Frog Racing and the Weekend

On Friday night, Mike and Judy picked me and drove me to the Baginton Town Hall for our Rotary club's charity Frog Racing Contest. I've heard about frog racing, but all I knew about it was that it did not involve real frogs, thank goodness! Baginton is about twenty minutes from Stratford-upon-Avon, and it's a very small village. On the way, we passed an "allotment," which I had never seen or heard of before. An allotment is a big field of land that is divided into small sections that people can buy and use to grow vegetables, flowers, etc. Since land and property in England is very expensive (because it's an island, there's only a set amount of land), most people have small yards, if they have any yard at all. They can buy part of an allotment if they want to have land to grow food or flowers. Don't forget, though..."yard" is very lower class...what we in the States call yards, people in England call gardens. The allotment that we drove by was about the size of a football field, and there were about twenty or thirty sections of land split up...some growing vegetables, some growing flowers, some bare. I thought it was pretty interesting, and this was the first time I've ever heard of anything like it. At the town hall, my entire Rotary club was there, plus many of their family members and two other scholars, Gustav and Rinko - I really like both of them a lot! We had a big dinner of lasagna, chilli, and bread, and then the frog racing began. I really wish I had remembered to bring my camera, because it would be much easier if I could show a picture instead of describing it, but I'll try! Two people stand across from each other, about twenty yards apart. There's a rope inbetween them, and they each hold one end. A wooden cut-out in the shape of a frog is strung through the rope. Both people are sitting down, and you have to get the frog from one end of the rope to the other by jiggling the string...no standing, and you have to keep the frog on the ground. It's pretty difficult! There were six rows, so six teams (two people per team) competed at once. The people watching placed bets on the teams. We had six races, and I competed in two of them. The youngest lady in our club, Lorna, (she's in her late thirties) was my partner during one of the last races, and we won! :) It was great! After the contests, we had a raffle, and I got to be the person who called out the ticket numbers. It was a fun night! It almost reminded me of Sunday school parties or get-togethers back home...everyone talking and eating and laughing. It's so neat to think that while we're in Mississippi having friends over for supper, or having a party, there are people in towns all over the world doing the exact same thing...it makes the world seem so big! This weekend, Marfo, Cat, and I had a housemate dinner and went to a restaurant called Ask on Saturday night. It was really fun! We stayed there for almost two and a half hours, just talking and eating. Marfo's brother is a lawyer in Athens, and I'm trying to convince him to let me come work for him one summer! Whenever he calls Marfo, I always tell her to tell my future boss hello! He just laughs, but we'll see what happens! :) Monday was a bank holiday, which basically means no one has to work, and all the stores closed around four p.m. It was a beautiful day, though. I ran some errands, and just sat by the river and read for awhile. I took some pictures of Stratford, and I'm going to post them soon! Last night, some of my friends had a party, which was really fun. Tonight, Cat and I are going to get pizza and then see a movie. She's working part time at the cinema because she's going to be here until September, and she gets a free guest pass, so I'm her guest! Hooray! Tomorrow or Thursday, I really want to take a day trip. I think I'm going to go to the Peak District, which is a little north of here. It's the area where the filmed "Pride and Prejudice" starring Keira Knightley. And two weeks from today, Jennings and Mary Brook will be here! I'm so excited! :)