new pathways

So I've been going to zumba since October 28.  That's just over three months.  While I'm still so very far from moving like the instructors move, at least I'm starting to recognize some of the music and some of the steps are feeling familiar.  (Probably not ever going to look like this:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHfpZDBE2c0.  She's so good.) 

But the weird thing is that now, whenever I hear music, my body starts thinking about moving to it.  I hear and visualize zumba dance steps all of the time now, even though I'm not listening to songs that we work out to in class. 

It's like my brain is trying really hard to help my body to not just feel the beat, but to move to it.  C'mon, shake that butt, skip some more, shimmy girl.

I think this is very cool.

This morning I broke out the Rosetta Stone and started learning Italian.  Italian and Rosetta Stone are also pretty cool.  Lots of different methods of learning in each lesson.  My favorite so far is the game where there are a bunch of pictures of things you've been exposed to during the lesson and there's a voice that says what they are in Italian and you have to double click on the picture that matches what the voice is saying.  Matching was always my favorite kind of test. 

My least favorite part is when you have to type in the correct word or phrase.  I'm no better at that than I am at zumba shaking moves.  I might be better at zumba moves. 

But I suspect, if zumba or college are any indication of what I can expect, soon enough, I'll have Italian floating around in my brain and my mind will be talking to me in both English and Italian.

And in zumba.

This feels a lot like being back in school, in particular that semester when I was taking labor economics and calculus.  It was like learning too completely new and different concepts with new languages and new everything.

So.  I'm learning new stuff, mentally and physically.  This feels good.