Pasang the fairy lights

Kakak brought me to this swing-dance class for beginners a few days ago.

We learnt the basics for Charleston swing dancing. Learning the Charleston(is that right? Do I call it THE Charleston?) was fun. It made me hot and sweaty, and it was awkward since we had to rotate partners every few minutes(the hotness and the sweatiness did not help-maybe if I was a latina goddess it might have, but oh well), but it was fun.

The real nice moment came afterwards. After the Charleston class was done, there was another class for more experienced dancers, (which kakak attended), and then there was a social, where everyone was invited to just swing and be merry.

I was sitting on a bench during the social(since I had no other knowledge of swing dance except the Charleston steps I'd just learnt, there really was no point asking someone to dance, was there?), watching the others do their thang, and it was cool. It was COOL. At one point they were playing this version of Cheek to Cheek(it's this gorgeous song that Fred Astaire sings while dancing with Ginger Rogers in one of their movies), the lights had been dimmed, people were swing-dancing freestyle on the floor, and it was just awesome. To think that you can just ask someone, or be asked to dance; and then glide along to the music, without thinking except to follow and respond to your partner leading, it just seems so enjoyable. I think at one point I was smiling stupidly to myself watching this terrer couple dance, and I thought "whoah, I get it. I get it!".

And what I meant by that was I understood what my sister was talking about when she told me some time ago that when she got married she wouldn't want a silat performance or anything, she'd rather just have a big dance floor and swing dance her husband. I would totally want to do that now too! Swing dancing is great, and I'd be hooked if it weren't such an expensive hobby. And I'm not saying this from a sentimental point of view wholly, though it would be nice to think of it that way. The thought of swing dancing with 'the one' invokes wistful daydreams and unrealistic expectations, but that's crap waiting to be written another day.

The point is, I would love to be able to hear a really good song, start tapping my toes, catch the eye of the person beside me, and somehow convince him/her(be it kakak, dad, a cousin, the cute guy at the dance class, or the guy who looked freakishly similar to my old GP teacher) to dance with me, and we'd just swing! Damn. that would be fun.


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I'm trying to wrap my head around Palestine, Israel, and the associating branches of Gaza, the Gaza Strip, Hamas and Fatah, West Bank,etc. For all the suffering endured by the people in Gaza, I feel like I at least owe it to them to understand properly what they're going through and what led up to the airstrikes, and not just offer blind sympathy. But it's a bit confusing, and it's times like these where I need a Nani or a Shao Min(them informative folk) to explain it to me.