...and of course my first morning in Edegem I ate a horse. Not the whole horse. "There was an old lady that swallowed a horse, she's dead of course." Also that morning I ate chocolate for breakfast for the first time. It was at that moment I knew I'd like it Belgium. How can one go wrong when ones staple foods are fries, chocolate and beer? I remember this one time my dad put chocolate milk in my cereal 'cause we didn't have normal milk. I found it kinda gross. Cereal good. Choc milk good. Together gross. I also ate my first of many, many sandwiches. Many. Sandwiches. Getting back to the horse, like many moments in my life I charged fearlessly into a dark ally. I didn't think eating it would bother me and at first it didn't but the more I thought about it...the more it started to bother me. I mean if not told I would have thought it was just pastromi. But as I ate I started reconsidering the wisdom of eating pastromi... What exactly is pastromi anyways? But of course I kept eating 'cause I'm a soldier and a ninja. I had similar moments eating balut (which I ended up spitting out) as well as trying things I probably shouldn't have. My loyal readers know my theory of jumping head first into the pool. Lets just say that at certain moments it is wise to look before you leap. My first impressions of my new surroundings. Nice house, nice room. It was strange having someone prepare breakfast for me. It was weird eating at the same time. Normally before a show I don't talk much and like to think of the show instead of a lot of chit chat. Getting to the festivalhal and seeing everyone in the change room was really a relief that first day. I just wanted to get my mind on the dancing.
I believe that first day we performed at the old folks home. It was that first day I got my first whiff of Sicily. (I didn't get to actually see them dance till much later) Seriously, those costumes...oh my lord! Now imagine a whole herd of fresh ones wafting down the hall past us. I was actually slightly worried when they first walked past 'cause they were all confident and I didn't know what the level of 'competition' is at a festival. Personally I didn't feel my level of preparation and polish was where I'd like it to be. Deep inside I sort of half expected not being able to go to Europe and in hindsight I possibly didn't want to get to attached or excited to the idea of Europe. I would have been devastated if I got all excited and not be able to go. It wasn't until the last week before the trip did I really feel confident I was actually going. Our actual performance was really good. I think our clicking for Jota M was kinda random thou. After the performance we all saddled up to the bar, you know the one at the old folk home, and I asked the bartender to give me anything good so he poured me a cherry beer. I was expecting the beer equivalent of cherry coke or Dr Pepper, you know tastes like coke with some cherry syrup mixed in there. But what it turned out to be was ambrosia. Drink of the gods. It just tastes so good once it touches the lips. Soon we were all hooked.
As soon as the performance was over I was in party mode. All I wanted was to get together with all my friends and celebrate how much we rock. As much as I tried I couldn't get anyone organized. In fact at one point Cristina was annoyed at me for wondering aloud why it was so hard to plan something. As it turns out my mind wasn't where it should have been as I had totally forgotten that my host family had planned a dinner for us. That's another thing that was weird, having the host family planning all the supposed 'free time'. As much as I loved getting to know the families and all the places they took us I would have liked more time with the group. As it was, Pat and I were pretty much segregated from most of the other kpers unless we were in dance company mode. After a while Mer, Celina, Geri and myself set out to find some place to eat and possibly get a drink later on. The first place we stopped was a pub, but it didn't serve food. As we left a patron followed us outside and engaged me in pointless conversation for a long, long time. Everytime I tried to break away he would maneuver in front of me. About 15 hours later with CC resting her head on Geri's shoulder Mer moves in to rescue me and instead gets caught in the web. Finally I think we just bolted. On our way to find food we see a Match and decide to do some shopping for essentials. I think it took Celina and me about 40 mins to buy shampoo and conditioner. It would have taken longer if Mer didn't speak French. As I stood in line I see Mer burst out of Match and book it down the street. Apparently my and her host family was at festivalhal to pick us up. It was about that time did I remember they had dinner plans for us (I can't remember where Pat was, that may have been the day he went home with Pam). As it turns out I got a ride home. Monick looked very unthrilled so I did the mature thing and lied and said that I tried to walk home and got lost. I don't think she believed me 'cause she told me that she thought I went to a pub, which is where I probably would have been if we didn't stay so long at festivalhal after the performance along with the other adventures. I honestly don't know why I lied. No excuses. With Walter or Marlies I wouldn't have hesitated to say that I forgot. I hate lying for many reasons beyond the obvious.
That second night Pat was all paranoid about the squadrons of mosquito's that did a number on him the night before. So he slept in a sweatshirt and insisted the windows stayed closed even thou it was frickin hot in the attic. I slept in a t-shirt on top of my covers. Pat got bit thru his sweatshirt and I remained untouched.
Rhoel.
posted by R @ 11:26 PM
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