Apr. 29th, 2008

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Thoughts on Collegium Feast, Part 2,
(aka... how big will LJ let me make this!)

I bumped into [livejournal.com profile] hrj on my way to the bus stop last night and after our conversation, more Collegium thoughts burbled to the surface.

Last nights post was done as fast as I could type and was stream of conscious. This is a bit more "topical" and I may add as my thoughts burble. I will have to slip in all the LJ-ID's later.

Overall, it was an amazing experience and I will treasure the memories.

The Orientations The Marshall Speaks )

The aesthetic and atmosphere
These were amazing. This is quite long because I'm trying to preserve my impressions and it's different from the other feasts I've been to.
A unique environment )

The Service:
It was an new experience to be served. I think this must be what it's like to be a super-star. Since I'm not a super-star, I had periods where I felt awkward and guilty. My experience and understanding may be inaccurate in details of who was doing exactly what and when, but it is definitely based on my perception and I really was trying to pay close attention to everything we were being told.

the endurance sport of feasts )

The Excellent Food Well... it was excellent. All of it. I love tasty food and I was in heaven. I was trying to figure out my favorite dishes, but it was like being Miss Mary Ann from Romper Room: I see chicken, and veal, and lamb, and rice and cheese, .... I started naming them all. I liked the little flourishes, which in the smaller servings, were easier to appreciate. Such as the garnishes of flowers which would have been quickly lost if our table had more people at it who were serving themselves. The food looked and tasted yummy.

Survival Tips
next time... )

Overall, I don't think this is a "one size fits all" kind of event and thus not suited for everyone. I think that typically we expect to have choices and to be self-determined, but that is not the intent of this kind of event. I think you need to be willing to submerge yourself into someone else's expectations and be willing to fulfill a role that is defined by someone else and follow rules that you didn't invent. I suppose it's just as people were defined by their roles in period. I think that's very counter to how we were raised where we are more self-determined and have the freedom to make choices. This feast was a unique trip to a place where all the attendees have a role to fulfill, the attendees have to follow rules they didn't invent, and the only choice is to decline the food that is being served. You can't even rise from your seat on a whim. Despite the orientation, I didn't really think ahead of what it would be like and I don't think I could have predicted what it was. That said, it was a trip - a grand adventure to a different time and place. I think on a certain gut level I've been searching for an experience like this for a long time. Between the atmosphere and the submergence in the role, I was transported back in time. I had moments where I flashed and thought, “this is what it would have been like and this might be what I would have been thinking”. It was not a potluck with a thin veneer of historical interest cloaked in cotton t-tunics and wooden serving ware.

I enjoyed it and I hope to participate in another. I would also be interested in participating as a servant; I'd like to see the feast through the eyes of a server, carver, or other minion. I would gleefully get my PPF passport stamped again and once more sit with the royals or even learn to serve with decorum.

Today I find myself wondering, What other types of feasts were there? Were there always prayers? Did they get more formal? Less formal? I will have to find out when the Q&A session is so that I can find out the answers to these.

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