January adjustments

With the beginning of the new year, it's a given, that more people start going to the gym. I've been going to the gyms for years, and know the drill. However, our Zumba instructor is so popular, that her classes are always super crowded. Especialy Sunday mornings... I prefer to be in the back right corner, as that is the way my brain has chosen for me to read the zumba routines the easiest way. But with the many newbies, I often find myself in a new spot, because they all want to be in the back.

 I remember the feeling of going to Zumba for the first time. It makes me proud when I think about how Zumba changed my life 2½ years ago! I always look at the newbies and think "I wonder if they will stay at it like me.." Zumba is keeping me busy and I love it. When I think back on how my life was before zumba, it makes me sad. I remember the dayly trip to buy chocolate on the way home, then sitting down in front of the tv for the rest of the day. Now I hardly ever watch tv, cause I'm never home. I simply keep myself busy and it's the only thing preventing me from getting back to my old habbits. Instead I allow myself the treats now, because I go to the gym. I lost a lot of weight within the first 6 months and have been able to keep it off for 2 years. But that's not all. People say I look more happy now. Someone even told my mom that I had so much selfesteem now, which is something I never seemed to have before, so that made me realy proud. To know that other people can see that I like being me now, is such a great feeling. I'm not afraid of what people think of me anymore, because I know that I work hard at the gym every week and am damn proud of it!

I must admit, there were 2 weeks after Christmas that I didn't go to zumba. but I didn't feel bad about it, cause I knew  would get back once I found the time for it again and as I had been sick for a while, with a cough, that may have been the cold flu, I think my boddy was begging me for a break. I know allow myself breaks!! I'm not super woman so anything I feel like doing or not doing, I decide.

As Zumba class on Fridays was taken off the program, I felt the need of another 1 hour work out. As dancing seems to be the only thing I realy enjoy, I was pleased to see that there was a new Dance Fit class on Tuesdays, which normaly would be my "day off." I must admit, that dance fit class is very boring, but as I find myself thinking time flies fast, I decided to stick with it. Because I have such a busy schedule after work, I had to write down exactly which bus to take where and when, to make it to the gym in time. Without that, I would be lost.

Here's my January work out schedule:

Monday: (Too lazy to leave the house after 19...)
Tuesday: 1 hour Dance Fit
Wednesday: 2 hours salsa freestyle (salsa work out)
Thursday: 1 hour Zumba
Friday: (Sadly no more Zumba)
Saturday:
Sunday: 2 hours of Zumba
- So with 3 "Non work out days," I've still been able to work out 6 hours a week :)

Because we don't have zumba on Fridays any more, our instructor promised to me some zumba events every now and then. So January 25th. we had a 1½ hour "Zumba pop songs edition" event. It was a lot of fun.

The last week of January, I didn't get to do any work out at all. this time it wasn't because I was ill, but because my instructors were. That's what happens. Luckily every instructor was working again this week and I've enjoyed 6 hours of work out.. I know it could've been 7, but I decided to skip Tuesday's dance fit. I plan on going to all scheduled classes next week. There is a risk that my salsa will get cancelled, though.. But I hope my instructor will find a new location for our salsa before Wednesday.

Keeping up with Zumba during Easter Break

Because of the Easter Break and one gym moving to another location, I've tried my best to still keep in shape and up with zumba, using one of the other gyms in the meantime. March 30th., April 2nd. and April 5th. I was at what used to be my regular gym, years ago. They were classes by three different instructors. So because I had no other options, I used the opportunity to check out some new instructors. I like to try different instructors, so I can recommend them to others. I'm being honest when people ask for my oppinion. One of the instructors was a new ZIN as of January 2012. He turned out to be someone that I had been standing next to at one of the other zumba classes. It was clear that he needed routine, but I loved the fact that he used a lot of Brazilian music and had a way of spreading joy and positive vibes so we all had a lot of fun. Because he's so new, I'll definitely check him out later. In my mind, I'll try to remember him as one of the best instructors I've come across.

Yesterday we had the first regular zumba class at the new gym. Because of Easter and because of the new location, we had a "dress up Zumba class." It was a lot of fun. Had I known how hot the new place would be, I probably wouldn't have worn so much clothes... But I managed.

