Tango Heaven, Week 2

I came here to go to tango heaven, which, very briefly described, is two weeks of classes with a superb teacher, each week comprising 25 hours of dancing with accomplished partners. Tough on the feet, tough on the bod, superb for the soul.

Today was the first day of Week Two. The schedule has us assemble at 11 AM, warm up (photo), and then address the material for the day until 1 PM, when we break an hour for lunch. Then another two hours dancing, followed by a half hour break, followed by an hour's review and practice. Note for the overly imaginative: we are not dressed in fishnet and stilettos. Most of us follow the example of the instructor and opt for dance sneakers. Crazy we are, perhaps, but masochists we're not.

Last night I was naughty and went to a milonga until past midnight. And tonight I went to the "practica" held by our teacher. It's 1 AM as I write this. But that's it for the week. I shall not sin again. At tonight's practica, I ran into a young Portland dancer who just arrived for a 2-month stay. He asked me if I'd sustained any mosquito bites yet. (Yes.) It was an odd question until I remembered that Portland has virtually no mosquitos. One person's ho-hum is another person's exotica.