What did I notice?
Xochimilco - vibrantly colored flat boats, our silent guide slowly pushing our boat down the river
Mexico-style vending meets water = boats full of mariachis offering to play, boats with people selling freshly grilled corn, businesses hopping onto our boat to display a blanket or necklace we may want to buy
Frida, Frida, Frida - I admit that I am not always drawn to all of her work, but walking through the blue house and reading her complete story pulled me into the raw emotion of her paintings more than ever.
What connections did I make?
Four of us decided to take on the art of salsa dancing at a local venue that offered group lessons before open salsa dancing. We fell into the back row of want-to-be dancers to discover that the rows rotated so that we would end up in front soon enough. I felt confident with the basic step. However, it turns out that there are a lot of other moves I was not familiar with in the land of salsa dancing. It also turns out that learning to dance in a second language is much more difficult than in a first language. This may seem obvious, but it was a really good reminder to me of how much more I had to concentrate when I had to depend only on what I saw for much of the lesson. I couldn't help but think about how much energy some of our students who are learning English must put forth every day. Feeling completely inept, they lined us up, women paired with men, and started shouting salsa moves at us. I have to say that my rotating partners were incredibly kind and forgiving of my lack of skills.