Finally access to internet 🙂 I was starting to get a bit antsy 🙂

After spending roughly a week at home in Latvia, last Friday I headed out to Le Grande Motte (near Montpelier in France). I had two hour layover in Charles De Gaule airport in Paris and again it was barely enough time to make my connection. This time we got held up in the walkway between the two terminals because there was an unattended suitcase and a bomb threat. We waited for a good half an hour while authorities checked it out. At one point we heard a sharp whistle and somebody screamed “Cover your ears!”. We did, but thankfully, nothing happened. Pretty soon after they let us go through. That experience was a bit scary.

I’m in Le Grande Motte for Sea, Sun & Swing West Coast Swing dance camp. Its absolutely A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! Lots of super good and fun dancing, weather is fantastic, and I’m sharing apartment with 5 other very fun people. We are laughing and cracking up jokes all the time. The schedule looks like this. We get up a bit before noon, have breakfast all together at home. Then head out to dance classes which are from 1pm to 4:30pm. Straight to the beach a short walk away after that. Go home, take a shower (takes a while for 6 people). Sometime between 8pm and 10pm we are ready to head out for dinner.

Now, if there is a group 6 or more people and a street full of various restaurants, how do you make a decision as a group where to go? Alma (my roommate from Sweden) had a fantastic idea: “How about the 4th [restaurant] on the right?” Problem solved! We indeed counted down four restaurants and went into the fourth one and it was a great choice! The food was delicious and the atmosphere was great! We repeated this the other nights as well on different streets, “1st on the left”, “5th on the right” and there hasn’t been a disappointment.

After dinner (which turns out always to take about two hours) we go dancing and dance away till 3am. Eventually get to bed and repeat. Not bad at all 🙂 Plus the sleep schedule is sustainable compared to just weekend long west coast swing events. At those we dance all night, get maybe four hours of sleep and if lucky get a nap in the afternoon.

After two weeks, it is starting to feel less like a vacation because there is no thinking or stress about what’s going to happen after coming back from vacation. There are no obligations. Its a freeing feeling and I’m using this opportunity to practice living in the now and really listen to myself and hear what is it that I really want to do at any moment. Not what I should do, not what I’m supposed to do, but just what I want to do right at that moment. I think this will be useful for me to grow as a person because I have a tendency to live in the future (always have goals and dreams about future). Before this trip I didn’t think that this would be one of the things I would get out of this trip.

Another thing I have realized because of experiences since the start of the trip is that I don’t always listen to my intuition and how I feel. I’m very logical and analytic and I approach pretty much everything in my life that way. Usually when I have some strong feelings or intuition I try to brush it away with logic or come up with reasons to explain it. I have decided that I will use this trip as an opportunity to learn how to listen to myself better.

I’m here till Monday. After that I don’t have clear plans yet but probably by next Friday (Aug 8th) I will be in UK.

July 31, 2013 @ Le Grande Motte in France.