I had an amazing vacation. I usually do, though. Perhaps I should figure out how to vacation for a living.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed vacationing in cities. When I travel some part of me is always assessing whether I could live in a place. Montreal is somewhere I could live. I felt totally safe there, even on the occasions where the weirdos talked to me. I saw new friends and old friends, even hooked up with Masha. And I tracked down Lyle (remember Lyle, people?) on his birthday.

For the most part I stayed with an author I edit, and she treated my like royalty. I didn't do a lot of the touristy things, I just wandered about absorbing whatever came my way. I could have spent another month doing just that. Montreal was just waking up from a long winter, and the party was getting started. Very fun.

Toronto wasgreat as well. The city was fine. The transit system there is amazing. Except when it was on strike. But even then, taxi's were easy to get. I stayed right downtown. One night we went into the gay district for Turkish food and of course there was shopping. I spent my time in TO with a pack of women, so we had to shop. The conference was at a Hungarian cultural center that was in a neighbourhood filled with Mexican, South American and Italian businesses...an odd mix, but I fell in love with it. Our first morning at the conference three of us stumbled off in search of coffee. We found a little Italian cafe where we could get a latte for $2. The cafe also sold liquor and as we waited in line we joked about adding a shot of tequila. Well. The woman behind the counter insisted that we have some kaluaha in our coffees at no extra charge. And the entire neighbourhood was interested in what was happening at the hall. A number of the people from the cafe attended the evening performances.

The dance workshops were so much more than I had imagined they would be. These were master instructors, I learned a ton. If I retain only 10% it was worth the trip.

Every night there was a show on the main stage in the hall. The final performances, the cream of the crop, were scheduled for the gala on Saturday. We were booked to dance in the gala. How did this happen? Nath danced on the main stage the year before and he was asked to do the gala this year. So every night all of Nath's troupe watched the main stage performances. The were innovative, skilled, passionate. Every one of us, I think even Nath, had major misgivings about our right to perform in the gala after watching these talented dancers. We all had moments of major nerves.

And then came the gala. I am proud to report that we pulled it off near flawlessly. The other performances were phenomenal, like nothing I've ever seen. I will tell you about a few of the performers: Ferda (above): tiny, cute, Turkish but raised in North America, bellydancing since she was 13, did a joyus Turkish Rom (gypsy, very authentic gypsy) piec;. Bozenka, the only non-Egyptian to ever win the Cairo bellydance competition, did a gorgeous solo; Tito, an Egyptian male bellydancer who gets a rockstar response from the crowd with good reason and Aeda Nour a near-legendary Egyptian dancer both did two numbers each (they were too good for me to attempt to describe) and then closed the show with a celebratory, spontaneous duet.

And the big kudos for us was that Tito and Aeda watched our number and said it was their favourite in the first act. These are not people who dish out praise lightly, in fact their criticism of some of the other numbers was rather harsh. The other numbers were gorgeous, I have to say, but they were showy and more North American than ours. Nath is over the moon. And I'm pretty darn happy too.

My next exciting dance thing? Next Friday a class I taught will perform for the first time!