Bust a Move

Today was a day we'd been waiting for for quite a while here in Olsztyn...the Crush Moves Break Dancing Competition. Yes, it's true. We first saw the advertisements for this event at the beginning of the summer as we were looking at the poster for the summer arts events and have been waiting for it ever since. The morning broke cloudy and ominous and we were disheartened by several rain showers, threatening our trip to the ampitheater to see the competition. Around 1:30 we finally decided we had to take the risk. If something is important enough in your life, you take these chances. We bundled up (yes, I did say "we bundled up" on August 30. I wore a sweater and a scarf and wasn't too warm!) and headed up, hoping that the rain would hold off. And, boy, let me tell you how thankful I am we took this risk. It was SO worth it! The rain did indeed hold off and it turned out to be a really nice afternoon. We enjoyed some kickin' break dancing (with a cup of coffee at a little cafe during the freestyle rapping--not my favorite) from girls, guys, young, and not-so-young. Now, I do have to say that some of the moves looked similar to some of my dance moves, which is kind of embarassing, but by and large, they were good dancers and had some moves! Here are a few pictures to enjoy:

The ampitheater stage with the castle in the background. I think Copernicus would have joined right in and shown off his moves.

They competed in teams of three and would dance for five minutes, taking turns. Then the judges picked one team as the winner. You can see the little guy in red dancing in this picture. He looked to be one of the youngest dancers. All of the teams had names, such as: "Twisted Feet", "Rock On", and the like...most in English!

I had to get a picture of this guy dancing. He had a Shaquile O'Neal jersey on. There was a LOT of USA apparel. We saw I heart NYC, Oakland A's, Dickies, Yankees, all kinds of stuff!

And, after the excitement of this afternoon, Amber and I enjoyed the view from one of the benches in the park near our building. It was a beautiful, early fall afternoon and it was fun to see the kids out playing and just sit and watch the world go by and enjoy a few peaceful moments. Sitting on park benches is a common pastime here, and today I finally began to understand why.

It was a good day.