parades, candy and football, oh my!

So I had a rather American weekend...to cut a long story kind of short - Homecoming was a lot of fun.

I walked in the parade, which was pretty cool. And I must admit that I did not know that there were actually that many people in Charleston!! There were kids everywhere - which brings me to my next point.

The kids around here must have perfected their ‘please give me candy’ faces. Because someone gave me a bag of candy to throw (which is the best idea ever! why don’t Australian parades involve candy?), and I was way too much of a sucker for these little kids with their big eyes and sad faces! They had the ability to look like they couldn’t possibly live through the day unless I threw some candy at them. Needless to say, I ran out of candy halfway through the parade.

Another funny observation - the crowds of drunk people. They were wearing matching clothes, they were noisy, and they had fences to keep them in. One could reasonably draw a comparison with a zoo… ;)

And then the football game - it was a bit of a disappointment, because the Panthers lost yet again. I still don’t understand American football - in Australian football, the men have real muscles, they don’t wear helmets, and I’m pretty sure it doesn’t take them three and a half hours to play a one hour game! And since I'm working for the video production team, I always get laughed at when the director says "follow the quarterback!" and all I can say is "uh...which one is he again?"

I also experienced American ‘chili’ for the first time - it was rather tasty! I did burn my tongue, but that was more due to the temperature of the food rather than the spiciness. Topped off with new friends and a super duper fast four-minute late-night Wal-mart run...it was a fabulous day. :)