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Montana Summer & China Plans

// August 21st, 2010 // No Comments » // China, Chinese, Dancing, Travel, Uncategorized

Wow the summer is going by fast! I cannot believe that I took my big road trip to Montreal 2 months ago! I guess I’ve just been having such a good summer I never realized that it is almost over. Since returning from my road trip to Montreal, I have spent the majority of my time working near Livingston, Montana, as an off-road driving instructor driving and working on H1 Hummers. It is not the job I would have ever guessed I would be working after graduation, but it has been the most fun and well-paying job I have had. The job itself is already pretty great – I’m outside all day, I work with people, and I drive Hummers on the side of a mountain.  But the best part by far is that I have been living in the northern Rockies all summer!On my days off I go hiking, camping, fishing, shooting – if it’s outdoors, you name it and I’ve probably done it this summer. Since I have never been out west, it’s been an invaluable opportunity to experience some of the best the western US has to offer.

Another great feature of my job in Montana is that every month I get a week off and my company flies me anywhere I want to go in the US, so I have been able to attend a couple dance events here and there as well.  The first I attended was “Hot Mess” in Philadelphia on July 9-11, 2010.  True to the name, Hot Mess was one of the hottest weekends of the summer in Philly and the focus of the event was all fast dancing, accentuating the messiness.  Nonetheless, it was one of the most fun events I have attended in a long time and it was a good to finally work on my fast dancing, which has always been a week point for me.  The second event I attended was “Southern Belle Swing Bash” in Atlanta on August 13-15, 2010.  Another fantastic event by Michael and Jaya of Asheville, NC, SBSB was an event made specifically for follows.  All of the workshops were for follows only, and as a result leads were invited to join for free as long as we volunteered to help with the workshops.  I felt guilty for not having to pay for the event because it was so much fun for leads!  Besides the wonderful company I enjoyed staying with all weekend and the countless dances, I also competed in the open Jack & Jill and actually made it to the finals (check out my videos page to see the finals warm up dance).  While I did not place in the top 3,  it was my first time in a finals competition for a lindy hop J&J and I learned a lot from it.  Hopefully there will be more to come in the future!

Since the summer is coming closer to an end, I have already begun planning my next trip to China.  I will be flying out on October 12 to Shanghai to attend the first ever international swing dancing event there called “Swing Out Shanghai.”  When I lived there two years ago, the ideas for the event started to emerge, and now in the middle of the Shanghai World Expo the event will finally be held.  One of the best parts about it is we will actually perform on stage at the World Expo, making history for the whole world to see. After a few weeks in Shanghai, I will move to Taipei in Taiwan to begin a long and concentrated study of Mandarin.  All of my previous trips to China limited me to only 3 months of study at a time – just enough to get somewhere and then forget it.  This time, with the help of a 3 month scholarship by Taiwan’s Ministry of Education, I will spend 6 months studying, giving me the much needed time to hopefully make some large strides with the language.  I will return home May 24, 2011.  It will be a long adventure, but I am confident that the investment I will make in Taiwan will be well worth it later in life, if not for the language skills, then for the life experiences I will encounter.

Montreal Road Trip, 2010

// July 20th, 2010 // No Comments » // Dancing, Travel

I’m back! Wow what an amazing trip! I returned from my Montreal road trip about a month ago and only just now have had the time to write about it. My last post was right at the beginning of my trip in DC after dancing at Jam Cellar.  From there the plan changed quite a bit – here’s the rundown:

• June 1-3: DC – Jam Cellar Tuesday night (June 1) and stayed with Soo Clark until June 3. Left for NYC in the afternoon June 3.
• June 3: NYC – Arrived in NYC at around 12:15 am and went straight to Frim Fram. Danced for about 45 minutes then ended up staying with Big George in the city. Had to park on the street, so I took a 3 hour nap then got up at 6:30 am, got in my car, and started the drive to Montreal.
• June 4 – 9: Montreal – Arrived in Montreal Friday night. Met up with Amanda and went straight to the dance at Cat’s Corner. Went to a club the next night, then explored the city with Amanda on Sunday. Monday I explored more hanging out with Jason Zwolak, then stayed for the dance Tuesday night at Le Petite Medley. Left Montreal for Rochester the next morning, June 9th.
• June 9 – 12: Rochester – Arrived in Rochester on the evening of June 9 and went to the Wed. night dance after meeting up with Joy at her blues lesson.  Went to Niagara Falls the next day, then came back and went blues dancing that night back in Rochester.  Explored some of the city on Friday then stayed for the opening of the Rochester International Jazz Festival.  Stayed with Lindsay then left for DC June 12th.
• June 10: Niagara Falls – Stopped by Niagara Falls with Joy Arico.  Unbelievable place and a major highlight of the trip.
• June 12 – 14: DC – Arrived in DC on June 12th and stayed with Amber Smith for a couple nights. Got to visit friends and spend Saturday and Sunday night in DC before heading home on June 14th. Flew back to MT the next morning, June 15th.

Map of my roadtrip

During those 2 weeks, I visited DC, NYC, Montreal, Rochester, and Niagara Falls…and went dancing in every city (often more than once!). As awesome as it was to visit and dance in such amazing cities, gettingto meet and spend time with so many wonderful people truly made the trip an unforgettable experience.  I also wanted to especially thank the following friends for opening their homes to me along the way, without whom the trip would have never happened:

Soo Clark
Big George Henrik
Amanda Fong
Putra Manggala (Angga)
Joy Arico
Lindsay Crawford
Amber Smith

Thank you all so much for being part of my road trip and for all the memories!

