Frenchfest fun.

I hope I didn't already blog about this...

Like a few weeks ago I went to the annual Frenchfest in downtown Milwaukee (which is the largest French-themed festival in the United States!). A couple friends from college said I should go do the 9pm "Storm the Bastille" 5K fun run through the city streets, esp. b/c at many watering points people in the crowd hand out beer and not water, but they themselves couldn't do it becase both were having back problems.

So, I did it myself, along with like 4000 other people...

In the minutes counting down to the run, some local radio hosts were asking people to raise their hands in response to different questions.

"Who here is drunk?", and a lot of runners raised their hands.

"Who's had at least 3 beers?", and most of the people kept their hands up.

"Who was drinking wine?", and a few middle-aged women in work-out shorts raised their hand.

"Now who speaks French?", and when a few people raised their hand, the radio hostess added, "You guys can go to the front!", and when a couple people started moving, she was like, "Just kidding."

The run was pretty uneventful, though I had to stop and rest like 3 times, because it was a really hot and humid night and there was almost no breeze... I still finished in like 32 minutes, though.

Most people ran seriously, though some girls dressed up like chefs in wife beaters and tall white hats and had magic-marker black twirly moustaches on their faces, and wooden spoons in their hands.

Some other girls also ran into a bar to take shots, I saw at one point as I ran past them.

When I finished the run, I went to meet my friends from college with the backproblems over by this giant replica of the Eiffel Tower that students from the local engineering college built, and I had a beer and then we went to go listen to some music... There was this very dark French colonial guy with a guitar on one stage, and he sang slow, melancholic covers of pop songs like ABBA's "Winner Takes It All", and always in French.

Nearby was a charcuterie, too, and I got a $2 big homemade sausage that I had with my beer...

Later when my friends left because they had work early the next morning, I stopped by the Brazilian steakhouse booth and got some garlic steak kebabs and wandered around the French Fest, which was mostly music stages, and I thought about what I would do if I was in charge of Frenchfest...