Michael Flatley: you would be proud!

In order to have an enriching experience abroad, I believe that its vitally important that one should try to adapt themselves to the culture and lifestyle to the host-country.

Now in Ireland, most have taken the easy route by taking on the traditional act of drinking 2 pints of Guiness before lunchtime...me however, I'm much more daring and bold (and too poor!) for that...

...Which is why I decided to take up Traditional Irish dancing!!

Think Riverdance. Subtract Michael Flatley, then add me. If that doesn't make you laugh, nothing will.

So for the past 2 months, I have been attending traditional irish dance for beginners every wednesday night, learning 1-2-3's, side skips, and jumps. Mostly though I have been flicking my feet around on the floor and having a really good laugh looking at myself. (the pic is me and my original group!!)

However, I didn't think that I would be sharing this good laugh with anyone else - until I found out that we were going to preform in front of an audience! So my group and I last week actually put a routine to "Lord of the Dance". But it was actually a really great experience - I managed not to forget much and had fun!

So naturally when our instructor asked our group if we wanted to preform again for high-school students on open day (where they come to the University to check things out - dancers included I guess...) - I agreed! One good way to end the semester right?

My roommate Julia and I (she was also in the class) went to the preformance hall a bit early, hoping to see our 12 other dancers and go over our routine a couple times before going on stage. However, instead of 12 girls - there was just one other girl! Our instructor didn't even show up! Luckily, the hip-hop instructor was there and we went to her for advice. But instead of solving our problem, she said to us "ok I've got your music - you know what you are doing right? Cause youre on next!"

So about 2 minutes later, there I was: standing in front of about 150 uniform-wearing, 17 year olds, with two other girls on my side,no practice, waiting for our music to change and start out with our 1-2-3's!

as you can guess, about 30 seconds later, we all three had forgotten the rest of our routine and were simply dancing in circles, wildly kicking our feet around. It wasn't going too bad - they didn't know we were messing up so maybe we could trick them into thinking we were actually doing alright.

That was until the girl in the middle, holding our hands, fell flat on her butt, pulling Julia and I down! Luckily we both manged to stay on our feet and continue to step around. But that definitely didn't stop the laughter and jeeringfrom our audience - and actually from the three of us as well! We finished shortly after by throwing up our hands, with giggles on our faces. We were rushed off stage almost immediately while the more advanced hip-hop dancers ran on to make a recovery.

Julia and I left the stage with damaged pride (and the other girl with a damaged butt), but also with large smiles on our faces! Julia turned to me and said she would never forget this experience she had with me - and its true. I think I will always think of Julia as someone I could publicly make a fool with anyday!

So I think that that in order to have an enriching experience abroad, one must make a complete fool of themselves, and most importantly have someone to share that experience (and hopefully a good laugh) with!

until next time!

xoxoxoxoxo