Late snow

The weather the last few days has been odd to say the least, started out with thunderstorms tuesday early morning, and continued off and on through the day. Turned to freezing rain as the sun went down, and then to snow. We in River Falls got a good deal, not sure how much, but past ankle depth. Several schools have closed in the Twin Cities due to it, and it's a very heavy snow too. This probably won't help with the flooding issues the rivers south of here have been dealing with. I know it's technically spring, but i can't wait until it really feels like it.

Life in a small rural town

Taken before the St. Patrick's Day events, but didn't have anything to do with the events, it's just a relatively common sight in a small rural town, a large tractor (or other farm equipment) driving down main slowly. Not too fun getting stuck behind them while on the road though, so many no passing zones and they go so slowly.

On another note, there are a lot more pictures of St. Patrick's Day in a set on my Flickr. Probably won't post many of them here like i've been doing of the other events, but who knows.

St. Patrick's Day Bed Races

Thursday was St. Patrick's Day, and in the evening there were 'bed races' by various groups. This group kind of bent the rules, which were three wheels, but didn't mean they all had to be on the ground. Didn't help them though, i don't think they won as they kept pulling to one side or the other. The beds raced down one side of the street, the main street is split down the middle with trees and parking, then they shot hoops at the end, then raced back up the other side.

The day started out really warm for this time of year, and very sunny, as the rain seemed to not even get near here, but it started getting really cold as the sun started going down. There were a lot of people who didn't seem to realize how cold it feel, as they were not wearing jackets and some even were in shorts.

UW-RF International Bazaar 2011: H2DC

Not sure if H2DC is the band they are dancing to or the routine, but their outfits were colorful and htey did a fun dance. They were also the last event of the night, so this is the end of the International Bazaar posts, as usual you can see all that i posted in a set on my flickr.

Side note, thursday there are St. Patrick's Day events downtown, and while it warmed up nicely in the last day or two, they are predicting rain, so i'm not sure if they will go on or not. I guess if pictures of them appear after this, they did.

Video of the start of the H2DC dance:

UW-RF International Bazaar 2011: Hmong Dance

Here is the Hmong dance portion, please ignore the out of focus part at the beginning of the video. I loved the colors of the outfits, and the dance was lovely.

UW-RF International Bazaar 2011: Eien (BoA)

Here the dance team perform the song Eien by BoA (at least that's what's on the program, i don't really know the band or song enough to say really).

UW-RF International Bazaar 2011: Magic Trick

After the previous act, the next group wasn't ready, so the one presenter decided to pass the time with a magic trick. He had someone come up from the audience and pick a card. Then had her show it to the audience, put it back in the deck, and then put the deck in his mouth. Here he is showing the wrong card, after which he did some other things, and then eventually pulled the correct card out of his mouth. He has quite a bit of flair to his act and is quite funny too.

UW-RF International Bazaar 2011: La Adelita and El Marabino

La Adelita and El Marabino by Rogelio Carrera, with video below.
Not feeling so hot, so keeping this short.

UW-RF International Bazaar 2011: Oendan

Here are the Japanese students doing oendan, which is essentially Japanese cheerleading. I had camera troubles right before this, as i switched to a different memory card right before this, and it gave me errors a little bit after they started, and had to format it again, so i lost a lot of the shots of them.

Before the clip, i'd like to say my thoughts and hopes are with the Japanese exchange students and people there. The earthquake and it's after effects are just seeming to get worse as time goes on. From what i know, most of the local students are from south Japan, so hopefully their families are all safe, i do have pen palls up north though, in Tokyo and farther, and thankfully they all seem to be okay.

UW-RF International Bazaar 2011: Chinese Song Combo

Here is a Chinese Song Combo singing a song i have no clue the name of, but they were good. They started on the main stage, then moved to the protrusion to finish up. Made for difficult lighting, but they did a good job.

UW-RF International Bazaar 2011: Purple Love

Here are Jackson Chung and Becky Ji singing Purple Love. I didn't get so many good shots or video of them as they were at the edge of the stage and not lit very well. The song was good and they did a great job, but the lighting was a problem.

UW-RF International Bazaar 2011: AKB48

Here are some of the Japanese students dancing to a song by AKB48, again with a short clip below. Which song, i have no idea, but it was amusing. Not sure if it was exactly para para dancing, but it reminded me of what i've seen of that.

UW-RF International Bazaar 2011: La Bikina

Here is Carlos Baez singing a song called La Bikina. I forget what country he was from, or what the song was about, sorry about that, but here is a sample of it below.

UW-RF International Bazaar 2011: Taiwanese Song and Dance

Here is the Taiwanese Song and Dance group, who started out in winter jackets, singing a slower song, then the lights went down and they performed in the dark with lights and the jackets off to a more energetic song. 

Here is a bit of video edited together to show a bit of the performances. I did have some issues with either the camera or memory card, and it would only let me get short clips. 

UW-RF International Bazaar 2011: Fashion Show

The first part of the night was the fashion show, here being the Japanese part demonstrated by two Japanese students. They had a nice runway that came out from the stage a good way, but it was also frustrating that the lighting wasn't consistent over the whole stage and runway, it made exposure and white balance a nightmare.

UW-RF International Bazaar 2011: Announcers

After the food, people moved to the Falcon's Nest, and here are the two announcers that bantered back and forth between groups. They were pretty funny and played off each other and the audience.

UW-RF International Bazaar 2011: Dining Room

Here is a hint at how many people were at the International Bazaar, and the balloons that seemed to keep getting in my way of shots. Of course i brought the lens that wasn't wide enough to get a good shot of the whole room, but still, a good show of the crowd.

UW-RF International Bazaar 2011

Last night was the 2011 University of Wisconsin River Falls International Bazaar, which kind of took me by surprise, as last year it was at the beginning of April and closer to the Unity in the Community event, which this year is in the second half of April. You can't tell from this photo of two of the Korean (i think, going by the food they were serving, but i thought it was Japanese dress) students (River Falls actually has quite a few foreign students for it's size, and from what i have heard it's because the TOEFL requirements are not as hard as Madison or similar schools, and there are quite a few foreign students, which makes for nice diversity in such a small town.), but the crowd was quite large, larger than the other times i've gone. The food tickets, which were free but they used them to make sure they had enough food, were "sold out" quite some time before the doors opened and they had people wait to see if some didn't show up. The second part of the event, which took place in the Falcon's Nest, has a good deal more people than seats, i've never seen that before. The seats down below were all filled, the seats in the balcony were full and there were a good deal of people standing and watching. Quite impressive. They also moved the fashion show from the ballroom where the food is, like it was last year, to the Falcon's Nest, probably a good move, with so many people.

Side note here, i find it funny that the one girl is serving with one hand, and checking her cellphone with the other. I have issues with anxiety and phones, so i tend to avoid cell phones unless necessary, and find it interesting how many younger people are seemingly permanently attached to cellphones. Being born in 1970, i remember wandering around town (a small town of 800 or so people, though) without a way to contact people, and talking to a friend who has a pre-teen child he mentioned he has one. At least he isn't one who is running up four or five figure bills texting like i've read about. Technology sure does seem to be changing things quickly lately, or i've just not been paying attention.