Fast Summer, Warrior Dash, Song Writing, & China
// October 7th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // China, Chinese, Shanghai, Travel
Tomorrow is my last day in Montana, and it is insane to sit here and realize just how much time has past since I first started working out here. I came here the last week of May for training, and now it’s the first week of October. So much has happened in between – road trip to Montreal, Hot Mess in Philly, family road trip to Tennessee, Southern Belle Swing Bash in Atlanta, trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, and two-week trip to DC to hang out with friends one last time before leaving for Asia. It’s been one amazing summer – one full of incredible landscapes (Niagara Falls, Montana, and Yellowstone), incredible dancing, crazy amounts of traveling, and a great time off-loading in Hummers. Now there’s just one more thing to do before flying to Asia…
WARRIOR DASH! That’s right – getting ready to spend this weekend in Quarryville, PN, racing in the most ridiculous race I’ve ever seen. It’s basically a big tailgate with a 5k obstacle course in the middle. I’ve been training all summer as I usually do, but I’m hoping it will pay off at the race. I even made a training video over the past weekend which you can view at my videos page or on Facebook. I fly out Friday and the race starts Saturday morning – so excited!
On a completely different note, song writing has been a rather recent hobby of mine. With every new life experience I encounter, I find myself reflecting upon them through music, and constantly come up with instrumentals that express certain feelings. I’ve come up with several full songs, but am always struggling to find matching lyrics for them. I was recently inspired, however, by fellow lindy hopper and singer-song writer Carsie Blanton (visit her website or her myspace). I briefly met Carsie at Hot Mess in Philadelphia this past July, but only as a dancer, and I had no idea how talented she is as a musician. However, I recently listened to her performance at Mountain Stage on NPR and was totally blown away by her fantastically witty lyrics and soft, gentle, and pure voice. Such a refreshing combination of poetry and music really inspired me to continue exploring songs I have written over the years. So thanks Carsie for really helping me with a fresh, new, inspiring sound, and hopefully someday I will finish these tunes and write them down as works of art.
Next Tuesday, October 12, I fly to Shanghai, China, where I will once again begin another adventure in Asia. This time, since I’ve graduated, I have more freedom to do whatever comes across my plate, so I’m pretty excited to see what I can find. I’m hoping to do some traveling in mainland China first (Nanjin, Three Gorges Dam, Xian, Guilin, Yangshuo) and then I’ll be at National Taiwan University for the winter studying mandarin. After that, who knows. I will be looking for work opportunities the whole time I am there, so if something comes up I will probably take it. Plans are pretty flexible for now. Next time I post something, I’ll probably be in China!


















