Le Tango around the World!

Many of you are sending me notes to wish me well in my travels…. i am posting some here or at least some summaries….  Thanks to all of you for showing your support in what can be described as a crazy adventure!

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Anne Sophie  I wish you many beautiful things to come. Thanks for all the fun and good times you brought to us. 

And I will see you again.  Take care  *******************Dear Anne Sophie,  

 I haven’t been able to come to the tango classes because of my travel schedule, so I haven’t had the opportunity to wish you well on your great adventure. It sounds great.  

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Dear Anso,
I wanted to thank you for all the lovely times I’ve known in Argentine Tango with you.  Your classes were always infused with your great spirit and I know your community will miss you.  You had much the same impact on our small community here in Virginia Beach, and they were glad to have had the experience of you.
Please know that I wish you all the best of luck in new endeavors and in whatever you do in your future.
Alan and I will be leaving for the Florence, Italy festival at the end of the month and will be staying in Italy for another week after the festival.
Please keep me posted on where you are and what you are doing.  Life is permitting us to travel a bit more and perhaps we could catch up with you somewhere sometime.
Until then, warmest regards,

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I have always said that I wouldn’t stay in Washington DC too long. For me it was a transition period, something I had to do to live away from my family, from Belgium from what I have been used to do before. I took the job at the World Bank because at the time it was a great opportunity for me. But all along I knew it was only for a short period of time. It actually turned out to be much longer than I had expected. The 2 years I was there for turned into 12… mainly because of my involvement with the Tango community.
but for me it also meant that I never wanted to feel home in DC. I had a cute little appart that served its purpose, but at the same time, it was just a place for me to stay while I was in DC, it has never felt like home, a place I wanted to come back to and that meant a lot to me.
Now that I am in Belgium to visit, I am thinking about it and I am not sure either if it is home for me. I have left here so long ago that many things are not me anymore. I grew up here, I still know the places, my family is here, but same thing… it is not home. I hope that one day, I’ll settle somewhere and feel like that’s my home.
But at the same time being back in Belgium brings a lot of memories. And this time something special happened to me. I met with my first love… and when I said first… it was the fist! I was probably 8 or 9 or something like that. Our families were friends and we used to play a lot together.. when it actually changed into something quite different… even when we were so young. Unfortunately when we were 10 he had to leave and move to a bigger city (where I live is really in the middle of nowhere!:-)… but for some reason, he always stayed in my heart, I was always hoping I’d see him somewhere, that we would meet again and be like nothing had happened. But the years passed, and eventhough we met once in between, our lives changed and I moved to the states, and he has his own life as well. So, because he had to find information on Argentina for his daughter, he found my website (the good and the bad of being so present online! )…. sent me an email and we have been in contact since then. And yesterday we met… again… after (oh… dare I say it )….. about 20 years! It was nice… we remembered the good old time (or something like it), laughed, smiled about our feelings in our childhood and were really happy that we found each other again. jst because the first love is so special, just because even during all those years that we were appart, having our own separate lives, for some reason we still were thinking about each other, just because life is always going to surprise you somehow… this was something I’ll cherish for a very long time.
So, our lives have separated again, but thanks to the email, we’ll keep contact and be more present in each others lives.
So, Belgium is where I grew up, I am not sure it’s my home, but my roots are there, the experiences that made me from early on happened there, and he was definetely a part of it!

Thanks to all of you who are wishing me well in my new adventures.  It is great to hear all the support for what it can seem at first a crazy decision!  But it seems that there is something in the air at the moment.  I have come accross many who are thinking about the same thing… maybe not as drastic as leaving everything and living from a suitcase, but change.  Going back to what is important and makes us happy!  I have met some of you who did the same thing a few years ago and told me that’s the best thing they could have done.  Some of you are doing it now, left their jobs, moved to another place and many of you will do it soon I am sure. 

When I saw what I had in my place after 12 years of being here in the states, I was wondering why I was keeping all that stuff.  The thing is that many things have a sentimental value that’s difficult to part from.  I brought little things from all my trips around the world and that makes it special…  I love my clothes and especially my tango shoes!! eh eh eh … some of you were asking me how many pairs of Comme il Faut I have… well, let’s just say that it is enough to fill out a big (big) suitcase!  But all of this has a story that is dear to me… I have been thinking how can I part with the material thing and still hold the memory…. So, because for me the visual will trigger more detailed memory, I have decided to take pictures of some of the things and will keep those pics… so when I look at them I’ll have the same trigger without having to keep the actual piece… and I’ll just have to travel with my small external harddrive! ….

I am off to Belgium now to spend a week with my family. They are quite happy I’ll be closer to them now.  12 years away was difficult for them, but they knew I needed to do it.  I’ll be closer to my little nieces and will be able to participate to more family parties, which are always good…  food, wine, laugh… I miss that.

be happy!

 Anso