Salsa Dancing

I had the internship Tuesday through Thursday this week, with the highlight being going to a screening of Knowing with Nicolas Cage, who lived up to my low expectations of him. It was a strange film, with a huge religious undertone, but it was surprisingly scary. I went with Rhiannon, and helped her at the beginning, because FILMINK was hosting the screening. I had to hand out the “prizes” to the people who answered some trivia questions before the movie (the prizes, not so great – the best one being Mr. Mom).

Thursday night, I went out with my future roommate Isabel in Sydney, which ended up being a lot of fun. We danced and laughed a lot. Friday, I headed to Newtown, one of the artsy suburbs of Sydney, for a poetry performance by one of the guys from “Fall Out Boy.” Unfortunately, I had looked up directions to the wrong Brown St., and had to ask a few different people before I found directions to the library. When I got there, all of the lights were off, and no one was there. I was so frustrated. I heard music coming from behind the library, and decided to check it out.

I poked my head in the door, and heard, “…1, 2, 3… 5, 6, 7…” A salsa lesson! The teacher poked her head back out and asked if I wanted to join them. I thought, “Why not?” and went inside. I jumped right in and did a lot better than I thought I would. Everyone asked if I had taken lessons before but I said only swing dancing lessons (thanks Jul!). I found out from one of the ladies that the poetry reading had been cancelled, which explained the empty library. The lesson was a lot of fun, and definitely proved my new theory correct, that some of the best experiences abroad are the ones you don’t plan. I walked back to the bus stop feeling completely satisfied. There are definite moments that I am always going to remember from my abroad experience (even if I don’t have pictures of them!) and that was definitely one of them.

An update on my living situation: On April 9, I’ll be moving all off my things out of the Thompson’s and into Isabel and Petra’s homestay before I go to New Zealand and the Great Barrier Reef with my mom and Julia. When I get back, I’ll be living at their homestay for a while, and then moving into my internship supervisor, Rhiannon’s apartment (or flat, as they call it here) for the rest of my time here. It is in a really neat part of Sydney called Glebe, and I think it will be a really great experience.