres of land, i do not know.
and this was only the beginning of my adventure! because the next day i went to the mall of america. it was huge. i spent 9 hours there and barely made it off the first floor. i didn't go to the aquarium or sit on any of the rides either. IT WAS THAT HUGE. also i should mention that i took the train to the mall, and it stopped us right in the carpark, which i thought was hysterical. anyway, i took my time wandering the mall instead of doing it mission impossible style like my family usually does at outlet malls, so it was nice and relaxed. also it was indoors, so that was a huge step up from the day before in terms of not being exhausted at the end of 8 hours of shopping. even though i was pretty tired; that's a lot of walking and clothes trialing to partake in. i should mention that all i had to eat was a dutch baby (cinnamon flavoured, blech, but homemade, which was nice) and an unsatisfying burrito bowl from baja sol, so that didn't help. OH and there were at least four singaporeans at the mall. in minnesota. because when you travel to america from singapore, that is definitely a destination stop. it was bizarre and kind of nice, just to be around the accent. ah, homesickness, my old friend.
day 3 we woke up bright and early (as we had been doing every day that week) to go to a flea market. we went with anna's parents and one of their family friends, which i didn't know we were going to do ahead of time, or i would probably have skipped out on the whole thing. i wouldn't have missed much, it was big for a flea market but everything there was junky and weird, so :/ can't say it was very productive. also for the first time in my entire life i was literally the only non-white person around. it was weird. i think i'm becoming a little desensitised to being the minority race and i barely notice it anymore, but i definitely stuck out there. on the bright side, anna's dad paid for my entry, which was so nice of him, he really didn't have to, but it did make up for the junky stuff and the having to listen to a family conversation about things i knew absolutely nothing about with no context and no one trying to bring me up to speed the entire ride there and back. fair's fair, i guess.
after the flea market, we went to get some tea from the local tea shop, and then headed to the zoo. WHICH WAS FREE. it was very small and they had maybe 30 animals total, but it was pretty neat! the enclosures were fantastic, way nicer and way bigger than anything we have here. AND THEY HAD SLOTHS. and a polar bear! and a bunch of monkeys and a seal show that was hilarious. they read their own version of green eggs and ham (aka green seaweed and fish) and the rhymes weren't perfect but the seal did a bunch of the actions from the story as it was being read and it was the CUTEST THING EVER). i let myself get swept up in all of it and ooh-ed and ahh-ed appropriately at everything, which may have led anna to believe the zoo is more impressive than it actually is, but that's okay. most people haven't seen as many zoos as i have, and they don't live in singapore, which is still among the top three zoos i've ever been to in the world, so i'll let her have that.
we had dinner after the zoo at a bar called surlys. they had a huge outdoor patio space with grass and little park benches to sit on. we waited an hour to be seated for food, but it was a nice day out and i enjoyed it. better company would have made the time go by faster but after living out of each other's pockets for 3 days straight i might have run out of things to say, no matter who i was with. (that is a lie, better company is always better.) but anyway, dinner was DELICIOUS. the cheesy grits were good, the sausage was great, and the brussell sprouts were divine. probably my favourite thing i ate on the trip that wasn't street fair food.
speaking of street fairs, we went to the renaissance festival on sunday. this was my least favourite thing we did, again most likely down to the company. anna usually goes to the fest with her morris dance people (which should give you a good idea of the kind of person anna is, really) but she hadn't planned on going this year until i told her i'd be in town and she decided it would be fun, so we ran into a bunch of them while we were there. anna just moved back to minnesota a couple of weeks ago, so bunch of them hadn't seen her in ages and they would start having long, involved conversations with her. which was fine, except she never introduced me. and i was never acknowledged by her conversation partners? like, at all. no nod or hello or anything like that, and they'd get into their conversations and i wouldn't know if i should interrupt or attempt to introduce myself, or walk away, but that seemed rude. plus, they never seemed interested, so i let it slide. after the second or third time it happened, i just walked away. i didn't even say anything to anyone. i'd tried to catch anna's eye but she basically ignored me, so i figured i was okay to do whatever i wanted. unfortunately, at one point we'd split up so i could watch a fun street act and she could go dance with the dancers, and we agreed to meet up afterwards. when i wandered over to our meeting point, she was basically sitting with like 15 dancers and singing (they are all also part of a shape note singing community, yet another strange and ~exotic~ activity) but she saw me coming over so i couldn't duck out of the way and go somewhere else. again, no introductions, no acknowledgement from anyone in the group, just me standing awkwardly as part of the little circle not knowing any of the words to the songs being sung, being watched by a small crowd of people wanting to see what all the fuss was about.
