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On Friday, I taught my first belly dance class in Mexico.  I did a free hour for the girls at work.  Sylvia, the cashier at Si Senor (the sister restaurant up the street)  who tells me she's been there forever, Wendy the freelance photographer who comes in to take tourist pictures, Deanna, a former hostess who hangs out at Si Senor and has taken bellydance before, and Valeria, who makes tortillas by hand on the grill in the evenings.  We met at the restaurant and then all walked over to my flat, where I had moved my bed to the corner and actually had quite a bit of space and a freshly washed tile floor.  Despite my limited vocabulary in dance language, it all worked out and the girls were doing hip circles and glute squeezes by the end of the class.  Sylvia, who kept telling me she had two left feet was in love with it, and I heard her telling her daughter on the phone later how much she enjoyed it.  They all wanted to come back twice a week and pay me.   Geez, I didn't know if I could be that reliable, but they talked me into it, insisting they have as many classes as I could give then before I leave Vallarta for awhile.

I have no access to my bank account.  One card stopped working and the other one I lost 3 days later.  Luckily, I had just paid my rent and bought groceries. . . so no dancing shoes for me right now.  I keep getting asked to go to the salsa club and have to say no since I have no shoes!  What message am I receiving here, I'm not sure.  I am fortunate to have friends who have told me that if there is anything they can do to help, all I have to do is ask.  People at work, friends I have here, friends far away.

So far, I have not been able to resolve anything, here,  this all happened so suddenly.  But what does it mean?  With help from Luisa from work, she called Walmart, they checked but there was no card dropped off.  I must have forgotten it in the machine.  They advised calling HSBC, whose machine it was.  There was no answer, like it was out of service.  So I find out where the nearest hsbc main bank is and have my friend Mario drive me there one day, when our schedules sync.  His air conditioning isn't working and its an oven in his jeep, driving through cobblestones.  We park, get there and walk over and see that there is a "closed for renovations" sign.  Oh brother, I think and start laughing at the ridiculousness of this scene.  "You have bad luck chica", says Mario, overstating the obvious.  "I do not", I reply back.  "If I had bad luck, you wouldn't be here with me and able to drive me to the far side of town to get to the other hsbc bank!".  Off we went, boiling in the heat, but at least the highway was faster and the wind could get in the windows.  It was a pleasant chilly air conditioned bank and I didn't even mind waiting 30 minutes in line, because it was at least not stiflingly hot.  I have, however, never seen a more inefficient way to serve the pubic.  That's another blog.  Suffice it say that at last when we sat down with the banking fellow, he told me there was nothing I could do.  Apparently, if your card is forgotten in the machine (as I am want to think) it gets eaten and then destroyed and if that isn't enough; the pieces are then shipped off to Mexico City.  Hmph.  That sounds pretty final, doesn't it.

So, I have so far eaten well for three days, with the food I have in the fridge, and the sweetness of my friends, especially Mario, who took me for pizza the other day, and fed me take out chicken from the nightclub last night.  I met a guy on the street who took me for a beer and ceviche the next day, and asked me to go sailing (but I didn't go, because after the beer and ceviche his hands were all over me and I had to pry him off me before I took my street back home.  He kept telling me he was just affectionate - but simply he was just not a gentleman and no amount of sailing on my day off was worth it.)

So no dance shoes, but I'm okay right now.  I get my tips this week from work, a whopping 200 pesos usually, but hey it's grocery money.  Am I destined to stay in Mexico?   I wanted to quit my job to do some more traveling; I guess that will have to wait a bit.  Stay tuned for the conclusion to this interesting dilemma.

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