My first dance night!

It was really nice out for most of the day today. Working on studio is really tough because combining multiple designs is never easy...I would actually beg to suggest that it would be easier to design in teams to begin with instead of individually and then together, which I thought we would do from the beginning.

I did some research on wall types, facades, and wall sections today but to no end as it was fairly random. I did learn a bit about wattle and daub (which has a million spellings, feel free to let me know if you know the correct one). I think that metal may not be the way to go because of the rain here...it is a really terrible absorber when it comes to noise.

After lunch, when I realized that the work I was doing felt useless I talked with Josh and he hadn't started the powerpoint so I jumped on it. I believe we're going to try to re-use the powerpoint from last year that also had two proposals for the same project. I began translating and writing the notes in spanish for the presentation. Before we get the two proposals there is still a lot that can be done on this so it should keep me busy until I can be more helpful to my team with the design.

Met with everyone just before 5 and ended up having a long meeting discussing what design has been done and how it needs collaboration despite the difficulty of this. I agree, but saying it aloud again doesn't make it any easier. Looks like it's going to be a whacky proposal...but there's a week to go and it needs to happen like...yesterday, so I am sure I'll be in here a lot this weekend.

After the meeting I didn't feel much like going to the dance class that Anibal and Evelyn planned so I went and played photographer. I attempted to help Tyler out with his salsa...he was so hilarious while I videotaped...he wouldn't let the camera out of his sight because he was so self-conscious! Everyone did surprisingly well until they got hungry at which point they got cranky and went home to eat. I walked back with Lins and Tuona and planned to meet up before meeting everyone to practice the new dance moves at La Guarida.

Chatted with Daisy about the stuff that has been going on at school...it's a small town, she's bound to find out at some point and at least I can tell her from closer to the source I guess.

The Goddess of Regueton was on TV...its basically American Idol for Regueton-dancers...which means super-grindy, music-video-esque dancing...at the end the past winners came on and my family was making comments about the two girls who were overweight and it really bothered me. Just before that, while I was getting ready, little Raul came into the bathroom and asked me where I was going. I told him I was going dancing and he, being 4 and taking in everything he hears from all around him, says "you're too fat to go dancing, right?" and i tried to get him to explain and he said "because americans are fat and you eat too much." WOW. Talk about the harsh truth of the matter. I was a bit taken aback and asked if he meant me and he said yes...sigh...it's weird because I think that any terms here can be used as terms of endearment that we usually take negatively in the US such as "gordita"-fatty, or "negrita"-little black girl. At the same that it's important for us to understand and learn these differences, I think it is as important for our families to learn from us about our culture. This was a tough lesson from a 4 year old.

Met up with the girls and had to basically take a shower for my legs at Linsey's because walking a mile in flip-flops on dirty roads equals basic ruin of cleanliness. no fun. From there we took Yenaro (sp?) to Johnny's. Finally got the names of all of our friends there, Randall, Luis-Carlos and Jainer (sp?). They were about to close down to head to Guarida, so that was cool and we ended up meeting them out.

At Guarida I spent a while wandering around, chatting with each person who came in from our group who was all over the place at the bar. There were girls dressed in what I thought was underwear (until around midnight when there was an actual lingerie show and I realized what underwear really is...) dancing in the middle dance floor. I'm not going to say they were terrible dancers, but they weren't anything super-special either. Shortly after they played all of my favorite songs from the US for these girls to dance to, they switched it up and played music that Anibal and Evelyn had taught dances to so a bunch of people hit the dance floor. I played photographer. I found out a bit later that Jainer is the only tico I've met so far outside of the institute who can dance! He was there with his brother's wife and his neice and she lent him to me to dance. SO MUCH FUN! I love all of the cool spins and everything and I can follow pretty much anyone if they are a strong leader...I just need to get the basic steps and I'm good to go.

Everyone started trickling out just before or during the lingerie show...which was like a 45 minute production of girls in thongs and bras modelling on the dance floor. The boys said it's probably the closest thing there is to a strip club here. Jainer told me he doesn't like it because, while he and Randall both admitted the girls are gorgeous, obviously, he doesn't understand why anyone would want to parade themselves around for people that way and they don't think it's a decent job. Meh...I wasn't entertained, but it also wasn't meant for me to be-haha.

Home super-late. Meetin up early tomorrow.