BASICALLY MY WORST NIGHTMARE COMING TRUE. sometimes i hate people. also the costume was so warm, and made me feel so gross and sticky after approximately 5 minutes outside, which probably soured my mood at least a little. the food was tasty, though! i had the most AMAZING, GIGANTIC MEAT-STUFFED TATER TOTS, as well as a popover, a breakfast pie and a banana cake (which was probably the worst thing i ate the whole trip). and the street acts were FABULOUS. we started the day strong with 54-year-old (new grandfather) tuey wilson who is a fire tightrope/juggler act, and in his finale he stood on one foot on a ladder on a tightrope and juggled flaming objects while swinging little metal rings on his arms and one leg and it was AMAZING. nothing else compared, after that, but i did see the danger committee catching flaming knives with their bare hands and juggling flaming things and it was all very medieval-y and great. i missed the jousting, which was a bummer because it was the one thing i was really excited about, but i was also getting really, really tired by that point, so i was happy to leave and make my way to the airport.
and now i'm home and not doing very much of anything at all and it is the BEST FEELING :D
ANYWAY. i landed at msp at 8.30 in the morning, and anna picked me up. with stella. which, i forget after living with my roommate how awesome it is to be around people who don't have pets? especially dogs? and how annoying and cumbersome and noisy and pungent (oh my god so gross) it is to be in a home with a dog. or in a car with a dog. or at a restaurant with a dog. or at a festival with a dog. BUT NONETHELESS. free lodging. i will take it. and be as patient with the animal as a i possibly can. while shoving its face away anytime it gets too close to my mouth. DOG KISSES ARE NOT SANITARY THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
so we headed back to anna's place and then got ready to go to the state fair. which is apparently 320 acres in size? WHICH IS A LOT OF ACRES??? we parked at anna's mum's place so that put an additional 25 minutes on our walk and oh my god that doesn't seem like much but at the end of a solid 9 hours of walking it made me want to cry a little bit. which i valiantly did not. so we got to the fair, and it was huge and filled with crazy wonderous delightful things! (i have a handful of pictures that will maybe go up on facebook or twitter at some point, but who knows with me)
first, the food: WHO KNEW FAIR FOOD COULD BE SO DELICIOUS? CERTAINLY NOT ME. we had mini doughnuts (not my favourite, but they were fine), a crocodile sausage (which was seasoned so beautifully but very tough), loaded tater tots (which were genuinely some of the best tater tots i have ever had, and i have had a lot of tater tots), garlic fries (which were great because FRESH GARLIC ON ANYTHING IS GREAT, and the slice of green apple that came with was genius), a scotch egg (i never actually like them as much as i think i will, but it was good!), a literal OVERFLOWING BUCKETFUL of cookies (which grew on me even though they're not my favourite things) which was ridiculous, we had to give away like 20 to random people because the bucket lid WOULD. NOT. CLOSE. and i was not going to eat 20 cookies, that way lies insanity and a terrible sugar rush and subsequent crash.
SPEAKING OF SUGAR RUSH-CRASHES, i must pause my weekend recap to say that i had an insanely delightful birthday week! i really wasn't expecting to do or get anything, but i had a fancy dinner at elizabeth with cara (and oh my gosh HOW GOOD WAS THAT FOOD, ZUCCHINI PASTA, FERMENTED CABBAGE WITH BACON AND CHEESE, LOBSTER THAT WAS TO-DIE FOR, ALL THE VEGETABLES I DIDN'T THINK I WOULD LOVE BUT I DID), and she got me a tiny set of adorable erasers shaped like stationery, plus a s'mores cupcake and two cookies. none of the latter are things i would generally eat, but they were pretty good. and then i met yasmeen for lunch at au cheval (that duck heart hash was tasty!) and tea and dessert at the allis (where they serve basically the BEST afternoon tea i have ever had). and she bought me a mint-green purse that says i am very busy and is essentially the story of my life. how these people know me so well after just about 13 months of friendship is beyond me but they are amazing and i love them. if i keep anyone after i head back to singapore, they will be it. on my way home i bought a mint chocolate cupcake and a vanilla creme brulee tart from bittersweet pastries, because i figured that would be my only birthday treats for the rest of the week.
WRONG. tuesday morning i literally wake up to a mysterious phone call from a lady who's all "are you home right now? i have a delivery for you." my sleep-addled brain takes at least 45 seconds to process that this isn't some kind of bomb threat, and then i figure out it must be cake. i would have suspected a present but ups isn't usually great with calling beforeheand, and she said she was coming from the south side of the city instead of a nearby post office. SO. i quickly figured out my family had sent me a strawberry shortcake, which turned out to be SO DELICIOUS oh my gosh, but also HUGE and also i was leaving for minnesota thursday morning, which meant i basically ate like 3/4 of a cake in 2 days. no joke. i had so much sugar all since dinner on thursday with cara that i was legitimately getting headaches on and off everyday. sugar crashes are not fun, i would not recommend them. at the end of the day, though, my roommate comes home BEARING CHOCOLATE BANANA PUDDING oh my gosh, she is so great, i ate that too despite the already dangerously high levels of sugar in my bloodstream. i know FANTASTIC people.
