Oye! Baile!

I learned the Meringue today! Now I know there are a few of you who will read that and scoff, but I tell you judge not! I am indeed an up and coming Latino dancer! I even got a "muy bien!" from the dance instructor, which (and I'm not kidding) she did not give to everyone. I'm so happy! It was an evening class offered through the program and I though "what the hell? I'm in South America, I might as well learn how to dance." None of my partners tonight were terrible, but there was one who was by far the best of them; it's a good thing that we're developing a dynamic of comfort because it seems so much easier to lead when we're close as the Meringue is supposed to be danced. Most of my partners were like me: either they didn't know what they were doing, or they thought they did (both of which applied(*ahem* applies) to me at one point or another) and so I can't say they were bad or good, just inexperienced. Aleah, on the other hand, had helped many a rhythmically challenged lad in dancing. We spend some time on my hips, and then moved actual moves. I picked up the steps quickly and was enthusiastic to improve, my only real problem is the habit of moving the same hip as my foot, instead of them being opposite, and I attribute that all to my shoulders which - similarly - follow the foot on the same side... so picture a fat Labrador retriever running one complete side at a time, simply rolling left then right... That was me. In the beginning.

At the end we were actually working through the dance moves with relative confidence. Its all up to the guy to lead, to watch out for others and to direct, it is the girl's job to follow (which is probably really difficult). I was surprised to find, as I moved to another partner, that Aleah was an excellent follower and thus made me a better and more confident leader. I hope that we can be partners again, I think that we'll probably make quicker progress if we continue to work together then if we have to keep switching through other dancers of different levels... Plus I like that I look like a better dancer when I'm with her :D

I don't have any pictures today, I left the camera at home as my bag was full of books... I wish I had brought my hiking bag because it's bigger with wider shoulder pads... maybe I should get one here that's between the small day pack I've got and the behemoth 7500 c.i. bag at home... What brings me to this topic is I met this guy Brendon on the metro this morning. I saw him standing a few people away and was trying to figure out why he kept glancing at me, then I noticed the blond hair, the All Star chucks and the CamelBak bag so I said "Are you American? Estas estadaunidense?" He looked surprised and said "Yea, I'm from Vermont!" I guess he was trying to figure out if I was from the US as well. He seems like a cool kid, he's studying international business at another college here. He grew up not more than a couple of hours from me, and now we met in South America! Small world and all that... Oh, and he had a bag like that, it seemed to fit all his stuff well.

I've got about five and a half hours of down time between the last of my morning class and the dance class on Tuesdays so today I spent that time with another guy from the program. I led him to a hole-in-the-wall restaurant near by that I had happened upon. It was literally a hole in a wall you yelled into, put money into and then got handed vegetarian, Indian-influenced food out of. We then decided to go on a treasure hunt for me: I needed a micro SD to USB or SD converter. I also wanted another guitar. Anyway we went through all sorts of places, when we finally found the converter it was at this massive electronics/parts/car/model/toy/musical instrument/lighting/craft store. The process is you talk to the salesman who writes you a receipt. You take the receipt to the cashier who gives you another one, then you go to a final desk and pick up your item... Needless to say, I didn't get it right the first three times I tried. I won't go into details, but lets just say Justin and I weren't the only ones laughing at me.

I cant believe how cheap some of the musical instruments here are! I've been looking for years for an less-than-$100 classical guitar and I found like five today for less than $60! I tested them all out and only one had tone distortion in the higher frets and even if they didn't sound like professional quality, they were still comfortable and nice to hear. (mom, this is where you give me a call encouraging me to buy something I don't need because I need the boost to get me out of my common sense). I ended up just getting some new strings for the guitar I brought with me.

Anyway, the dancing was the highlight of my day, I loved it. Although I wasn't really nervous at the beginning, I definitely had some trepidation. I'm glad I had fun.

Chao!