-^-for posterity-^-

the spring festival.

we unveiled the boot scootin boogie and the electric slide. we watched fashion shows, songs and dances. everything was surreal.

the crowd was huge. hundreds of people but i couldn’t really tell. it was dark and the back of the audience disappeared into the night. there could have been millions of people there. the crowd stretched on infinitely for all i knew. maybe some of you were there.

the music was played through a computer. simultaneously, they showed a slide show. this made the music skip and stutter. the singers were at a loss. each song seemed to stutter and bounce at inappropriate times. every singer threw nervous glances in the direction of the computer. the program listed fifteen acts. they were supposed to be in order of appearance. they decided to skip around. one to five, three then eight. we never really knew when we were performing.

we were also “guests of honor.” this meant that we sat in the front row and were given a bottle of water and a rose. we also found out that we were to be judges. we were to judge the dance competitions even though we were to take part in them. how can one possibly judge themselves especially when they’re performing the boot scootin boogie? integrity?

two banners were unfurled from the top of a building. one said, “happy new year” and the other one was impossible to read. instead of falling and hanging majestically in the air, it dropped like a dead bird. the crowd giggled.

our performance was surprisingly well received. people were perplexed but respectful. they had never seen a line dance before (and we really had no idea what we were doing). they clapped and people brought us roses.

there was a “money tree” near the end of the show. they invited people from the audience up to pick questions off of the tree and, if they answered them correctly, they would pick an envelope and could keep whatever amount of money was inside. one question was, “can you say, ‘i love you’ in five different languages?” another was, “can you sing a song.” the girl sang the song, long and loud. her envelope didn’t have any money in it. her compensation was applause from the audience and some chuckles. they asked if anyone else wanted to come up. one of my students was the mc and i was sitting in the front row. he asked me to come up. i cautiously walked on stage and answered the question, “what is one question that you can never answer, ‘yes’, to?”, with, “are you dead?” i received 20,000 dong.

the show ended and everyone was happy. some people took to the stage and sang a version of “happy birthday” with the words, “happy new year”, inserted. “happy new year to you! happy new year to you! happy new year everybody! happy new year to you!” i couldn’t stop laughing.