San Fran Kizomba Festival 2013

Me at the Airport

I was so excited about the congress that I could not even sleep on Friday night. That was a really really big mistake because I had to be up at 5 am for nursing school on Sat morning. After doing hard work from 6:30 am till about 1 pm I dashed off to the airport to catch my plane at 3.

Turns out I should have put a little more thoughts into my look because the guy sitting nest to me on the plan was HOT! I had to sneak and taken a pic of him below. 

Hot guy

There was cute girl sitting in the seat in front of me. She reminded me of the girl from the movie "Lilo and Stitch". 

Cutie pie girl

Snack on the plane. So unhealthy. 

When I arrived in San Fran I met up with my peeps! They were chilling in the bed lol. 

Guelas, Aziza, and Stacey snuggled up in the bed. 

I met up with my room mates!

Kaija, Amber, and Ann

I met up with Eddy!!!!!!!! He is actually the biggest reason I came to San Fran! Eddy is a very open and giving person. I had the chance to spend almost a week with him in London earlier in the year. During that time I learned a lot about the kizomba way of life.

I met Mandela at the Sat night party!! He is Cwaaaaazy!! (Those are his own words.)

It was a costume party so lots of people were dressed up. 

I found Waldo!

Kizomba super heroes

We were in the costume contest! We did not win lol. 

The next day after being up all night (I literally did not sleep because the parties lasted till 6am!!!!) I woke up to take classes with Eddy...

Semba after class demo

I met up Ana from Seattle and I took Oscars class. 

Ana, Amber, and Oscar

Oscar and Tanya from DC taught a very good lesson. Here is their after class demo.

Mandela's class was packed! 

His before class warm up.

Some more random pics for your enjoyment. 

Usukuma is learning a lot!

I was secretly recording him and Nii at the congress. They were doing great!

Kizomba sandwich

Overall it was a fun, fun, time and I look forward to going again next year! 

Fun Times Traveling For Kizomba!

I have been EXTREMLY lucky and blessed to dance kizomba in 4 different countries this year! In those four coutries I danced with people from ALL OVER the world such as South Africa, Morocco, Holland, Paris, Sierra Leone, Kenya, London, Australia...from almost everywhere. Here are a few pics of people I have met as well as the stories behind the pics.

A BIG THANKS to everyone who I have laughed, cried, argued, agreed, and DANCED with over this past year! You all have contributed to my unique kizomba experience. 

 This is Mandela. He curently lives in Portugal. We met in San Fran. This photo was taken by my friend Usukuma in the lobby of the Hilton by SFO. He has a very entertaining personality lol. He has very limited English so we spoke mainly in Spanish. If you ever dance with him be warned he does all these fast crazy leg movements. When I happened to dance with him it was a tarrachina song so we were kinda close. You should also be warned that when dancing close with him he does this crazy thing with his stomach where he makes it goes in waves. He would be a good belly dancer lol. My eyes look very crazy in this pic. 

 This is Morenasso. He currently lives in Paris. He reminded me that we are all beginners in something! When I danced kizomba with him I said "I am a beginner, so I am not good." When he later danced bachata with me he said the same thing to me lol. We took this pic on the last day at the last pool party in Croatia.

This is Albir. He is a very very sweet person, very funny. He kept saying he liked my hair and kept touching it lol. Now he is teaching by himself since he parted ways with Sara. If I see him again I will ask to be his partner lol. 

 This is Charles and Monica of Kizomba Harmony. They are based out of Houston, TX. I me them in March in San Fran. I hope I get to party with them someday!!!

Where it all began!!!! I met all these crazy cool people in Seattle in March. This is when I first met Eddy. He had lots and lots of stories. This is when I learned that we are long lost brother and sister lol.  We were at an Ethiopian restaurant. The food was great!

 Tony, Tony, Tony. I met him and my sister from another mister Chanda in San Fran in March. So, Tony is learning English and of course he learns all the bad curse words from, American rap and movies lol. One day while we were cruising through Oakland he gets out the car and starts dancing to kuduro on the side of the street. This random man is watching and remarks, "That is kick ass!" Tony thought he said he wanted to kick his ass lol! This pic was taken right before we dropped him off at the airport. However, we had to end up coming back to get him because he read the ticket wrong and was leaving the next day. Tony is a very high energy kizomba teacher and dancer.

 This is when I met Riquita, reunited with Chris, and I met Jay in Seattle. Riquita is very nice, very knowledgeable, and a very petite woman. She gave me the low down on the kizomba scene in London. She leads like a man and follows like a woman!

  I met Stacey and Casey  in Seattle in March. They were staying at Neal's house for a short time with me. They are wonderful and run the kizomba scene in LA/Hollywood area.  Their groups name is Kizomba Hollywood.

This is Hugo, a popular DJ in London. He travels all around Europe to DJ. I met him in Croatia. He almost got cursed out because he sprayed me with a water gun. Yes, it was a pool party and yes, I was in a swimsuit, however, I did not feel like getting sprayed at the moment. He called me "aggressive" lol. When I left Croatia I was surprised to see him at Gem Bar in London! The kizomba world is small.

Will Travel for Kizomba!

Hello everyone! This year started off kinda bad for me. I was planning a kizomba road trop from TN to Montreal...but then I got the flu!!! :-( So my road trip was ruined and my New Year's Eve  was ruined. I was planning on partying with Manuel Dos Santos on NYE but my body had other plans....

At any rate, I am fully recovered and am excited for what 2013 has to bring. I am planning of going to the Got Kizomba Festival in San Fran and the Kizomba/Semba bootcamp in Settle. The kizomba goddesses blessed me to have the events fall on consecutive weekends AND during my Spring Break form Nursing school and my job!!! I got very lucky! I will be spending 10 days on the west coast. My weekends will be filled dancing with the like of Albir and Sara, Eddy Vents, Riquita, and Oscar BA. During the week I am gonna hit up all the good casino and salsa spots in San Fran. I can't wait and I will for sure keep you all updated with pics and videos.  You can find out more info about the dance events below.

SF Got Kizomba Festival March 15-17 2013

http://gotkizombafestival.com/

Kizomba/Semba Camp in Seattle March 22-24 2013

http://seattlekizombasembacamp.weebly.com/



If you all get your plane tickets now they will be around $300 coming ffrom Nashville. I plan on staying in SF until Friday then I am going to Seattle. Not sure if I am going to fly or take the train. I have heard some bad reviews on the internet about the train ride so I am leaning towards flying lol.

While I am at the Congress I plan on staying at a hostel near the Congress hotel. I was going to stay at the Congress hotel, however, the rooms at $169+ tax and for all three nights that will be close to $600. I am not a baller yet so I am going to try to convince the people I am going to room with to head with me to the hostel for $29.99 a night. It is 1.2 miles aways from the hotel, so we can take a cab or use public transportaion to get back and forth. Or we can walk if we need to. The link to the hostel is below: 

San Fran Hostel and Fisherman's Wharf

http://sfhostels.com/fishermans-wharf