Holy fuck, I cannot believe how awesome this place is!!!!

The Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival is in full swing here (get it, full swing?). Mom and Judy Weatherbee from Bangor came up last night to see Little Feat, and they met up with me on the campus at noon today to give me my pass, and another for a friend. Judy had bought some passes for relatives who were unable to use them, so she let my mother and I buy them for very little. Anyway, I had nothing else to do, so I decided to spend some time with them. We walked around downtown for a while. I spent some time at a nice bookstore, and we all enjoyed the funky-modern kitchen/home Urban Almanac General Store. We also went to a music instrument shop, which has an entire room of electric pianos, all plugged in and ready to play. Needless to say, I had a hard time leaving. I'll be coming back there often!!

The bands hadn't started playing yet, so Judy drove us to the botanical garden, which is very large and very beautiful. When we came to the end of the trail that runs through the garden, there was a row of trees and shrubs seperating the garden from a cul-de-sac in a pretty little neighborhood. There was a guy walking back and forth in his driveway, wearing a kilt and playing his bagpipes. No kidding. It was so neat.

After the botanical garden, Judy dropped me off at STU, so I could grab some food at the cafeteria. I looked for Sebastian, my buddy from Ecuador, so I could give him the other pass, but I couldn't find him. So I just walked downtown and met Mom and Judy. When we bought the passes, we didn't realize that you had to be 19 to get into most of the venues. So we crossed our fingers and tried to get into the Budwieser tent. No problems whatsoever. The first band was one from Fredericton. Pretty much simple blues with lots of guitars, all I-IV-V, but a good show all the same. The next group was called Fathead. They're a Toronto-based electric blues/soulful rock/gospel sort of group and they rocked the hell out!!! Oh boy, I was blown away!

It was just amazing, music everywhere, clouds of marijuana smoke drifting around, people happy and laughing. Downtown was crawling with all types of people, and lots of street musicians, even at 1:30 in the morning. I haven't seen that many street musicians since I was in Key West. Jesse and Jesse, you would have loved it!

I cannot say enough how awesome Fredericton is!!! It doesn't feel like I'm only 110 or so miles from home (as a bird flies, that is...it's further by road)

The great thing is, more of that crazy music will be happening tomorrow (or later today, it's 2:10 Saturday morn). Also, I gave Sebastian his pass when I got back about an hour ago. He was surprised, and he was also sober. Everyone else in Harrington is drunk right now, I think. There was a big, big party while I was gone tonight. Things are ripped off the walls in the hallways, beer smell is just about everywhere. Wild n' crazy. I've got the room to myself tonight, my roommate went home for the weekend.

This rocks!! Everything is going so good right now...exciting classes, fun people, and an ultra-hip city to have fun in!