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Marching Home From War
Aug. 21st, 2005 10:12 pmI have successfully survived my first Pennsic. It was heap big fun, even.
I still look rather like Pennsic, right now. The T-tunic dresses, veils, and big straw hat have been set aside, probably until next August, but I am now more tan than I have ever been in my adult life - dark enough that it actually looks vaguely like tan, instead of just like normal human skin. My hair has been sun-bleached almost back to its natural blonde state, my toenails are still embarrasingly dirty in spite of multiple scaldingly-hot showers, and I'll probably continue to smell like wood smoke for the next week.
War was.... impossible to describe in one paragraph, I suppose. I've been in the SCA long enough that I had some idea of what to expect, but still nothing could have prepared me for the immensity of the event. My days were busy enough that they verged on over-full, and I still didn't get the chance to do everything that I wanted to. I didn't get to see any of the battles, I didn't get to sit in camp and listen to stories and gossip as much as I would have liked, I didn't even get to walk all the way around the site.
On the other hand, I did get to do a remarkable amount of stuff. The classes I helped teach went fairly well, and were far less frightening than I had worried they would be. Going to the Indian dance class every morning was a wonderful way to make sure I woke up completely, and performing the dance twice was incredibly exciting. The European dance wasn't quite what I was expecting - in spite of trying to make it to the dance tent every night, I did remarkably little actual dancing there; either things had ended, hadn't started yet, or were in the middle of dying out most of the time.
Next year I'll know better; I'll figure out a couple of nights to devote entirely to dancing, and spend the rest actually passing time with friends and campmates instead of wandering away from them in the hopes of getting in one more dance. Next year I'll have more appropriate garb. And I'll make it all the way around the site. I'll watch at least one battle. I've got some ideas for classes I might teach, too.
Okay, I guess this means I'm going back next year....
I still look rather like Pennsic, right now. The T-tunic dresses, veils, and big straw hat have been set aside, probably until next August, but I am now more tan than I have ever been in my adult life - dark enough that it actually looks vaguely like tan, instead of just like normal human skin. My hair has been sun-bleached almost back to its natural blonde state, my toenails are still embarrasingly dirty in spite of multiple scaldingly-hot showers, and I'll probably continue to smell like wood smoke for the next week.
War was.... impossible to describe in one paragraph, I suppose. I've been in the SCA long enough that I had some idea of what to expect, but still nothing could have prepared me for the immensity of the event. My days were busy enough that they verged on over-full, and I still didn't get the chance to do everything that I wanted to. I didn't get to see any of the battles, I didn't get to sit in camp and listen to stories and gossip as much as I would have liked, I didn't even get to walk all the way around the site.
On the other hand, I did get to do a remarkable amount of stuff. The classes I helped teach went fairly well, and were far less frightening than I had worried they would be. Going to the Indian dance class every morning was a wonderful way to make sure I woke up completely, and performing the dance twice was incredibly exciting. The European dance wasn't quite what I was expecting - in spite of trying to make it to the dance tent every night, I did remarkably little actual dancing there; either things had ended, hadn't started yet, or were in the middle of dying out most of the time.
Next year I'll know better; I'll figure out a couple of nights to devote entirely to dancing, and spend the rest actually passing time with friends and campmates instead of wandering away from them in the hopes of getting in one more dance. Next year I'll have more appropriate garb. And I'll make it all the way around the site. I'll watch at least one battle. I've got some ideas for classes I might teach, too.
Okay, I guess this means I'm going back next year....
