On Saturday I went to the Pittsburgh Folk Festival with my aunt. Like many nights I had trouble sleeping, so I was still tired when I dragged myself out of bed late that morning. When I had first told her about it my aunt Cyndy said we’d probably go around one. On Friday my mom said she’d call Cyndy and ask when we were going, but I didn’t here from here until 11 AM the next day when she got home. Cyndy had decided we’d go at 3 instead. My mom didn’t stay here long, she went down to the bar soon after, saying that she’d wash my clothes when she got back. It was after one when she got came back. She always does this. She washes my clothes right before I go somewhere (even if they’re just wrinkled) and doesn’t leave enough time for them to dry. She fell asleep while they were washing, and when I tried to wake her up to ask what setting she wanted the drier on, it took a few minutes before she mumbled her answer. After that her cell phone rang and that got her up, and she went to go wash that guys clothes. After that her cell phone rang 5 more times with him calling her, and she got one text. Her phone rang 6 times in a row, plus one text, in about 10 minutes all from the same person. He is insane! So my mom was yelling at him, then she was stomping around slamming drawers and stuff, yelling that she didn’t get to go to the store because she fell asleep, complaining about money, her weight, crying, and saying she was going to kill herself. At 2:30 my clothes weren’t dry so I had to find something else to put on to go up to my great aunt Cynthia’s to take a shower. I hate taking showers here since there’s hardly any water and the tub is disgusting. After 3 my mom called and was harassing me to come back down. I was done, but Cynthia has a cloth shower curtain doesn’t have a liner, so water goes everywhere and I had to clean it up. When I came back down my clothes still weren’t dry, my mother was still yelling, so I was in a horrible, horrible mood. I didn’t even want to go at this point. But by 3:40 my clothes were dry enough, Cyndy came, and we left.

When we got to the convention center it was packed we didn’t get a parking space anywhere near the place. Inside there were people everywhere. And they’re all so stupid. No one pays attention to what they’re doing. There’s packs of people everywhere trying to walk, and some people are just standing in the middle of the floor chatting, or looking off into the distance instead of where they’re walking, so it was really hard to get anywhere. The first thing we did was eat. We looked around a bit, and then Cyndy got some Haluski from Ukraine stand. Haluski is noodles and cabbage. I didn’t think I would like it because I hate strong or harsh flavored things, and vegetables often are, but it wasn’t bad. The cabbage was very mild tasting. Then I had a pierogi, from either the Poland or Ukraine stand. It’s like a dumpling, a couple different things can be in them, but the one I had was plain, just washed potatoes inside. It was wonderful. I wish I could’ve had more, but I couldn’t ask Cyndy. I wanted to try potato pancakes from the Carpatho-Rusyn, but once again I couldn’t ask Cyndy, in case I didn’t like it. After that I had a couple bites of palacinke from Croatia, and a couple bites of fudge rum biscuit, I don’t know where that was from. I didn’t really like either. Palacinke is like crepe filled with either fruit or a type of cream. It had a strange taste, and the fudge rum biscuit was like eating cookie dough. I also would have like to have known that the cookie was fudge rum beforehand. I know it doesn’t have a lot of rum in it, but I’d prefer to ingest no alcohol at all.

We missed many performances in the afternoon, though luckily two of them (India and Philippines) performed again later on. We saw the end of the Slovakian performance, the Ukrainian one, then after an hour long intermission India, Philippines, Vietnam, and Lebanon. China, one that I had wanted to see and missed earlier, was performing again too late, so I never got to see it. Predictably, the Indian one had at least one Bollywood number. Their last dance could have been one as well, or just a generic pop song. The main problem with all the performances is that they lacked style and heart. Everyone was doing the movements of the dance, but not really putting any effort or feeling into it. The Bollywood one was okay, but the girls were young, it probably would have been better with women. The second one had the adults instead of teens and preteens, but it was slower, and had a lot of the typical Indian dance hand movements. Then the men came on, and they were the most energetic of them all. Most of them were really into it. At the end the two groups did like a cheerleader pyramid, but the back group fell down. Philippines was after that, and I was really looking forward to them. We saw them rehearsing earlier on, and they were great. They also did three dances. The first was with those finger things, like in The King and I (I know that’s Thailand), the second was a dance with the way the girls could wear a certain item of clothing (don’t ask me what it was called), and the third was the one we had seen earlier, and I was really looking forward to. They were probably the best out of everyone, and the audience seemed to like it. There were several long sticks being moved around on the floor (said to represent bamboo), with either the girl, then a couple girls, next a guy, and the first girl and the guy moving between them. It was probably called Singkil. I tried to find the best representations of what I saw so they would be here, here, here, and here. It was a small group of young people like the first, but were as talented as the third. Even though there’s more people (there was a single set of “bamboo” sticks), the third one is closest to what I saw. Vietnam was next, and they also did very well. Apparently, it was their first time there too. The music was good, the dancing was good, and there was a little bit of acrobatics. They only did one dance, with three girls and four guys, and the woman said it was about a girl going a temple, a right of passage kind of song. After that Lebanon came on, and they were okay, India was definitely ahead of them. They had a short performance too, and I was surprised when they danced to Shakira’s Eyes Like Yours. I guess it has Arabic in it, but still…

There was going to be a 40 minute or so intermission after that, so we got some cookies for Cynthia from somewhere near the Ukraine stand, not sure which country, and Carpatho-Rusyn. Cynthia had given me some money, so I got a few things from the China stand, a small stand thing with a scenery design on it, a cricket made out of ribbon and wire, and a purple lipstick case. I don’t wear lipstick, but it was pretty. I was waiting a while to pay for it though, and had to wait for Cyndy to get there to get their attention. I’m not the most assertive person. Then the woman said the Chinese guy that was there could write something on the back of the stand for me. I didn’t really want to, who knows if they’re really writing what they say they are and not “stupid white person” or something. But I felt forced to. I didn’t want my name, so I chose “joy”. “Hell bitch” would be more appropriate, I’m not the nicest or most joyful person, but I would like to know and not have it done behind my back.

I got back after 8 and was dead tired and had a headache from all the loud music. PBS is begging again, and I didn’t think I could stay up for Bloody Reunion on Sundance Channel’s Asia Extreme, so I tried to go to sleep but still couldn’t. Then after 10:30 my mom called. I was in the bathroom the first time, but called back, then it stopped ringing and there was a click. A couple minutes later she called again and I answered it, but she didn’t say anything back. I just heard background noise for about 10 seconds, then there was a click again. A few minutes later she called again and said “llel lelelelu”. When I asked her again she managed to say “let me in”. She hasn’t stayed home in I don’t know how long, and the time she does come home, she’s drunk. I was stressed out again, so I don’t know when I got to sleep. Probably after 1:30 AM.

I saw my mom briefly yesterday, and as she was leaving he was calling her again. She works late tonight, so I don’t know if I’ll see her today.

As for the title, I hate doing blog titles, but it refers to the fact that there was no Korean stand at the folk fest, or Japanese for that matter. I don’t know why, our Asian population isn’t exactly small.