Well, in addition to the Mass in the morning for Our Lady, we spent the rest of the day celebrating, with games and dancing and a free hotdog and icecream lunch.
A day off is incredibly rare for these girls – and a day off, at school, just mucking around- shouting and laughing and making as much noise as they like without getting in trouble -well it’s almost unheard of! It was so much fun – the girls were supposed to be playing games, and they did for a while, but (as it did last year too) it turned into one big dance off, with the girls all grouping in their classes around the grass and under the tress, and basically dancing for the next couple of hours. They had so much fun, and they were so funny. They love the gangsta rap, RNB, and dance music – “party hard” they call it – but reggae is probably the most popular, and the local Pacific music which is really bouncy, eighties-sounding stuff with a lot of islander sounds and reggae mixed in. They really talk each other up too, and some of them are SUCH show offs – it’s pretty common that one or two girls will dance in front of their class, grandstanding to the crowd, hands in the air, legs bent almost double, shaking it “to the max” (“really giving it”), often sandwiching each other shamelessly. The girls of course respond by cheering and yelling and screaming, all the encouragement they need. I got a bit of video of them, but nothing beats watching the real thing – they have so much bloody confidence!! I don’t know where they get it from but I’m so jealous!!
I was sitting with my class, watching them and the Yellows who were about 10m away, and it had been going on for about an hour, with dedications from the DJs for each class, when finally one of those Yellow girls – Marjellah, the most outrageous of the lot, shaking and gyrating all over the place, started dancing her way over to us, and clearly, straight to me, amid lots of cheers from girls who were just waiting for me to get up and join her. I was so shy but she dragged me up and back to her class, where of course I had to try and dance with them, with every single girl in the place watching me because she’d made such a production out of it! Oh god I was so self-conscious because everyone was yelling and cheering and girls from my class even pulled out cameras, but I knew I had to try, so I was part of the big circle, and being sandwiched by girls as they tried to get me to shake it! Can you imagine?!! Me, who has always hated dancing because I’m so self-conscious!! I was literally shaking because I was so nervous, but at the same time, I have to admit, I was having a bloody good time. These girls are so funny, and it is fun to be part of it – and I knew she’d do it sometime that day because in her journal she’d complained that I didn’t dance with her and her class at the firehouse last Saturday night, that I only danced with the Purples. I’d written back that I didn’t see them, and I only danced with the Purple girls coz they dragged me up, and that’s the only way I’d get on the dance floor – so I guess I was asking for it, huh?! Just didn’t expect it to be in broad daylight, as the centre of the whole school’s attention!
the wild 10 Yellow girlsSo of course that meant I had to be dragged up by Purple later on. And actually, later in the day when the dancing moved to the hall, I danced with a whole bunch of others because we were all squished in and other teachers were up dancing too. So it was fun. I think once I forget about being shy I actually really like it, but it’s losing that self-consciousness that’s so hard! I never know what to do with my hands!
10 Purple and me (where's Wally?)Oh man, I just went out to talk to Pia for a second, and told her I was writing about today, and just said about being so shy when Marjellah dragged me out, and Pia said “oh yes, every eye was on you. Even the teachers turned around to watch”. Talk about shaking – that made me start again!! She’s not exactly great with tact, our Pia, but at least she didn’t tell me everyone was laughing at me!
