"It's a parade of retards!"

Current Stockholm time: Saturday, July 8, 2006, 11:55AM.

I'm sure that'll offend someone...
Anyway, here I am, sitting by the window of the last row of seats of an Airbus A320 waiting to fly to London. My time in Herräng is over and I'm so glad I went! I'd love to stay longer, but I'm ready to go home and rest... but first, there's still London and Paris.

The plane's taxiing, so I'll continue in a bit.

So now I'm on my way to Heathrow for the second (of three) times this trip. I feel I should warn you that this will probably be another long entry.

Let's start with an observation. Dancers aren't like normal people. That's nothing new. In this case, it's clapping as an audience. I'm not talking about clapping on the two for a jam or something, but clapping in general. We'll still clap on the two. It's a surreal experience when you first realize that the entire crowd is clapping to an unheard beat. That just doesn't usually happen with non-dancers without prompting.

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Thursday night, there was a shim sham class being taught in one of the tents (the Savoy Ballroom). I wandered over to it with a few friends. Since we already knew the shim sham, we were just standing outside watching. I ended up demoing the Dean Collins shim sham for them (friends, not the class).

Later, when the class was finishing, we joined in for the runs. We ended up in front, facing the students, since that was where the room was. I was in front of a crowd, on vacation, and feeding off the energy of the camp, so I was dancing BIG and putting on a show. It was awesome fun! After a couple runs, class ended and people started to dissipate, and we danced a few more songs with the teachers; Gilbert, Cathy, and Todd. Dancing with the teachers, going HUGE (ginormous, even) and having an audience (all to faster music) is too much fun! I just wish I had thought to get someone to video us... and me, in particular. They (I sat out) also did the Jitterbug Stroll and the Big Apple. I've got a video of most of the Big Apple.

Later that night was the Cabaret, with acts put on by various camp-goers. It was a great show, but there's one thing I regret. At the end, all the people from the various acts did the shim sham and they asked if anybody wanted to join them on stage. I SO should have, but hesitated too long. Next time, next time...

Oh, I also regret not submitting my idea for an act, where a group of us quietly walk onto the stage, face the audience, bow, and walk off. It's a short act, but good.

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Friday night, my last night in Herräng. It was a big Mardi Gras party. I wore my red Herräng shirt and my Canada flag as a 'skirt' (I wore pants under.) to get the bright colours. There were some crazy and rather disturbing costumes, mostly involving a few guys exposing more than needed or wanted. One guy wore a full body stocking kind of thing. (Thank god he wore shorts underneath!)

Chazz Young was dressed as a king, and I've got a picture with me kneeling beside him. I had a little conversation with him before that so I didn't look too goofy... only mostly.


After some festivities around the tents, we formed the parade to the Folkets Hus where the dance would be held. Patrick described it as a 'parade of retards' wandering around Herräng. It seemed very apt. There were 'many' locals on the side of the roads with cameras in hand.

Ahhh, good times, good times.

That is all.