Last of the summer salsa

It's the final days for outdoor dance parties & socials in Helsinki. Salsa Borealis - the Helsinki salsa lovers' organisation - finished their summer season yesteday. As the sun was setting in the park behind the Opera House the salsa dancers filled the dance floor one last time this year. I ventured with a couple salsas too and I'm getting a bit more comfortable with it! Thoroughly enjoyed the zouks and bachatas they played too - my favourites.

The sun is starting to set earlier and earlier every day and it's a bit depressing to sit at home in the evening when the rain is beating down the window (like tonight). Last night we had a stroke of luck and got just two drops of rain and the skies cleared. Thanks to the power the organisers got from the Opera House we had some nice lighting too.

Goodbye summer... thankfully the dancing never stops!

Summer favourites

Summer is almost over in Finland and it was another enjoyable weekend - maybe the last summer weekend. Sad... Bur it has been another good summer! Summer city life and leaving the city are - for me - equally fun. Here's some of my this summer's favourite things.

Cold drinks * Ice cream * Sunsets * Clouds * Picnics * BBQs * Nature * Enjoying the sun * Boats * Picking berries * Cycling * Dancing *  Participating in all kinds of summer events * Having fun for no apparent reason.... :)

Goals for the winter

After losing some motivation with weight training, probably due to going all dance-crazy this spring, I'm now getting back to the gym. And since a month or so of taking a proper break it's now fun! It's strangely satisfying to have sore muscles. It's also easier to get motivated with real-life goals: I genuinely want to have stronger arms and core so that we can do even crazier lifts on the dance floor!

Week of a dancing girl in Helsinki

Monday: Great way to start the week is by trying out the new gym's latin dance class. The one I tried included some chachacha and salsa choreography - and was suprisingly interesting and fun! Have to do that again!

Tuesday: Normal zouk social and technique & acrobatics practica -day. Ok, acrobatics is not normal in zouk, just normal to our "let's see how high we can get the ladies" zouk people!

Lahti Samba Carnaval - more Finnish samba!

The Lahti samba school Maracaña - the oldest samba school in Finland - celebrated its 30th birthday at the end of July with a carnival in the hometown Lahti. This was the third samba carnival in the small Southern Finland city and a rare treat for the locals. All the Finnish samba schools were present at the parade and we had around 200 performers, both dancing and playing in the bateria! And the samba continued well into the night...