I survived the all day Tahitian dance competition. I arrived at just before 8 am and left just before 8 pm. With over 200 girls and 30 boys competing, it took awhile to have everybody dance. My group (the “old ladies” 35 and over) was small, so we advanced directly to finals without preliminaries. That means that in my first competition ever, I danced alone in the center of the gym with the judges, musicians and about 100+ people watching. I hardly saw the people. I was surprised to see that those of us in the older age group don’t move that quickly. I also got to see my competition in this area. It was over quickly, and frankly I was relieved. I had waited all day to dance at about 6:30 pm.

Today I’m resting and nursing a sore throat. I had no idea that I would be so tired after only dancing for 90 seconds.