Le Tango around the World!

On April 1st, we arrived in San Francisco. It’s just so wonderful to be back here. I came to SF a few times over the years I lived in the States, either to dance tango or to just be a tourist. And I love the city. So, we combined our trip to visit some of my tango friends, visit the city and especially go and meet Josh’s Grand parents, June and Burt. We took also lots of pictures in the city, with friends etc.

It felt so good to see some friends again. Tango life is interesting. You meet people once or twice a year sometimes, or you don’t see them at all for a couple of years, but somehow, there is always something that keeps you in touch… the tango! We have shared experiences, we went to the same places to dance, and we are all totally obsessed with the tango! So, we understand each other and don’t need to be in constant contact to feel that we are still friends! I love that feeling!

After just a couple of days in SF, we drove to Monterey. Another part of the journey!

In October of last year, when I came back to DC, Josh and I met (again!). We spent two months together in Buenos Aires, and during that time realized it would be much more fun to be gypsies together! So, here we are! The Le Tango around the World Blog is not only mine anymore, but Josh’s as well, we’ll be relating our adventures traveling, seeing friends, dancing and teaching tango …

So, here we go: after the Marathon, we spent a few days in NYC. It was Josh’s first trip north of Baltimore! We were both exited about the trip. At the beginning the idea was to go to NYC with the teachers of the Marathon. Well, it did not work out that well, as all of them got into their groove and went ahead with their plans. So, we worked it out for ourselves and decided to go to Providence for Jaimes’ weekend of classes.

On the way to Providence, we stopped in NYC to drop-off a friend of ours at Columbia U. So, it was Josh’s first encounter with NYC…. The “ohhh” and the “ahhh”s and the “New York New York” blasting on the Ipod when we entered the city, made it quite for me as well!! To complete this first impression of NYC, we had a great Burger at Tom’s… the dinner where Seinfeld was shot at! What else could we ask for!

Providence turned out to be quite nice as well. It felt good to be out of the city for a while… and Providence is quite out of the way! Eheheh… It was quite amazing to see many of the same people who were at the Marathon!! We are just way to obsessed… So we danced, took some classes and went back to NYC. We were staying at some friend’s house in Nyak, just outside of NYC. I would not have gone to that small town if it hadn’t been for this house, and it would have been a shame. It’s a very nice place, right on the water, and just about 30 min outside of NYC. So, we went and visited the city: Central Park, Strawberry field, 5th avenue, the Rockefeller Center and of course Time Square. We were ready to go on top of the Empire State Building to have THE View of the city… but the wait was about 1 hour and we had tickets to see “the Perfect Crime” a show off-Broadway.

So, now I am in Sweden! After Barcelona I thought I would go to the Tango Festival in Stockholm… why not! I did not have anything special to do, I am still in the tango Gypsie phase, can travel, have fun, meet people and figure out where and what I’ll want to do later!

But on my way to Stockholm I stopped and visited friends in Malmo, which is very close to Copenhagen. So, I arrive last Sunday, and went to the end of the Sunday milonga of the Tango del Norte Festival. Dance a little and then went to meet with my friend. I was very lucky, the weather has been quite nice here; sunny and warm. The beaches are beautiful, the water clear and quiet!!! And in the background you see the bridge that links Sweden and Danemark, and in the back the famous Turning Torso Tower.

I also visited Copenhagen one day; one a nice place. Reminds me of Amsterdam having the water in the city, the same style houses… very beautiul, and of course I had to go and see the little mermaid!!! :-0 When I told my friends here that I went to see it they asked if it was whole!!! Yeap, apparently once in a while some people decide to behead it!! oh well…

So, I am here for a couple more days… hanging out and relaxing… that feels good…. mmmhhh, I have been doing it for about a month now!!! then on my way to belgium and I’ll be back in DC in September… remember the Baltimore Tango fest is coming soon! http://www.baltimoretangofest.com

pictures of sweden on the website as well!

…. I have been staying one week longer than planned in Barcelona because a friend of mine asked me to help him teach a week long course for beginners… of course I said yes!!
Now here is the deal…. he is a great dancer and teacher from Norway, and the group I am teaching is from Norway!! eh eh eh … Anne-Sophie, the belgian who learned to dance tango in the States is teaching tango in Barcelona for a group of norwegian… how more funny can this be!
So, we had about 4 hours of teaching a day: 2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon… and dancing or dinner at night. I have to say I love to teach beginners, it is just amazing to see how much progress somebody who has no idea of the dance can move and feel comfortable on the dancefloor just after a hours of teaching!
You can see the pictures of the group at http://www.le-tango.com/ under the pictures page!

