What's Up? by 4 Non Blondes

Dorthe S. and I were in her room, primping to go to the Old Daddy Disco in Duisburg.  I had been in Germany for about a week, living with the S. family.  My orientation class was comprised of American high school students from all across the U.S., literally from Alaska to Maine. Alongside our daily classes in language and culture were several cultural excursions, but none more exciting to me than the disco.  So there we were, getting dressed up in our silk vests with jeans. Yes, vests!  They were the oh so cool look for 1993, just ask Season 2 of Beverly Hills, 90210!  The Old Daddy was kind of dingy and dark and Dorthe said it was the alternative disco.  Most discos at that time played a lot of techno and europop, but the Old Daddy was more about stuff like Morrissey and grunge music.

This pose totally qualifies for that
Awkward High School moments website!! 
What was I going for exactly??

We Americans immediately showed everyone how foreign and out of place we were by going out on the dance floor WHEN IT WAS EMPTY!  I also remember being shocked.  SHOCKED! To see some of the other Americans buying beer.  Yes, it was legal, but I was so terribly naive back then, not to mention pretty young.  I wouldn't turn 16 for another 2 weeks.  It was a fun evening getting to know my new friends in a social setting, outside of class, and I distinctly remember coming home disgusted by the smell of cigarette smoke in my hair and clothes.

Naturally, after experiencing my first taste of what no one my age back home in the U.S. would be allowed to experience for another 5 years, I decided to take this opportunity to change my image.  No one here knew anything about me!  Back home I was a band geek, but here I was a person who went places where there was drinking and smoking and dancing!  I could be anyone!  I remember writing in my diary that I might even buy a CD that was crazy out of character for me, like 4 Non Blondes!  So crazy!  The song What's Up? was a chart topper at the time and liking it hardly constituted someone doing something different or crazy or cool.  But for me, it symbolized breaking out of my shell, trying something new, being someone different.  In the end, that year in Germany was, in fact, transformational, even though I never did buy that CD.