Balloon Fiesta

This week we had a really weird schedule for show day... we had the usual long show day, but we didn't get picked up by our host family afterwards, what our schedule said we were doing was volunteering at the local landfill for some kind of trash awareness day. What we were actually doing was volunteering at the Abq Balloon Fiesta!

This meant that we ended show day (at 1 AM) went to the Event Palace (our temporary home for UWP in Abq) for a "sleep over" then left the event palace at 3:30 AM to go to the Balloon Fiesta. When we arrived the Fiesta was just getting cranked up, I was on the "Clutch Crew" or the balloon chase crew with my host mom Nancy. We Were to be chasing Hssss too, Jim's balloon. Instead I actually got to ride in Hsss too! I had an amazing time, here are just some of the pictures I took...




















































This is after we landed. Since it was my first time in a balloon, they have a traditional "initiation" into ballooning. There were two other guys who it was their first time in a balloon as well. After listening to the history of ballooning, we had to drink a glass of white grape juice without using our hands, unbeknownst to us, while we were drinking the juice without our hands, a bottle of ice cold water was poured on us from behind. None of us dropped our cups, but my teeth started chattering, which made drinking the juice exponentially harder. Afterwards we all went to breakfast at Golden Corral, then we went home. I had so much fun yesterday at the Balloon Fiesta, and we were supposed to go again today, but the weather is not cooperating. Hopefully by tonight it will have cleared up so that the "Balloon Glow" can still happen.