Last weekend I went to
Veishea, an annual festival of various events and activities. That day was so fun for me. On Friday evening, I hung out with Tyas, checking out Welch Avenue where we were watching slam dunk contest, battle of the bands, and eating some foods sold in the food stalls along Welch. The street was blocked for the festival. Saturday morning, I went to see the parade in front of Beardshear Hall. The floats were awesome with big balloon and big happy celebration atmosphere. I also went to Great Hall to the International Food Fair, checking out mango milkshake of India, noodles of the Phillipines and of course Indonesian gourmet. After that, I was heading the martial arts demonstrations with some Indonesians. Andres, one of our friends, performed Tae Kwon Do, but I missed that. However, I managed to see the rest of the demo and I was impressed. After that I went to see the latin dance. Cha (a Turkey friend from IFF program) and Gustavo (one of fulbrighters) took part in the dance performance.
pics by Iowa State Daily
In the evening, Alan Hertz invited me to go to Boheme Bistro for latin dance. We met at Welch Ave and waited for some more friends to join us. The band was blue grass band, not my type of music, but I had to wait for Alan to say 'let's go'. At 11 PM, we left for Boheme on foot. Little did I know that if I stayed until midnight, I would have been stuck in the riot.
Riot? Yes,
riot. In Ames, where I thought that such violence would never happen, a riot took place. And the reason for the riot was really silly, stupid and out of my rationality, unlike in Indonesia, where riots happened because of political or economic reasons. It was because a bunch of underage drinkers felt bad after the police disbanded their party. So stupid!
pics by Iowa State Daily
This is my first Veishea, and probably will the last one. Too bad, as the event has been in Ames since 1922. Too bad....
