Havana Nights - The Cuban Way

I had been looking forward to the weekend during the whole first week I had spent here - specially since I had been invited to a party on friday night! Not only was I excited about getting to know some more people, but I wanted to learn about the REAL Havana Nights! That is - no places like Floridita (probably a must for tourists, but given the prices, its prohibitive for Cubans!).
The night started with a traditional cuban dinner. If you ever wonder what's cuban food like, well - it's a strange combination between south american, caribbean and spanish food, but with less ingredients. Cubans manage to cook a big meal with the basic foodstuff they can get - rice, malanga (a potato-like vegetable), bananas and beans. Believe me, with this kind of menu - you don't come to Cuba to hold on to a diet. I gave up last friday, when I was kindly offered a local food tasting that included malanga frita, mariquitas, yuca frita, moros y cristianos, bistec de cerdo, pudin de pan, fufu de platano, empanada de guayaba, casquitos de guayaba, and who knows what else I've been stuffing into my poor stomach that I had been acclimating to french portions for so long.

Anyway, after this unforgivable meal, I headed to a private party, me being the only non-cuban - yey! This might be surprising - but I had eaten so much, I couldn't even handle a drink. No mojito, no cuba libre. I was even struggling with the water. The only thing I wanted to do is move to stop feeling so clumpsy - a co-worker dragged me to her nephew, and told him to teach me how to dance.

Ergh, ok. No drink? No chit chat before starting to dance? - I think it was the first time, in YEARS! And I must admit, it was real fun. I felt a bit awkward, since everybody was checking out how I was learning the moves (if dare to call whatever I was initially doing "moves"). I remember the times when I was 15 or 16 and started going out on fridays and saturdays to dance. I used to have one whisky-cola and just danced for hours. I didn't care if the bar was empty or crowded. I didn't care who was watching, who might be criticizing my clothes, if I was sweaty or if my make-up was still in the right place (now I know the reason for me being single back then). Last friday, I felt the same way - I was free of thoughts, free of worries. I put all my attention on learning some of the cuban salsa moves and forgot about time, heat and well, at some point I even forgot I was at someone's birthday party (someone I didn't know), and that my appearance was pretty much one of the highlights of the night. In a party of naturally-gifted salsa dancers, I was the Ugly Duckling - but again, who cares?

I held up pretty well - I attempted dancing for hours! My teacher has been asking for me. My co-worker says, he offered to keep teaching me during the rest of the week (for free) - yay! I will take it as a compliment - maybe I'm not such a bad salsa dancer after all!