I told you that it’s that time of year, so of course I made a trip to the local source in search of perfection.

And this is what it looks like on the plant. These chilis (I’m sorry, but this spelling looks wrong to me, but not to auto correct. I always write it “chile”, so these would be red chile, but I am getting the message from our machine overlords that this is wrong.) are fully ripe, but I like the flavor of the green ones better, they’re so delicious.

There they are in all their fresh-picked glory. And behind them are jars of sauces made with these. (It is also sometimes spelled “chilli” and autocorrect also does not like this spelling.)

As you can see, the farmer himself has it spelled this way. (Take that autocorrect.) When freeze dried this is one ounce of deliciousness (yes I avoided saying the word.)

But why limit oneself to eating this delicious vegetable. Now one can also imbibe the spicy goodness of this pepper. However you spell it, this is a worthy crop (die autocorrect!)

Sometimes it’s a good idea to get out of town and do something different, (it is equally true that this can be a bad idea) but I had an invite and so off I went.

And this was the reason, a little pomp and circumstance of graduation. It was interesting compared to the last one I went to in the South. Ladies in the South were quite dressed up, wearing hats, high heels and a lot of makeup. This was more Birkenstock and tennis shoe territory, which is more my style.

There is a municipal rose garden near said University. For some reason my city lacks this amenity.

If one is going to drive an electric car, this is the way to do it. One of my friends asked the rhetorical question “Who really needs to go from zero to sixty in under three seconds?” The answer of course, is “me”; because it’s a lot of fun.

This was the most enigmatic stop on this trip. Yes, this is a fast food hamburger place. Our number was 92 and they were serving number 50. Why is this so popular? I have no idea, but it apparently gives one a mystical hamburger experience. (There is one in my town and it is always busy.) I am not from there , so I don’t get it, but it’s part of the mystique of the area, like sourdough bread.

I did mention earlier that travel can be a bad idea, and I caught a virus (or it caught me) and have been sick, but it was still overall, a great time.

So I had to go to this college town for a graduation, and I must say it brought back a lot of memories of being a university student. (I am currently a college student again, but this school started as a commuter college, so it doesn’t have this vibe).

Where I live now there are a lot of chain restaurants and they all seem to be somewhat pricey. But in a college town there are lots of poor students, and inexpensive, good places to eat. (I am amazed that a student hangout from my first uni is now listed as must see place in current city guides). So this place was a small strip mall with a tinier parking lot, We didn’t go to the hamburger joint, we ate at the Mediterranean fusion place next door. It was fabulous and cheap, just the sort of place my town lacks (one can get a hamburger anywhere).

This was what passed for a kitchen in an Airbnb rental and it has the sort of essentials that a student might need (although you have to admit, an ironing board kitchen is unique). I don’t remember cooking much when I was previously a student, booze and snacks were much more important.

But there’s not much room for anything in this compact kitchen, although it’s probably big enough.

This college town has the other prerequisite, a football team, and there are images everywhere in case one forgets the mascot. Several folks were wearing team shirts when we went out for a late night snack (also inexpensive).

There is a large supply in this town of the sort of funky student housing that I remember so well. Nostalgia only carries one so far however. Would I actually like to live like this again? Probably not, but it was great fun to relive this for a brief moment, and to appreciate that I am not a poor college student any more.

Well, I’m finally getting more bold about attending student events, so, when I got a message about this event I decided to show up.

I whipped out my student ID at the door (because of course I am not even close to college age) and they gave me this lovely tee shirt. I had missed out on the food, which was gone in minutes (or less). (It pays to get there early). 😉

This event was put on by the university for the Asian-Pacific Island Students Association(a DEI organization) . I missed the marital arts demo, but these ladies were playing Japanese Taiko drums. They made everyone get up and dance at one point, so it was quite hilarious.

The next group also had drums and added cymbals. They promised to be loud and they did deliver on this.

And they were playing for these Chinese Foo Dog dancers. A Foo Dog is a guardian lion ( yes I know this is a contradiction) and is a symbol of protection and prosperity. I suppose I had never considered how much work goes into this, they need to be strong, athletic and fit. The back person spends a lot of time tail wagging, but then has to lift up the front person, which was impressive.

I left after the end of the performance and as I walked to the car, I noticed that several of the cars had parking tickets, these probably belonged to these performers. So I hope that they don’t remove their good wishes for the students, the university is on it’s own.

