Learn a New Skill

By MEGAN RUTHERFORD

For your next vacation, think about taking a trip that will provide you with a lasting souvenir--knowledge and expertise.

IT TAKES TWO...

There was a time when Dr. Ronald Raspa and his wife Dr. Maryann Genovese felt like hiding on the dance floor. They loved to tango and had taken a few lessons over the years, but they hadn't mastered all the moves. Then the Goshen, N.Y., couple signed on for a 10-day dance tour of Buenos Aires, birthplace of the tango. Now there's no need to hide. Says Raspa: "To the untrained eye, we're pretty good." For as little as $2,600, which includes airfare, Tango Tours with a Twist leads travelers on a whirlwind dance through afternoon workshops with tango masters, evening dinners and tango shows, nights at the hottest milongas (tango dance halls). "It was an immersion experience, in the same way you would learn a foreign language," says Raspa. "But we also got an authentic look at Argentina." It takes two to tango, but singles--and beginners--need not worry. Tour organizers Carlos Scott and Gayatri Martin fill in as partners and recruit locals when extras are needed to complete a pair.

BLISSED OUT

Fifteen years ago, New York City psychotherapist Natalie H. Rogers reluctantly allowed herself to be persuaded to accompany a friend on a yoga retreat in the Bahamas. The experience turned out to be so wonderful that the following year, Rogers went again--with 16 of her patients. And she's been going ever since. "The minute I get there, something inside of me relaxes," she says. "And after I get back, I continue to feel blissed out for a long time." The Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat on Paradise Island, open year-round, is not for everyone. The accommodations are spartan, the meals simple, and the schedule--well, meditation begins at 6 a.m., followed by yoga at 8 and a vegetarian brunch at 10. But for those who want to experience the healthful pleasures of this gentle exercise for mind and body--no experience necessary, all ages welcome--in spectacular tropical surroundings for a laid-back $50 to $85 a day, this may be the beginning of a vacation tradition. Between brunch and 4 p.m., when a second round of yoga, meditation and vegetarian fare begins, guests can roam the island, snorkel, scuba dive and, if all the wholesomeness gets to be too much, drop in for a drink at the nearby Atlantis casino.+ RECIPE FOR FUN

New York City cooking teacher Karen Lee has one simple goal for her students: "I want to change their whole life." Her logic: "The way they cook changes the way they eat, which changes the way they feel, which changes their whole life." Lee is a renowned caterer and author of such highly regarded culinary works as The Occasional Vegetarian. Twice a year--and by special arrangement at various times in between--she offers five-day courses for out-of-towners for $725. Monday through Thursday she and her students spend 3 1/2 hrs. preparing and eating lunch. On Friday she gives a walking tour of Chinatown ("Behind every great meal is a great shopper"), followed by lunch at a top Chinese restaurant. Students, who arrange their own travel and lodgings, have afternoons and evenings free to explore the city. Mistress of many cuisines, Lee is perhaps best known as a pioneer of fusion cooking, which unites the techniques and ingredients of East and West. Her emphasis: flavor and healthfulness. In class, she's a 5-ft. 2-in. powerhouse of instruction, demonstration and tips: "To keep food from sticking, always heat the wok before you add the oil," "Don't answer the phone while you're measuring." Class size is limited to 10 to ensure that all students get their hands dirty. Nancy Moorman, who teaches cooking in San Antonio, Texas, and has studied with top chefs around the world, took Lee's class last spring and rates it one of the best. Moorman says, "Her enthusiasm makes you think, 'Gosh! I'm going to go home and live better and cook this and create some joy!'"

SWIMMING IN WORDS

For two weeks every year Mary Wardrop, a retired math professor from North Carolina, dreams in French. It's not required, but it's a natural consequence of the total-immersion language program she's been taking for six years in the Belgian town of Spa. Ceran Lingua is where global-business executives and diplomats--and a growing number of retirees--go to put the finesse on their French for about $1,400 a week. For Wardrop, who misses the intellectual stimulation she enjoyed in her career, it's a way "to recharge my mental batteries." Students--who range from tongue-tied to nearly fluent--stay in the lovely Chateau Ceran, where they speak French in the classrooms, in the hallways, in the dining room. The diversity of the students, who come from all corners of the earth, makes for interesting conversation. "Because both the pupils and teachers are talking in class, there's a genuine exchange of ideas," says Wardrop. For some, the total immersion may feel like drowning; one participant described his first visit as "trying to take a drink from a fire hydrant." But most find the challenge invigorating. At other centers in Belgium and around the world, Ceran Lingua offers English, Japanese, Spanish and Dutch.

TAPESTRIES OF LIFE

Weaving is a simple, sedentary activity--you just sit at a loom and pull the weft through the warp--right? Wrong. It's complex, strenuous and, Navajo weavers say, mystical. "Weaving is your thought," says Pearl Sunrise, who teaches a $355, five-day workshop at the Taos Institute of Arts in New Mexico. "You need to use your motor skills, your psychological being and your spirituality." Emily Hyatt of North Carolina has been weaving all her life and has a business educating schoolchildren about the history of the craft. But in Pearl's class she was a beginner again. Previously, she had looked at weaving from the outside, in terms of design. Pearl's class taught her how to weave her beliefs into her work and become part of her own creation. "It was different from any weaving I have ever done before," she says. Pearl has an unofficial teacher's aide: Taos itself. Students, who arrange their own lodging, absorb the rugged mountain landscape, the strong pure light, the rich blend of Native American and European cultures and incorporate them into what one student calls "blankets of love." Folks shouldn't feel intimidated by Pearl's body-and-soul approach. And even those who don't know their warp from their weft are welcome.

INSIDE THE BELTWAY

Ever wonder why good legislation dies and bad bills survive? One way to find out is to sign up for a week with the Close Up Foundation's $1,160 Congressional Senior Citizen Intern Program in Washington. Participants go to hearings and briefings, take political seminars on topics ranging from health care to international relations, meet with VIPs and lend a hand in the office of one of their Senators or Representatives. Accommodations and most meals are provided by a nearby Marriott. During her stint as an intern in California Democratic Representative Bob Filner's office, Lupita Jimenez, a children's book writer from Chula Vista, was taken to lunch in the Members' Dining Room. "All of a sudden, the entire California delegation came through the doors, and I blinked because here was almost every well-known politician I had seen on television!" she recalls. "I loved being an insider!"

--With reporting by Deborah Edler Brown/Los Angeles, Catherine Kotschoubey/Spa, Anne Moffett/Washington and Rebecca Winters/New York

With reporting by Deborah Edler Brown/Los Angeles, Catherine Kotschoubey/Spa, Anne Moffett/Washington and Rebecca Winters/New York