Finally, my life has a rhythm again. It is so strange, but relaxing too; I love it.
After all the boys left, I suddenly found myself with a load of empty time and space that I needed to fill. So I found some projects. First, I started off joining a gym. This experience was something completely different than any gym or YMCA in the U.S. Still working over a language barrier, my first week was me being dragged around or followed through the facility by body trainers. I had no idea what was going on. Finally, sensing my distress, someone finally informed me how these things work here. Whereas in the U.S. you join a gym and go about minding your own business and you have to pay through your nose to get a body trainer, here you are set up right away with a training plan based on your goals and your physical and medical limitations. So I had a medical exam, a nutrition orientation, and a physical dexterity test. WHEW. Not only that, but trainers stop you about ever half hour to take your pulse and make sure you aren't straining yourself. Yes this all sounds very professional and awesome- but as a born American, I had a very difficult time with so much invasion of my personal space. It took me several weeks to get used to so many people talking to me about so many of these personal things, and just coming up to me and helping me stretch or lift without even asking first. One amazing experience for me though, was taking Capoeira classes. Capoeira is the Brazilian martial art that combines music, dance fighting and a sort of gymnastics. As a beginner, I am terrible, but the other students were incredible to watch. The control and gracefulness in their movements was unlike any other.
Beginning in February, I also started interviewing for jobs teaching at some English courses. Interviewing in another country was a completely new and exciting experience. I started off just going to any schools I could find and dropping off my resume. To my excitement, I received several call backs, despite my lack of teaching experience. From these interviews, I was invited to do training in two different schools (first they do training, then they tell you if you are hired- odd). In the end, I actually had to choose which I wanted to work for, since they both made offers! Well, I accepted a position teaching advanced conversational English at a school called Lexical, and has been fantastic. I only have adult students (awesome), and every one is cheerful and excited to learn. I had my doubts at first that I even had the ability to be an effective teacher. But now as I see my students making connections and practicing their accents and pronunciations, I feel that I actually do have something important to offer them.
Finally, my latest activity and newest passion: ballroom dance. Answering a promotional advertisement for free dance lessons at a studio, I got to try out Samba, Saltinho, Fórro, and Tango. Latin dance has always been something I have wanted to learn, so I decided to sign up. Now I am taking classes 4 times a week. The Tango is by far the hardest. In class we spend so much time just practicing shifting weight and controlling our posture and movement. There is so much control in every movement, and everything has to be deliberate, yet you also have to be able to react and transition quickly. Often, I am concentrating so hard that I forget to breath.
And so my life has fallen into these series of rhythms. Whether it is dance, teaching, or whatever else here, I am constantly learning how to move and respond to the people and experiences around me. I realized that the biggest obstacle I have had to confront (and am still working on) has not been the language itself, but in my perception of personal space and comfort zones. Opening myself up to people has not been the easiest and I still struggle with physically letting people in. I realized that so many people in the Northern Hemisphere work so hard to keep other people distant and "minding their own business." But maybe we are missing opportunities doing this. Even something so simple as making eye contact with complete strangers on the street: that brief moment of honesty that neither of you are expecting.
