High School Musical and Prom: Through the Eyes of an Exchange Student

Mariana, a Brazilian CCI exchange student, has been chronicling her exchange year in Alabama. Here is her latest story about two memorable experiences.

By Mariana, a CCI exchange student

My post today is about two of the most amazing experiences I have had here in the U.S as an exchange student: Spring Musical and Prom.

I’ve been in Musical-Theater class since the beginning of the second semester and the main goal for this class was to produce “Little Shop of Horrors,” a play about a poor and orphaned guy, Seymour, and his plant, Audrey 2. Seymour works in a florist shop on Skid Row, a very poor neighborhood. Seymour buys this exotic plant and what he doesn’t know is that in order for the plant to grow the plant eats blood– HUMAN BLOOD! Hahaha. The story is so funny.

I was the puppeteer of one of the smallest plants. I also helped with the lights, working with the spotlight.  Then I was also in the last song, singing and dancing with the ensemble. 🙂 It was awesome! At the end of the last show, our director called the seniors, me, and my friend Sarah (who’s also from Brazil), to say things about us and how he was going to miss us. It was so sad and we cried so much! It was amazing to work with those people and I can say for sure they are my best friends.

And now…. PROM! I don’t have words to describe how exciting and cool it is 😀 I started thinking about prom in January, when I bought my dress (I didn’t even had a date yet haha). Finally one of my best friends asked me to go to prom with me, even though he was a sophomore (only juniors and seniors can buy the tickets, but sophomores can go too), and I said YES!

I’ve never thought Prom was this stressful: you have to think about your hair, make up, the place to eat before Prom, the place to go after prom, the place to take pictures, time for your date to pick you up so we wouldn’t get to prom too early or too late, reservations for dinner… OMG, yes, it is stressful!

The day of Prom, I woke up early, did my nails and went to get my hair done with my host sister. After that, we got home and did our make up and right after that my Prom date was here! I was late, of course! We took pictures at my house, in a Garden and went out to have dinner with a couple of friends in a Japanese restaurant.

Then, we got to prom… It was amazing! I danced so much and had a lot of fun! 😀 After prom we came home and my host mom cooked breakfast for us!

I love sharing some of my experiences… It’s an amazing and wonderful experience that you’ll never forget 🙂