yay!! this afternoon I just got back from a 3-day stay at the Minnesota State Fair! whee I went with the general project encampment, and stayed for 2 nights and 3 days. lol I brought petunias for my project (in the category flower gardening...)...
ok so Tuesday afternoon we met at the Willmar Jr. High, and got on a coach bus (I heard last year they had a school bus so it was time to trade with the livestock encampment... xD) down to the Cities. Once we got there, we brought our stuff up to our dormitory. after unpacking it was time to explore until dinner from 4:30-6 and then more wandering around until curfew at 11 (thats when lights went out and all were supposed to be in bed)
the dorms are really neat- with 80-something steps up to the top, its quite a work out to get there! xD there's a million metal bunk beds everywhere, and they used to be stacked 3 high, but now its only two... the beds are put in rows with 2 of them pushed against each other to make something of a double bed (only there were metal frames that you could hang blanked and stuff from for privacy) in bunk-form.
there were 2 shower rooms, and a 10-ft long double-sided sink next to those, along with a whole wall full of mirrors and a shelf for prep work. across the hall from the main dorm there's a stalled bathroom. when you first walk into the main dorm, there's an office off to one side. the rules were really retarded sometimes (like ABSOLUTELY no food or beverages (except water) in the dorms- one of my friends had her brand-new box of cheezits taken away the first night and didn't get them back until right before we left... stare and there's the no cell phones after curfew (11 pm)- that was a good one... the first night Karen got her cell phone taken away! xD ) but it you got something taken away you had to go to that office and tell them your bunk number and they'd give it back to you... rolleyes I was D11- Karen was D12, so we were both on the top bunk right next to each other.
the level under us (the 2nd floor) was made up of a huge cafeteria/gym room where we ate our meals, and then on the other side had plays and sports and stuff... (the boys had some sort of game going... O.o kinda like speedball only with a kickball...) It was usual for the line for a meal to go all the way down the steps to the main floor, so it was always a REALLY good idea to come about 20 minutes before they started serving to get in line... the meals were awesome! 3nodding mostly, anyways... a couple kids from each county had to volunteer to help in the kitchen (which I discovered is called KP), and they had to serve and stuff... thankfully I didn't end up doing that!
now to the main building and the rest of the fair! Its pretty hard to describe because its so full of stuff! xD when you first walk into the main 4-H building, there were 2 Wii Fits going on a projection screen that kids were doing (and there was another one behind that and the flight simulation thinger...) and off to the left was the stage area where the Arts-In kids put on a performance 3-4 times a day. surrounding the whole shin-dig were tons of projects! it was really interesting to look at them-- it gave me lots of ideas for next year! 3nodding
so the first night I wandered around with Karen a bit until I had to help her find her Grow Green program thinger... (she and a whole bunch of other kids didn't show any projects but instead attended some sort of leadership club all through the 3 days... they were even in the parade on wednesday!) then when she had to go I wandered around the buildings close to the 4-H building (mom had banned us from going too far from home base with out someone else there... ) and then had supper and realized that Karen had made some friends and had completely abandoned me so I couldn't do anything for the rest of the night! I finished my little fiasco, and by 9 pm i was in the dorms ready for sleep... i was majorly pissed at her. and at other things, too, like the fact that we couldn't use our cell phone alarms to wake us up in the morning. the rules were that you couldn't wake up before 4, and general wake up (when they turned all the lights back on) was at 6. I had planned on getting up at 5:30, and I was devastated by the news we couldn't use our alarms. so, all things considering, it was no surprise that I had a major meltdown after lights out. probably doesn't help that when it gets close to me having my period, I get really ultra-emotional about basically anything (like once I heard a guitar playing and i teared up... O.o) so... xD well anyways I just started bawling like heck, but i kept completely silent except for one sob that kinda stopped me in my tracks... it was loud. x.x but then after that self-sympathetic moment (seems whenever i go somewhere and i end up alone in a HUGE group i tend to do this because the same thing happened at Inspiration Hills a few years back...) i managed to get to sleep, and to my surprise and utter delight the next morning, I woke up at 5:30 without an alarm clock!! ^^ so I got up, grabbed my towel and shampoo and headed for the showers. turns out I left my pjs in a heap on the floor so they got soaking wet but i put them back on anyways and went back to the bunks for clean clothes for the day. then i gathered the rest of my supplies and headed across the hall to finish prep. then breakfast, and then I had to wait downstairs for mom and dad to come with my flowers (they had come down to the Cities the night before to get settled in but they got lost getting to the hotel... xD) and then had orientation for judging at 8:30. I got judged (along with 3 other girls in my judging group), and we each got a blue. ^^ the judge had some awesome advice, and I'm gonna hopefully learn something from it this year and try again next year! after that I wandered around the fair with them until around 3 (got to watch the parade, too!) and then they left. I had told mom about my little predicament regarding Karen, so she told me I could go out on my own. so after they left I wandered most of the rest of the fairgrounds, and bought a bunch of piano music and some other stuff (and had an almost-incident which led to another small tearful episode... this one was out of happiness) and then there was the dance!! biggrin at 8:30 we all got freshened up (I stunk really bad of sweat so I changed clothes) and headed downstairs to Erickson Hall (I think thats what the second level is called... x.x) to dance! It was really fun- I hung out with a group of kids from my county, and when we weren't playing Polish Poker or BS, we were trying to make one of the other girls dance who, surprisingly, was even more reluctant to dance than I was. xD but I had fun... when else do you get to see 100+ kids doing the electric slide thinger all in unison? xD that was really sumthin'.... then the now-usual routine of getting ready and getting up, and in the morning I packed up my stuff and explored the rest of the buildings that I hadn't gotten to the day before... then we went home! 3nodding it was rather chaotic for a while, but it was rather interesting. xD
ooo btw I made a friend! biggrin her name is Kim, and she has a Gaia account here too! thing is, I can't seem to remember her name... sweatdrop
man there's so much more to tell... but i think I wanna keep it to myself to savor the experience... I kinda knew from the start that dad would make us go, and I figured to just be happy with it... xD man am I ever! Its true what my dad said about the State Fair- that you don't really get to know it until you've had the chance to spend a few days there, rather than just an afternoon. I loved it, and hopefully I can go next year! ^^
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