Homecoming dances

I should briefly say that in Italy my high school did not have any kind of balls or dances that students could attend, the only thing we did was studying: no pep rallies, no assemblies, no advising, no Friday night lights. Luckily for me, I was an exchange student in the USA and I experienced the Homecoming Dance. It is basically like Prom, but maybe less formal, you can go even without a date because, to be honest, who cares? And also is at the beginning of the year meanwhile Prom is usually at the end.

My Homecoming Day

That Saturday I was in a hurry, I had to get everything for my dance. I did not have a nice pair of pants, no shirt, and not even good shoes. So I went to buy some with my American family. I tried everything on and I looked in the mirror. I felt weird, weird because I have never had the opportunity to wear nice clothes, and I have never been to a dance either, but I felt good because I looked good.

So after that, I met up with a bunch of seniors at a park around five thirty in the afternoon. We took some pictures on a bridge, next to the lake and around the trees. At some point, I saw that some girls from my school were also there taking pictures. They were freshmen and I knew some of them, in fact, when they saw me they waved. As I waved back they came towards me and one of them asked me a weird question: "Can we take a picture with you, while we kiss you on the cheek? " Did I hear that correctly? I mean, I am Italian so I am used to giving and receiving kisses on the cheek but it was just very interesting to be asked that question, especially in the United States of America where they do not normally kiss people to greet them, they would rather shake hands, or hug maybe. I agreed to take that picture with one of them and all of the sudden I had everyone around me asking the same thing. I probably appear in twenty pictures and I do not even know who has them. It was very funny.

After that moment of glory, I went back to my group and we went to a very fancy dinner: Dairy Queen. Yes, the ice cream place. Do not judge, we were kind of broke and there was time to raise some money and eat something fancier at Prom. Anyway, some of us ate an ice cream, some of us decided to have a hamburger and others just drank a smoothie. Subsequently, we parked somewhere and started to chat and play games until it was late enough to go to school and get in line for the dance.

To be completely honest, I did not know what to expect from the dance. I thought that at some point I would have been sitting on my own on one of the gym steps but that did not happen, and I should say I am glad. A lot of people who recognized me came and said hello, then some others told me compliments. I even talked to the "Queen" of the night who was a very nice girl (she is now a model and moved to Los Angeles, but that is a different story). She told me she wanted to have lunch with me sometimes because she thought I was a nice guy, but that never happened. She was part of the play I was in and so we hung out a lot, but we never really went on a date or something. Some of the girls who previously took a picture of me while they were kissing me asked me to dance, so I was always busy until a stranger came and she asked. I did not want to say no, "no" was not an option. I was on exchange and I had to take advantage of every opportunity I was given. But then she showed me how Americans dance: she started grinding. At the beginning, I was like "what the fuck" but then I thought that if she came to me, she asked me to dance even if I did not know her, and she did that it meant that she liked me, so I felt flattered, lol. I believe we danced for a solid ten minutes, then it started to feel kind of awkward, it was too long. Fun fact: after the dance, during which by the way she did not introduce herself, I did not see her again. I think I spotted her in the hall but I was not one-hundred percent sure. Everyone knew me in school because I was the exchange student, so she probably saw me again but felt embarrassed to come to me and say "Hello, I am the one you danced with".

I felt satisfied, the night passed by quickly and I had fun, but there was a tiny problem: All of the sudden my friends were gone, and they left me at school. I did not know how to go back home, so I tried to call my host parents but I did not insist because I knew they were sleeping and I did not want to disturb them so I went for a walk. I was lucky because I believe my house was just one kilometer away, more or less, so I reached home in less than twenty minutes. I love walking, in Italy I always do because I do not have a driving license and I do not even have a transportation pass, so I always walk everywhere. The next morning my American mom asked me how the dance was and if I had fun. Then she asked me "How did you get home? Did your friend give you a ride? " Alright, this is it. "No, actually I walked, she left earlier and so I just went for a walk". I saw shock in her eyes so I told her right away that it is fine for me to walk and I did not mind it at all, I just did not want to wake her up to come and pick me up since school is fairly close to home. She just told me she was concerned because it was dark and that I was more than welcome to wake her if that happened again.

My friend's homecoming

I guess my homecoming was not enough, so I also went to my friend's the weekend after mine. He actually invited me. He is German and he was living in Loveland, just West of Greeley. I went there for the weekend and spent the night. There was October Fest going on that day in Loveland so we stayed there for a little bit and then we went to his house. It was big and right on the lake, his host parents had even a boat which they normally used in the summer! We played table tennis and then changed. I guess I did not have to wait until Prom for my fancy dinner because we went to Olive Garden (which does not have to be fancy, but you can agree that it is fancier than Dairy Queen).

There I met all his friends and other exchange students, two of them were from Spain, then there was one from Denmark, others from other places, and a few Coloradans. We took a huge group picture and then we went to school. My school was a charter, my friend's was public, so it was bigger and even the decorations in the gym were nicer. We danced and I met lots of people (who although I did not see again after that night). At eleven the dance was already over and so one of his friends proposed to go to a party. We ended up roaming around for almost three hours because we did not find a party they liked. We even stopped in a fast food to get some drinks. I was relieved because we did not know what we could expect and since we were exchange students we did not want to get involved in any kind of trouble. His friends kept saying that we could not go home until we went to an American after party but they finally released us and we reached home late at night. I will save you the details, but this is pretty much how I spent my two only homecomings of my life.

- Cristian

Photo gallery