I now know, that a laced up skirt is too warm for zumba... And jewels in your forhead can also get very warm. I took the opportunity of dress up zumba, to go sleeveless for the first time ever during zumba. It's not as bad as I thought, but I'm still not 100% confident of doing it. I lost so much weight that my arms have slimmed quite a bit, but I now have loose "chicken wing" arms. I hope that I will be able to build some muscle so I can get ridd off the loose skin. I have considered getting cosmetic surgery on my arms so many times. Before zumba, I was thinking of a fat reduction... But now, because of zumba (THANK GOD), I'm thinking of a skin reduction. However, I have decided not to do it. I have had problems with staphylococcus before, so I think it's too big a risk, to go through surgery. That goes for a tummy tuck, which would also be concidered by some if they were bothered with the lose skin, like me. Luckily I'm not as affected by all this as some. I'm simply happy to have lost so much weight. My arms now fit in almost all sleeves, because whatever lose skin I have, it will form the shape of the sleeve I'm fitting in to. But I must say, I'm not happy with the pictures that show a ring of loose skin around my stomach, but remind myself that it's better to look like that, than how it was before my weightloss.
The new gym is wide, but narrow... which basicaly means, we can only form 3 lines instead of 10. That also means, that I'm now forced to look at myself in the mirror, which is something I always hated doing. But who knows, maybe some day, the mirror will turn up to be my friend?! I hope so.
Tomorrow morning I have two zumba classes at the new gym. After this week-end, I should start to have a normal zumba/ gym routine again... But I think it will take a week to get used to, as my 5 weekly zumba classes, will now be at two different gyms. Luckily the other gym is the gym I already go to for my latin mix and dance fit classes on Mondays, so it shoudn't be that hard.

Tuesday I went to my Ladystyling Class. We did more of the ancient Gods dance steps. I must say, it's something else.We danced to "Canto de Yemaya." Yemaya is the goddess of Water. What gives me the most trouble when it comes to the ancient dance steps, it's that the beat is so different from what I'm used to. I think it's because it's slow and I always had trouble dancing to slow music. I hate it. But I try my best. Here's the song.

Life is great

NOTE: NOTHING IN THIS POST IS APRIL FOOL.... IT'S JUST ME LOVING LIFE, ZUMBA & SPRING :)

Now that I'm on my 2nd day of my Easter break, I finaly decided that it was time for an up-date, cause so much has happened lately and a lot is about to happen in the future. So let me go through my callendar and give you an up-date of what has been going on!

In Februray I started taking Cuban Ladystyling classes. It's funny. I live in, what is considered a big city, here in Denmark, so I was expecting more participants than the couple of us, that already knew eachother from zumba. But only one other person joined us. Later on, another woman joined us.. And funny enough, was it a girl I knew from school and girl scout. So yeah, it might be a big city, but the world is small. Our instructor had to cancel two classes, so to make up for it, she will have a class during Easter break, which means this upcoming Tuesday. We are now 5 (6) students at the class and I know all of them. Funny. My zumba instructor might join us some day, but more about that later.

Because people I know from zumba has asked me if it was possible to join my other salsa classes, the salsa freestyle, without paying a monthly fee at a gym, I asked my instructor and the gym, if it was possible to work something out. The thing is. The salsa freestyle classes are late in the evening and across the river from the main city, so people think it's not easy to access. We have only been 3-5 students every week. Sometimes just two. My instructor agreed to make a class kinda like a course where 12 people would have to sign up. The gym agreed to make people pay for 10 salsa freestyle classes instead of a monthly fee and they were kind to find us a place in the center and in the afternoon. So I made some flyers that I gave to people I knew might be interested. Problem is. We can't seem to find 12 people. It's like the other salsa course.. Cuban ladystyling. Because it's new, not many people know it excits. Well, I hope my flyers will work. But, we've come across another problem. My salsa freestyle instructor has traveled to Guatemala. However, he made sure that his dance partner could take over the new classes in cause we are actualy able to form a team of 12. When he annonunced he would go to Guatemala, the gym decided to end his classes. So I no longer go to that gym. We were hoping to have one last class at the gym, as a goodbye class, but unfortunately he got sick and the last class was cancelled. So now I only attend my Cuban ladystyling class once a week.