On the Wednesday we gave 4 hours of classes in a row, and thus had the rest of the afternoon free. There was not even dinner organized at night, so we decided to go on a roadtrip. Jorn had bought a motorbike the day before… so of course, it was a good idea to try the bike and go for a ride! So, we decided to go back to Sitges, but instead of taking the train as we usually did, we should do it on the bike and take the road around the sea. We set out at about 3.00pm on a beautiful day in Barcelona. I really enjoy being on a bike, eventhough I am not used to it. It is just a great feeling to be on the side of the sea, looking at the nice landscape, the wind blowing! So good.
On the way we stopped at a marina for lunch…. a couple of hours sitting at the beach, enjoying the see, enjoying the quiet and the good food.
It was such a simple and great thing to do! It was a good day!

I have been here in Sitges since July 8th… and we are the 21st (just realized the national day of Belgium… happy 21st of July to all belgians reading this!! ….

So, Sitges. For those who don’t want it is a small beach city about 40 mins from Barcelona, I have been coming here 3 years in a row now, and had been here once earlier already. So, I know the place quite well, feel very comfortable walking around, know where I want to have my breakfast, where is the best shopping etc. Know the spot on the beach that I like (yeah… all those important things in life!)…. I was never too sure how it would be to go to the same vacation spot year after year… and frankly if it wasn’t for the tango festival here, I probably wouldn’t be coming back. but here I am yet again.

I am really lucky to have a friend who lives here and with whom I can stay…. Freddi, who is Djing often at the Tango marathon, has a great appartment here, about 5 min from the beach! How good is that!
I arrived on a sunday night, and after having spent about 2 weeks in the grey, cold and rain of Belgium (as you read in the previous posts), I was quite happy to be able to be laying on the beach in the sun and having nothing else to do! Not to make anybody jealous, but my schedule has been quite nice: waking up around 10:30, having breakfast with the other house guests, and then either go to the beach or to Barcelona, cooking dinner and then go out for drinks…. and then on wednesday the festival here in Sitges started.

the great thing about the tango festival in Sitges, is that you have people from all over the place coming here to take vacation and dance. where I am staying, Anke and Julio from Bremen were staying as well at the beginning. They are tango/salsa dancers who have been coming here for quite a while. We spent a lot of time together, hang out, went to Barcelona salsa dancing. Then, the group staying at the house changed, and it became very scandinavian; 2 guys and a woman from sweden, a woman from danemark, an Australian living in Berlin, Fredi, Marina his girlfriend from New York and myself! quite a great house. It seems quite a lot of people to fit in a small place, but somehow it works!
As the festival has started (and more of that in a later post), the schedule has changed, just a bit! Instead of waking up at 10.30, we are waking up later (yeah, when we come back home at 10.00am, it is quite difficult to wake up at 10.30 he eh eh ).

I have decided to take it easy this year. Sitges is very well known for the very high level of dancers coming: both leaders and follows.. and as usual, there are more good follows than leads, so most of the time, many ladies, even great dancers are sitting down a lot… especially when you don’t know many people. That was my experience for the previous Sitges and other festivals I went to. Of course I understand what was happening… we are having exactly the same thing in the states, but that time I was on the other side of the experience. It is good dancers who come to the festival to meet their friends, dance with them and having a good time. there is very little time to try to go around and meet new people. (which is quite an interesting concept as we are dancing about 8 hours a day for 5 days, and still there is not enough time!) So, I had been taking it with a good attitude, working on knowing people and making friends and not being frustrated if I was not dancing every single tandas of the night. the fact of having so many new people in the appartement will be a good thing of course, especially because the guys staying here are fabulous dancers….
more soon.

anso

When people ask me if I am going to live in Belgium, I usually respond that I wouldn’t because the weather is bad… well, this time is worse than ever!!! I arrived here on June 22nd … and we are July 6th, and it hasn’t stopped raining yet!!! Yeap, almost non stop rain for two weeks with high temperatures of 55 F… (15 celsius!) can’t take it anymore!!! But I’ll be flying to Barcelona on Sunday!!! For sure sunny and warm.

So, Belgium. Well, it is always nice to be back here (even if the weather is really bad), but the food is great and the beer as well eh eh eh. I have spent my time here between two things pretty much: babysitting my two little nieces and sorting through my stuff that arrived from Washington.
Now, you have to realize that I haven’t really been around kids for … well about 12 years!!! I used to play with my nieces when I was visiting, played with my niece in the states as well… but every time, I was either leaving them with their parents or they were going to bed!!! I really enjoy playing the auntie, the one who can do crazy things with them, and because I see them once in a while, it is ok!!! This time was a little different! My parents were away (they usually take care of them when they come back from school), and over the weekend their parents had to go to a Bday party, so, now that Tatie (that’s me) was back and according to the parents and grandparents had nothing better to do than to baby sit!! I have to be frank with you… I am not sure they were quite sure it was a good idea!!! they kind of sort of trusted me, but let’s face it, I am the crazy one who travels, is not married, has no kids and they are not sure can even cook for herself. So, taking care of a 6 and a half and 2 and a half, was probably not something I could do!!! But …. it actually went very well! I really enjoyed spending time with them, and i think they had a great time too… we played, we baked cookies, they slept over one night as well…. quite a lot of fun…. I really like being the aunt!

