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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!

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.

Korea is Fancy

// August 9th, 2009 // No Comments » // China, Dancing, Harbin, Korea, Travel

Wow did the last few weeks fly by or what! I’m now writing from Korea and I didn’t even have time to mention that I left China! So here’s what happened:

July 25:  Went to the Tiger Park in Harbin – got some great photos of tigers that I’ll post soon.
August 4:  Final exam in Chinese classes, closing ceremonies that afternoon/evening (I somehow got all A’s!).
August 5:  Took a train all day to Beijing, arrive at 7:30 pm and meet up with Josh (swing dancer in Beijing). Hung out with Josh and other dancers, spent the night at Josh’s.
August 6:  Flight to Seoul at 1:45 pm, arrive at 4:45 pm. Took a bus to Hapjeong station and was met by my friend Miyeoung. Stay at her place that night.
August 7:  Train to Pusan, dance in Pusan that night.
August 7 – 9:  Pusan swing festival! Dancing all night, all day.
August 9:  Train back to Seoul, dance that night in Seoul.

Now I’m back in Seoul. Even though I have been in Korea for about 4 days, today is really my first chance to go out and explore the city on my own, and I am about to go do that. So far my first impressions of Korea are that it is incredibly clean, nice, and fancy. The roads are kept in perfect shape and people actually drive inside the lanes. Seoul is one of the cleanest cities I’ve ever been to (for a city of this size). There is not one piece of trash on the road and all the buildings are spotless.
My biggest impression is simply that Korea is fancy. It’s become a running joke with my friends here that whenever I see something that surprises me they always say, “Yeah I know. It’s Korea. It’s fancy.” For example, McDonald’s uses hard plastic cups and washes them to reduce waste – it’s fancy. You can pick up a wireless internet signal just about anywhere – it’s fancy. There was a giant Starcraft gaming competition on the beach in Pusan – it’s fancy. Well, that last one maybe was not “fancy,” but I did witness it. A crowd of at least 2,000 people all sat in chairs watching two computer geeks battle it out in a Starcraft match on the beach. Two huge jumbo-trans projected the game while two announcers called the game play-by-play. It was like a football match but with computer games instead of athletes. Anyway, those are my first impressions of Korea. Now I’m going to go exploring and see what else I can find.

Camp Jitterbug & China Preparations

// June 3rd, 2009 // No Comments » // China, Dancing, Travel

I just got back to Virginia from Seattle on Monday night and I am already sitting in a hotel in D.C. preparing for another summer of Chinese study in China. I have been home literally less than 48 hours and have already had to fly again here, only to leave for China Friday morning – I am in the air every 48 hours!

Anyway, back to Camp Jitterbug. I left for Seattle last Wednesday and flew half the day to arrive at 11:30 pm. As soon as I got off the plane, I called my host, Jared, and grabbed a cab to the dance. We met at the Century Ballroom. When I walked through the doors, I found a room full of dancers surrounded by luggage from all over the world. It seemed that every dancer had done exactly what I had – go straight to the dance. While I only managed to dance the last two songs, they were both wonderful dances, and I could tell this was going to be one amazing week of dancing.

The next morning we spent most of the day touring the city. We went all over the place and saw all the famous sites, like the Space Needle and the very first Starbucks (check out the pics here). The tour of the city underground was perhaps the coolest part – the story of how Seattle got started is pretty ridiculous. That night everyone met at the meet and greet dance, which was at a venue that was hot beyond all reason. I have never gone through more shirts more quickly at a dance. After that, we went home and got ready for electives the next day.

Friday we took several elective classes which I really liked. During the lessons, I noticed that many of the dancers trying out for the masters level were about where my dancing level was, so I made the decision to try out for the masters track the next morning. Later, we went to the Jump Session show, which blew me away. Some of the most intense and creative performances in the jazz dance genre in the world all on one stage! The show was truly one of the top highlights of the whole event. The dance that night was a much better venue and a whole lot cooler, but we ended up not staying too long at the late night since auditions were so early.

Saturday morning we hit the auditions, and after about 7 heats of crazy fast swing outs, I got picked for the masters track. It was pretty incredible and quite surprising. I really didn’t think I’d get in, but after I started some of the classes I realized I could handle it. I held my own throughout the weekend and really enjoyed being challenged with some really hard material. It wasn’t easy, but I think I learned a ton more by challenging myself. The dances and competitions that night and the next were spectacular! Phenomenal bands and great venues, filled with some of my favorite people in the world. Camp Jitterbug as a whole really impressed me. The crowd it drew was unbelievable and every single dance was just great! It makes me sad to realize that it will be a while until I get to see and dance with those people again.

Now I am sitting in the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Washington D.C. Just a few hours ago I met up with all the CLS scholarship winners that are going on the intensive Chinese language trip with me this whole summer. I had dinner with several of the Harbin scholars and it looks like it is going to be a good summer. They seem like a really fun bunch and are all amped about the trip. Tomorrow is our full orientation, and then Friday morning we board the plane. It’ll be another long flight and another adventure in China. I can’t wait to get started!