The Abundance of Salsa

No, not the delicious food that you eat with chips, silly, the dancing! As previously mentioned, Isabel is quite the dancer. If I have the story correct, Isabel has danced a variety of other dances in the past and salsa is her newest craze. In the fashion of a true diehard, she is working on converting us as well. She has succeeded with Sanford. His plan is to sweep Amanda off her feet when she gets here. Ryan and I are still a little more skeptical. For me, it’s a matter of no coordination and a body that just doesn’t move like that. When I was a kid in ballet class, I was always the girl in the middle (because I was tall) moving like a robot. I think given the right dance partner Ryan could be convinced… [insert Sanford] Gigidy.

Wednesday night was yet another night of entertainment at Chez d’UACS IPSP. It started out a simple dinner party. We kept inviting Isabel to have dinner with us and the girls, but she always had plans. So this time, we planned a little more in advance. The plan was that Isabel would come and make a white sauce, the boys and I were to cook pasta and make a salad, and the girls were supposed to bring apéritif. Well, all that happened, but we also had Mark and Seychelle, other SAEP volunteers, Isaac and Lira, Isabel’s friends (pictured below), and Antoine, our 21-year-old French housemate. The eleven of us ate and drank and made merriment… and then Isabel and Isaac proceeded to give us a salsa lesson! Fortunately, by that point we all had had a sufficient amount of wine to enthusiastically participate.

Guys, it was incredible having all of these people in the same room! American, French, German, English, South African. The languages and accents were amazing. The salsa was fun, but what I’ll remember is the global diversity in our kitchen.

The Wednesday night salsa lesson was really just a preview for the real Thursday night salsa lesson at the Red Velvet Club (oh yes, that’s really the name and the walls really were covered in red velvet). Isabel’s friend John teaches the lessons and in all seriousness, he was really quite good. We were trying to learn this turn thing. Let’s preview the situation: I am five feet ten inches tall, uncoordinated, have no rhythm, and am generally uncomfortable being touched by anyone whom I do not know well. Yeah. Let’s just leave it at: no-one should be hit in the head as many times in one night as I was Thursday night. The way it worked was that the women lined up in three lines and then the men moved down the lines. It meant that there was really no choosing your partner and I was *so* relieved when Ryan, Sanford, or Antoine showed up in front of me. They didn’t hit me in the head.

We had a good time though. Who would have thought that I’d go to South Africa to learn salsa? Wouldn’t South America have been more appropriate?!

Last night we returned to Fiesta. I was excited because of the tapas, Sanford was excited about the salsa, and Ryan wanted to go to another bar (kidding… sorta). As was true last week, the tapas were delicious! This time, we did dinner in the true family-style tapas tradition (My girls—this place is totally competitive with Cuci Cuci). We each ordered two dishes and shared. It was so yummy!

I confess that I never got up and danced… two mojitos and I was still perfectly content to sit and watch. As usual, Sanford made friends and practiced his moves on the dance floor. He did a nice job, although I’m not sure if his “bucket” (6 beers in a bucket of ice and he and Ryan went through two) helped or hindered his performance. For the first time we also got to watch Isabel dance and she did such a good job. There is something to be said for this dance… I think it’s just said for petite people! :) I think that we’ll hold off on anymore salsa for a while, but it’s been a fun excursion this week!

Always,

Sarah