SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER HITS CAGLI

STUDENTS DANCE & SWAY THE NIGHT AWAY
AREA DISCOTHEQUE PACKED WITH PARTIERS

THE SCENE WAS ONE OF LAST-MINUTE DESPERATION as students raced through the narrow streets of Old Cagli on Saturday night, purses dangling after them as they headed into the humid, sultry night. Their destination? “Masai Le Club”, the region’s premier discotheque, for a dinner party and all-night dancing extravaganza. Their evening plans hung in the balance as they reached the bus station to with only minutes to spare.

Luck was on their side that night: everyone was accounted for on the bus, and they breathed a sigh of relief as they pulled into the Masai driveway a few kilometers down the road.

Once within the confines of the palatial dance compound, the students relaxed poolside, where they were served “alcoholic beverages and munchy food,” according to student Kathryn Gregory, who detailed an expansive list of appetizers including miniature pizzas, mozerella and olives, and melon and prosciutto.

With the hors d’ouvres safely out of the way, the students were led to an enormous table, whereupon they were regaled with a substantial three-course meal befitting a king. “Everyone was pretty happy,” Gregory smiled.

Alas, all the excitement of the day proved to be too much for student Catherine Leung, who found herself growing noticeably fatigued at dinner. “I passed out!” she exclaimed, turning away in shame at the memory of snoozing through the meal. “A lady asked if I was okay! She said ‘Your hair’s in the food’.”

But once the powerful, thumping sounds of booming bass in your face began pumping from the state-of-the-art sound system at Masai, Leung found her second wind. “I was ready to go dance!” she grinned. As Italian house music blasted from underneath a large tent, the students began shaking their tailfeathers and shimmying amid the local crowd. However, the students did not think much of the dancing of the Italian boys, some of whom were going shirtless.

“We tore up that dance floor,” graduate assistant Kristen Cesiro told me. “But it was all us! Those Italian boys were really bad dancers.”

Leung was similarly unimpressed by the indigenous dance style. “All they did was step to the left and step to the right! The problem was that they were so skinny! No hips! Nothing to work with,” she sighed.

Student Lea Faminiano, however, was so impressed by the spins, dips, and sways of the locals that she and broadcasting major Reid Johnson spent the night copying the Italians’ moves. “But we were better,” she confided with a sly smile.

The students spent all evening sashaying across the dance floor and shaking all around until the wee hours of the morning. “We didn’t leave until 4am,” student Laura Treadway told me. “But it was a lotta fun.”

For some students, it was also an occasion to get all decked out and sport their finest togs. Student Michael Paine spent all of Saturday afternoon on a personal fashion quest, dipping in and out of small local clothing shops in search of a suitable ‘Euro-outfit’. He was accompanied by a number of female students who acted as unpaid wardrobe consultants to Mr Paine, legendary for his scant regard to the dictates of fashion.

“I looked good,” Paine told me in the computer lab, recounting his head-to-toe refitting, complete with a new pair of Euro-shoes. But by Sunday morning, he had put away his finery and was relaxing in a sunbeam sporting a more laid-back ensemble consisting of shorts and a baggy sports t-shirt. He explained to me how he couldn’t remain at such fashionable heights past the one night. “All my nice clothes are back in the U.S.!” he told me with a deep groan. “I’m just going to have to stick to my grungy style.”