Ballroom Dance.

First of all, thanks to Nita and Dennis for coming to my first ever ballroom dance competition! It was so appreciated guys.

So, what's all this talk about ballroom dancing? Well, last Friday I went to a ballroom dance competition at the University of Maryland. I didn't know anyone at first. I even enjoyed some quality awkward time of standing by myself. Great. I tired to talk to few persons but sometimes people aren't that welcoming to newcomers - we're all guilty of this I imagine. I thought that if the initial awkwardness was anything indication of the coming weekend, I was glad I bought books!

As it turned out, I only read half a book the entire weekend. I found myself seated in the back of a van between two guys; one of whom was my dance partner for the weekend, although we didn't know it yet. After a long ride to Maryland, we arrived at the hotel (I thought we were staying at someone's house, so the hotel was a nice surprise) and went to the competition registration. There was a halloween social dance going on. I had no costume, but tried out my newfound dance skills. When I say "newfound," I truly mean newfound - I had never danced before 2 months ago.

Saturday morning, we got up at 6. yikes! I'm not a morning person. I wasn't too perpared for this competiton. Things were kinda disorganized. I had no idea what was going on. I didn't know how to dress or even what I should have brought. But I did my best. My partner did his best (he had no idea either). Eventually we appeared on the dancefloor. Someone forgot to mention how couples walk out onto the dance floor. opps. Trial and error. We learned the next time around. We did Cha cha, Swing and Quickstep. Somehow we got to quarter finals. Talk about shock.

Sunday we danced again. We made semi-finals in international Cha cha, quarter finals in Rumba and FINALS in jive! Whoa. We made 8th place out of 90 + couples. Not too bad for a couple whom just started dancing together the day of the event! Plus unlike a lot of the people who competed in the newcomer division from PSU, we had just learned the steps. Quite impressive if I do say so myself. Next up, Ohio Star Ball in Columbus. Rock on.