dancing

i just commented on a friend's post about dancing, i think specifically salsa. anyway... i told her a fun story about my time in orlando and thought it worth repeating here.

my friend bekah, who will soon be in madrid with me, loves to dance, particularly salsa. i do too, but not as much as bekah. so during the training she was going through and i was coaching in florida, on occasion bekah organized a salsa night, either to teach people or to go out. i can't say that i went to as many nights as i would have liked, but the one night i went out with them was FABULOUS and a time forever sketched in my memories.

there was a salsa convention going on in town, so we went to the open dancing. there were three of us women and two guys. we got there and were blown away by the dancers, all professional or semi-professional. i felt like i was on the set or in a movie, definitely very surreal. and they were definitely FAR out of our league. but we danced anyway and i had the greatest time!!! i felt like a star. while i'm sure i didn't look anything like them, i pretended i did and felt like a million dollars. damien and drew being there to dance with, along with the other random guys i danced with were obviously fairly key. it was definitely a night to remember. i only wish i had some pictures to go along with it.

and the venue was stellar. a huge ballroom with a hardwood floor and all the glitz to go with it. it kind of made me think of the japanese version of "shall we dance" (which by the way is MUCH better and came out far before the american version with richard gere).

Note: By the way, the picture above is from the Antonio Banderes (he's spanish) movie "Take The Lead" which I just saw a few days ago at a friend's house a few days ago in Lawrence, KS, while I was preparing for my talk on Spain at Grace EPC. It is a GREAT movie that is about dancing but also a lot more. Definitely a great movie to rent.

unmet expectations

It is really a crazy thing. I am a fairly laid back person and in Spain it takes a lot for me to become frustrated with the culture. I'm sure there are exceptions, but generally I at least like to think that I am fairly easy-going.

But, since arriving back to the States, it seems that my expectations are much, much higher and somehow things just haven't worked as smoothly as I expect. My roommate and I were talking about it today and the fact that we have probably idealized the "perfect" customer service found in the US.

Since I have been back it seems more often than not that customer service people or employees at various places have been somewhat rude, not just not helpful but downright rude. And since moving into the condo we're living in for a few weeks, it took a week and a half until we could get our internet & wifi to work, we now have a fuse fully blown and they don't want to call an electrician (so we have to move), our key was given to someone who lived in a different building (by mistake), and things just don't go fully smoothly.

As I write this all out, it seems obvious that life is full of little disruptions and bumps in the road, but in my mind, things go smoothly and without disruption in the US. It is only overseas that I have to have low expectations. :-) And presently I am a bit like a fish out of water in my own country. :-) The one thing that helps me feel a bit more normal about having emotions a bit out of proportion with what is going on is some of the stuff we've been discussing in this cross-cultural training I am helping with here in Florida. When we change environments (and particularly countries - even in moving back home for a time, or to another location in the US) we are kind of like a plant left out of soil or water for awhile. We have exposed roots. And thus we wilt a bit and feel unsettled. And even if we are loosely put into soil, it takes a bit of time to re-adapt. So it is normal, I am normal, just desiring normality a little more than normal.

Hmmm... if I look at the positive side, I guess this is/will be good for my growth and learning (about myself, God, life,...).

our little walk & jerry

I got back from Charlotte about 16:00 and gobbled up some long overdue lunch. After going to visit some neighbors my roommate Erica and I set out on a little walk... or so we thought. We went the way I've begun to run, which is a few miles long and decided to take Neptune Road to see if it was a shortcut home. We walked and, as were were deep in conversation, we continued to walk. and to walk and to walk. We were talking about our homes overseas, life there, students, people's openness to the gospel, life and lo que sea.

After awhile and at least an hour and a half later Erica asked me if I thought this road was going to hit highway 192 and take us home or not. It also occurred to us that neither one of us had a phone nor money with us, just my keys (including car keys, which at this point were completely useless). We talked about just cross-countrying it, but due to the many nice man-eating fauna of florida and the many marsh lakes filled with water moccasins and supposed gators (or so we've been told), we opted out of swimming the swamps or trekking cross-country. We walked a bit more passed MANY dead end roads and two roads we were sure would veer to the right, but to our chagrin actually went left.

At this point Erica asked what I thought about going up to a random house and asking for directions (and hoping they might actually give us a ride home). So we approached a house and then saw some nearby people in their yard and headed over there. We didn't make it to the people that we had seen (they disappeared in the time it took us to get there), but we did find a guy (jerry) who was helping his great aunt out of the car. So we asked for directions and he said it was at least three miles to highway 192 (not to mention the trek from there). So we took off and walked a ways. Granted we were tired, but his 2-3 miles seemed much farther than that. We asked a random guy on a bike, who was not totally there and gave us directions to some major highways that went in the opposite directions and would take us north instead of south. About the time we were going to say goodbye to him, a truck pulled up, honked and parked a little ways up from us. He asked if it was a friend and I thought (I sure hope so).

We walked up and sure enough it was Jerry, our newfound friend from Mexico City. He offered us a ride home and we jumped into his truck. It was definitely at least 5-7 miles back and he told us that if we want a good time to give him a call. :-) He offered to buy us a drink or dinner, but we got him to just take us close to where we're staying. But we do now know a bit more of Kissimmee, Florida, where we will be for the next few weeks. Fun times.

Driving to Orlando, FL

So, I did have a little road trip, but it was quite different from what I previously had thought it would be. The night before I left, if finally hit me that gas prices are crazy expensive and that it would be better to see a few people I hadn't planned on the way instead of trying to pack it all in on the way back, knowing I also had to be in Kansas soon after.

So, I didn't go to Louisiana nor to Mississippi, but went straight east to Atlanta, which by the way took about three hours longer than mapquest had said. (And the only time I stopped was to fill up for gas, once for coffee, and maybe once to go to the bathroom.) I stayed in an amazingly cool apartment on the 29th floor of a skyscraper in the downtown Atlanta with an amazing view of the city and surrounding areas and with a very nice porch and a million windows. I saw Macy and her husband Rick.

The next day I took off for Panama City, where I stayed with Angélica, from Madrid, her husband Dan, and their cute son Noah. I didn't actually see the beach, but did see the port and got to speak some nice Spain spanish. Also we watched Invincible, which by the way is a great movie! (It's about a guy who tried out for the Philadelphia Eagles at open tryouts and got on the team. Pretty great story!)

Then I took off for Kissimmee, close to Orlando, FL, where I am now and will be for the next month.