Here’s a blog I wrote a few days ago when I was still in Cali and never posted:
I’ve been thinking a lot about expectations.
I went into this trip trying not to have any. But the longer I’m here, the more I realize I did have some preconceived ideas about this trip.
After the first month of EPL, I remember having this feeling that the goal I had at the beginning of the month and the result I had at the end were so different from one another. I remember thinking, “Well, in Month 2, there’s no way I’ll be doing anything but training hard. I’m going to California and New York to dance, and I’ll only have 8 days in January when I’m even in Columbia.”
But this trip, while I have danced a LOT and I still have a few days at Shoebox and a day at the mothership with Suhaila, the most important things I have learned so far have been outside of the dance studio. I’ve learned so much about hard work from these women and men. I’ve learned what a healthy, functional dance community looks and operates like. Amy sets the bar REALLY high for these dancers choreographically and interpersonally, and it shows.
Some of the best experiences I have had here have been outside of Hot Pot, even! On Sunday, we went to a Japanese bath house in downtown San Francisco called Kabuki. The first thing you see when you walk in are these beautiful shower stations. Everyone sits down and bathes, and then you enter the main room. There was a hot pool, a cool dip pool, a wet sauna, and a dry sauna. You’re not allowed to talk loudly and you just slowly drift between the different pools and saunas for as long as you want. When I got out, I felt so cleansed and restored. It was absolutely beautiful. After we got sushi, some sort of crepe-ice cream sundae and walked Haight-Asbury in San Francisco.
Starving Artistry 
I want to join this,c my comment @ google reader.I am on facebook,too,but i don’t remember if i created personal feed,new computer. I was tattooed b4 it was acceptable behaviour 4 a lady,.As i wrote in my reader comment on your feed,I have been able to relate to adolescents more positively,as a result.It also lets me know what is n a person’s mind about skin color and being different in any way.I advise people to b sure and get somethin nice,take your x and b creative,so you don’t have the panther from 1932,unless u like all black,then live and let live,i say.I have waited for a site like this.bellydance&tattoos.thanku…… hope to have lots of conversations,i have pics,but i must check them for xx,i tried not to expose.,it took more expose of the camera,though,when asked ,”how many?”,I reply”One big tat that winds around my body with roses,insects,my late hubby&i had matching tats,fuzzy little bees in the flowers,and a hooka smokin caterpillar,in the bush-the rest is censored on that note.Lookin 4ward 2 sharing info and pics,lol,gypsy.