on a beautiful Monday morning (it was Labor Day, so I had the day off of work - don't want you to think I was skipping or anything), Fabulous and I ventured to Brooklyn for the annual West Indian Day Parade. and let me just say - wow. that is a site to behold. the streets were jam-packed with people. delicious smells of food everywhere. music playing non-stop (great dancing music if I do say so myself). and some of the most brillant costuming I've ever encountered.
Fabulous and I met one of my co-workers there. she was even gracious enough to give me a Ghana flag to wave for the day (even though I clearly was NOT from Ghana - but details right?). initially we ventured from our meeting spot to find a place along the parade route that we could watch. and along the way I decided to pick up a place of jerk chicken (when in Rome...) - which turned out to be amazing!! you know the saying "go big or go home?" well I did just that - not only did I get jerk chicken, but also this sort of fried fish ball things and also some potato stick things (don't ask me the name of them because I couldn't tell you for the life of me). I had the woman put a little bit of sauce on the chicken and only a little bit because I wasn't sure how spicy it was going to be. well after one bite I went right back to her and asked for me - lots more. needless to say, by the time she was done I probably had enough sauce to feed a small village.
we watch the parade for a while - taking in the costumes, atmosphere, and of course dancing to the music. then we decided to join everyone in the parade (you can do this sort of thing at this parade). we just kept walking down the parade route and stopping at various trucks to dance to the music. (side note: there were 18 wheelers carrying nothing but speakers that went down the parade route blasting different music - whether it was for a group or a country, it didn't seem to matter as people were dancing to it all). it was actually a bit scary at one point because there were so many people jam-packed into one area and they were making us all move quickly that we could have almost been trampled. the only thing I was concentrating on that whole time was staying standing upright - figuring out my direction and hanging on to Fabulous and my co-worker were second priority.
but we made it through and continued walking with the parade (in the correct direction this time) and away from the extremely crowded oh-my-god-I-almost-just-died section of the parade. by the end of it, we were so tired from all the dancing that we just hopped on the subway and headed home.
but what a fantastic experience! I will definitely be there next year - maybe I'll even dress up in costume. ;)
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