Soiree International

Soiree International.

Here at UCO, it's a big deal. What is it, you ask? It's a night, usually at the end of the semester, where different students from the CIDEF program sign up to present something from their country of origin--a song, a dance, a poem, etc.

In other words, an international Talent Show.

An awesome international Talent Show. I haven't laughed so hard in ages--nor been so impressed. Some of the acts left the audience in stitches, while others were major jaw-droppers.

As examples of those that really impressed me, I present the following:

1) Two guys sang several songs in Russian while accompanying themselves on guitar and piano.

2) A girl from China played a song on piano that was so difficult, you couldn't even see her hands (no kidding--they were really moving that fast).

3) A few girls performed a dance from Thailand with authentic garb.

And the list goes on. As for the funny acts, there were:

1) A skit by the teachers of CIDEF who had 'kidnapped' the CIDEF president in order to force him to agree to certain demands. In said skit, he was only released after agreeing to require all international students (namely, us) to wait on the teachers hand and foot. Happily, he didn't actually sign anything. Hehe.

2) Another skit by the Expression Theatrale class to present several different 'advertisements' of the CIDEF program. Said ads included the phrase 'Inscrivez au CIDEF' as a mother's dying words, the pass code to a secret organization, and the answer to a gameshow. My personal favorite, however, was the one where someone was denied toilet paper because they hadn't registered for CIDEF.

3) A cheer performed by a large group of Japanese cheerleaders in response to a Youtube video that they had found. One of the people involved--and the only guy--was a classmate of mine, Jun, who was dressed as a girl in a pink skirt and a blue wig. I have no more words to describe it.

Etcetera, etcetera. The program lasted until after 11 at night, but it was worth it!

And did I mention that I did something, too? As it was introduced last night, I 'sang a song without singing'--i.e. I did a song in sign language. The song that I did was Beautiful Stranger by Rebecca St.James. It was well received, and according to the CIDEF president, it was the first time someone had done sign language in the entire history of CIDEF. Dare to be different!

Thus far, several things have occurred because of my performance last night; people (even strangers) are coming up to either a) congratulate me, b) ask me to sign something for them, or c) all of the above.

Though I don't regret it, I still kind of feel like a circus seal.