You think you can dance?

Since my last post, I've been busy trying to RELAX. : ) I spent a lot of time with local friends last week, which was great and much needed. Unfortunately for me, my ability to sleep is still absent, so I was still finding myself extremely tired. That being said, I managed to prep the house for Chad, and on Saturday morning he arrived.

I was SO EXCITED to see Chad!! We haven't seen each other in almost 1 year. For those of you who may not know Chad, he is one of my best friends! We went to Loyola University together, and we were roommates in two houses while living in New Orleans. Chad also lived with my mom and me for a short time after Hurricane Katrina, so Chad is more like family to us. Anyways....Chad has never traveled outside of America!! This being his first trip is already wildly entertaining.

Since Chad's been here, it has been non-stop seeing people! We've done coffee with just about everyone, and he's even come and sat in on one of my dance classes. Check out some of the photos he took:

They practiced HARD for this trick!!

I love this : )

Petar can fly!!

Ivan is so proud of his head slide!

Also, if you want to see the dance they have been working on, you can view it below. The video was shot after the kids danced for over an hour, so some of it is not "full out" dancing, but I still think they did an EXCELLENT job!!!!

This Wednesday is the grand opening of the dance studio. Im PUMPED!! The crew kids will perform their dance, and then I think we will have 3 or so Zumba songs as well. We are inviting the media and some local people. A couple of PC people might be coming as well, so that makes me happy. It should be great to get the community into the school to actually see the studio!!

Finally, this week I will leave to go on my vacation. Good god...I am so ready for a vacation. Life hasn't been easy lately, and this time away will be a great break. Chad and I leave Thursday, and will be traveling until the 27th!! Our first week is all Greek Island hoping, which is the part I am most excited about. I seriously cannot wait to spend an entire day in my swimsuit, eating seafood and drinking a frozen cocktail. Italy will be great too. We will be seeing 3 cities in total there, and will be seeing a big festival on a lake. Ending our trip with Venice will be heaven....I'm not going to want to come home. HAHA!!

Ok, that's all I've got. Enjoy the video : )

"We accept the love we think we deserve."

Meet me in the morning

I have been stuck on the couch for exactly one week. I have to admit, being stuck at home really frustrated me. I hated not being able to go to work, not being able to dance, not being able to see all my kids, not being able to really be out in public at all! I will say, though, that some excellent things have come out of my time on the couch.

1. Travel Plans- As mentioned before, I got most of my travel tickets booked for my trip in June. Im still not over the excitement of booking those tickets. I began looking up things we can do in each place, and I discovered some really fun things! For instance, we fly from Greece into Milan on the 23rd....in searching festivals and celebrations in Italy, I found that on June 24th, there is a huge celebration over the Como Lake. Fancy that, b/c Como is only an 8euro train ticket away from Milan AND it is on our way to Venice. HOT DAMN!! I'd have never discovered this, if it wasnt for the time on the couch. :D

2.Dance Camp- That's right. DANCE CAMP!! I've mentioned this idea in passing to some of my students before, because I wanted to create something more we could do in the summer. Well, all of my "student dance teachers" came to visit me this week, so I talked with each of them again about it. I then began to put the plan into action. I set dates. I made brochures and flyers, which we plan on distributing to local businesses, schools, homes, etc. I made a website. I made an outline for the classes we will provide. I spoke to people who have offered their time for things like registration and food/water donations. I've done A LOT. The website is complete, but I am not posting a link to it until I get the OK on two more details.

So camp will be a Kocani thing, but it is not limited to Kocani kids. Ideally, everyone who lives within a reasonable distance from the city will be able to attend, free of charge. The website is setup so that kids will register online. From there, I plan on grouping the kids, based off their age, dance experience, and the classes they are interested in. We will have one day of registration and orientation, complete with some activities for everyone. Then we will hold 3 days of dance classes, which will be held in rotational blocks. On the last and final day, we will hold a recital, so the kids can show off what all they've learned. This event will be open to the public, and I hope it will generate even more kids to attend dance lessons during the school year. Furthermore, this will be excellent for my student teachers, so they can start fully taking over more classes next year, allowing me less opportunity to re-injure myself!!

Well, that's all I've got. It is a beautiful day here, and I'm actually going to get out of the house. Enjoy your quote for the day:

"What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do."

—John Ruskin