My first couple of weeks in Costa Rica were FULL of social dancing. The very first night in Costa Rica a bunch of us from my program (Cultural Experiences Abroad) went to the festival in San Jose. The festival has tons of fried chicken booths, beer stands, bull running, and a huge discotecas complete with scantily clad dancers at the front. It's located in a huge tent and is two stories tall. I taught some of our slightly drunken boys how to turn the girls and although no one else danced, we took over the floor.

Later that week once classes got going, a large group of us took the free salsa lessons offered by our university, Veritas Universidad. The teacher was a spunky and spritely woman who spoke excellent English and was enthusiastic about teaching. We moved the tables to the sides of a very large and open air classroom and she turned on the music. She taught the basic steps of salsa and merengue, which was a little slow for me but so much fun because I was with all my new friends. The class was held every Tuesday and Thursday and went about 5 times and continued to learn new turns and patterns. I learned a couple of new patterns that are quite complicated.

Thursdays, usually after dance class, we headed off to Castro's, a bar/club in San Jose. Castro's in known for its dancing on Thursday nights. We grabbed a table and as soon as I sat down a Tico (Costa Rican boy) asked me to dance. His name is Luis and he does tourism in San Jose. He was an amazing partner! He was very patient if I didn't know a step and for some reason very easy to follow. Halfway through the night we had a group surrounding us and cheering. He spun me all over the dance floor! It was one of my favorite nights in San Jose. Although he repeated several moves fairly often, he would always vary them slightly so they were still interesting. My favorite move was one where he would place my hand on his shoulder, do a head roll under the arm, and then I would push him backwards into a back ball change.

I danced with Luis one more time at Castro's a few weeks later and it was just as fun. However, he never seemed to get tired! He would only let me leave the dance floor for a few minutes at a time to get water, which was exhausting but so fun and such good practice. I did dance with his cousin Randall a few times, who was equally good, and a couple of other partners who had obviously never danced before.