carousel
one of the good things about living down here is carousel. it's basically ethnic festivals held during a three week period. the ethnic halls open their doors to the public and display their history, food and culture. its a great way for the cultures to meet.
when i lived in toronto i went to their's but you had to pay and as toronto is so big it was difficult. here its free and luckily it seems alot of the halls are close together.
the best ones have the kids doing the historical dances. tso and i were unbusy last sunday so we headed to the polish and scottish villages. well the scots put on a great show and it was nice to see alot of people who look like me(sad for them but i see the genes are strong). they had the highland dancers and the little ones were so cute. they had the broadswords and could barely carry them. it was just too cool. now the society pipe band playing and marching in the hall was a very amazing experience. very powerful. whats really cool is that they are closing their village with dancers from the south asian village- thats the way to do it -- congratulations-- hope you are sending some highlanders down there too. we won't talk of the 50/50 draw which netted me a bottle of wine-- it was ok as it was erie shores and as you know i like them. if someone from the scottish club reads this offer me a membership and we're square. trust me one meeting of the league of gentlemen held there and you would be in the black, the tso and i would take a little longer.
the polish village is always good. they have their act down quite well and their food is always good. they also feature the youth dancers. i was amazed at the difference in the regional costumes. these must have taken ages to make. the effort of the kids was great the announcers did a great job explaining the regional differences. i feel bad for them as a storm was pending and we ran for the car as the rain started.
i have to mention the greeks and germans as they take the dancing very seriously too which makes it fun-- haven't got to them yet this year and jamaican as well. well they are just soo cool- they have a church next door to their hall and as it was saturday night there was a mass scheduled-- well they kept cars out of the church lot then as the mass was to start they announced that they would be quiet until mass was over then voila after the people left the reggae restarted -- polite and cool.
if you live down here its got one more weekend so support your favorite ethnic group and go see one that you have no knowledge of. this is a great ways to build bridges. i've got friends from detroit coming over for this weekend so i bet we'll end up at the hungarian hall.
