Salsa and Medical Brigades

I signed up for a salsa class today, which begins on March 21. Being Latina, Cuban of all kinds of Latinas, I figured its about time I learn how to dance salsa before moving to Latin America. I didn't grow up in a very musical household. My mother knows how to dance to every type of Latin music under the sun and she is a fabulous salsa dancer, she just glides across the floor every time a song comes on over the radio. I enjoy listening to other types of Latin music like merengue, reggaeton and bachata, but that's because I can dance to them. My motto with music is more along the lines of, "If I can't dance to it, I really don't want to listen to it". Some people like to dance, others like to listen--I dance. A student who I tutored last semester said this to me upon hearing that I didn't know how to dance to salsa: "You're Cuban and you don't know how to dance to salsa?! But I thought all Cubans knew how to dance to salsa".

Well, that made me feel spectacular about my shortcomings in the Latin dance department, so I have taken action and signed up for a class. By the time June comes, I'll be able to fool everyone! Haha!

Lately I've been reading on many blogs kept by volunteers in Latin America about the medical brigades coming over and having Peace Corps volunteers act as interpreters (everyone used the word translator, but that's actually a misconception most people have--translators only work with the written word, not soken). The idea of being able to use my degree in Translation Studies while in Peace Corps makes me jump up and down with excitement! I figured I'd go around to the local NGO0s and enquire as to whether they need any assistance translating or editing their English or Spanish reports. It'd be to gain some experience doing the sorts of translations I'm interested in doing in my career as a translator.