Today is a gift...that's why it's called the PRESENT

I started typing this on Sunday night.
Two days later I finished.
It's really long.

This weekend was so much fun; I really enjoyed it! Saturday morning was a great start to it all. I made my way though town to attend the ‘Celebration of Cultures’ at Centennial Park. ‘Celebration of Cultures’ is an event that commemorates and embraces the diversity in this area. This was a fun-filled morning with music, dance, food, children activities, shopping, and an educational component called “The Global Village.” There were so many people—at least thousands. Many natives dressed in clothing appropriate for their country and others, like me, just enjoying the event. As I was trying to find a parking spot I knew this event was going to be huge; I’m sure it was harder to find a spot than it was for Vandy’s game.

My first stop was the Global Village. I traveled through the Latin American countries first. I learned many random facts like; the lamb is shown in Puerto Rico’s official seal. I also watched a man from Japan make herbal green tea without a teapot—so cool. Lots of children were dressing up in authentic Indian costumes and posing for pictures, among much more.

Then I was getting hungry, rather than being adventurous and trying Ethiopian, Mediterranean or Vietnamese Cuisine—just to name a few—I settled on Italian. Gotta love pizza. There were many mariachi bands and drum players amid many other musical talents lining the streets making music as people ate. I also had a Mexican Popsicle from Las Paletas, a gourmet Popsicle place local to Nashville. They are kinda famous and very delicious. They make all there Popsicles with whole fruit and fresh ingredients. They have even been on the Food Chanel. If any of you come visit me, I’ll buy you a Las Paletas Popsicle.

Next on my agenda was shopping. Oh shopping. There were handmade hemp jewelry, bags, curtains, and baskets from Japan. There was Pottery from Puru. There were African carvings, fabrics, jewelry, blankets, and drums... the list goes on and on. I bought myself a cool African bag and headband!

All in all, it was a great day. I really enjoyed it!

Saturday night after work I was thinking about my sign language class. I remembered that my roommate was staying home from church and thought maybe I would tryout one of the Deaf Churches my professor told us about—this way I would not have to recruit someone to join me or go to church by myself. When I was walking though the lobby I ran into my RA who is also in my sign language class. I asked her if she would be interested in going to one of the Deaf Churches with me. She agreed and we picked one.

Morning rolls around with my alarm ringing way to early. Our paper stated that that worship started at 10:00 AM. We needed to leave by 9:30 to make it there with plenty of time. I get the address of the church off the computer and plug it into my GPS (Thanks Grandma Pat and PA). Both Amanda and I were a little apprehensive—not because we feared talking to the deaf people (we were excited about that) but because the web site did not acknowledge it was indeed a deaf church.

We arrive with time to spare to find the parking lot full of cars but no people around. We enter the church and find our way to the sanctuary. We thankfully pick up a bulletin as we walk in. We see the sanctuary filled with people and the preacher already speaking. We grab seats in the back and open up our bulletin. Worship started at nine; no one is signing; and we are confused. We continue to read and find that the Deaf Worship Service is held at 10:30. Alright, so we are feeling better about the situation. We’ll just wait until this service ends and ours will start. As the pastor was about to close he welcomed the guest and told them to stop by the welcome center for a free Starbucks give card. (woo hoo) He said, “While you enjoy a cup of coffee this coming week, think of us.” Needless to say, there were about fifteen minutes before our deaf service started so we went to claim our Starbucks gift card. We found that without a problem.

We then fallowed the signs to the chapel where our bulletin claimed the service should be; but when we got there we were the only ones. Very confused again we make our way back to the main statuary to see if it’s in there. It is not. Back to the empty chapel we went. A few minutes later, we decide to walk back over to the welcome center to ask someone where the Deaf Church is. The man we ran into walked us back to the empty chapel and then to their empty Sunday school room. He was very apologetic when he told us he had no idea where the deaf people were.

So we left.
And we went to Starbucks.
The end.