The Dorm Diaries (#2): Swing Dancing With Strangers, Simple Sketches, and Spooky Fun

Hello, lovelies!

College is in full swing, and I figured it was time for an update-y little lifestyle post about all the things that have been going on. I'm gonna try and divide this post up into a September and an October section, just in case you have a favorite month or something like that.

So.

Rapid-fire life updates go!

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September

Pictured: the lovely humans of First Eldersveld

Pictured: my roommate and suitemates (also freshmen) along with myself, attempting the serious face picture.

The first big event in my little college adventure was something called Chaos Night. Chaos Night is essentially where each residence hall has a theme that all the residents dress up according to, and then each hall competes in silly games that take more athletic ability than I have. My hall this year (Schultze-Eldersveld) was given the theme of 80's, which is why you see a lot of us sporting crimped hair and scrunchies.

My hall is apparently known for being the super fit and sporty hall, and we'd won the games two years in a row, so the pressure was high. Unfortunately, my "sporty" self didn't really assist much in earning us points, but I tried really hard. Even so, our hall got fourth place (out of seven, I believe), so the glitter hairspray I put in my hair to help me be sporty must not have worked out the way I'd hoped.

The cool fall weather can for about a week during September, and then it turned into a horrific heatwave that left everyone sweating. Even so, the leaves started dropping, and I managed to snap a little artsy picture of my socks with peaches on them, which I adore. (If you look closely by my legs, you can see some of the blue bits of my lanyard hanging down. Oops!)

I also joined a club on campus, called Dance Guild, which is super exciting! I always joke that I'm a horrific dancer because I'm clumsy, but I joined the Coed Hip Hop and the Girls Hip Hop guild-level (which is the least advanced of the three tiers) groups, and I've been loving them a lot so far. The girls one definitely has harder choreography than the coed one, and I'm finding that I enjoy the challenge a lot. I think I've just been inexperienced in dance before this, but I'm not actually a bad dancer when it comes down to it, which has been the most surprising thing.

If you're free October 17th or 18th and want to grab a ticket to come watch me do some hippin' and hoppin', then definitely do it. It'll be a fun time.

I've also taken to drawing little tattoos on myself with either a pen or an eyeliner, which is what I used in the picture above. I really really want to get a tattoo this year, so this is my way of testing out location and styles, and also I just like to doodle on myself when I'm bored. (If I do get a tattoo, I'll be sure to blog about the experience and post a picture on Instagram.)

I've been trying to do more little adventures this year (spontaneous ones, of course!), and my best friend July has been my adventure buddy. This was a picture of us after we went to Krispy Kreme and a little thrift store called Plato's Closet, and it's definitely made me treasure the little things in life and the friendships that I've had in the past and ones I'm making now.

Speaking of adventures, I went to a little farmer's market, and there was a lot of really awesome fresh fruit and veggies and all kinds of goodies. I also couldn't resist picking up a little vase of fresh flowers to spice up my dorm windowsill.

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October

At the beginning of October I went with some friends downtown to go swing dancing, which was honestly one of the most magical nights of my life. I've always been one to say that love at first sight doesn't exist, but wow, this night made me almost revoke that statement. (Side note: continue reading this segment of the post while listening to the song "Absolutely Smitten" by Dodie because it explains my EXACT feelings about this whole situation.)

My only experience with swing dancing before this point has been a mandatory gym class in high school where we were taught the basic steps, so going into a public place and trying to learn to dance was a little nerve-wracking. However, I went to the little learning session that happens before the actual dance, and I got paired up with a really sweet guy who was just *le sigh* a dream.

Lemme just recap some highlights (if you're bored by squishy things like this then feel free to keep scrolling while I become a giddy mess):

- Highlight #1: Ughhhh, he was just so lovely and nice and we joked around about whether or not he was a dancer, since I definitely don't consider myself one. And since we both had wristbands on for the event, we laughed and said that maybe the wristbands were our sign that we were becoming future official dancers. Then I asked him what we should do once we became official dancers, and he just smiled really big and said, "CULINARY SCHOOL!"

- Highlight #2: There was one point where I was struggling hardcore to stay on the beat and get my feet to cooperate, and he smiled (again with the smile, it was SO cute) and said he would count out the rhythm for me and then once I got the hang of it, we could count together. At this point I teased him that he was definitely a dancer, and he just shyly admitted that he'd learned to salsa a while ago, to which I replied that I was learning hip hop moves right now. And then he said he would teach me salsa if I would teach him hip hop so that we could really be official dancers.

- Highlight #3: Still during the lesson portion, the instructor mentioned that for this particular version of swing (West Coast), the move required only a one-handed grip rather than holding both of your partner's hands. Meanwhile my partner and I were still trying to get the counting right because I'm clumsy, and we realized a few minutes later that we were the only ones still holding both hands. My partner said, "Wait, are we supposed to be only holding one hand right now?" And I responded affirmatively, "I think so," to which he squeezed my hands and smiled and said, "That's okay." And then he just kept holding both of my hands.

- Highlight #4: We were technically supposed to rotate partners every so often during the lesson, but people really didn't do that, so my partner and I just spun each other around as our "rotation." (I didn't mind.)

- Highlight #5: After the lesson ended, we danced the first two songs together, and then he said that we should both go learn some sweet moves and come back to each other later. *squee*

The unfortunate thing about this all is that all I got was a first name, and nothing more. And while social media has made it easy to stalk people (which I may or may not have done), it still means that I only have a name and a face that I can't quite remember and a plethora of little memories. I'll go back to swing dancing at some point, but I kind of want to preserve my happiness bubble that goes along with this night. This perfect night with a handsome stranger and a lot of laughter.

(Side note: my best friend also mentioned that this guy who I only knew for a few hours made me happier than my ex ever did, which is a very strange revelation to me. I guess time doesn't determine how fast you connect with people...)

Hammocking weather has stuck around for a good amount of time, but now that it's transitioning into colder weather, I've actually tried putting a hammock up in my dorm, which worked more fabulously than I would have thought it would.

I also was featured on my college's official Instagram page, since a girl on my floor runs the page and asked me to write a Bible verse in a journal for a photo. Those aren't my hands in the picture, since I wasn't around when my friend wanted to take the picture, but that's my drawing in the notebook, and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. The college liked the picture so much that they also want to feature it in a magazine that they send to prospective students and alumni alike, which is super exciting since I haven't gotten a chance to be artsy that much this semester.

For Halloween this year, some girls on my floor and I decided we wanted to be Shrek-themed of all things. And thus our little Shrek squadron was born. I ended up being the fairy godmother, and although this picture doesn't show my wings that well, they were blue and purple and COVERED in glitter, which was awesome and horrifying at the same time. The girl in the red dress was our dragon, and she made her wings out of cardboard, and they looked awesome and she could actually flap them, which is hilarious.

July has been trying to get me to watch The Office ever since she found out I was a receptionist over the summer (like Pam), and so this year I actually have started watching it. We try and crank out a few episodes every so often, but sometimes homework and tests get in the way of me actually binge-watching it.

I actually love the humor in the show, and it makes me laugh to see all the characters just being their derpy selves. I recommend watching with popcorn and Mexican hot chocolate, as you see pictured, and a blanket and an abundance of pillows on the floor. It's perfect for a cozy night in when it's a little gloomy outside, and you don't have any (urgent) studying to be doing.

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Phew! That was a lot of words.

Thanks as always for reading, and hopefully I'll be able to blog more before exam season ramps up in December. I love you all, and thank you for all the support and lovely things you've said to me and does for me these past few months.

That is all.

Cheers,