Then this week I spent it sorting through all my stuff that came back from Belgium… the clothes I might still wear, the tango shoes I cannot do without (eh eh eh ), the papers, books etc… my whole life of 12 years in my appartment in DC. Thank God I had my little niece to help me! She and her sister had so much fun trying on the shoes and clothes, jumping in the big box full of clothes, using the empty boxes as houses….
But now, I am all set, ready to start a new… and on Sunday I am flying to barcelona. To spend some time there and figure out if I want to live there!!! More to come!

ok, here we go, two weeks after my last post.
Let’s start with where I had left it. My last day in Washington DC.
I finally got my ticket to leave Washington DC and got my ticket to go to Greece afterwards.
The trick was what to do with my luggage once in Brussels and before going to TangoCamp! I did not really want to carry my two big pieces of luggage with me all the way, so, thanks to my brother all was good. He came to pick up the luggage in brussels inbetween my flight from DC and the one to greece, so I could travel with just a carry on! yeah… good to have family!

Tango Camp!

I arrive at the airport of Athens after a lay over in Zurich! I could not believe it … I was there again after just … 4 days? On my way back from Mozambique I had to stop there already! I had never been to Athens before and was quite exited to go to Tango camp. For those of you who are not tango dancers (shame on you!) it is a series of tango festivals that take place in Germany, Greece, Sweeden and Italy. A great group of teachers are travelling to all of these festivals. I had wanted to go as I know many of those teachers and wanted to start dancing in Europe again.
I took a taxi to go to the Eritrea Village where the tangocamp was, about 1.5 hours from the airport…. yes, a taxi!!! There was a bus that I could take, but I needed to make sure I was at the hotel early enough as I needed to take a class, and the first one was with Gustavo Naveira and Giselle Anne…. not to be missed.
The hotel was very nice, on the beach with great pools…. so nice to feel those first few days of … freedom, not having to go to work anymore!
So, I checked in, met with Callie with whome I was sharing a room, and off to the tango class! So nice to dance again and to take classes with Gustavo. I loved the musicality of the class, just having to think about what needed to be done was great. Then after the class I started to meet friends again: Ozhan and Serkan were there teaching, Ezequiel and Eugenia, Claudia and Esteban, Javier and Andrea…. all those fabulous teachers were there, hanging out at the pool before going to teach….
At night, of course the first milonga.
Now here is the thing, when I go to festival in the states, I pretty much know everybody… now that was quite different… I knew many of the teachers, but the dancers and participants was a different story! I was sitting on the side of the dancefloor, looking at the dancers and thinking that I’ll have to work hard again to meet new friends and dancers… but of course, the tango world being so small, I starting recognizing people: Peter from Germany (that I had met in Nijmegen) Dirk from Germany (that I keep meeting in many festivals in Europe), Mazen (another teacher) etc… so, things starting to be better.
Then the festival went on… classes (2 per day), pool time in between, and milongas at night… All in all, great!
I have to say that I love taking classes, I never have enough so being there and studying more with those fabulous teachers was great for me. I took the classes as a leader which I love, and was very surprised that Callie and I were the only women couple taking the classes. In the states we woudl be a few, but for some reason it is not such a common thing there. Not sure if it is something general to Europe or just at a festival like this.

After tango camp, I stayed a little bit in Athens. What a huge city, crazy, hot and full of ruins! We visited the Acropolis and went on a trip to Delphi to see more ruins of the great period of Greece. The landscape was quite amazing. Lots of hills and plains full of olive trees.
Of course I had to go dancing as well. During the tango camp, the group of local dancers were staying pretty much all together without really asking others to dance…. quite the same experience all over the world with big tango festivals. But then, when I was a the local milongas, it was a different story and I danced a lot and met a new group of people. Athens had never been on my list of places I had wanted to visit to dance but I was really pleasantly surprised. The level of the dancers is really good: nice, smooth, musical and creative. The tuesday milonga was in a cafe outside. Apparently it is quite new, just a few weeks, but the atmosphere was very nice. The Wednesday milonga was at Cafe 365. A very small place but where the best dancers gather and have fun! The place is right at the bottom of the Acropolis, quite a view. We danced until 3 in the morning and the next day I was leaving to go back to Belgium….
For the pictures of the visit of Athens and Delphi, check http://www.le-tango.com/2007_Athens

Click here for the pictures of Athens and Delphi

Oh boy… and here we are again.  I am hoping to be able to leave DC tomorrow…. and at the very very latest on Wednesday, but then… it seems that somehow, I might really get out of here at the very last moment!! 

