Five minutes of fame

So I sang in this "performance" on my campus this morning. They always call the whole program a "performance". I'm not really sure what this program was to commemorate but it was the biggest one that I'd ever seen at this school since I've been here. It was outside on the playground which is really a small stadium. Anyway, there were some stinkin great dances performed by some Mongolian students and your usual really high pitched traditional local singing. I was way impressed with the dancing. I don't really understand why they were so good because they are medical students, not art students. The organizers asked my language tutor to get me to say something in the local language so of course she got all excited and taught me some stuff I was gonna have to memorize in a day. I was kind of excited about showing off whatever linguistic ability I could muster for the occasion. The excitement lasted shortly because during the whole program until my turn I was so nervous about forgetting what I was supposed to say.
Well, its finally my turn to take the stage and I walk up and say "Hello everyone" (in the local tongue), but then the music starts so I gotta start singing. I figured I would just finish the language show after the song. I must inform you of a thing they do here during performances. While someone is up on stage singing (whether it be a huge concert with a big pop artist or your local program) people will run up on stage and bring either flowers, a garland to go around your neck, a communist flag, or some balloons. OK, I hadn't got into the first verse good before people began rushing the stage with ALL of the things I mentioned before. Not only that but if they really like the performer they wanna hug him, so all these people didn't just hand me there stuff and run away but stayed to hug me and throw up the two finger 'victory' symbol that's so popular here. I was afraid I would lose my composure a couple times as this went on well through the chorus and second verse of the song. It was wild. What was even better than that was that there were students with huge concert size signs that said "Curtis we love you" (one word on each sign). It was great. I felt so loved. I've always wondered what rock stars feel like. I thought to myself for a moment "this is what I came here for." Then I came back to reality and remembered I was not actually a superstar anywhere else in the world except for at this small med school during this program for 5 minutes. It was a sobering moment. After I finished singing I did finish what I was supposed to say in their language and they ate it up pretty well. I didn't try to say it all from memory though. I had my cheat sheet in my hand. It's pretty funny to think back on them running up on stage with all their goodies to give to me. I felt bad after a few because I had to just drop stuff on the stage as they handed it to me because there were more people waiting behind them to give me stuff and I had run out of hands. Can you imagine all this going on while I'm trying to sing a song about the love of my Father. I wish they gave money;)