March 11th. I went with 14 other girls from my zumba classes and our instructor to lunch at a restaurent. It was a lot of fun! I talked with my instructor about some dance party events that my salsa instructor has a couple of times a month, and she said she would like to go with me to one of those partys some day. The next party turned out to be a party in honour of my salsa instructor, because of his trip to Guatemale, so it seemed very appropriate that I attended that one. So the next Saturday I met up with my zumba instructore and went to the party. They always start the salsa partys with a couple of dance classes. My zumba instructor is like me. She also prefer dancing alone rather than couple dancing. My salsa instructor started warming up the crowd with salsa freestyle and I felt safe cause that was something I knew how to do. But then my salsa instructor said, form a circle and lets do man woman couple dancing. UGH!!! It was so stressful for me cause I have never done couple dancing before. And worst of all, we had to do spins. Now I know my right and left spins, but I know nothing about doing it while holding another person in the hand while doing it. So because I was so stressed and trying to keep focus, I had a hard time following the routines we were suppose to do. Especialy since it was hard to see the instructor when dancing as a couple. I mean, the guy was blocking my view. We had to do the partner switch and it became more and more clear to me why I was afraid of couple dancing. Cause some of these guys were so macho trying to teach me the routines. Some were soft and gentle (I especialy noticed that the gay couple guys were the most pleasent guys to dance with) and others almost used force to make me do right. eeek! My zumba instructor gave up before me, so when I finaly saw my chance to also sit down, I did. After that, my salsa instructor's brother gave a class in Domonican Bachata. This time we decided only to participate in the freestyle routines. After two hours, the actual party started. My salsa came over to greed me and say thank you for coming. Since we had zumba the next morning, we decided to leave after the two classes. I was glad I had my debut at a salsa party, but I don't think I will participate in the couple dancing again before more practice. If I have to learn how to do turns as a couple, I would like to practice with one person for a while, before attending a party with partner switch cause it realy gave me a bad impression, that some of the guys were so macho and annoyed with my bad skills. SIGH
March 15th. I attended a master class with Fitness and Zumba Guru (ZES) Steve Boedt!

It was a great master class. That guy realy knows how to perform while making other people sweat their butt off with a huge smile and a laugh! Heres a picture my friend Tina took of me. I completely forgot that I brought my own camera, so unfortunately I don't have any pictures of Steve. From now on, I promise myself, that I will try to take a couple of pictures from the various events I attend! The place of the master class, was a huge gym hall in the building "Nordkraft" which is also where I go to lady styling. It's a brand new gym and it has so much atmosphere. It was kinda sureal to be doing zumba in the middle of the floor, whle people on the first floor was running a treadmill or spinning on a bike and grown men were climbing the tall climbing wall and other people were just standing on the first floor to have a look at all the fun that was going on at the floor. Loved it!

March 25th. I attended a Zumba Event starring two local instructors and two of the professional dancers from our "Dancing with the Stars."

I knew this was not gonna have the same atmosphere as the Steve Boedt masterclass, but I had fun. When I got home, I noticed that my shoes had soaked up quite a bit of pine resin grease(?) on the floor. Yes, it was an old hand ball arena that we were in. Hate that. Luckily I didn't trip. But seriously. Pine grease and zumba are not the best cocktail. I had some struggle trying to remove it.

March 29th.was the very last time we had zumba in the gym I go to. The Fitness chain has moved the gym to a new building instead. That means I will start to have a new zumba schedule to follow... Well, I'm sure I can make it work. I already wrote down the new bus schedule to use. Also, one of the classes will be at another gym, which is the one I normaly only go to on Mondays. Ohh well. I'm a city girl and city girls afjust!

I'm on my Easter break now. Actualy April means more time off from work than at work for me. I love it! I go back to work on April 10th. April 13th. I'm able to squeeze in a Masterclass by Martin Del Villar. I simply couldn't pass the opportunity of seeing a Colombian instructor. I knew about the event for months, but after seeing the video below, I was determined! I had to see this guy and I was hoping I could make people join me. So I told people from the gym about the event and I actualy managed to get 17 people and our instructor tickets! It's gonne be so much fun!!