 I got back to DC on Friday afternoon, my friend Linda came to pick me up at the airport and dropped off work… yeap, it was my last official day as a World Bank employee, so I had to be present!  It was quite an interesting feeling to know that after the weekend I would be homeless (well not really as I have wonderful friends who have opened their houses for me) and jobless on Monday, and it was quite strange to know that it was the end of the 12 years I have spent working for the Bank.  It has been great, it has been bad and everything inbetweeen, but I am grateful to have been able to work for this institution, to have met the people I have, and to have had the opportunity to travel so much to Africa and other places!  Through the Bank I went to Ethiopia, Geneva, South Korea, South Africa, Kenya, Mozambique, Ghana, Benin, Zambia, Tunisia!!!  It gave me such an incredible view of the world having to work with people from countries I did not even know existed when I joined the Bank.  I have worked with wonderful, dedicated, smart people who are working for a great cause (eventhough there are many events that tend to let us forget about it).

 but anyways, I got to the office today (Monday) and had to pick up my visitors pass! and then went to my old office to finalize a few things…. and that’s when it all started again… I am still missing some authorization for my belongings to be authorized to be released from customs, for my car and airshipment to be sent off and most importantly for my ticket to be issued….

I am supposed to be at TangoCamp greece on Thursday! ah ah ah … we’ll see what will happend…

more soon!

and it did with a bang…. in the last 10 days, I have been on 4 different continents!! not bad. I was in America, then Europe, when I was in Istanbul… the European and then Asian side… and now in Africa! My start as a world traveller!! well, at least continuation.

I arrived in Istanbul on the 17th. Ozhan and Serkan were there to meet me… I had planned this trip for a while, wanting to go back there to see them and because when I was there about 5 years ago, I feel in love with it. On top of it, there was a small tango weekend organized with Eugenia and Ezequiel.

So, after the boys picked me up and we went to pick up Ezequiel and Eugenia to have dinner on a boat on the Bosphorus!!! We picked up fresh veggies, fresh fish on the way, cooked them and then went on for a short boat ride, watching the sunset over Istanbul! It was fabulous, the view amazing, the company quite delightful.

Then off to the milonga. So, here it is, I had that great memory of the tango in Istanbul from when I was there 5 years ago. It was great, good level of dancing, great locations, nice people…. so, I was kind of anxious to see what would happen this time, looking around to see if I recognized familiar faces and wondering how much I would dance. This was the opening milonga of the tango weekend, in a place called Patika. It is the regular thursday milonga organized by Aydin from tangoist.com. Lots of people showed up that night as they wanted to meet Ezequiel and Eugenia. When I looked around, I couldn’t really recognize people, but one guy I had met in Sitges a couple of years ago. So, we danced and of course I danced with Ozhan and Serkan. great way of starting my stay in Istanbul! Then a funny thing happens…. I danced with Aydin, the organizer of the milonga, and then I thought to myself… I know him, I have danced with him before!!!… so I started wondering where I could have met him…eh eh eh it was in buenos Aires in December! We were at Practica X and we danced for a tanda or so! I couldn’t recognize him when I saw him… but the dancing, I did remember! funny.

So, then the workshops started on Friday evening, many people in the classes and great instruction from Eze and Euge. and we went on from classes, to milongas, to classes, to food to milongas etc etc!! usual tango weekend… that I did not have to organize! eh eh eh
Then I started to meet some of the people I had know from my former life as a Baila Tango instructor (the Metin Yazir tango schoo), it was nice to see them again after so long.

Monday we sent everybody home and I could start my vacation in Istanbul!!! but then on Wednesday I got so sick that I couldn’t do anything anymore… I had wanted to go to a Hammam, visit the mosques, have a good look around istanbul, go on the bosphorus etc… and I couldn’t do anything! Just the sight of food made me dizzy!!! and of course, all got better on Saturday… when I had to leave on Monday!!!

Now I am at the airport of Johanesburg. I am on my way to Mozambique where I’ll be organizing a meeting for work.
I’ll be posting some pictures soon too!!

anso

Yes, my papers have been approved but the committee that had hold them for a while… and it just needs a couple of final signatures…

So, tomorrow it starts.  I am going to Istanbul and spend a couple of weeks there… to dance of course, but also to visit again this beautiful city!  On the 29th of May, I’ll be going to Mozambique…. to Pemba to be precise, where I am organizing a conference!

Back in DC on June 8th for my last day of work here in DC… I’ll probably stay until the monday and then …  off to Belgium/greece/sweden/paris/barcelona etc!  the list is long and exciting!

So, keep in touch, and I’ll do too! I am on Skype: tangoanso and would be happy to chat with any of you!