Latin Dancing (a.k.a. Sweaty & Exhaustive Hip Gyration)

They told when I arrived that Costa Rica was a very traditional and formal Latin American country . . . Well they're certainly not Amish, but I suppose "traditional and formal" are subjective terms reliant on the context within which they are used. Also, I'd be much more interested in learning traditional and formal caucasian dances if they bore more resemblance to Latin American dances.

We had a dance class on Wednesday which was . . . we'll say informative. It taught me that:

1. Hip movement is not reserved for women alone

2. There is absolutely no way to participate without an accompanying deluge of sweat

3. When in doubt, just keep gyrating and stepping to the rhythm

That's not to say that I'm any good at Latin Dancing, but it's hella fun to try! I'm sure all the locals are looking at me and thinking, "what is this gringo doing making a fool out of himself," but you only live once right!? Plus, nobody else in the program (all Europeans, mostly Austrian) really knows what they're doing either so as long as I keep close to them in the clubs I should blend right in.

So after our class we agreed that we ought to all put our recently acquired moves to the test in the field. What's better, it was the birthday of one of my classmates so it gave us the perfect excuse to imbibe muscle relaxing agents (also know as beer and shots) and let loose. My new friends here in the program seemed to enjoy my bastardized hybrid of Latin dance and what I'll call freestyle house for white guys. Too bad nobody brought their cameras. One thing's for sure, it's a great team building activity. Those who sweat together, stay together (and no there is no pun intended there).