Minzu Daxue Grad Student Party

My tutor, Julie, had invited me to come to the school-sponsored dance for graduate students last weekend. I figured it would be fun to compare school dances here and at home, so I decided to go. Well, when we got there, very few people were there, and the first idea that popped into my head was that it was like a middle school dance; the dance floor was in the center with chairs bordering it. And the guests were very segregated; guys on one side and girls on the other- very funny. People are shy here about dancing, and it didn't help that there were only slow songs playing on the surround system. The first dance was something akin to the Bunny Hop, which cracked me up. I was going to join but then the music stopped once I got on the floor (which was fine by me). Also, in between songs, students didn't seem to want to stay on the dance floor; they'd dance a little bit and then sit back down after the song was done! I couldn't believe it-- of course it's hard to get a party going after people sit down for every song! Luckily more people slowly came and faster songs were played. Julie and I decided to try this salsa-y song for a little bit. We didn't really know what we were doing, but pretty much it's a pivot.Being the lone foreigner in the room probably didn't help the situation, but whatever, I figured that I should have fun.

I even had two dance partners that night- one was doing slightly complicated moves like going backwards while we are going in opposite directions and what not, and the second one told me after I accepted his "invite to dance" that he had never danced with a girl before! At that point I really didn't understand how that could have happened, but I taught him a simple two step and he did great! After our first dance, however, he still wanted to dance with me, a fast song, and then I understood why he hadn't danced with a girl before. Let's just say that he needs a lot of room to dance and leave it at that....