Austin Open 2013

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

It's almost 7 pm right now, but I feel like it's still early in the afternoon because...

well, I woke up at 1 pm.

I know.

so late...  but!!

I have a good reason for that happening because we didn't get back home from Austin Open that I mentioned here until 5:30 am this morning.

and I was driving, so I feel like I basically pulled an all-nighter!

I talked with Abers earlier, and she asked why we didn't just stay the night in Austin,

and looking back, it was not the smartest idea to start driving back to Houston at like 1:30 or 2 am.

However, who thinks clearly at 2 am after you've been dancing for 12 hours?

Definitely not me.

and the competition was supposed to end at 7 pm, not at 1 am,

so we didn't think we would need to book hotels for the night.

But anyway, it was a really wonderful day spent road tripping with my fabulous car,

(Tim, Jesse, and Michael)

hanging out and meeting new friends,

and of course, dancing with my favoritest scientist/dancer ever  ;)

We competed in International Standard and Latin,

as well as some fun dances like Lindy hop and Salsa,

so here are some pictures from the day.

International Standard and International Latin outfits

 I believe these photos are from American Smooth divisions Newcomer, Bronze, and Silver.

yay go Team Rice!!  

not to brag, but we dominated these divisions  ;)

International Standard was supposed to happen around 2 or 3 pm,

but our level of International Standard didn't end up happening until like 7 pm...

so we spent those 5 hours or so eating, goofing off, and cheering on the rest of our team!

Then finally, finally, it was our turn.

whew!

poor people running the Austin Open competition...

I think they had a huge technical malfunction or something,

and that's why things were running 5 hours behind.

International Standard Silver and Gold division

I think my favorite thing about the dress was the 'wings'   haha

the first time I put them on, 

I ran around flapping my arms for good 5 minutes or so  =p

sorry, we don't have pictures of me doing that  haha (thank goodness...?)

David being engulfed by the wings

Then came the International Latin rounds in which we competed Silver and Gold again.

The only bad thing about that was that Silver had 3 different rounds (quarter, semi, and final),

and dancing cha cha, rumba, jive, samba, and paso doble back to back that many times is unbelievably tiring.  They usually have breaks in between rounds, but because they were running so late, they just cut out all of the breaks I think.  Thankfully Gold division only had 1 round, but by the time I was dancing the jive for the 4th time back to back, I was about ready to collapse.

After all of the different rounds were finished,

we had the award ceremony around 12:30 or 1,

and we were free to go home!!!

yay  =)

We only competed in 10 dances (plus 2 social) and I was completely exhausted by the end.

My goal for the day was to get called back for the final round for all of the dances,

and while I'm very thankful that we did, 

and that we placed in every single one of the dances we competed in,

I have to say, by the time the end was near, 

our number being called for the final rounds definitely felt like both a curse and a blessing.

(no more jive... can't.. dance.. anymore...)

Some people from our team competed in all 20 dances,

(American smooth and rhythm, and International standard and latin)

and I really admire their stamina!

woo!  way to go folks!  I don't know how you did that!

Everyone did so well at the competition,

and I think our team definitely held our own out there!

we may be small, but we are mighty!  =p  haha

Rice Ballroom Dance Team.

Thank goodness school is over, because I don't think I could get up to go to school tomorrow.

I woke up this morning (afternoon) feeling like I got run over by a bus  haha

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

thanks for stopping by!

-Janny