Salsa con Karaoke

From Bath Time!

Above is my frustration that someone had a camera to document the fact that I took a salsa class here in Bath. However, it wasn't a completely terrible experience.
We were told to "get involved" in the local events happening here at Bath outside of the ASE program, and a bunch of kids were gonna go to salsa, so I figured "Why not? It'll probably be hilarious." Silly me. It started out alright, everyone lined up and followed the instructor's steps. I even went to the front row because I was so gung-ho about it all. And it was fine, I managed to get the steps down, but couldn't really figure out how the hip movment coorilates with it.
Then we were told to create a large circle, with guys on the outside and girls inside. We were then taught steps to do with a partner, which was both more challenging and awkward. Unfortunately, the bulk of the women I danced with were not girls from my program, they were locals. And a large percentage of those locals were middle-aged women. Some of them were very nice, in fact one even broke the steps down for me better than the instructor had, in a very polite way. She's in the photo above, I think. However, another tried to do the same thing, and she seemed pretty pissed that I couldn't get the steps right. One also yelled at me for stepping on her toes. One rather rotund woman slapped me on the cheek after I completely fouled up the steps, and said, laughing, "alright, love, you learn to live again!" I think that means "don't be hard on yourself?"
One woman, however, was awesome. Both of us were pretty terrible, and she was down to break it down. So we made up an awesome jig.
There were a couple local girls my age, and thankfully they sucked as much as me. One girl kept telling me she was "rubbish" at it. Another girl, however, got really into it. She gave me these intense salsa/passion/death eyes, and was extremely sharp and forceful with her movements, throwing her head around and such. Intimidating. Although salsa started out fun and silly, it ended with me being very ready to leave.

From Bath Time!

Karaoke, however, was nothing but pure fun and awesome times. My roommate Jed and I sang "Tribute" by Tenacious D, and we brought down the house. We really wanted to do some Al Green or Marvin Gaye, but the song selection was pretty disapointing. Regardless, "Tribute" was really fun to rock. Some girls sang "Gangter's Paradise," which I thought was pretty awesome.
I also learned that the local brits actually know how to sing. This girl sang "Phantom of the Operah," and she was incredible. Who the hell goes to a Karaoke night and thinks to themselves "yes, I think I'll sing something operatic and epic this eveining?" Talented people do, that's who.