Plies and Earthquakes

Last night, I experienced two semi-profound firsts in Costa Rica.

First, I attended a ballet class taught in Spanish. My friend, Libby, heard about a local studio and found that they have an adult ballet class. The adventure began first when the taxi driver took us to the other side of town. We had given him the flyer for the studio that had another little paper stapled to it with an address. He took us there and it wasn't the right place. We finally got to the correct location and got ready for class. Right away, we knew that they were confused by our presence. The class was an interesting experience. Although the schedule says it is an adult ballet class, there were a wide range of ages there from little girls around 7 to a couple girls our age. Several times during the class the teacher and other personel seemed to talk about us. We aren't sure what they were confused about but they never asked us any questions. The teacher made sure we knew that it was a principles class. I think she meant that it was building basic strength and technique. She was kind of a stickler but the combination of exercises we did was odd to me. The barre work was familiar, though it seemed to leave out a lot of the basics and added some strange exercises. In the center, we did some stretches I haven't done since I was a little kid like rocking horse and head to toes. Then they worked on steps in the center but it was some other kind of dance...character ballet maybe? I just know I have never done anything like it before and it seemed to contradict ballet fundamentals. It was fun though. A little later, they decided to do jazz. We told them we have done jazz so that is fine. The teen helper led the warm up and movement across the floor. We were amused because she was very sweet and helpful but thought we didn't know how to jazz walk. Then they did toe-touches during steps across the floor. This was odd to us becuase that is considered to be a cheerleading move. In all, it was a very interesting experience. I enjoyed it and got a great work out. We hoped for a great stretch and certainly got it. Libby and I just don't understand a lot of it. The teacher left the room several times and also talked on the phone a lot. It was all just kind of funny. We think that they may be using that time slot as an extra class for these girls and not necessarily the adult ballet that is on the schedule. I would like to talk to someone who has had dance experience in Costa Rica. Ballet is kind of a universal language. Yes, there are different styles, but it has all the same basics and moves. It was interesting to see this teacher's interpretation.

Second, I experienced my first earthquake in Costa Rica. We were told at our first orientation that they are very common and usually not very large. This one was small. I was in my room and everything got kind of loud and was vibrating. I just kind of shrugged it off until I saw other people talking about it on Facebook and talked to my mamtica about it this morning. My housemates didn't notice it.

Later today I will be purchasing bus tickets for my work weekend. I am traveling to a beach in Guanacaste with Ana Cecilia. I am unsure of what we will be doing but I am going with the flow.

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