USACFC 2014

Not sure if I've ever mentioned this before, but I took up fencing last semester because I wanted to try something new and I thought this was something cool to start. On April 5-6th, club nationals were held in Knoxville, Tennessee, so this post will be dedicated to that.

Thursday, April 3

We left campus on Thursday night at 8:30PM, anticipating a 14 ride non-stop, longer to factor in breaks. On the bus ride, we watched Spirited Away, and I did fall asleep in the middle, but for the most part, I guess you can say that I finally watched the movie. The ride wasn't too bad for me because I slept a majority of the way. I finally woke up around 7:30AM or so, so the rest of the time passed by quickly. 

Friday, April 4

We arrived at our hotel around 12:30PM..so 18 hours later.

For whatever reason, we didn't get food immediately. Instead, we spent time settling in and taking showers. We took a short walk to Calhoun's On the River for late lunch/early dinner and it was super windy that day. I anticipated warm weather there, but it was actually pretty cool and at times chilly for the most part.

Char-grilled shrimp

We spent the rest of the day checking in our equipment and making sure that all the weapons worked properly. I actually went to bed pretty early that day, as we all did, because we had to wake up at 5:45AM the next morning.

Saturday, April 5

The fencing lasted a bit past noon. I didn't fence at all. I was super hungry by then so we went grab lunch and came back to watch the boys fence. Then later I went with the girls from another squad to go look at llamas!!

At night we went to Market Square to look around and grab dinner. We ended up at a restaurant called Tupelo Honey Cafe, which had amazing biscuit and jam. I think I got the Southern Fried Chicken BLT, and it was okay. I think I remember the chicken not being as tender as I was hoping.

Sunday, April 6

Fencing was the same as the day before, and I actually got to fence a little. I actually didn't do well though, so I felt bad :( Overall we did well as a squad and as a school. There was a whole issue with getting to shower and luckily I was able to squeeze in a shower. I probably wasn't too sweaty and nasty compared to everyone else, but still.

We went to Cafe 4 for lunch. While there, I accidentally sassed our server because when we got in, the hostess told us that we'd have to wait before ordering because they were transitioning between breakfast and lunch. After getting seated, our server came and started telling us about the wait, and I just told her "I know" just to save her from explaining it, and I guess it came out a bit offensively because she gave me the dirtiest look back. :( I hope she didn't spit in my food. 

Lobster & bacon flatbread

Went back to watch the boys and everything. With the awards ceremony, it didn't end until around 8:00PM, so we all rushed off to get dinner. My group actually ended up coming back a bit later than our meet up time. It was also then that my allergies started acting up because my eyes were killing me!! So begins another long ride. 

That concludes my trip to Knoxville :) I actually forgot about this draft for a long time D: So yeah, until next time!