My Thursday

Was pretty kickin. Last day of classes for the week, and all were super informational and bomb. Romans- kudos on the city planning and use of strong, clean geometric shapes in building things. After lunch I wandered a little, ended up in this great, quality shoe store and bought me some classy shoes! They´re not heels, more of an everyday shoe but with flair. So that´s good. I won´t post a picture- you´ll see them when you see them. But they are real leather, very comfortable, and raspberry pink/red. not ´cute´, but very ´hope´. After the exhaustion of hitting one store, we figured we´d better fuel up with some chocolate con churros that were supposed to be the best in the city. It tasted the same is the first time in the neat cafe I found, but hey, ´the same´ is like heavenly goodness, so there´s no complaining here. After dinner, I ventured out for the first time since being here. Caitlin, Brandi and I went searching for a Latin dance club that Caitlin had heard about, and after some serious navigation errors (like every single time I try to get anywhere here), we found it. It´s called Asucár (yeah, with an ´s´) and it turned out to be a CUBAN latin dance club, which I learned after dancing with a few cubans and asking one if he were related to the other. He pointed to the cuban flag on the wall and it all fell together... oops. :) But holy cow was it a good time!!! Very salsa-y music and bachata and guys asking you to dance and not caring if you CAN´T dance and indeed not listening to you saying that you can´t dance or that you don´t want to (not me- another in our group didn´t want to, but she had a lot of fun when she did.) Got told I danced like Shakira (HA), got my hair felt (not a lot of natural curly blondes here), and got my arm stroked. Definitely not what I´m used to, and I had to just let it go that my space wasn´t going to be respected, but through it all I was laughing (mostly at myself) and having so so much fun. Finally had to leave to catch the 2:30 am bus back home. I was bookin in my new shoes, walking around the centro like I knew where I was going so I didn´t get hassled (though it´s pretty hard to look like you know what you´re doing when you pass through the same street back and forth three times). I finally made it out of the maze alive, found the bus, and lo and behold it was coming in ten minutes. thank goodness. My roommate had me all scared that there was one at two twenty and one at four thirty.  Great day, no school on friday, and yet more adventure awaits!
Lots of love,
hope

almost forgot!
Worse: Elevator doors will shut on you and busses will leave you behind. Although I kind of love this because it´s like, get your crap together or you´re getting left.
Different: personal space is nonexistent and saying ´excuse me´ or ´perdon´is not very common, even if they brush by you or looking at the same shirt in a store and kiiind of move it out of your hands. huh
Better: The type of clover here has three heart-shaped leaves. Also, it´s totally ok to stare at people. Has come in handy. ;)