Greek Festival and Picking Strawberries!

This whole week has been raining, thundering, foggy, and has been a source of wonder to even the natives in this area! Deanna asked me how I was managing here, and connected me to a friend of a friend of a friend... so I met Delia and her husband, Stan!

Delia and I went to the Greek Festival (http://www.biggreekfestival.com/) which was located in my town! It was held at a Greek Orthodox Church, and surprisingly, there is a large community of people from Greece who live here. When we arrived, there was no more parking nearby to the event, so many people desperately parked wherever would fit their SUVs. The policemen also crashed the party, and was having a field day in handing out tickets! As we were driving up, there were a whole line of cars with pink slips underneath the windshield wipers! I will be sure to save all the parking tickets I get from New Jersey to give to my family members in California, because that is sure one thing characteristic of this area!

There were all sorts of foods to pick from, a carnival for kids, Greek dance lessons, and some gift items. We ended up sharing a sampler, which allowed us to sample everything. The cheese is very good, and I was amazed to see how much Delia loved the cheese! There was also a live band, singing in Greek with traditional instruments. If you have ever seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding, it was just like that! Everyone was dancing, super friendly, and it seemed everyone knew each other, they were probably all related and one big family.

Afterwards, I became better acquainted with my new friends. They had so many stories, and it was very inspiring to talk with them. I was very excited to find out how close they live to me! When I headed home, it was pretty late at night, and the first time I was out driving in the night. The roads have no lighting, and the trees block out any sign of the moon! Without my GPS, I would not be able to see any of the road signs or know where I was going. Right before I reached home base, I was started by 2 pairs of beaming eyes on the street, which turned out to be a BIG BAD MEAN BEAR!!! Well I thought it was, until I got a better look and it was just deer.

I've been wanting to go strawberry picking, because Judy, the lady who owns the house, keeps raving about how exciting it is. We drove towards Chester, which had a large farm. At various times of the year, they open up the fields that have blackberries, peaches, blueberries, and tomatoes for the public. I couldn't believe how many people were out on a Saturday morning to pick strawberries! As we were walking towards the fields, the smell of what seemed like strawberry jam became more defined. I saw other people carrying box after box of strawberries, so it seemed that this would be an easy task.

Once we reached the fields, I looked out and surveyed that the strawberry field extended for about half a mile, with rows and rows of strawberries! WOW! Strawberry plants grow pretty low to the ground, so I found myself hunching over, trying to find the reddest, ripest, tastiest, and biggest strawberry I could. However, the strawberry plants near the front of the entrance was already picked through, so we needed to head further back to find the better fruit. I spent at least a backbreaking 25 minutes picking strawberries.

They tricked us! Why would people pay money and end up doing all the work for the farm!? I'm just kidding, I thought it was pretty fun, and was tempted to pick a strawberry, eat 2 strawberries, to help me get through picking them. I think its only in America, where we would think doing farm work would be exciting.