So I found out right after the New Year that the local university offered a class in Korean. Classes hadn’t started yet so I decided to go back to school, after all I had gone there previously, how hard could it be? As it turned out, it was a bit of work, my university said they had no record of me, yet I have a diploma, a ring and get the alumni magazine. Someone had merely typed in the wrong date of birth and if I show up with two forms of ID they will correct this. But I did eventually get enrolled and here I am a college student once again.

And here is the campus. The site was once home to a tuberculosis hospital back when there was only pure mountain air to breathe and with a lovely view of the mountain (the mountain is unchanged). There were also coal mines somewhere nearby, and the mine entrances are now gone (I hope).

This bit is the old TB sanitarium. The windows were formerly just screened in, so that one could have fresh air all year long on the theory that this could cure one. And sometimes it did.

Most of the newer buildings look something like this, rectangular boxes with lots of glass, stuffed with classrooms and faculty offices.

And this is what one can look at, if one is lucky enough to have a view. My classroom is in a small (I guess that administration didn’t think Korean would be this popular) interior room.

Oh yeah, there are all sorts of activities and clubs to keep students amused. And now that I have a student ID I can get a discount at the movies, etc,

I don’t think that these birds had bothered to register, but they were clearly in control of this patch of lawn, so I went the other way. (There’s always some sort of school bullies! Some things never change.) It’s an interesting adventure.

Let me state right off the bat that I am not really the ladies luncheon sort of person. I am not crazy about making small talk with people I don’t know well, and I have an idiosyncratic decorating style. The last one of these that I attended was years ago and I remember it as being no fun. So why was I here? A friend asked me to do a dinosaur themed table, and how could I refuse? What this meant was that we were to decorate a table in a festive manner for a Christmas luncheon and provide some sort of party favor.

This woman said it took her about 15 minutes to decorate from things that she had just laying about! (For some reason, I don’t have gold chargers and seasonal decorations to hand.) Those are little sewed pockets with candy to take home.

Here’s another person who just whipped out the seasonal decorations. It is optional, but encouraged to give everyone at the table a little present, so these people were getting a pumpkin.

This person chose to jump two holidays ahead to New Years Day, and again just happened to have gold and silver chargers to hand. But wait, what’s that in the background?

Why it’s the table for overthinkers/overachievers. Those are my personal dinosaurs. The fabric she chose had dinosaurs wearing hats and scarves and decorated with flowers. I will admit I did already have some tiny hats to hand, but for the rest I crocheted and knitted tiny hats and scarves. Under the nametag is a cinnamon dino ornament I baked and I provided a tiny dinosaur as a party favor. We baked and iced the cookies together and she made incomplete place mats from the dino fabric. The plates are paper. She forgot the Christmas tree and substituted a pineapple. The ornaments were from London.

This was massively stressful as I do not know the rules of ladies luncheons and I am disinclined to learn more about them. Instead I shall consider this as an anthropologic visit to another culture. And I shall endeavor to remember this and never ever repeat the experience.

However, I admit that the dinosaurs look splendid and they were fun to dress up. And I learned to make fancy cookies (special thanks to K for the lesson). And of course I think that our table was the finest, because the dinosaurs dressed for dinner.

I have a love of fairs and carnivals and I have been attending various ones for years and years. Yes, they are a commercial enterprise, and are often somewhat cheesy, but their reason for being is to entertain, and that can’t be all bad?

What is more fun or scarier than a mobile ride that was bolted together by an itinerant worker?

And where can one purchase such items except at a fair? Why one would purchase such items? Because one is at a fair!

And it is indeed a “fried fantasy” of food that is available at the fair. These vendors spend all winter during their off season to try and think of new things to dip in batter and fry. None of these offerings are noted for their nutritional value before being dunked in oil, but that is part of the appeal, I guess. Also available are unusual meats, like alligator on a stick. All of these things are best consumed with a group a friends who may or may not be sober.

This was my favorite booth, which was handing out free samples of roasted green chile wrapped in a flour tortilla (free being the best price to enjoyment ratio).

People have been holding fairs since the beginning of recorded time, usually to celebrate a harvest or some event. This fair has been in existence since 1872 and I hope that this sort of entertainment continues on into the unknown future. (Not pictured are bull riding, concerts, beauty contests for animals and sundry other events of the fair).