Dinner While Dancing

Last week, I spent any free time I had practicing for the Karma Bhangra dance team tryout. This was not something I thought I would be doing at Emory, but when I saw this dance team perform at the “Best in Show” during orientation week, it was something that I had to try.  A friend of mine and I went to the information session to learn the tryout routine, and we were surprised to see how many other people chose to do what we did. Before I came here, one of my friends, who has graduated, told me that the Karma Bhangra dance team was one of the best and very fun and entertaining to watch, but when I saw how many people had heard the same evident truth, I realized that this would not be an easy feat.

After meeting the members of the current Karma team, I knew this was a group that I wanted to be a part of, so many hours between the day of the information session and the tryout were spent practicing the tryout routine to, at least, make sure that I would not make a fool out of myself. The day of the tryout finally arrived, and after seeing that over 50 people had signed up to tryout for just seven spots, to say that I was intimidated is an understatement. 

As soon as the tryout was over, which lasted all of five minutes, the hoping begun. The next day though, the hard work had paid off. I got a call from the captain of the team with news that I made it onto the team and that our first practice would be the next Tuesday. When we arrived on Tuesday, we did not have practice; instead, they took us out to dinner for our first Karma Bhangra team bonding experience.

For dinner, they took us to a fairly nice restaurant called Brick Store Pub that served what would be classified as “American” food, which includes burgers, sandwiches, and other food of this sort. The restaurant itself was not a typical restaurant. It almost seemed like it was taken out of the Lord of the Rings. Even the door handle appeared as if a giant tree branch had been glued to the door. I was told that they were known for their Chicken Pot Pie, so I decided to try it out. I knew it was a good decision when the waitress looked at me with a smile and said it was one her favorite dishes. The dish looked very good when it came. The crust, on top, was perfectly cooked so that it was slightly brown and had a nice crumble when eaten. Under this well baked crust were pieces of juicy chicken breast, mushrooms, and a very tasty creamy sauce. All of these ingredients put together made for a bite that had a lot of taste and variety of flavor. Normally, I do not like mushrooms, but in this dish, it went very well with the rest of the Chicken Pot Pie.

Along with this being the first restaurant that I have been able to go to off campus, the atmosphere around me was what made this dinner so enjoyable. I was around people who I will be spending a lot of time around for the rest of the year and hopefully for the rest of my college years. The food was great, the service was good, and our first dinner together went very well.