This One's for You, Brenda

Last week was salsa week for me.  I took three lessons at the school after my classes and so by weekend was ready to go out and test my skills.  Luckily, I met a fellow student who has done a lot of salsa dancing in the past and was dying to hit a dance club in San Jose.  So, Friday afternoon after class I went out and bought my self a salsa dancing dress and shoes and defrizzed my unruly hair (as much as I possibly could :).

We got recommendations from our Tica Moms (what we students affectionately call our hosts) for a good club and they helped us get a reservation and arrange for a cab.  Luckily one of our Moms had a friend who is a cab driver so he picked us up from our houses, dropped us at the club, and picked us up at the end of the night.  We both felt like we were in junior high again, going to our first dance, and needing our moms to help us get there and back. 

The club was called Jazz Cafe, and every Tico that I talked to about it, seemed familiar with it.  It was on the eastern side of the city and since Heredia is northwest of San Jose, it was a long cab-ride around the city.  The club was great.  We were the only non-Ticos there so we felt like we had escaped the usual tourist traps.  The band was great - it was a nine-man live band that played a mix of Latin music. 

As far as the dancing went, I think I failed the skills test.  I was the stereotypical bad dancer with two left feet, limp hands, and well any other dance faux pas you can think of I probably was guilty of it.  But it was a lot of fun to make a fool out of myself in front of all of those experienced Latin dancers.  And as my friend said, no one here knows us so it doesn't really matter...  I will be taking more salsa lessons at the beach campus so that next time, I have some rhythm in my step :)