"Folk Lure"

The International Festival in Spartanburg

 I feel like the only word to describe the last few weeks is this: International

One weekend, we participated in the Greek Festival at a Greek Orthodox Church. It included dancing, gifts, and food. If I didn’t already love Greek food, any event that includes spanakopita and baklava is great in my book. Overall, it made me want to watch “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” terribly.

There was actually a wedding in the gazebo as we went by

Then the five people that work in my office and myself went on a staff retreat to the lake house of the boys’ psychologist. We were in Lake Lure, NC for less than 24 hours, but it was fun to get to know co-workers outside the office. And the psychologist was super nice and took us out on the boat to restaurants accessible by boat, though out on the water it was freezing cold! It was a much needed break from the office for sure.

*Fun fact: Lake Lure, NC is where the movie Dirty Dancing was filmed.

Yet another pic of Lake Lure

The next weekend was Spartanburg’s International Festival which again included gifts, dancing, and food; but also a parade of all of the countries represented. And my “food” I meant at least two dozen booths of cuisine ranging from Jamaica, Germany, Mexican, etc. I had Falafel from Jerusalem and (as if I didn’t get enough before) baklava. After we had had our fill of the event (which attracted 14,000+ people), the other VISTAs and I watched football. For 8 hours. After watching USC getting beat by Auburn (insert comment that illustrates I am neither distraught nor thrilled by this), we watched the Nebraska/ Wisconsin game. I can honestly say that I think that was the most football I have ever watched, including the fact that I went to every game in high school and home games in college. It's still the South alright J