weekend fun

Friday night:

Friday afternoon S’s friends arrived. They are in the same group, have baseball teams so came to help with the practice and later go to the Corn Festival with us. We hung out for a while and made pizza from scratch. Delicious! I am thinking of making this for my host family some day.

Saturday:

Once a day of relaxation; is now a very busy day with a crazy morning. This week it did turn out to be a little less hectic than normal. I got up and ready for tennis and then called for a ride and to get to the gym with all the baseball equipment and to get the gym opened, but our contact was out of town, so I got to wait for baseball to start. We ended up jumping in the back of a pick-up to get to the school and arrived just in time. We had a good practice, we wanted to have a game, but the kids just aren’t ready, I don’t trust them to pitch or catch well enough to play. They gave us a few ideas and I was able to relax a bit and take some pics while Sara (S’s friend) took charge of our throwing group for a bit.

After practice, we ate, showered and left. Well, important pit stop, the best coffee in town. We are known for our coffee which is saying something. The woman even showed us how they roast it, what it looks like before and after and invited us to come back and see the process one day.

In town we went to see the Japanese volunteers in the area perform. Really, there was a bunch of acts, and we got there in time to see them. Maybe next year we will do something to represent the USA. Maybe not.

So, afterwards we went to track down bull-riding. This is clear across town and there is a ton of people there and we walked through what looks like a flea-market set-up but its new stuff. Getting through there was fun. We eventually find where the action takes place, but needed 15 minutes to find where to buy tickets. We get in, and it starts 2 hours late (we arrived an hour and a half late, so it actually worked out) and it’s a lot different than what you see in the States.

Dinner followed at a few stands. I got a few different plates, and loved eating the street food and enjoying the atmosphere. Still later that night was dancing. Everyone was impressed that this town pulled off an event like this. It was huge, with several blocks fenced in and a stage at the end of every block. Some had live bands, others had DJs. The mood was great, I was expecting a lot of drunks and a lot of aggressive people, but it was all really relaxed. I am so glad that I went.