Dear Diary
There are ways to wake people up, and then there are ways to wake people up. Personally, I prefer being left asleep! After this weekend, I don’t think I should share accommodation with strangers again.
This weekend was another dance congress. It is fondly referred to as Dance Camp as you are lodged in cabins with about six other people. Usually, women and men are segregated. There are often cabin parties before and after the evening dance parties.
I arrived late on Friday night. It was an hour drive and I was feeling tired and flustered from rushing. When I arrived it was about 11pm and the party was pumping. I quickly dropped my things off in my cabin. My housemate had arrived earlier and reserved a bed for me. Inside the cabin I met one of my fellow roomies, a pretty Russian girl. She’d already lubricated herself with vodka for the night. I introduced myself and then left for the party.
At the door of the party was Mr Friendly. We said hello and had a dance. Dance Teacher was also there and a lot of familiar faces from over the years. I stayed for a couple of hours then went back to the cabin to sleep.
In general, I’m a pretty good sleeper and don’t wake up to noises in the night. The party was only 50 meters from our cabin and I was able to sleep through the thumping music okay. I don’t know exactly what time of the night it was but all I know is that I was deep in sleep and dreaming when I suddenly woke up startled. Alarmed, I gasped and sat bolt upright. I heard a soft whisper ‘No, no, no’. It’s as if they were trying to comfort me. Looking at me beside my bed was the Russian girl. Startled herself, she walked back to her bed and then into the bathroom. Perplexed, I asked out loud “Is everything okay?” – No response. After a while in the bathroom she got into her bed and went to sleep. No one else in our cabin was awake to witness it.
I hoped that maybe I had been talking in my sleep and she was comforting me… or that maybe she was sleep walking?….either way, I felt very uneasy – It was pretty creepy. I slept facing her in case she came back that night. How did I wake up? Did she touch me? I never wake up startled, so she must have touched me – but where? I don’t know! There was still another night of Dance Camp left – was it worth boycotting the Saturday night party and driving home early for my own safety? It was difficult to fall back asleep that night wondering what she was capable of – pillow suffocation? hair cutting? who knows! What did she want from me!
The next morning I confronted the Russian Girl. She must have been sleep walking as she thought that it had been a dream. She said that she didn’t usually sleep walk and that she was shocked that it happened. She seemed harmless….but it’s pretty hard to establish rapport with someone who you woke up to looking over you whilst you slept. But, I decided it was safe to stay another night.
The dance workshops on the Saturday were fun. I have bruises from some of the dance lifts that we practiced. There was an interesting interaction in one of the workshops. It was one of the guys from another dance school who never asks me to dance at one of my usual dance parties. He seemed a bit younger than me and I always assumed that I wasn’t his type so he had no interest in asking me to dance. At one workshop though, we had to dance together. He didn’t smell like alcohol, but he seemed uninhibited. As we were doing some of the styling moves he started talking inappropriately to me. He said “Ooo, so let’s just run your fingers along yourself here and oooo see if you like it” all I could think was that I would rotate to the next partner soon and it’d be over. The rotation didn’t happen for a while and he told me I should come by his cabin later in the night and gave me his cabin number. I laughed at him as if to imply that it wasn’t going to happen. One move that we did was the lady sitting on the man’s knee….he took advantage of this and bounced his leg slightly and said that he was making vibrations for me….I tried so hard to not freak out and instead laughed it off (note to self, avoid this man at all cost! surely, he must be drunk?). At the end of the class he came up to ask me my name and said it was good that I could take a joke (was it really a joke?). I made sure that I avoided him for the rest of the Dance Camp. Let’s just call him Jay-Z-2 if he ever finds his way into an entry in the future.
Mr Smooth was also at Dance Camp (the smooth dancer from one of the Thursday night parties a month or so ago who asked me if I’d like a drink and I declined. He has the cubic zirconia stud in one ear and a tattoo on his arm). He is a very good dancer and obviously has hip-hop background as he did break-dancing at the parties on both nights. On the Friday night I’d started to walk of the dance floor after a dance and he walked up beside me and then in front of me to casually lean on a wall and say “and where are you going?” True to form, very smooth. We had a dance and that was it. At the end of one class on the Saturday he came to ask me if I would like to join him and his friends in their cabin for pre-party drinks. He asked if I had Facebook so that he could keep me up to date. I said I didn’t access it on my phone but that I was sure I would hear where they were….I didn’t see him for the rest of the weekend.
