Right place, right time: A Saturday of solo adventuring and urban novelties downtown

Seconds until stamper time
September 2013

After a last minute change of plans, I spent the weekend in Indy instead of Chicago.  I was planning to dress as a tango dancer to represent the country of Argentina at an internationally themed party.

So after plans changed, I decided to volunteer at Indianapolis' FIESTA Latino festival.  Where I was placed in the Argentina tent with a bunch of tango dancers from around Indy.  I was the "stamper," dutifully stamping little kids' "Passport to the Americas" once they'd tried dancing.   I even tried teaching someone to dance tango when all of the actual dancers were busy (I've never danced tango, but he didn't know any better.)

Strangely, this was my second time being a volunteer "stamper" in the past 6 months.  Last time was at a dance event in Steamboat Springs.  I'm thinking of going into it professionally.

Backside of a Food Tent
September 2013

 I learned about a new Flash Mob group in town that's just starting up (I've been wanting to get involved in a Flash Mob for at least 4 years now), got some coupons for a free group lesson and open dance at a dance studio downtown that I've been wanting to see for years, and met some people who are involved in some really interesting programs related to refugee and recent immigrant resources, community arts initiatives, mentoring and pre-college programs, language resources and training programs, etc. etc. etc.

I learned about a new Flash Mob group in town that's just starting up (I've been wanting to get involved in a Flash Mob for at least 4 years now), got some coupons for a free group lesson and open dance at a dance studio downtown that I've been wanting to see for years, and met some people who are involved in some really interesting programs related to refugee and recent immigrant resources, community arts initiatives, mentoring and pre-college programs, language resources and training programs, etc. etc. etc.  

I talked with people from all over the place (including Madrid and Sevilla-the first two Spaniards I've met since returning to the US), officially have my first celebrity crush, grilled someone working the McDonalds "Free Samples" booth about what's in it for McDonalds and where my contact information would go if I chose to give it to him, got a free pair of McDonalds "me encanta" shades, saw a remarkably catchy bilingual phonics rapper on stage during kiddie hour, got some excellent semi-legal free downtown parking tips from a security guard at a cathedral, wandered over to the Chinese festival where I tried a Filipino desert called turon made of jackfruit and plantains, talked witha

Late night concert before an even later night salsa event
Hombres sin Nombes - Septemeber 2013

woman from Bloomington about Flagship language programs in Chinese and Turkish and nearly changed my life's linguistic plan again, saw several men writing names in the most beautiful calligraphy I'd ever seen, and listened to a man play the erhu better than I'd ever heard it played before as I ate underneath a tree.


Happened to wander past the door to the dance studio where all the tango dancers take classes, so I popped in to see what the space was like.  Walked in right as the current world salsa champions were rehearsing for their performance that night.  Literally breathtaking.  Talked with the founders of Latin Expressions Dance Company.  Turned out they were hosting a social that evening, including a few different performances including Uriel and Vera's.  I walked to my car and tried to catch a quick nap before heading back to FIESTA for their final concert of the night, Hombres sin Nombres.  Then headed over to the dance studio for a night of salsa.  Ran into several different salseros I've met in town both at the festival and at the social.

After over 14 hours straight downtown, it's been a good day of seeing and exploring and learning some of the different ways it could look like to be a longer-term Indianapolis resident.