Update & Canada Road Trip

// June 2nd, 2010 // No Comments » // Dancing, Travel

Update.
A lot has happened since the last post. First, I graduated! I am now a Virginia Tech Alum with a degree in Engineering Science and Mechanics. I also have made several big decisions. I was accepted into Carnegie Mellon University to begin study for a PhD in Engineering and Public Policy.  I decided to defer my acceptance for one year so I can return to China and continue studying mandarin.  I took a job as an off-road driving instructor in Montana driving hummers, which will last until October and help fund my studies in China.  I recently received a scholarship from the Taiwanese government to study there, so it’s looking like after the job in Montana I’ll be in Taiwan instead of mainland China from around Dec-May (I really want to learn traditional characters, so here’s my chance!).

Road Trip.
The way my job works is I fly out to Montana and drive hummers for about 3 weeks and then get a week off to refresh and take a break.  My first break, however, is from June 1-14 and a little longer, so I decided to take a road trip to Canada during the time.  I am writing from DC, the first stop on the road trip, where I caught the Tuesday night dance at  Jam Cellar last night.  I am headed to NYC tomorrow to catch the Frim Fram dance on Thursday nights.  Friday I’ll be going up to Montreal to visit a friend and catch the Friday night dance there then explore the city for the weekend.  After that, it’s looking like I’ll visit Quebec for a couple days and then perhaps head to Toronto, Niagra Falls, then Cleveland to do a little Balboa at Cleveland All Bal Weekend.  That’s the current plan at least.  I’d like to be home on the 13th and that’s really my only contraint.  Other than that, I’m pretty much going where dancers are and staying with dancer friends.  I’ll make a post at the end of the trip with pics and details.

Lindy Focus VIII

// January 10th, 2010 // No Comments » // Dancing

For the third time in a row, I have finished the year at the happiest place on Earth:  Lindy Focus.  LF is truly a magical place.  I have never been somewhere where so many people from so many different places and backgrounds come together with a more united purpose: dance.  Time at this camp takes a strange form (read a few pages from Einstein’s Dreams and you’ll know what I mean).  There are times when the whole day happens in less than a minute, and other times when a half hour conversation lasts the whole week.  The synergy of music, rhythm, harmony, movement, dance, friends, and very little sleep makes for an ineffable event that can only be experienced.  I met many wonderful people this year who in just a few dances left memories that I will last a lifetime.  All the way up to New Year’s Eve, it was the most intense and exciting weeks of the year.  I wouldn’t have started 2010 any other way.

The Korean War Memorial & why I love studying Chinese

// November 13th, 2009 // No Comments » // Chinese, Korea

Once again the months go by without an update, but I had an experience a couple weeks ago that I just wanted to write about.  I’m back at VT for my final year and got back into the groove of things much faster this time than last semester.  Coming back from Asia this time wasn’t near as rough and I managed to settle down quickly.

Anyway, on October 29, I visited the Vietnam and Korean War Memorials in DC while I was attending the National Collegiate Honors Conference.  It was particularly significant because about 2 months ago I was in Seoul and visited the Korean War Museum there.  The contrast was pretty intense.  First of all, the DC memorial is just that – a memorial.  It is rather small, but done in such an elegant way that it makes you stop and think, and remember.  I really liked it, and the subtle symbols all around it make it easy to spend a long time there without even realizing it.  In contrast, the museum in Seoul is enormous and is truly a museum and not just a memorial.  There are two long outdoor walkways that each go for about 200 yards with the names of every soldier killed in the war.  The shear enormity is a little overwhelming.  All around the structure are old tanks, trucks, planes, and even a submarine that were used in the war.  Inside the huge main building are lots of rooms that each highlight a different specific detail about the war.  Take a day there and you’ll leave with a much better understanding of the entire Korean conflict.  In general, the biggest thing I can take away from visiting both is that perspective is crucial.  To us, we lost many soldiers in that war, but the freedom won was worth the cost, and we will always remember and value those lost, which is reflected in the memorial in DC.  To the South Koreans, this was the equivalent of the Revolutionary War and the Civil War combined.  This was THE war, and they will forever remember not only the cost of that war, but also the extreme details of how they achieved the nation they currently enjoy, so they built a full museum.

Now onto the awesome moment I had at the Korean War Memorial in DC.  As I approached the very front of the memorial, I noticed a Chinese man looking a bit puzzled as he read the large words etched into the wall:  ”Freedom Is Not Free.”  I approached him and asked if I could help.  He asked, “What exactly does this mean?” in sort of a broken Chinese accent.  I had to pause for a moment.  What a question.  I wanted to respond with, “Everything,” but I knew he wouldn’t quite understand.  Instead I explained how we had to pay a price for freedom, and that price was the lives lost in the war.  Then I asked if he was Chinese, and when he said yes I said, “Zhe ge yisi shi ‘ziyou bu shi mianfei’,”   literally “freedom is not free” in Chinese.  He paused for a second then immediately said, “Ah…you…you speak Chinese? Ah…yes, I get it.”  We chatted for a bit.  I explained I had studied Chinese for a while and he said he was a student from a college in Beijing.  After inviting me to come teach at his college, we parted ways.

What a magnificent moment that was.  It took me a while to realize that we were sort of on opposite sides of that warm but I was able to explain why we fought in it in his native language.  This is why I love studying language, and Chinese in particular.  For us, when someone learns English, we think nothing of it, but to the Chinese, when a foreigner learns their language, it’s as if you just did the impossible.  There is an immediate surge of respect and value for your effort in learning their language, and the mutual understanding you have for each other is ineffable.  I keep running into moments like these and they are some of the most unique and memorable experiences of my life.  I can’t wait for the next one.