Salsa!

I don't have time to siesta today so I guess I will update about life in Spain. (since yesterday). Yesterday ended up being a pretty lazy day. My host parents go salsa dancing every Sunday evening and they invited Amanda and I along this week. Sorry, no videos this time. I'm going to try to copy Amanda's blog post to here because she describes it perfectly. We pretty much had the same experience. Except I wore flats (still not the high heels needed) and I was already at my house. Yep, as for dancing with rat-tail man, thank goodness he had patience.

"I know that I briefly told you about my dancing experience...but for those of you who really know me, you know that dancing is one of my favorite things to do. So I'm going to elaborate for you about how awesome these three hours were....

Ok, so I arrive at my friend Sarah's house wearing what I think is a very cute and appropriate outfit, but I was soon told by Sarah's father that my sandals were going to be terrible for dancing lol (of course he said all this in Spanish which I understood about every other word, but his look said it all) Sarah's mom comes in and looks like something from a movie. She is wearing a denim dress with pink strapy (i know not a word Jessica) heels. I tell her how beautiful she looks and again get looks because of the shoes. Around 7:00 we head to the place where we will be dancing. Upon arrival I get real nervous because there are a lot of people (a lot of older people) here. Most of the women have on tight dresses and all are wearing high-heels. Of course, Sarah and I get passed around being introduced to people always with two cheek kisses. Sarah is introduced as their daughter from the USA and I'm the friend who is always at their house lol, (but really they love me). The dancing starts with one male instructor leading a group of 12 middle-aged women in new dance steps. This guy's clothes are so tight it is ridiculous, pero I don't know what is more ridiculous, his tight clothes, his vive la salsa shirt, or his one dread that looks like a rat-tail. Nonetheless, this man is like an angel on the dance floor. His hips and feet move in ways I ever dreamed of.

The dance lessons continued for about and hour and then the men and women took the dance floor together. I have never seen such dancing. Everyone was different but gorgeous. There was one man who looked like he could have been a college linebacker, but his feet moved like a ballerina. This man asked Sarah to dance and she did excellent. Then of course it was my turn.

So people...picture the scene. a small blonde girl with sandals on, taking the dance floor with this large and older man who could have been my dad. He spoke no English, but yet thought he could teach me how to dance. and yes, he surely did! It was so awesome just being led and not relying on conversation and words to dance. I messed up often, but he was so kind and helped me get back on beat. The night continued on as Sarah and I danced with each other and her parents.

Then, it happened! Rat-tail man asked me and Sarah to dance. Whatever, I thought, this will be just like before. Nope I was wrong. It was only me and him on the dance floor. Of course we started out with a crazy move and I was terrified, but we had a blast. We dipped, and spun, and did some dirty dancing moves (don't worry parents they weren't really dirty). At one point, he
literally dragged me as quick as possible all the way across the dance floor. It was crazy. We nded on a dip and the crowd went wild (in Spanish) lol. No but really everyone said I did good.

Oh what a night. It was ended around 9 because I had to be back to my house for dinner and to study! But I definitely plan on going back to the Salsa club next Sunday and bringing it back to America. Just wait friends!"


So yeah, while dancing with middle aged Spanish men isn't exactly my cup of tea, it was definitely really fun and I enjoyed it alot. It's crazy how much you can communicate through dancing and body movement because literally the people there spoke no English. I wish I was good at dancing, but that's the thing. Nobody here judged. They all thought I did "great" (probably just being nice, but let me have my moment) and were really encouraging. I know I didn't do well. Please, rat-tail/vive la salsa shirt dude had to stop like 3 times in the middle so I could get back on count with him. And at the end he did some fancy spin thing then dropped me (like dancing dropped, not for real. a dip?) and I thought I was about to hit the floor. This guy probably weighed about 15 pounds less than me and was about half the width. How the hell he caught me blows my mind.

Today has been pretty average. I woke up this morning, went to class, learned some things, took a test, turned in a paper (in Spanish, of course), came home, ate some lunch (yummy pasta thing, "salad", bread, watermelon) and now I should be siesta-ing but it's a sad day because there is no siesta today. Why? Because I get to go make pottery at 4. I'm pretty excited to be a pottery-ist. Ceramist? Hopefully, my hands-on art project skills are better than my dancing skills.

Also, in the USA, everyone is celebrating Memorial Day. Yep, that doesn't exist here. So Happy Memorial Day to all the American Soldiers, past and present. Thank you for keeping America and our freedoms safe. And a very special shout out to my real brother for his service to our country! :)