The Renaissance Faire and my run as a member of the Brotherhood of the Two Dragons has finally ended. Oh the wonders I have seen. We were seemingly well liked by all and too much by some. There was the 12 year old whose costume consisted of a bed sheet and a pom-pom parrot strapped to his shoulder, and who told us quite the in depth story about how he is a monster hunter and commands an ice dragon who happened to be “busy” that day, the speechless ninja who pulled around a subservient and under age harem girl by chains, and the self titled “angel of death” vendor whose bare chest, bat wings, nipple piercings, and 50 pounds of schlock hanging from his belt put a strange, ambiguously heterosexual twist on his bravado. I am pretty sure I was hit on by at least one faire regular (clearly not my…. type) by asking not for my phone number and not for my email, but for my facebook or myspace page.

— Interestingly, I read a story recently about how the younger generation views email as being antiquated and tend to only use it to communicate “with adults.” —

The women tended to be quite sociable, even going so far as to say they would likely jump all four of us at once had they the opportunity. The men, on the other hand, often felt the need to assert their manliness around us by insisting on being able to withstand full-on kicks from horses and describing their jousting prowess. Coincidentally, the actual jousters were some of the nicest people one could meet. We all took a shine to each other. They went as far as to offer us all opportunities to learn to joust. If it was not a minimum two year commitment, I would be more than just tempted.

We left the place this Sunday in a cloud dust and blaring heavy metal music with offers to attend multiple other such festivals. Who knows, maybe it’ll be a living.

Peru is imminent. We leave this Saturday. In preparation we are now nearly immune to yellow fever, tetinus, typhoid, and hepatitus. Huzzah, our insurance covered most of the meds and we were able to acquire the non-hallucinogenic malaria pills.