Now after all these great zumba events, I then have some great concerts to look forward to. My favorite band NKOTB has joined up with BSB for a European NKOTBSB tour. That brings me to Belfast, Dublin, Amsterdam and back here in Denmark in May. I'm hooking up with 3 friends and we're gonna have so much fun. concerts, guys, shopping and more. I can't wait! Funny enough, all 4 of us has picked up Zumba eventhough we live in 3 different countries. Zumba rules!

And when all the concerts are done and over with, my favorite instructor returns from Brazil for a couple of months. Ahhh, how much more perfect can my spring get???

I just wanna dance!

Oh my! Has it been a month already? Well, not yet... But almost. I have been having so much fun... With each day passing by, I promised myself that I would write a blog post. Well, I always had something else to do. But today is the first day in a long time, that I'm dedicating the entire day to.... ME!

Been enjoying myself this morning with another round of tidying up while dancing. Music and dance make me so happy, that if I could, I would be dancing all the time.. I'm glad to have a work, that allows me to dance while working... But only when noone sees it. I always carry my ipod with me at work. Sometimes I feel like listening to radio and sometimes I listen to my music. Music just make the work seem to go faster. Since I rarely get a day with no plans, I decided to put on a movie. Inspired by my salsa instructor's latest party theme, I'm watching "El Cantante" or as it's titled here in Scandinavia "King of Salsa." My salsa instructor and his new dance company started hosting salsa, bachata and Foró partys every Saturday. Since none of my friends are interested in salsa, I never found my way to one of the partys. Maybe someday. The salsa I go to once a week, is salsa freestyle, We dance salsa, bachata, bachanga, cha cha cha and... something I would describe as show dance. It's a lot of fun. We dance solo, so I never danced with a partner and quite frankly, I don't think I would be any good at it. So that's another excuse for me not to go to those partys. I simply wouldn't know how to dance with a partner.

So anyway. as the days go by, I stick to my dance fitness. That means latin mix, dance fit, salsa freestyle and zumba.
January 28th. I attended an African dance event. I love African music. The right music always makes me wanna dance... So I just added 40 new African songs to my ipod playlist. Including this one

Anything that has a nice beat, I will dance to. And African music always sounds so happy to me.

In salsa freestyle, we're practicing a dance to this song...

The more we practice, the more it comes clear to me, that it's a show dance routine. It's fun. Our instructor calls us "Advanced dancers" by now. But after only having danced in 6 months, I still consider myself as and "advanced beginner." Salsa is still new to me. Had it not been for my zumba instructor being a profesional Brazilian dancer, I would probably not have known more than the two basic steps. I don't know if I'll ever learn how to dance regular salsa, but I kinda like this show dancing thing, too.

I noticed that the old gym I used to go to for my zumba, had launced a new type of dance fitness called "Latin Funk." It sounded like fun, so I decided to give it a go. It was strange being back in the old gym, after being away for 6 months. I was back in my old corner spot, but looking around, I didn't see any familar faces except for 3 that I had heard were coming, from my old zumba class. Most of the people were older than me. The instructor was a lot younger than me. It was easy to see that she had been dancing at dance schools before. When I was a kid, I swore I would never join a dance school. Why? I remember the youth club I went to. Seeing how stiff the girls were when they did their dance routines. I didn't think it looked good. At dance schools, they teach kids exactly how to copy a routine. Which is fine. But most of these kids don't know how to put personality or their own touch to the routine. That's why I have always been my own, freestyle dancer. Well, the latin funk instructor was stiff. The music she chose was not that good either. And at one point, she told everyone to lay down and do push ups. I could see everyone else enjoying themselves.. But I decided not to join that class again. It's fine cause I also have another dance class on Tuesday nights now.

