Straight from the Butt of the Cochon!
Thanksgiving break is finally here!!!! I actually got finished early because I have the same professor, Dr. Aizawa, on Thursday and Friday and he is touring internationally talking about his new book that he wrote. So, I have had some time to rest before heading to Lafayette!
My good friend Aimee, a senior biology major, lives in Broussard, which is right outside of Lafayette. The Saturday and Sunday before Thanksgiving was a HUGE community fair that benefits a church and school in Broussard. Now, before going Aimee had told me a little bit about who goes to the community fair, what events take place, and just a bit about what kind of culture shock I might be in. I disregarded a lot of what she said because I have been to Lafayette before, I went to Mardi Gras my freshman year and thought that I had seen it all. I was wrong...
When I first arrived at the fair I was greeted with a confetti egg over my head by Lindsey Sheppard (Lindsey and I rode with Aimee down to the fair). From this point forward I knew that it was going to be interesting, to say the least.
The ground covered in confetti egg pieces, it was crazy how much confetti there was!
Walking up to the fair I continually heard an announcer yelling "Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey!" followed by a very impressive turkey gobble. One of the big events at the community fair is a raffle that sells 60 tickets about every ten minutes and raffles off a turkey, ham, or bucket of groceries. The announcer spins a wheel and someone is guaranteed to win every time. The announcer was incredibly entertaining and when they were raffling off a ham he would yell "Get your ham, straight from the butt of the cochon!" followed by a grunting pig sound. Cochon means 'pig' in French and is a popular French word used in Southern Louisiana. The way that the announcer said it was hilarious and made me laugh all 500 times that I heard it (I am not exaggerating).
The announcer, wheel of numbers, and the stage that was set-up for the raffle.
There were people sitting there for hours trying to win enough groceries, hams, and turkeys for Thanksgiving. Somehow you get drawn into the wheel and you just can't leave until you win! The chance of winning drew us in and we became that person who sat and hoped that we would win something. After having some of the best gumbo and jambalaya I have ever had (not better than my mom's though!) Lindsey, Aimee, and I decided to try our luck at winning something again, preferably a ham. About $70 later and many hours we finally won!!!
We were getting so tired of not winning...
We were sooo excited to finally have a winning ticket!
After the first day of the fair we all went to visit our friend Lindsay Ezell who just had her tonsils removed. She is definitely braving through the pain and had a huge smile on her face, despite the pain that she was in. Her mom is an amazing cook and of course she fed us some amazing shrimp fettuccine. I hope Lindsay starts feeling better soon so that she can come back to school!
I had an absolute blast in Lafayette! Hanging out with Aimee in her hometown and meeting her extended family was awesome, they are so nice and I love the fun-loving attitude that people from southern Louisiana have.
We all headed back to Shreveport on Sunday and all of my Thanksgiving festivities began! I'll update you guys on that when I get back to school.
Thanks for tuning in!
Liz