ANYWAY. back to minnesota (even though it seems suddenly less exciting after all that sugar talk). apart from the food, which was great, i saw ALL THE WEIRD THINGS. there was a maternity barn, where people would go to see ALL THE VERY PREGNANT ANIMALS AND WATCH ALL THE LIVE BIRTHS?!?!?!?! i got to touch a newborn piglet which was SO CUTE I WANT A PIGLET AS A PET but oh my god that was insane and kind of horrifying but also really neat and although i'm curious i'm very pleased i didn't get to actually watch a live birth because that sounds scarring. we also saw a llama obstacle course, which unfortunately sounds more exciting than it actually is, since all the llamas are supposed to do is be calm and not react to any of the obstacles around them (like having water sprayed on their legs, or having their ears touched, or walking over branches or through hanging pool noodles, or having a blanket tied to their backs, or having empty milk cartons dragged beside them as they walk).
there was also a reptile enclosure, which was tiny but holy shit SO AMAZING, some of the hugest/longest snakes i'd ever seen were in that little building, and they also let you climb into a pen with a giant turtle and PET IT. i should be less excited about this considering we have a turtle at home that we can pick up and pet at any point but THIS WAS A GIANT TURTLE AND I GOT TO PET ITS SHELL AND ITS HEAD AND IT WAS AWESOME. i love giant animals. i want all the giant animals.
we also saw a horse show, which was boring, because all they did was alternate between trotting, canting and walking, sometimes backwards, so. we went on a GIANT slide, which i began to regret signing up for as i walked to the top, and even more as i sat down on my sack. i need to remember not to do that again. none of these things are actually fun in my old age, and they are bigger health risks than i'm willing to take anymore because i am actually a wuss.
we also went to see the education building, which i thought was going to be lame and ridiculous, but housed some of the COOLEST THINGS i have ever seen. like the robotics competition, where two high school teams built cars that played tag and went over rough terrain and VERTICAL PARKED and were generally just too cool for life. there was also tons of art by kids from kindergarten through to high school and i genuinely do not know if i have or ever will be at any point in my life surrounded by that much raw talent ever again. IT WAS AMAZING. IT WAS RIDICULOUS. IT WAS THE BEST THING. (also now i have an actual benchmark for how good theteacherspet's artwork should be at popslashhigh and it is HIGHER THAN ANY BENCHMARK I HAD EVER SET FOR HIM BEFORE.)
but my actual favourite part of the fair was getting to see all the acts sprinkled across the fairgrounds. there was a family trampoline act that was pretty great, especially for a free act, and the two sons were current and/or once guinness world record holders for the highest trampoline jumps? which was cool. the friendly family rivalry made me a little nostalgic, even though it is clearly played up for the crowds and the show. there was also a dog show, where the dogs competed to see how far they could jump (into water) to catch a frisbee, and also performed adorable tricks and were generally very cute. THE BEST SHOW OF ALL THOUGH???? THE LUMBERJACK SHOW. oh my gosh i need a lumberjack boyfriend. there is something very attractive about a man who can fell a tree, or climb one at lightning speed, or carve things out of tree stumps, all while making hilarious and terrible corny jokes. NOT TO MENTION THEY ALSO HAD TO THROW AXES AND I THINK THIS IS NOW ACTUALLY A THING THAT I AM GENUINELY ATTRACTED TO. oh my gosh that was so great. the lumberjills were awesome too, they did log runs and sawed wood and tried to run each other off logs and it was GREAT??? where else in the world would you get to see all of this in the same 320 acres of land, i do not know.
and this was only the beginning of my adventure! because the next day i went to the mall of america. it was huge. i spent 9 hours there and barely made it off the first floor. i didn't go to the aquarium or sit on any of the rides either. IT WAS THAT HUGE. also i should mention that i took the train to the mall, and it stopped us right in the carpark, which i thought was hysterical. anyway, i took my time wandering the mall instead of doing it mission impossible style like my family usually does at outlet malls, so it was nice and relaxed. also it was indoors, so that was a huge step up from the day before in terms of not being exhausted at the end of 8 hours of shopping. even though i was pretty tired; that's a lot of walking and clothes trialing to partake in. i should mention that all i had to eat was a dutch baby (cinnamon flavoured, blech, but homemade, which was nice) and an unsatisfying burrito bowl from baja sol, so that didn't help. OH and there were at least four singaporeans at the mall. in minnesota. because when you travel to america from singapore, that is definitely a destination stop. it was bizarre and kind of nice, just to be around the accent. ah, homesickness, my old friend.