Last Tuesday I met for my very first Cuban Ladystyling class. We were only 4 participants and the instructor told us that they normaly wouldn't have the class unless more people signed up. We're crossing fingers that the class will continue, cause I already learned a lot. I'm very bad at making the proper movements with arms and hands when dancing. It's a bad habit I have when dancing. I always let lose and never think about what my arms are doing... Yes, that has sometimes gotten me into trouble, hitting people by mistake, but that's just cause I'm so much into my  own little dance. Salsa is all about body language and the arm and hand gesture is very important. Hopefuly the Cuban ladystyling combined with salsa freestyle, will one day make me dance better. Whenever we make salsa turns in zumba class, I practice making a pretty arm and hand gesture cause in zumba I can let go and not think about what other people think as we're often 30 zumbanistas dancing together. In salsa freestyle we're only 4-6 which means the instructors eyes are on everything we do. Well, in the Cuban ladystyling class, the instructor taught us how to move our torso from side to side. I never thought about that. But now that I know, I can totaly see that I have been doing it somewhat, without knowing it. Now that I know about that detail, I will practice more.

Today I went on the scale for the first time in a couple of weeks. I'm so happy. Turns out that I'm getting closer to another weightloss. After I lost the 30kg. pretty fast, I started putting on zumba muscle weight. I got more toned, put on 6 kg. and the weightloss stopped. Well, it's now been some time, and the way I see it, my body has finaly adjusted with the new muscle weight and letting me lose weight again! I'm happy the way I am now. But I still have a lot of fat in various areas, that I would like to say good bye to. Now that I know I'm able to lose weight again, I know I can lose some again. kg. by kg. I don't know if it was the Cuban ladystyling or what it was, but I can definitely see a change in my stomach area. My belt has become lose. I love it! I know I'll be able to maintain. It's all about the dance :) My Brazilian zumba instructor also annouced that he will be back to give us intensive zumba classes (which means hard core zumba every day!!) in May. Whenever he's back, I lose weight. That's why it's so sad that he now lives in Brazil. Atleast we know he still wants to help us all out whenever he has the chance!

Tonight I finaly bought my ticket to a Zumba Masterclass with Steve Boedt. I heard a lot of good things about him, so I decided that I would go.

Keeping busy... Oh yeah! 2012 is all about the dance and being happy!!!



Dancing my days away...

Monday was a huge succes. Although I only had 3 day, I managed to arrange a small zumba class with 9 of my zumba friends. I'm pretty satisfied with the turn up, as it was on such short notice. I moved the tables and chairs to make plenty of room for zumba. I also asked my salsa instructotr to give the ladies a preview of the salsa freestyle classes I go to. It was a huge succes. Everyone had so much fun. The zumba instructor made some nice coreographs, but they were far from what we were used to. He used a lot of "aerobic like" moves. It was hard, but we managed. The next day, I could definitely feel which muscles in my body I had been using.

Wednesday, my salsa instructor brought his brother to our salsa class. It's been nice to see how both brothers have been enjoying themselves - teaching eachother things. They took pictures and made videos.

I've decided that I will try to dance more in 2012. I know that I've been very busy with zumba and dance in 2011, but I think I will try to have more fun with it in 2012. I still don't feel ready for couple dancing, so it's hard to find any dance classes where you dance alone. Of course I still want to go to my usual salsa freestyle classes on Wednesdays.. But I also managed to find another class similar to this one. It's a class in "Cuban ladystyling." I have big problems controling my arms when I dance. So I think this class will be perfect for me. I know my salsa instructor is trying to teach us lady styling, but I'm too shy to try infront of him. That's why I think the Cuban ladystyling class is perfect for me. That class is on Tuesdays, so it's perfect that I can go there Tuesdays and show off at his classes Wednesdays. It's a female instructor teaching the lady styling. I told my zumba friends about that class and they also signed up. So starting February, I'll have two salsa classes a week. The zumba instructor I now have at the gym, told us that starting February, there will be new Funk classes at the gym. I like to dance all kinds of dance as long as I can add my own twist to it, so I can't wait to give Funk a try. There are two different kinds of funk classes at the gym. A Funk intro class and a regular Funk class. I will try to stick with both.

