Zumba Heaven

Caution: long post with lots of pictures ahead. Last week I was in Orlando. Did I go to Disney World? No. Did I go to Harry Potter World? Nope. Did I take a drive out to the beach? Not even close. Did I have the time of my life in a little place I call Zumba heaven and other people call the Zumba Instructor Convention? Yeah, baby! So what does one do at a Zumba convention? Well, Zumba of course! Like, with 7,000 other instructors at a huge Party in Pink Zumbathon. Here's everybody coming out of the convention center.

Seriously, the energy when you get that many people doing Zumba together to live music and super-cool instructors is amazing. And speaking of super-cool instructors, here's us with Gina and some guy she was with at the Red Lobster (I guess he gets to be in the picture just because he's with her). I love Gina. Even more than I love Beto (for those of you who don't know, Beto's the guy who started all this Zumba madness). Anyway, Gina's like my Zumba idol, so I was completely excited to meet her.

And then two days later I got to do my Zumbatomic (Zumba for kids) training with her. She's just as awesome in real life as she is in all the videos—OK, actually she's more awesome in real life. Very, very cool. (I think I'm starting to sound like a giddy schoolgirl. Oh, well. Whatever. I'm going with it.)

What else do you do? You get to take classes in all kinds of dance styles. I took belly dancing, Bollywood, flamenco, and African. And I took a live class from Beto, part of which was filmed for an upcoming DVD. Here come my 15 milliseconds of fame! Then if you're lucky, you'll remember some of what you learned when you get home so you can incorporate it into your classes. And in between all your classes and trainings, you go shopping.

Umm, yeah, those bags are full—and we have more stuff in our arms. Let's just say it's a good thing I put myself on a Zumbawear shopping diet for the months leading up to convention, because I spent quite a lot of money there. But dang, I had fun! Also, thank goodness for expandable luggage. Just sayin'. Then at night, after all the classes and shopping and running around you do all day, you go to parties. One night was the Zumbathon, one night was a music concert, and one night was a Dancing through the Decades party. As I child of the '80s, I had to represent.

Totally radical, if I do say so myself. By the last day, you're completely exhausted, so you take a nap on the convention center floor.

You also start thinking it's a good idea to take pictures of your friend's feet.

No, I have no idea why that was a good idea, but it seemed right at the time. Did I mention we were getting about four hours of sleep a night? Also, please notice our incredibly healthy lunch of Ritz crackers, peanut butter, and a Slurpee on the table. Hey, we're burning lots of calories and we need the protein! That's the reason for the peanut butter, at least. The Slurpee was just because we wanted one.

So there you go; that's my incredibly quick recap of my five fantastic days in Orlando. I came home on Monday and was so exhausted that I went to bed at 9:30. Yes, really, 9:30. Would I do it again? In less than half a heartbeat. I loved feeling the energy everywhere, meeting people from all over the world, and never once thinking of anything—anything—related to my job. And the fact that I got to share it all with the person who helped me fall in love with Zumba in the first place and has since encouraged me and guided me in my quest to become an instructor and who has become an incredible friend along the way? Priceless.