Monday, August 30, 2004

I'd love to elaborate, but this isn't a post about science presentations. *** Yesterday, I went to the Ex with two of my aunts, my mom, my sister, and two of my cousins. (For those of you who are not familiar with what the Ex, in fact, is, just picture a carnival, but intensely larger.) This, of course, meant I had to wake up early. Considering the situation, however, I didn't really mind. It rained all day, and we managed to lose my aunt within the first ten minutes, which resulted in our having to get her paged over the Food Building's intercom. They couldn't pronounce her name, which was rather funny, but what you really want to hear about is the Food Building. The Food Building is awesome. For those of you who have been to anime cons in the past, imagine this as a sort of food convention. Take a huge buildling, fill it with about 250 restaurants selling large portions of food from all over the world for next to nothing. Now, imagine that half the tables are free because it's raining, and that you spotted a sign advertising a chicken teriyaki dinner for $5.00. Despite its [the Food Building's] being at the other end of the establishment, we went there first, in order to meet up with one of my aunts. It was awesome. Even though I wasn't hungry (I'd just eaten a large muffin about an hour ago.), I ate two of the best fries I've ever tasted (Not from New York Fries or "Chicago Fries", but the Potato Factory), along with half of a cinnamon bun. It was also awesome. However, wanting to wait 'til I knew I'd be able to eat alot of everything in one sitting (and there-in more-thouroughly enjoy it), I level-headedly decided to wait until we came back for linner/dunch. So, sustained only by the remains of a muffin, half a cinnamon bun, two French fries, and a Nestea, I traveled, with my family, as far as the International Trade Center (we went through the Better Life Center and the Garden Center, but you know... I did nothing there but watch a crazed man toss some fruit and flax seeds into a food processor and tell us about nutrition.), where my cousin and I hurried about, looking for all the Japan booths. There were only three: one was a Shiatsu Massage set-up, the second was selling katana, kukri, and other various weapons, and the third was a neat little Pacific-esque store where I bought an umbrella and a print of some fish. To backtrack a bit, my cousin had said earlier, "They wont have anything anime-related, though." He was wrong, if barely so. It was about half an hour in that I spotted Kakashi and Iruka's faces on a monsterously-overpriced placemat; imagine paying $4.00 for something that would cost between $1 and $2 at the mall! We also found some Dragonball figurines, and a lot of little plastic Bruce Lee perefernalia. The International Trade Center is a pretty damn cool place. We had to meet back at the Better Life Center, and convince my aunt not to buy a piece of equipment that was meant to be good for your back. It was $130.00 and, when I sat against it, it hurt me terribly; because of this, my back was sore for the rest of the day. I, after fuming at the machine itself, and telling my aunt I didn't think it was good for her, then ambled back to the International Trade Center to buy the first pair of shoes I saw. xD I am wearing the shoes right now, actually, and intend to continue doing so for days to come (until I forget about them). For $5.99, one can't really complain, even if they are a touch small. I didn't go on any rides, and only spent $7.00 on carnival games (Carnies scare me. o_o""), mostly because I was feeling sick (You know that feeling of being about to throw up but wanting to eat everything in site?), though I did go through a "haunted house". I woudln't have done it if I hadn't seen streams of people running out the emergency exit, some of them crying. So, my cousin and I, figuring it might be just a bit scary, walked through: it sucked. You couldn't see where you were going half the time, the props were rediculously typical, there was the most sedated of music playing in the backround, and the only thing that was even slightly startling was the hand that reached out from behind the picture-frame, making as though to grab you. My cousin was right in that it would have been monstrously fun to go back through, with one of those quad-flash digital cameras and take a picture of the guy standing behind there. It would have scared the hell out of him. xD I won a green snail in that stupid little "pick a duck" game, and lost several dollars to other stupid carnival events. The whole time, I was very hungry. We wandered around a bit more, my sister and cousin went on a few more rides, then my cousin gambled away three dollars in the Birthday Game, and we met up with the rest of our group an hour late. ^^" My aunts: What took you so long?! We then sat around in an unrelated food-court, and I explained various things about samurai to my young cousin, who was still running about with his wooden Hara Kiri blade, purchased at the store where I got my umbrella. My older cousin, who, one would think, is too old for that kind of thing, then grabbed it and started running around, pretending to be Kenshin. Me: Kenshin doesn't fight with a Hara Kiri blade... He doesn't even have a Hara Kiri blade...! Incidentally, it's said cousin's birthday: Tanjoubi omedatto gouzaimasu! Anyway, we then wandered about in the rain a bit more, and got on the train back to the Princess Gates. We went into the Food, Fun, Farm Building to look at the animals. Me: All these farm animals are making me hungry. My mom: !!!! How can you say that?! Me: I want food... Then we went home, and I forgot to give my young cousin the drawing of Inuyasha I did for him. So I didn't get my chicken teriyaki after all... Godel: *cries* My stomach is rumbling... Food Building, I will return to you one day!!!

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