I'm Huge in Holland

Today I had an adventure.  My friend, Sangbreeta (India) and I decided to go to a swing dancing happing in a small village just north of Amsterdam.  We met at the central station at 12:30 and began quite an epic journey.  A train to Amsterdam, a bus to the Middle of Nowhere (Middel of Nooweer) Holland that took an hour.  And the driver just dropped us off.  Middel of Nooweer, mind you.  Raining.  I had some basic directions: follow Julianaweg until it turns into Zuiddijk.  Easy.  Nope, we went the wrong way immediately.  Sangbreeta was convinced we were in the middle of a horror movie.

This was not helped much when we found the place and discovered it's some sort of ancient hotel that collects vintage toys, and other stuff.  A row of tin cars in the shape of pigs greeted us at the door.

But the dance went amazingly.  We arrived in time for the lessons, and the teacher immediately spotted me as an experienced lindy hopper.  I'm still not sure how.  When she found out I was American, she dragged me into the middle and proudly announced to the class that here was a real American Lindy Hopster all the way from America and she was going to help.  So I ended up being the teaching assistant for the rest of the class.  When the dancing finally started, the teacher came over to me and George (America) and said the band leader (live jazz!!!) wanted to see some good dancers and could we please do a little showcase for everyone.  So we danced for the whole place.  They filmed it.  It was horribly embarrassing, but of course I loved it!  And then we danced and danced.

Every time George and I danced after that, a little photographer was there taking pictures.  He finally came over and asked our names for the paper!  So, George and I are appearing in Monday's edition of whatever the paper is called in the village of Beemster!  :-D

After the dance, Sangbreeta, George, Carrie (US), Frank (Amsterdam), and Praveen (India) and I headed back to Amsterdam (Sangbreeta and I rode with Praveen, not the bus) for dinner.  Frank knew a nice spot, so we settled in to thick leather couches, and ate awesome almost Indian type food with lots of rice and wonderful orange sauces.  And just as we were all lying back to lounge, live, amazingly danceable jazz started up, so we all perked up.  The new or non-American dancers were a little freaked out by the idea of dancing in a restaurant, but Frank and I got out there, and everyone loved it.  The band freaked out, the people in the restaurant were pleased, and the restaurant staff didn't make us stop.  So, we spent the rest of the night switching partners and jamming out to the great live jazz.  The singer thanked us 4 or 5 times for dancing.  It doesn't happen much in Holland.

After the band left, we lounged on the couches, and just let life spill over us.  Orange walls, low lights, comfy couches, comfy couch mates, pillows and tea and that deep satisfied exhaustion in your bones.  :-)