Leaving the dining hall on Saturday evening I bumped into a familiar face. It was one of the guys that I had danced with years ago who I hadn’t seen in almost a year or maybe even two! Remembering seeing photos of him with a girl on Facey I assumed it was safe to be friendly and look genuinely happy to see him. He was always flirty by nature, but harmless. He’d been busy with life and hadn’t been dancing in a long time. I said it was nice to see him and left for my cabin for some rest before the party.
About five minutes after arriving in my cabin I heard the entry code being typed in and the door open. I called out ‘Hello’ and looked up surprised to see it was the guy that I’d just been talking to. What was he doing in my girls-only cabin? Curious, I asked him. He said that he was changing cabins because he couldn’t sleep the night before due to someone snoring. I figured he must have been joking and laughed. He asked me which bed was spare and I asked him if he was serious “Well, yes, I have to the code to the room, don’t I” He chose the spare bunk above me. He soon left as he had work commitments, but would be back later in the night for the party. I warned the other ladies as they came back to the cabin that we had male company for the night.
At the Saturday night party I was very tired (attributed to poor quality sleep and a full day of dance workshops). I stayed for about four hours and then went to bed. Inside the cabin were some of my roomies and one of their guy friends. We chatted for a bit before they went back to the party. Their plan was to go to the bonfire scheduled for 4am. Russian Girl said that I shouldn’t be a party-pooper and join them (no thanks! – I’d rather get as much sleep in as possible whilst she wasn’t in the room!).
It must have been 4am when I woke up to the stroking of my arm and voices saying “No, no, let her sleep” I rolled over sleepily to see the guy who had joined our cabin smiling at me and stroking my arm. I jumped and everyone laughed. When I figured out what was happening I laughed also. I thought he’d go away but he didn’t. As the other talked (intoxicated) he stroked my arm and made kissing noises – whaaa? I laughed and then he moved his hand to stroke my collar bone – I swatted his hand away and moved back on the bed. I told him no and laughed in shock. He moved closer and continued to stroke my arm and blow kisses – no! I told them all that they should go to the bonfire. The others decided it was time to go and the guy stayed next to me (hmmm worse situation than before, time to pick up the defense). I knew that there were other people sleeping in the room so I kept my voice loud and clear as I told him that he needed to go. My housemate woke up and said “You’re waking me up” . We said sorry and then he went and turned off the light in the room and came back to me – “turning off the light doesn’t make a difference!” I told him and said that he needed to go to the bonfire. He moved his face closer to mine and made a kissing sound one last time before he did leave. I thought to myself – seriously? did that just happen? and he’s going to be coming back into my room when I’m asleep and be on the bunk bed above me (if he doesn’t try getting into my bed!). I’m pro uni-sex cabins! exhibit A.
So, I tried really hard to sleep that night. I was worried about Russian Girl and Top Bunk Buddy coming back in – how is one meant to sleep when they don’t feel safe in their own room??
The next morning I woke up late. Neither Russian Girl or Top Bunk Buddy had made their way back to the cabin that night. Their beds were neatly made. I hoped that they were okay but wasn’t going to go looking for them. I started getting ready to leave as I had brunch plans with a girlfriend. I’d almost finished getting ready when the fire alarms in the complex went off. We were being evacuated. Surely a false alarm. I didn’t have time to spare so messily jammed all my things into my bags and scurried to my car. It was a false alarm but the firemen would have to check the cabins and deem the area safe.
When I go to my car the boot wouldn’t open – strange – maybe the car buzzer was flat. I had to manually open my car with the key. Inside, I went to start it – nothing….uh oh…I’d left the interior light on all weekend. Great, just great. It only took 30 minutes for the road side assistance to come and restart my car. My friend and I rearranged plans and I ended up picking her up and we went for a drive as I needed to keep my car going for at least an hour to recharge the battery. Brunch became drive through fast food and we cruised around and ate for the next two hours. A novel but memorable brunch date.
Karate Kid updates for the weekend were that he sent a message on the Friday evening: “How much trouble are you be causing tonight?” – My reply one hour later: “Only a little bit hehe”. Some time on Saturday evening he sent a message “haha are you dressed up as Cat Woman again?”. I waited until Sunday afternoon to reply “hehe no”. I don’t think that he made it to the party on Saturday as I didn’t see him. I’m curious to know what he’ll do when he sees photos of my housemate, Mr Friendly and I from the photo-booth at the dance party whenever they are uploaded to Facey…. probably won’t help his jealousy even though they are innocent photos.
Anastasia
The Contemporary Princess 