So we had class yesterday to make up for the day we lost from the strike. It was our first peer teaching practice--YIKES! I guess it would have to be considering this teaching course is condensed into three weeks. The six of us in the class were divided so that three of us were to make a Basic Learners lesson and the others a Young Learner lesson. I did a young learners lesson with colors. The others participated as our students; therefore by the end of Saturday all of us were mind melded into speaking only in the "learning English voice" as I shall dub it…. which leads into the festivities to follow.
On Saturday night Phil Collins and I went over to Matt, Kyle, and Jenna's air conditioned, with internet, and filtered water (so nice!) apartment to hang out and go out afterwards. It felt like our conversations ended up going a little like this: (use expressive slow teacher voice) "What do you like to do on the weekend?" "I like to go surfing." "Where do you like to go surfing?" "At the beach."
"What do you want to eat?" "I want to eat noodles." "Where do you want to eat noodles?" "At a restaurant."
"Blue. Blue. Blue. Your shirt is blue."
"Circle. This plate is a circle."
Anyway you get the picture…repetition was getting to our heads so we headed to none other than the famous Kolkata Club, TANTRA to dance it off. There was a DJ competition, so 1. there was tons of techno and remixes etc :-) and 2. India's MTV was there. So, before we even walk into the club this girl with a mic comes up to us (camera crew eagerly follows) and starts interviewing us on the "hottest club in Calcutta!" Of course we get all excited and say "we're American we love it but this is our first time here! woooo!"…awkward americans…. We scamper in and I head straight to the dance floor where the beats pounding and people are bouncing. Tantra is a lot more western than what I've seen in Kolkata so far--Kolkata is known to be a lot more westernized in terms of clothing and social norms but Park St in general (area where this club/other clubs/restaurants/shopping) seemed more so. The guys even wear do-rags here. Hehe, however, I'm thinking that these are probably not called do-rags because they are worn very different. Its hard not to laugh because it looks so silly! Its like they put the thing on from the bottom back of their head and then tie it at the top and wrap the extra material into a bun on the very front top point of their head. I really just want to run up and tap it like a button and go "BOOP!" I did not, and will not ever do that here, but I want everyone to know that I want to.
Dancing is different here. Its hard to describe because people were still bouncing around with friends and stuff, but its very individual--guys and girls don't dance together really, everyone moves in their particular space. Now, I realize Im by no meaning the average American dancer because I typically just bound around waving my arms freely, typically smacking someone near me on accident. So this individual dancing worked perfect! Phil Collins, Jenna, and I are all bouncing around having a blast…next thing we know, there are cameras on us and lights shining…oh MTV decided to film us crazy kids. This happened several times throughout the evening so I am guessing there is high probability that whenever they air this DJ competition, we will be sweaty techno craze dancing on the screen. Awesome! At on point, one really sweet girl who came up to us while we were dancing with a huge smile and said "can I dance with you people!?!" Haha, we definitely had a great time to say the least.
No comments:
Post a Comment