Tomorrow I'll go to the latin mix and dance fit classes at the gym, which I haven't been to in almost 2 months. I'm trying to keep a good varity of dancing in my weekly schedule, so I don't stick to one and forget the other. Dancing different style will help me evolve as a dancer. Now, I never wanted to become a dancer. I will always prefer my freestyle, on the spot, dancing.. But I guess it takes a good dancer to come up with something good, right? Never the less, have people always been giving me compliments on my dancing, so actualy learning how to dance, can spice up my dancing, I guess.

This is the schedule I will try to follow for the rest of January:

Monday: Latin Mix & Dance Fit
Tuesday:
Wednesday: Salsa Freestyle (I decided to skip the usual zumba as something better will come in February)
Thursday: Zumba
Friday: Zumba
Saturday:
Sunday: 2 x Zumba

In February my schedule will change into this:

Monday: Latin Mic & Dance Fit
Tuesday: Cuban Ladystyling salsa
Wednesday: Funk Intro & Salsa Freestyle
Thursday: Zumba
Friday: Funk & Zumba
Saturday:
Sunday: 2 x Zumba

Keeping in mind, that I will always listen to my body and take a break from time to time, if the schedule is too much. But it's part of my New Year's Resolution this year. Dancing more will let me have more fun and that's what 2012 is all about!

Happy New year!

Reggaeton, Anniversarry, terror and my birthday and showing off arms.

It's amazing how times seems to go by so fast this summer. So much has happened since the last time I blogged 15 days ago. So many good things has happened, but bad things also took place within this short period of time.

Saturday, July 16th., I started off the day, by going to an early zumba class at the new gym. In the evening, I went to a reggaeton class by Karelia, who's a former world champion in salsa with her dance partner Marek. This is the type of reggaeton she was teaching. Not quite the same, but something similar.

There was so many people there, as the couple had just been teaching a salsa class. A lot of sweaty and smelly men was there, but hey... Danish men dancing, is not something you will see every day, so more power to them! :) Reggaeton was at the "Havana Nights" club. I like the place and the people, but for someone like me, who never danced with a partner, I can't join their many dance classes. But reggaeton does not require a dance partner, which is why I like to come for those.

The following week, I was too busy for zumba, but I did join the sals class Wednesday evening.

Thursday, my brother and my uncle stopped by my work. We had to create a long door wreath for my parents anniversarry the next day. Yes, planning the anniversarry is what has kept me busy ever since I returned from my vacation. After work, me and my brother drove to my parents' summer home, where the party would be held in a party tent the next day. We helped with the decorations, tested out the stereo and in the end, before leaving, we wrapped the windows in silver foil, to avoid my parents peeping out, when my aunt and uncle would be hanging up the door wreath early in the morning. My brother and I arranged for some musicians to accompany us with some songs, to wake up our parents, as the tradition calls for here in Denmark. Sadly, not many couples stay together to last a 25th. anniversarry, so I never attended one before.

Waking up my parents went according to the plan. 25 family members showed up at 7 o'clock to wake them up.

The party was a huge succes. Although it was raining the entire day, we all had a great time and kept dry in the tent. Only at one point, late in the evening, a major shower hit in and we had to turn up the volume of the stereo, which of couse, caused a bad fuse or something. The stereo died. Luckily me and my brother were able to connect another stereo and the party could go on.

At one point, I checked the news page from my iphone and read about the bomb in Norway, thinking it was probable one crazy man's work. Maybe he got fired from his job and wanted to put the blame on something. It's happened before, that people do crazy things when they lose their job or wellfare money. Well, little did I know of the crazy injustice that was realy taking place in Oslo, Norway. But when the last guests had gone home and we decided to leave the mess in the tent for the next day, we read on text tv, about the many people being shut at Utøya and was in dispair. The next morning we all saw the special news all morning. It was awful. So heartbreaking to hear the survivors talk about what had happened. Yes, I did get tears in my eyes. I was sure it had more to do about religion that politics. It's true what they say. When being among other people, never talk about politics or religion as it will always cause drama. This guy could not keep his mouth shut and let to terror in the end. This kind of terror, I would describe as opposite terror. He didn't do it to harm people of a different religion. He did it to open up the eyes of the people he was harming. His own people. People who shared his religion, yet not his political point of view. So sad!

