Winter dancing

Went to a three hour workshop on basic ballroom dancing steps today with Joey and Helen.

>Getting your toes stepped on as a bunch of beginners make their way round the room just like in the movies? Painful.

>Storming across the room in an attempt to master basic American tango? Invigorating.

>Waltzing to Christmas music to find that it's snowing outside? Priceless.

Bachata with Jorge Elizondo

It's been another epic weekend. This weekend at You Can Dance studios we were graced with the presence of Jorge Elizondo who put on a three day bachata workshop. I love this dance. When I first started going to salsa bars, I found it a bit sexy to be doing with people I didn't know, or indeed with people I did know. However, the more I learn about this dance, I can't get enough of it. Not to mention that the music is beautiful. Here's a sample of Jorge's dancing:



So for three hours of Friday night I was going back to basics with hip action and the basic steps of bachata. Followed by a late dinner and chatting with Jaideep half the night, we then got up Saturday morning to meet the crew at Jenny's place for lunch. She cooked us Korean food and it was delicious. We then rushed off to the second day of workshop where we took on some bachata sequences, took an hour for dinner, went back for salsa class, and on to Caliente for a hardcore night of sexying up our new moves. Including dinner (who doesn't dance over dinner?) from 3pm to 3am that was 12 hours solid of dancing. No wonder my feet hurt the next day.

But it doesn't stop there - I met David for brunch at the All American Diner on Sunday (check it out for huge ass American portions), followed by a well needed coffee, on to the third and final day of bachata where we continued to learn more moves, try and remember everything from the previous two days, put it all together and not forget to move those hips. To recharge we fit 17 of us into a small Indian restaurant, chucked all the tables together in the Coffee Bean for 17 of us to have coffee, and finally those hardcore enough went on to dance more salsa. As it was hitting 10pm, I went home and thankfully accidently set my alarm an hour late this morning. If I hadn't, I may well have been hiding in a corner from hyper active children all day.

But bachata. It's an easy dance to learn, and it's heaps of fun. Big fan.

The APPT Seoul

This isn't actually a post about poker. But good friend Ed happened to qualify for the tournament so shipped himself over for the weekend. Luckily for me he went out in the first day, but that meant we had all weekend to spend together; clearly that's why he qualified in the first place, right? ;)

Actually, mutual university friend Sun-Ho is also in Korea taking up holiday visiting family. Being a poker fan he spent much of Thursday evening swooning over professional poker players (while I'm sitting there at the open bar going, "Greg who now?"), but also being a fan of the salsa dance, I took the boys out to Caliente on Friday night to check out Sun-Ho's new moves. Speaking of which, it's the 2008 Salsa Congress in Seoul next weekend, but no doubt there will be more on that nearer the time.

So there was Insadong and Changdeokgung and Seoul Tower and the War Museum, but more than anything else there was silliness and geekiness.

Which reminds me of the "Rolling Ball" exhibition. Some geeks got together to present their marble rollers. It was amazing. Not to mention the weekend stay in the Sheraton Walkerhill hotel. So I was late to work on Monday morning, but I did have a good breakfast...

Salsa workshop

Has been a weekend of dance, and with You Can Dance instructors getting married today, no doubt there will be more to follow.

Canadian salsa and swing champions Gerald and April are currently in Seoul, and put on some dance workshops this weekend. The salsa workshop I attended was a really good experience, with a focus on technique and leads. Also to give the regular instructors some time off before their wedding, they taught the Saturday night salsa classes which, as great as the classes usually are, was just a bit refreshing to have a different perspective and teaching style. Watching them dance together during the social dancing was just amazing.

In other news, still slogging through university applications...

Things I haven't done for a while

I mentioned my dislike for Itaewon, but it certainly has its perks. On Friday night David asked me what I wanted to eat for dinner. I said bangers and mash. You can get "sausage" here in Korea, but often it's the processed frankfurter type. I certainly have not had mashed potato in nearly a year. Gecko's Terrace it was then. It's all about the gravy.

I also mentioned it is leaving season. Another friend is off on Wednesday so some mutual friends threw her a small get together at the Ritz-Carlton in Gangnam on Saturday night. I haven't hung out at a private party drinking wine and listening to music since being in Korea. Admittedly Koreans tend to live with their parents and teachers tend to live in tiny studio apartments, so going out tends to be a more practical option than staying in. I don't think I've really even drunk wine in Korea - it's all been about the cheap Cass lager. But last night the weather was gorgeous; perfect for a bit of socialising among good friends and balcony dancing.

Another (another) friend just returned to Korea after two months at home, so it was back to Itaewon for some dancing at the Hard Rock Cafe. Most people I meet here say that they drink far more than they ever did at home. My lager intake has certainly gone up, but my all night partying (and tequila intake) has taken a down slide since uni. Last night was an exception though. Apart from salsa, I don't go out clubbing that often. But it was great. Haven't danced like that in a long time.