Statistically Significant

It was a pretty quiet week here in Somerville, although there were a few interesting points along the way.

Last semester, my friend Julia convinced me to take two dance classes with her at FitRec: salsa and tango. Dancing was something I’d been meaning to try for a while and the price was certainly right, so I signed up. Each class met once per week for an hour, and even though most of that hour seemed to be spent reviewing the material from the previous week, we still managed to cover the basics and have a good time in the process. The fun, laid-back style of salsa was also a nice contrast to the rigid tango procedures. (I’d highly recommend the PHP dance experience if you’re at BU and looking for something fun to do!)

About halfway through the semester, students in my salsa class started inviting me to the weekly BU Salsa Club meetings. As I quickly learned, these 2-hour classes were more intense, covered more material, and moved more quickly, which were all good things in my mind. I attended BUSC pretty consistently for the rest of the semester and had some of my best times at BU there. It was very well organized, with different guest teachers coming in every week to teach routines and various aspects of salsa. The guy/girl ratio was usually fine, the music was excellent, and salsa is just a lot of fun.

When I moved to Fort Lauderdale in May, I was really going to miss my Boston salsa routine, but moving back to the Boston area meant I could pick up where I left off. BUSC still has weekly meetings on Tuesday evenings from 6:30-8:30 PM in the basement of the GSU. They’re free, open to the public, and tons of fun! And this past week’s lesson was probably one of the best BUSC has had yet. Taught by two members of Hacha y Machete who were both phenomenal dancers/instructors and attended by 50+ people, the hours flew by as we learned single and partner routines and watched a little performance at the end. I don’t know when HYM will be leading another class next, but if you’re interested in BUSC, join the Facebook group and the club president, Nadia, will be happy to inform you of every dance-related anything within a 50-mile radius of your current location.

When I wasn’t using my evening for salsa dancing, I was apartment hunting in the Union Square area with my current roommate and her friend. We were shown three apartments this week and ended up applying for one of them, so hopefully things will work out and we’ll have a nice place to live next year! This pretty much locks me into the greater Boston area for next year, so one way or another, I’ll be finding a job for the fall, applying to graduate programs during the winter, working through the spring, and doing something fun during the summer before diving into a Ph.D in the fall of 2010. I have a couple of job opportunities that I’m currently pursuing, and I’m hopeful that at least one of them will work out. More to come on the job front as I learn more.

Yesterday, a friend of mine from BU who’s living in New York City this summer, Kelly, ended her Massachusetts tour with a day of hanging out with me. We grabbed some brunch at Zoe’s, a cool little diner over in Harvard territory. After signing into Twitter and searching for “Somerville,” about half of the entries referred to the Art Beat festival, so we headed over to Davis Square. It was your typical arts festival: booths set up with paintings/photography/crafts, food from local restaurants, street performers, live music (with interesting instrumentation), and the general public having a good time. After our initial sweep of the place, we ducked into Mr. Crepe and found ice water and a strawberry/dark chocolate crepe to enjoy. Afterwards, we wandered around for a little bit longer before heading home, stopping at the supercool Conway Playground on the way. Aside from the heat, it was quite a fun day!