Back to something positive. Wednesday this week, I joined the salsa class again. Although we're still not a full group there, I know that more people will show. In fact, I saw 3 new faces there already.

Thursday was my birthday, and as always, I took the day off. I went shopping in town for a bit. Treated myself to sluch ice at 7/11 and strawberry milkshake at Mc Doalds. Things I only do on special occasions. Mc Donald is just across the street from where I lived for the past 15 years, yet I only go there once or twice a year. In the afternoon I went on a ride with my parents and my 2 grand mothers. We usualy have a big party at the summer home, but since everyone was just there for the anniversarry. This year I had no party. Instead we went to a small beach town and had coffee and cake.

I just sent invitations for my friends to come celebrate my birthday with a "Pink Party" on August 20th. It's been hard to find a date that would suit everybody, but I hope I nailed it.

Today I attened a special zumba event at the "Havana Nights" club. An instructor couple had come to town and in a effort to teach some zumba while they were in town, they came to the club. Sadly, in the summer period, it's hard to fill up a class. We were suppose to be 20, but only 7 showed. We had a blast and I sweat so much. I don't know if it's because I put so much energy into my movements or if it's because the other people don't put any energy in it. I think I was the only zumbanista there, apart from the female zumba instructor who's due date is in 3 weeks. He husband is from Cuba, which showed. He took over whenever his wife with the big belly needed a rest. They were realy nice and came over to talk with us before and after the class. I'll write down their names here, so I won't forget. You never know when they show up on a big poster ;) I give Santiago Sotolongo Lomba and Louise thumbs up for their zumba :) Btw. I always use http://www.zumba.com/ to look up information on the instructors I see.. Just a hint.

I talked with the female instructor about the lack of quailfied instructors. We agreed that the best instructors are those who used to teach dance and not aerobics/ gymnastics.. Cause Zumba is all about dancing while doing the work out moves.. Which reminds me! I'm very proud of myself. Today, for the first time ever, I wore my "Crazy Happy" zumba t-shirts without the usual 3/4 sleeve underneath. I'm finaly ready to show my arms, although they still scream "Bingo arms" - after one year of doing zumba, the bingo arms have vanished to almost nothing. Next goal is, to make me feel good enough to wear the racer back tops. That won't happen any time soon, but as long as there is zumba, there is hope :)

Reggaeton and Salsa as substitute for Zumba!

Saturday, June 11th., me and 3 other women from Zumba, decided to meet up at one of the women's place, before going to the "Ladies Night" at a Salsa Club in town. They had a woman teaching Reggaeton from 9-10 PM. It was my first time there, as I always saw the club as a club that only had couples dancing. Well, because of the Ladies Night, there were no couples in sight to begin with. In fact, we were the only women there, except for 2 of my latin mix instructors, who came over and said hi. When we were about 10 women there, the reggaeton instructor called us over to begin the class. It was great fun. I love reggaeton music and some of the steps she taught us, I'm always using when going clubbing.. Only when I go clubbing and do things freestyle, I have no idea if the steps and moves I use, have an actual name. It was great fun. While we were dancing, more and more women joined in and it was fun to see how our small line got longer and longer, as we were moving from one end of the dance floor, to the other. Well, there were free cocktains for the women from 10-11 PM and I did manage to get two cocktails withing that time. The bartenders were way too slow to maintain the bar, if you ask me. Normaly, when you go to have a drink in the clubs in town, you usualy get a shot of Barcardi mixed with sprite.. Those drinks only take 1 minute to mix for the bartenders. At the salsa club, the bar was so crowded, that it took you 15 minutes just to get close to the bar, then it took the bartender 15 minutes to create a Mojito or a Strawberry Daquiri. I think it will do the club better justice, if they start mixing the same drinks all other clubs are serving. After the 2 cocktails, the club was getting crowded and people were starting to dance on the dance floor, like they would do at any other club. This night was special, as they played all of my favorite music. Reggaeton mixed with r&b and hip hop. If they play this kind of music every weekend, I asure you, that I will be coming back and bringing my girlfriends some time.However, I see them broadcasting the place as a Salsatek normaly, and that will not make me come. The club has 2 dance floors, that is used for teaching dance during the afternoons, that turns into Salsatek/ Night club in the evenings. That evening, they would play Salsa at one of the dance floors and my favorite music at the other. It was amazing. Although the two dance floors were almost conected, you could not hear the music that was played at the other dance floor, which created two different atmospheres in the same bar. Amazing, if you ask me. The women that I was there with, were all 10 years older than me, but they didn't mind letting loose and dancing to the music with me. So I'm now at an age, where I can go out clubbing with people that are 10 years younger or older than myself. I love it! Only bummer was, that the women wanted to go home very early. So we left the club at 12.30 AM.

