My name's Leah and I'm an internet addict

So....comp's still in the shop but I couldn't take it any longer. Weird Kid was gracious enough to let me use his comp whilst he works. It's only been 5 minutes and I don't think I can last much longer with the way his desk is setup. I'm here all bent around like some sort of contortionist while I clack away on the keyboard like some crazed piano virtuoso (or would it be virtuosa, in my case?) due to a huge stack of CDs that come between me and the keyboard. Yes, let's make this quick.

Expo Latino ROCKED MY WORLD! Don Quixote's commandeered a food booth this year and so I was able to nosh on some of their outtathisworld paella. Mm mm good. The music was phenomenal, and the dancers were exquisite. I was inspired by all the people dancing, young and old. Dare I say it, and I don't mean to sound racist, but there was even a mature "white" couple doing the merengue out there. Hello! I need to keep up! I chickened out of El Bombazo yet again, even though I had people to go with this time. (El Bombazo is the dance party on the Saturday night of the festival. I hear this year it was exceptional.) I just don't feel ready, I don't want to look like some pathetic rookie. Hence why I bought the instructional tape from The Latin Corner. It confirmed what I already knew, though. I've got the Cuban motion down, I could merengue till I'm blue in the face, salsa till my feet give out, cumbia....well alright, I'm just starting to master the cumbia. (Oh, and now I've learned some basics of the bacchata! Now THAT is a sexy dance!) That's all fine and good, but it's the partner-work that I have to master most. Everytime the video puts the two dancers together I'm at a loss for what to do on the learning end. I do my part of the dance as I see it on the screen, but as for getting accustomed to the signals as to which way the guy's gonna turn me and what he expects me to do I've got no clue. *sigh* Peru-girl's had enough of my yapping about it so us coworkers are going to SoHo's. And if I screw up, I screw up. I'm sure it will still be amazing. I just have to learn to jump right into the experience and work what I know. Wish me luck, everyone.

So much for a short entry. Expo Latino was not even all of my day on Saturday. Bizkette and Daisy were gracious enough to join me fopr the GlobalFest and fireworks finale. Calgary was plagued with road construction work the whole weekend, so getting from pavilion to pavilion was insane. Even with the best of intentions we only caught the Irish pavilion and the middle east (and by then they were out of baklava! For shame!) The fireworks were pretty. Can't wait for next years' competitors. We unfortunately never made it to the African, Asian, and Mexican pavilions before they closed for the night. Like I've said, next year will be much better. We intend to pace ourselves over at least two days instead of half a day. Not to mention I hope they don't host the festival at the same time as Expo Latino again next year!

The middle eastern pavilion was my favorite. We were too late to catch any of the shows, but there was still lots of beautiful dancing and drumming going on during the dance that night. This brings me to my other dance craze: belly dancing. There were so many women of different cultures, even, and ages and they could all belly dance with grace and finesse. Again, I need to keep up! Tried some Lebanese coffee, not feeling that so much. Also, I finally tried the shish tawouk. The evening we went to Cafe Mediterranean to try some sheesha/hookah Aqua Angel had ordered the shish tawouk and it looked damn good. The one I had on the weekend was not quite the same but it was delicious nonetheless. I must go back to Cafe Mediterranean to try the one I initially wanted, though.

Whoooo, what a great day!