OUSA

OUSA, or the Otago University Students' Association, holds classes each semester in everything from aerial silk aerobics to ukelele, cheese making to beginners' Russian. Today, I began salsa dancing and kickboxing classes!

The salsa class was fun - we just learned some basic steps and listened to sexy salsa music! We switched partners about once a minute, so I got to dance with almost everyone in the class. It is a fun group. We learned the simple meringue step with some spin moves, and then the basic salsa step. One, two, three, rest, five, six, seven, rest. There are more girls than guys in the class, so I got some experience dancing the male part and leading! (I'm not sure if that will ever come in handy, but oh well!)

...And kickboxing. It is going to kick my butt. The course is an hour and a half twice a week; it is the perfect way to get back into shape! We started with a rigorous warmup of skipping rope, push ups, sit ups, squats, lunges, and shuttle run relays - but we were reminded to "pace ourselves, as we still had an hour and fifteen minutes left!" Today we just practiced the proper stance and some basic punches - the jab, the cross, and the hook. We even got to pair up and practice with boxing gloves and pads at the end! I must say, it is quite fun (and a great stress reliever) to punch something! I am so excited about this class - you all better watch out, because I am going to be so tough by the end of it! Ha!