The Latin Lover

During my stay here in Puriscal, I have been attending a Latin dance class at the gym.  It's an aerobics class that uses latin dance as the method.  The first hour and 15 minutes are filled with very fun, fast paced, kick your butt moves from the dances Salsa, Cumbia, Merenge, Paso Doble and one other that I can never remember, much less do.  After the workout portion, they move to couples dancing, at which time I get the most intense workout of the night, as I sprint for the door and down the street so as not to be asked to dance.  Over the past 3 weeks, while I have been doing this, I have been attending this class with some of the women who are here in the CCS program with me. They have done their best to get me to stay (I may be exaggerating slightly here) not because I'm some suave dancer, but simply because the women out number the men by some 3 or 4 to 1.  Tonight was the first night I attended by myself and thus thought myself "off the hook" for the couples section of the class.  As I casually strode over to the edge of the floor to gather my water bottle and wipe the flood of sweat from my brow (al la Martin Ribeiro), I was approached by the hottest, and I mean THE HOTTEST women in the room.  I glanced at my watch to offer the time, which was surely what she was seeking, but much to my dismay (and might I say horror) she asked me to dance.  Well, as you can imagine, my trip to Costa Rica, along with other events in my life over the past few years, has bolstered my confidence quite a bit.  This, I knew, was an opportunity to take that confidence out for a test drive.  So I took in a deep breath and I looked her straight in the eyes and said..."But I don't know how" and then stared blankly back at her, without a movement.  Some have fight, some have flight and I have freeze.  And so there I stood, staring and dazed, until finally she grabbed my had and drug me onto the dance floor.  As the music began, suddenly everything I had been learning for the past few weeks came rushing back to me and I began to dance around the floor like I was born dancing and I was sending her into complex spins and....eeeerrrrrr.....sorry, I just fell into some kind of little fantasy there.  No, what actually happened was, I danced like the gringo that I am and she taught me a spin or two, and we were both pretty much relieved when the song ended.  I thanked her warmly and she politely replied.  Then, having learned my lesson, I grabbed my things and sprinted to the door as I had been wise enough to do in weeks past.  

There is a part of me that wishes I was Rico Suave and would just expect to be in such situations and know that I would handle them without freaking out.  But the bigger part of me feels glad to know who I am, without wishing to be something I'm not.  As such, I am able to be in  such situations which, in the past, would have eaten me alive, and just enjoy them for what they are... totally fucking hilarious!