Lyceum Ball

On January 15, the students hosted a ball.

When I asked if I would attend the ball, my first question was "what kind of dancing is involved?"

The response: "You know, dances that take place at balls."

This would mean that I would have to learn how to dance, real dances, not the Macarena or the Cha-Cha Slide or the Chicken Dance. So, one of the teachers at the school said that she knew someone who would teach us how to dance. We would learn the waltz, the tango, the two-step, polka, and a few others.

The dance instructor spoke only Slovak except "quick quick slow...quick quick slow." Nevertheless he was very nice and these lessons (I took three of them) gave me an opportunity to practice my Slovak and my dancing at the same time. I got to dance with one of the teachers who only spoke Slovak. She taught me much on the dance floor, in the language of Slovak and dancing.

The day before the ball, one of the students told me that she had a surprise for me and the other teachers at the ball. I thought, "this can't be good. Surprises = bad." Nevertheless, the surprise was that she danced a waltz with me as the first dance when it was just teachers and students together. On the dance floor, I forgot nearly everything.

It was a good thing that I forgot nearly everything because it turned out that the ball was more of a dance than a ball. So after about 20 minutes of ball music, the DJ began to play disco music. (Note: disco music is not necessarily '70s music but music that people go out to clubs to dance to).

Tomorrow, I will be attempting another ball. My friend Joe who rafts for the National Slovak Rafting Team invited me to his Watersports Ball. I went to this ball last year and they did do actual dances. I recall my dances to polka music. I will be bringing my dancing shoes.