June 24th; The only time that a crowded public event is on is the only time that it doesn’t rain. It’s also the first one we’ve been really late to.
We started out having a lazy morning. We are pro-active teenagers and hence treasure every moment we have overseas. Every moment past twelve noon. Kate and I went to the Post Office to send some things home. This isn’t just any Post Office either. This is the Post Office, about the size of the Pantheon but a bit bleaker inside. A great, garish columned thing with the motto pasted across the top of the building. You know, ‘Neither Rain Nor Snow Nor Gloom of Night Will Stay These Couriers From Their Appointed Rounds.’ Something like that anyway. I wish that one day I may have such a tough sounding motto.
A note to Spav, if you are reading. I walked eighteen blocks in the rain to get you a present to send home! The guy tried to sell me an umbrella but it was too late. It won’t be a huge surprise either since you asked for it about two months ago. We spent about an hour standing in line and wandering around filling out forms and putting boxes together and cramming things in to boxes and getting confused. Maybe we should have found a normal sized post-office? No, no, that would not have the same style. Eventually we got to the front of the line and the lady gave us a huge box instead of our two smaller ones, a roll of sticky tape and a few customs forms. I filled the forms out poorly, Kate taped the box to hell after we’d ripped apart the two others (not paid for! The desk lady didn’t mind), and we jumped back in line. She pulled me forward and I sent it off whilst Kate was doing something with postcards.
We met up with my brother somewhere and then headed to our old hostel to grab our French friend Lea, sometimes called ‘Frenchy’. The concert was right next to the hostel so it was not much of a walk. It was quite a surprise when we walked on to the Great Lawns and found a good few thousand people already set up and waiting. The level of surprise was in fact equal with the level of lame. We ended up walking through huge crowds of people and interrupting their romantic dinners searching for a place to lay down my picnic blanket. We ended up about halfway down the Lawns, which is in fact a really long way. Still, we set up our kit and waited. I lay down. The boys made noise. That was it for a while.
They did their little tests and warm ups, which played through the speakers. ‘These guys are rubbish,’ I said. The music started as it was getting dark. They were really quite good. They did all sorts of songs, all of which I know by ear but can’t remember any of the names. I appreciate the finer things in life. I just can’t be bothered cataloging and numbering them all. Names for example. Names are particularly fine. I just can’t remember all of them. Some of my friends’ names, for example. Anyone else I meet, I don’t remember their names. Doesn’t mean they’re not fine.
It finished with some fireworks. They weren’t anything spectacular, but people in the US seem to love ‘Ooohing’ and ‘Aaaahing’. Every single bang got one of those. It was kind of weird to see a crowd react in such a hugely different way to what you’re used to. It was kind of tame, in fact. We dropped Frenchy off and headed back to the hostel. We needed to pack for the tour the next morning. Early o’clock start!
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