"It's not about Da money or Da crowns, it's about Da scholarships.." - Contestant # 4

     As stated in a previous post I do not really know anything about beauty pageants. I really didn't know what to expect. The only thing I thought going into this was that it was going to be a cultural experience. I thought it might be like the TLC show Toddlers and Tiara's except with teenagers. There are so many stories from this that I do not even know where to begin...

     Little Miss Philippine Hawaii was held at a chinese restaurant. Do people normally hold beauty pageants at restaurants? My guess would be no, but this restaurant was extremely large so I guess it would fit the bill. I also found it odd that a Filipino pageant wasn't held at a Filipino restaurant, but I am not complaining because I can at least recognize chinese food or I thought I could. As my assumptions were correct, when I first arrived I was the only non Filipino person there. However, I was excited to see how other people live from a completely different culture than my own. While standing in line to enter, I realized I was the tallest person there. I was at least a head above everyone else. I wish someone would have been there to take a picture. Just imagine seeing a group of people standing in line against a wall and everyone is the same height and same nationality expect the tall Caucasian girl in the center and she is the only person not speaking Filipino. I literally had no idea what anyone was saying around me. I couldn't understand one word. I began to worry that I wouldn't be able to understand anything for the rest of the night.

     Once I entered they gave me a beautiful lei and sat me down at the judges table for dinner. I befriend another judge who thankfully gave me tips and pointers to what I need to do with the judging. She had only judged one other pageant, which calmed my nerves to realize that I wasn't the only newbie. (Side note: This judge is the Dean of Students at another college here. While explaining that her main job was to deal with discipline when it comes to students getting into trouble by their RA's and RD's, I thought she would have hated my friends and I at college. I kinda of felt sorry for her because she said her job was hard, but then I remembered our RA's and RD's and didn't feel that bad anymore.) The other judge owned her own dance studio and was very involved in the pageant world.

     They started out with dinner which was served family style. Everything was normally until the shrimp came along. I have never enjoyed seafood. I don't like the texture of it, everything is always mushy or slimy. I also don't like that you have to work to get your food. Call my prissy all you want, but I don't want to have to crack, peal, de-leg, de-claw, or take an outer layer shell off my food in order eat it. I think food should be served ready to eat with no extra work. Plus I don't like my fingers being covered with food, like I said, call me prissy all you want but I don't care because it won't change my opinion.*Warning: If you don't have a strong stomach don't read anymore of today's post - a.k.a - my sister* Anyways, the shrimp was served whole. By whole I mean, if it hadn't been cooked it would still have all of it parts in order to continue to be living. The shrimp plate was set down and 100 little black eyes were staring at me.  I had a problem with this, but the judge, that owned her own dance studio, had a bigger problem with it than me. She had brought her boyfriend and he started to make jokes about the eyes on the shrimp.
Her boyfriend picks up shrimp and faces the eyes in front of his girlfriend and the following conversation took place:

Boyfriend - "Don't I look good, you can eat me eyes and all!"


Girlfriend - "Put that down, you are going to make me sick, you can't eat the eyes."


Filipino woman #1 - "No you can eat the eyes! They have been cooked, they will be all mushy now. You won't be able to taste them now."


Me - don't gag, don't gag, don't gag. I repeated this to myself several times...

Filipino woman #2 - "You can eat the whole shrimp because it's been fried! You can eat da head, da shell, da legs, and all. It will be nice and crunchy!"  (Then proceeds to bite the WHOLE shrimp, head first including eyes, shell, and legs)

Me - think happy thoughts, don't gag, think happy thoughts, don't gag, think happy thoughts, don't gag...


"It's not about Da money or Da crowns, it's about Da scholarships" Part 2 will be continued tomorrow... hope you all enjoy your lunch today :)