Monday our instructor was back, to inform us, that he would not be back till August. We already knew that he would be doing another job from June 24th. untill August. He did the same last year. I'm not sure what that job is, but he might be performing with a band or doing dance workshops abroad. Yes, he's a famous man, so we have to share him with the world. It's fine. I'm still very honoured to have had him for zumba for a year. Not many people can brag with having a so talented instructor like he is. Everyone knows who he is. If you tell them you have a Brazlian zumba instructor, they will all know who you're talking about, and most of them are jealous. Anyway, the reason why he would be away for the rest of the week, was not the job abroad, but a job at the Royal ballet. They have a performance today and needed him to be there to help them adjust some details all week. Well, we had 2 hours outdoor zumba Monday. Just as we were in the middle of our stretch out, it started raining, and we all ran under a roof to finish off. We were so lucky that the rain didn't kick in while we were doing zumba. It had been dust raining for a bit, though, but we were fine. However, the ground became more and more slippery towards the end, but we had no injurys at all. After the stretch out, we were talking for 5-10 minutes. The instructor wanted us to think about what he has taught us, for when we have to go out and find a new place to do zumba in the future. There are good instructors that will inform you about what shoes to wear, what to do to avoid injurys etc., and there are bad instructors, who end up with injurys themselves, cause they have no knowledge at all on how to maintain a healthy and fit body. I feel that because of my instructor I'm now capeable of taking care of my own body. I know what to do, if an instructor is trying to put my weak ankles in a bad position and so on. I know how to use a little more strenght and power, when doing my salsa step, to create a smalle twist on my tummy, to tone the muscles. Yes, I can do it! Now I just need to find the right place and instructor.

I've always been doing research on various zumba instructors whenever I've been out for special zumba events. But now I want to look at other gyms than the ones I know. I cannot go without zumba all summer. So in my search, I found a gym that has a lot of zumba on their schedule. They have a special 3 months summer sale, so Friday I called them up. By faith, they told me, that at 5 PM that day, they were having a free Salsa class that I was more than welcome to join as they were having an audition of an instructor. I was so happy. And when I got there, I saw the name on a poster. It turned out to be the instructor that teaches couples salsa at the salsa night club. Well, at the gym, he will be teaching salsa the zumba way. Meaning, without a partner. I always hated the fact, that all the salsa and zouk classes being taught at the club, was for couples only. Cause I always dance alone. The instructor was from Guatemala and held the class in English, which didn't seem to effect the class. He was very serious to begin with, but as he had us doing some pretty tricky steps and turns, he started to have us all laugh a lot. In the end, he brought he dance partner in, to show us 10 minutes of couple dancing. Well, I need to learn a lot more, before I can do a couple dance with anyone. When class was over, I talked with the leader of the gym, who told me that I was more than welcome to bring my other zumba friends for a free zumba class one time, now that our instructor will be leaving us soon. The salsa instructor was hired, and will be teaching salsa every Wednesday at 7:30 PM. Not the best choise for me. I already have latin mix at one gym from 4:30-5:30 PM. Then the sports arena near my home also used to teach Zumba from 5-6 PM... So unless some changes are made with the various gym schedules, I have something to think about. SIGH.

Wednesday this week, I had to cancel Latin Mix as I was going shopping with my grandma. She suffers from alzheimers in the early stages, and asked me to take her shopping for a dress to wear at my parens' 25th. anniversarry next month. Next week, I'll make sure to go to latin mix Wednesday. I know that 2 people from my zumba class will join me, along with my friend.