In the close-knit and often times too-familiar atmosphere at Uni, venturing to other schools can be an exciting experience, especially if it’s for a fun social event, such as a dance.

This weekend I’m attending a dance at Culver, a boarding school in Indiana. In the process, I get to go on a road trip up there with a few friends and spend the night in a hotel, as well as meet a lot of new people (in uniform!) whose day-to-day life is extremely different from mine.

On top of being at another school where the restrictions on grinding are more lax, this dance is a homecoming. That means that the one sport that is usually more common at a school than "CSI" on CBS, but which Uni lacks, is celebrated with a dance. Football! So I get to see a game and then go to a dance all with close friends from Champaign-Urbana and a friend from Culver.

This will be a unique experience because of the different atmosphere of the school. Because it’s a boarding school, Culver’s student population will probably be intriguingly different from Uni's. Although it is bigger than Uni, all the students live together, so their relationships are probably very well-developed.

One of the things I am really most excited for, though, is getting to see what the actual dancing is like. At Uni, I was here when grinding and any form of dancing was allowed. And now I am witnessing first-hand the effects of the restrictions imposed on grinding. So it will be a lot of fun to compare the two schools’ dances and maybe find out what is affecting the factors that make them different.

All in all this weekend will prove to be a unique and hopefully fun experience that will also make a clear distinction between Uni and other schools’ student relationships, dances, and general atmosphere.