Noche de Los Blazers

August 5th was the Night of the Blazers, a very important Rotary event for inbounds and outbounds. Angye and I arrived at the event at 4:15 (45 minutes before we had to be there). We stayed in the lobby and hung out with other exchange students. As more students arrived, a pin exchange quickly unraveled. I got quite a few cute pins from the Peruvians and the other inbounds. Eventually we went into the room of the event and started trading pins in there. Eventually we all stopped and listened so we could take photos by country and with the Peruvian outbounds that were going to that country. Eventually, Phoebe (American) and I went to go practice our song that we had to sing later in the evening for everyone. We all eventually went back into the room so we could get our table that we would be sitting at. We all then went to sit at our tables. I was sitting with my host family, Valerie, and Zidanny (Peruvian that is being sponsored to go abroad by Rotary). Once the ceremony began, the flags from every country were carried out, and everyone from each country had to go up and sing their national anthem. After that we all returned to our seats before we had to go up for photos and the speeches. After I returned to my seat, I thought I was in the clear, until we were called up to go sing (Phoebe, Axelle, and I). We didn't know where we were singing or when we were singing (we had all met that morning to learn). After singing, we went back to the table and ate dinner. We took pictures and then we went to dance.

The French singing their anthem.

All the outbounds getting ready to leave!

L to R: Lucia, Valerie, Zidanny, Me, and Angye

Valeria and I :)

Dancing was fun and of course included a lot of awkwardness (how could it not be with so many gringos?). I danced with a Peruvian boy that had gone to Belgium a few years ago, attempted to learn some kind of Peruvian dance with feet tapping, and just had a lot of fun. I did some gringo dancing with Paul (My French boy), which included some spinning and making up of random dance moves. I saw some Peruvians get it on the dance floor, and even saw Henry and Veronica out there. The dancing ended at 1:30 to the dismay of the Peruvians who stayed on the dance floor singing their own songs and dancing.

Eventually, we were all done. I hugged Sabrina goodbye (around 4 times to be exact) and wished her luck in Arequipa. After that we headed home and called it a night.