When you become a morning bird...

... you all of a sudden have tons of time on your hands :)

For whatever reason, my body has decided to make me into a morning person. For those of you who know me well, you must be thinking "this is IMPOSSIBLE!!!!" Well, I had thought the same, I mean I love sleeping soooo much. Turns out here in France for Round 2, my body likes to go to bed early, like very early. Normal night, in bed by 9... what is that??? Because I go to bed so early now, naturally I wake up early, which is a torture within itself. I now have hours of time on my hand before 1 - the rest of the sane world wakes up and 2 - I even have to start thinking about doing anything normal in my day, like my classes.

How do I pass the time? I tidy up my room, sometimes I do some dishes, catch up on some reading (personal and for class), answer all my emails from the day before, write here in the blog, and my favorite : surf the internet. My latest obsession has been "So you think you can dance" TV show videos on YouTube. These dancers are breathtaking! In spirit of my having danced for over 15 years and watching all the videos, my spark of dancing has been ignited again... so I decided to do something about it.

Yesterday, I had made a call to a dance studio that is maybe a 15-20 minute walk from my room (or like 6 minutes by bus). I talked to the lad who owns the place with his wife and set up an appointment with him to come check out the facility yesterday evening. I went and it is a little studio with three decent sized rooms. I told him of my dance history (keep in mind this was all done in French to the best of my abilities) and he made suggestions of classes based on what I would like to do. My choices and the classes I will be checking out next week : a level 2 Waltz, Tango and Paso-doble class as well as a level 2 Rock class (which is like 50s-style dancing). He also gave me free tickets to come to the event they were having that night at the studio a "soiree" or party of the dancing sort.

As I headed back to my room on campus, I decided that I wanted to go check out the party that night, especially because he had said there would be country dancing. (Side note : when I hear country dancing in any place other than the west or south of the USA, I get scared...) Initially, Matt was going to go with me but then decided to go to a movie he had been wanting to see. I went anyways :)

When I arrived, it became evident to me that I would not fit in for two reasons 1 - I didn't have a significant other with me and 2 - I wasn't over the age of 40, as most of the crowd appeared to be. I really didn't care though. I checked out the rock room first which was pretty neat, then the Tango and Salsa room which was very cool, and lastly the country room. If you have ever seen a movie with old people line dancing in literal perfect lines and clapping and as hicked out as possible, well that was what it was like. As an avid country music and linedancing connoisseur, I could not help but chuckle to myself. The music was old and slow, or French (who knew they had French country music???) and the dances were just as slow and probably as "classic" as linedances go. It was really hard for me to want to dance them because there was no challenge and not the energy there is in the US. I enjoyed it nonetheless but soon gave up.

As I was standing in the rock room taking in all the dancing and all the people, an older gentleman, we'll say late 40's, asked me to dance salsa with him. In my mind I am thinking, "oh goodness me, here we go and please apply deodorant or drown yourself in cologne." I agreed thinking after one dance I could get out of it. Turns out I had to suffer through two, which it was, suffering... Then I said I had to use the bathroom and peaced out.

When I went back into the rock room, I caught the eye of the one single guy there potentially around my age, definitely in his 20s, who was also a very good dancer. Eventually he came over and asked me to dance. I told him that I was American and didn't know French dancing terms, as well I didn't know the dances. He said no problem that as long as I tried it would be good to go.

We ended up dancing the rest of the night together. He taught me rock dances, salsa, a lil tango, and lots of waltz. Waltzing is by far the most difficult thing I have ever danced. The quick lil one two threes on top of the turning, and having to spot with your head so you don't get dizzy and making sure your arms are stiff and supporting you and your partner well, as well as foot positioning was going to be the death of me. I gave it my all and twirled my way through the night. His name was Emmanuel (goes my Manu) and evidently he had lots of experience dancing. He explained to me that these "soirees" are only once a month, but at a building right by where I live on campus, they have salsa lessons for beginners and immediate students for free every Tuesday night.

All in all, I am going to take some dance classes again and learn the more classic couple dances. This will be good for me because it's a new way to meet people, get some exercise, learn something I have always wanted to do, and further immerse myself into the culture with a fun thing to look forward to each week. :)

Now that you know that lil story, I must get working on my Truman scholarship edits for the day as well as my homework... Also the sun is shining today! so I am thinking I may walk into town to do some work at my pub :)

Love you all!

- Cassie