The Circus

by Mark

Last weekend the circus came through town.  Our first thought (well my first thought anyway!) was "Are there going to be animals?!"  No.  However, there were acrobats, jugglers, clowns, a contortionist, and all manner of "circus-like" music.

We managed to get front-row seating due to our Mongolian friend Ochgo telling the front door man that we were foreigners and we needed to get in early to get good seats!  We love her.  And we were happy to use our "foreigner" status this time.  It wasn't long before there were another 75 kids crowding around us to watch.

Not only did we feel like we were mere meters from the acrobatics, myself and our sitemate Tim actually did get involved.  Tim was asked to participate twice.  Once to assist in swinging the large jump rope, and another time he was in charge of clashing a large cymbal to the floor as part of a random collection of sounds performed by people in the crowd.  This was also the "event" I took part in (oh there are pictures below!).  My role was to hold an old abacus (yes, the ancient calculator using beads) above my head and shake it, and my butt, as fast as I could.

Overall the evening was entertaining.  Enjoy the pics!

There are 7 guys involved, 2 ropes, 5 jumpers!

Click on the pic to enlarge it, that is 1 larger guy with two guys on his shoulders and one wrapped around his waist - and he's still managing to jumprope!!

Uh yes, 3 guys jumping simultaneously to jumprope!

Does anyone else think it looks like her head is coming up through the table? 

She is balancing on a pole with a bite rag - yes, just her teeth are touching anything!

Tim attempting to show the clowns that he knows how to swing a jumprope properly.

Me shakin' my "abacus" - oh and you can see Tim in the corner waiting to slam his cymbal into the floor!

Check out the high-flyin' antics of this crew...and note the outfits and hair-do's...these guys were serious!  Oh and there definitely weren't any safety nets or harnesses.  Like I said...serious.