day 3 we woke up bright and early (as we had been doing every day that week) to go to a flea market. we went with anna's parents and one of their family friends, which i didn't know we were going to do ahead of time, or i would probably have skipped out on the whole thing. i wouldn't have missed much, it was big for a flea market but everything there was junky and weird, so :/ can't say it was very productive. also for the first time in my entire life i was literally the only non-white person around. it was weird. i think i'm becoming a little desensitised to being the minority race and i barely notice it anymore, but i definitely stuck out there. on the bright side, anna's dad paid for my entry, which was so nice of him, he really didn't have to, but it did make up for the junky stuff and the having to listen to a family conversation about things i knew absolutely nothing about with no context and no one trying to bring me up to speed the entire ride there and back. fair's fair, i guess.
after the flea market, we went to get some tea from the local tea shop, and then headed to the zoo. WHICH WAS FREE. it was very small and they had maybe 30 animals total, but it was pretty neat! the enclosures were fantastic, way nicer and way bigger than anything we have here. AND THEY HAD SLOTHS. and a polar bear! and a bunch of monkeys and a seal show that was hilarious. they read their own version of green eggs and ham (aka green seaweed and fish) and the rhymes weren't perfect but the seal did a bunch of the actions from the story as it was being read and it was the CUTEST THING EVER). i let myself get swept up in all of it and ooh-ed and ahh-ed appropriately at everything, which may have led anna to believe the zoo is more impressive than it actually is, but that's okay. most people haven't seen as many zoos as i have, and they don't live in singapore, which is still among the top three zoos i've ever been to in the world, so i'll let her have that.
we had dinner after the zoo at a bar called surlys. they had a huge outdoor patio space with grass and little park benches to sit on. we waited an hour to be seated for food, but it was a nice day out and i enjoyed it. better company would have made the time go by faster but after living out of each other's pockets for 3 days straight i might have run out of things to say, no matter who i was with. (that is a lie, better company is always better.) but anyway, dinner was DELICIOUS. the cheesy grits were good, the sausage was great, and the brussell sprouts were divine. probably my favourite thing i ate on the trip that wasn't street fair food.
speaking of street fairs, we went to the renaissance festival on sunday. this was my least favourite thing we did, again most likely down to the company. anna usually goes to the fest with her morris dance people (which should give you a good idea of the kind of person anna is, really) but she hadn't planned on going this year until i told her i'd be in town and she decided it would be fun, so we ran into a bunch of them while we were there. anna just moved back to minnesota a couple of weeks ago, so bunch of them hadn't seen her in ages and they would start having long, involved conversations with her. which was fine, except she never introduced me. and i was never acknowledged by her conversation partners? like, at all. no nod or hello or anything like that, and they'd get into their conversations and i wouldn't know if i should interrupt or attempt to introduce myself, or walk away, but that seemed rude. plus, they never seemed interested, so i let it slide. after the second or third time it happened, i just walked away. i didn't even say anything to anyone. i'd tried to catch anna's eye but she basically ignored me, so i figured i was okay to do whatever i wanted. unfortunately, at one point we'd split up so i could watch a fun street act and she could go dance with the dancers, and we agreed to meet up afterwards. when i wandered over to our meeting point, she was basically sitting with like 15 dancers and singing (they are all also part of a shape note singing community, yet another strange and ~exotic~ activity) but she saw me coming over so i couldn't duck out of the way and go somewhere else. again, no introductions, no acknowledgement from anyone in the group, just me standing awkwardly as part of the little circle not knowing any of the words to the songs being sung, being watched by a small crowd of people wanting to see what all the fuss was about.
BASICALLY MY WORST NIGHTMARE COMING TRUE. sometimes i hate people. also the costume was so warm, and made me feel so gross and sticky after approximately 5 minutes outside, which probably soured my mood at least a little. the food was tasty, though! i had the most AMAZING, GIGANTIC MEAT-STUFFED TATER TOTS, as well as a popover, a breakfast pie and a banana cake (which was probably the worst thing i ate the whole trip). and the street acts were FABULOUS. we started the day strong with 54-year-old (new grandfather) tuey wilson who is a fire tightrope/juggler act, and in his finale he stood on one foot on a ladder on a tightrope and juggled flaming objects while swinging little metal rings on his arms and one leg and it was AMAZING. nothing else compared, after that, but i did see the danger committee catching flaming knives with their bare hands and juggling flaming things and it was all very medieval-y and great. i missed the jousting, which was a bummer because it was the one thing i was really excited about, but i was also getting really, really tired by that point, so i was happy to leave and make my way to the airport.
and now i'm home and not doing very much of anything at all and it is the BEST FEELING :D