All she wants to do is dance

For the past week or so I've been in a real funk. I've attributed it to a lot of things, such as living all alone, having been mugged, and being on a new type of medicine/vitamin. I have been a crying mess most days, dreading coming home from school to my empty apartment with nothing to do. People have been giving me lots of suggestions, such as reading new books, going out to eat, watching movies, etc. Nothing had been able to lift my mood though, and I was starting to get desperate. I'm normally a very happy, outgoing person and do not enjoy feeling like a total loser. After having burst into tears in front of my boyfriend, mom, and landlord, I figured I needed to do something fast. Well I have found my new mood-lifter in Florence, and it is Dance Aerobica.
I had joined a gym at the beginning of the semester to give me something to do in my free time. In the US I love to exercise, but it is a bit hard to find places to run in Florence where I won't get hit by a crazy Italian driver, and Italians aren't really as exercise conscience as we are in the US. I mean, they don't really need to be since they walk all over God's creation and eat fresh food daily. For me though, exercise is such a great stress reliever. I love organized group exercise classes because it reminds me of being back in dance class, which was a giant part of my youth. My new gym here in Florence, SWAN, is quite small, but only 5 minutes from my apartment, which is a pretty safe walk alone at night. I have taken a few classes there so far, body sculpt and kick boxing, but they haven't been my favorite. This dance aerobica is fantastic though. First, let me preface this with the fact that Italians (at least the ones that I encounter) are terrible dancers. Just imagine awkward jerking motions in a disco, eyes closed, and singing along to the music in English and getting every word wrong. I was curious to see what kind of moves the instructor would pull out. Well, much to my surprise, she said that she wanted to try to do something "funky" that night and try a new hip-hop approach. I figured this would be hilarious because what do Italians know about hip-hop, other than Fabri Fibra? The teacher ended up being fantastic though and teaching us a whole hip-hop routine that we put together at the end of class. Even better, I felt like I was high on a happy pill. I had gotten my adrenaline flowing, I was sweating, and I was proud to say I looked least ridiculous out of all the people in class. I was able to go home, skype my boyfriend, and not burst into tears upon seeing him. I sometimes forget how important dance is to me and how much I love it. I'm going to try to take every dance exercise class that SWAN offers now so I can keep this good mood going. I am going to turn into an Italian dancing queen and hopefulyy be able to dance away this black cloud that had been lurking over my head the past month.