Fiestahápe: I wish it was just a bad dream

I’ve never really been too into the whole party scene and I’ve never really been too into the whole dancing thing… as in, it’s actually somewhat painful for me to try and pretend like I know what I’m doing out on the dance floor and I’m pretty sure it’s painful for others to watch me. This last weekend there was a fiesta, or fiestahápe as we call it in the campo, in my site and I think I danced with about 10 guys (mas o menos, I lost count after 5) and said no or “later” to about as many guys that I said yes to. …But I get ahead of myself, first let me tell you a little about the fiesta Paraguaya.
They may differ a little, but generally there are two types of fiestas, quinciñeras (the “coming of age” party for 15 year old girls) and the fiestas that include the entire community. There are a few differences, but to me, they both have the same feel. The only difference is that the quinciñera tends to include a younger age group, a 15 year old in a white dress, and awkward group photos in front of the cake. I still haven’t figured out why they think this is a good place for pictures, but apparently it’s tradition. Both types of fiestas typically begin with an awkward hour or so of sitting around staring at the ground, the table, or your neighbor before anything actually happens. I have found that cleaning the dirt from under my nails and picking at my cuticles is a good use of this time, although that usually only takes about 15 minutes depending on how dirty my nails are. Sometimes there is a dinner, or some kind of a show that goes along with these community fiestas but whether there is or not, the main portion of the fiesta is devoted to dancing to blaring music until 3 or 4 in the morning.
We had a big fiesta in my community this weekend and I went with my mom and sister hoping that maybe I could put off the whole dancing thing for at least half the night. That of course didn’t happen and I don’t even think it was 6 o’clock before someone asked me to dance with him. After I said yes to the first guy (aka basically dragged onto the dance floor after my family told me I should dance with him) the offers never stopped. I don’t even remember how many guys I danced with, but I think it was close to ten and I gave quite a few excuses to many more offers. Luckily about 90% of Paraguayans dance as badly as I do (yes friends, it’s possible), so I really don’t look like a complete idiot while I’m dancing, just sort of like an idiot. I might not know what I’m doing, but apparently no one else does either so they’ll never know I really can’t dance. Dancing more than a couple of dances with the same guy is a sign that you are interested in him, so rather than show too much interest and to save myself from further embarrassment, I excused myself from my dance partner after one dance. Every time I sat down though, someone else would come up, or their friend would shove them over, to ask to dance within about 45 seconds after taking my seat. It was like there was a constant, unstoppable stream of men. I think every guy I danced with told me I was pretty, I had about 5 guys ask if I would be their girlfriend and then didn’t understand why I said no, I had 2 guys ask if I wanted to leave with them, and I had one guy practically beg for my number. That same guy also literally stopped in the middle of dancing to see if my eyes were blue or not. Lucky for me, a huge thunderstorm was headed our way, so the fiesta ended at the early hour of 8 and I got to not only leave the continuous offers to dance, but I also got to get a good nights sleep.
I guess I could be flattered by being the coveted dance partner, but I find it annoying for many reasons beginning with the fact that I don’t like to dance. It seems to be fact here that being “rubia” equals being pretty but I’m still struggling to understand that concept. They seemed to think that just knowing my name, my nationality and whether I’m single or not is enough to qualify someone to be my boyfriend. Unfortunately, attending community events, like fiestas is part of my job now. I guess I need to either learn to like dancing or make up some better excuses.