few quick notes

Eric is back for four days, and I am super duper excited to see this beloved former president again. I still remember when I was new to the team, I was always intimidated when Steve asked us to grab someone to dance. And Eric always helped me out. I think if without him, I probably would not survive my first ballroom semester. The team has changed so much with different president-- different leadership, different team atmosphere. I definitely feel the atmosphere of competitiveness is much more with Alex as the president-- it's not a bad thing because the team needs to stay competitive to earn the scholarship, but I sometimes feel a bit tired and useless because I am just not a competitive person.

Joseph threw his graduation party. It was alright-- basically just drinking and "dancing" while you could not move your feet at all in a student apartment living room packed with 70 people. The cop came, and we were off.

I have to start a partner search again, but after this semester, I feel tired of dancing on the team. I feel I was thrown into a team that is too high for me, and the partnership made me very weary and somehow lose confidence. I want to get back the feeling of love and dance. As a slow learner, I want to take it slower. But I really love doing ballroom dancing, so it is really a dilemma.

Although it may sound like a loser, but I really like one of my friend/teammate's comment on competition for us who learned dancing for a short time-- "It's like you learned how to play the piano for 3 months, and then you were crying for losing the competition of playing Do-Re-Me and could not understand how come other people play Do-Re-Me so well." Well, I guess it is somehow not that true as for the ballroom case, but it is definitely very comforting.

Today I watched the clips of WSS 2009 of Yulia, Joanna, and Anna dancing Rumba. I like Yulia and Riccardo's the best. Joanna and Michael are amazing in speed and precision, but it just did make me feel that touched as I was holding my breath when watching Yulia and Riccardo. Slavic is in a new partnership, but they are good.

We need the old members to come back!!

It's the competition season, and this weekend UMBDT will lead a 60-person group to wipe off the dance floor and claim all the prizes in the Purdue Classic. I am only going to OSB, which is two weeks later. Since Joseph can no longer dance in bronze, we are going to compete in silver and gold (for standard only). I guess Joseph, subconsciously, wants to leave a glorious record in his last semester, so it has to be something challenging.

Yesterday we did a few rounds of mock competition at the DTS and realized that once our dance fell apart once we needed to floor-craft. Bad! But we will keep practicing and see what will happen.

I miss the ballroom team that has Stacy and Eric all in a sudden. I hope you all have a good time no matter where you are!

Phone call to home, and roommate: 2 things that are annoying

I spent my last few weeks on the c++ project, and stayed in the library 6 to 8 hours a day last week. I called back home and my dad said something that I could not believe my ears, " That's the way you should work. You cannot rely on your little wit anymore." I was like... 'what on earth are you talking about!' No matter how hard I have been studying, he just never recognized... annoying.
When I got back home after working on the c++ project for 8 hour straight, my roommate said," You chose that." I had to try hard to represse the sudden surge of anger and hatred.

Just people are being egoist and cold-blood.

Girl in Amsterdam

It was foggy yesterday. A what-trick-Ann-Arbor-is-playing-again awe rised when I opened the door. And I thought of Ichi in Amsterdam. How was she at the time? What it was like in Amsterdam became a very enchanting mystery. She wrote on her blog that all the acquaintances and friends no longer meant a physical individual but rather a symbolizing silhouette of spiritual power and beauty as the distance was so great between us and them. Their existence assured us the strength of will power. I thought of those when I was walking to the class, and her words were so precise in our mother tongue that I was so deeply moved. She should not feel any surprise if I said I loved her-- because I believed among our hearts we and our small group of friends have an unbreakable spiritual dependence that is so precisely love.

I yearned to see Ichi in Amsterdam. I hate to see the ticket price so high.

It's the bloody American Foxtrot

Joseph and I gave a club lesson on the American Foxtrot I. Holy, do not let it happen again.


I seriously feel I am out of shape after I got back to the States. My lovely abs are just gradually replaced by squishing fat. My business suit makes me so aware of this change.

Get up, go run, girl!

Everyone's back to the Bubble Island

One of my friends told me she felt she betrayed Bubble Island if she goes to the newly opened Momo Tea one block west. You know when you have customer loyalty like her case, a cup of bubble tea can be priced more than Starbucks Caramel Frappucino.

And the smelly team people are playing the Settlers in the Island after the open dance. Sweet.

Just complaints...

I am flying to NYC next Friday for a weekend with friend J, and it now seems to be a stupid decision.

J told me about his interviews in NYC and he said after we went back from the info session of Royal Bank of Scotland, "You should totally come with me! It's nice to know and talk to the people working in the financial industry. I have scheduled up with three people and we can meet them up. It will be fun." He emailed me the itinerary that night, and my increasing urge to find a job along with the inviting words motivated me to book the tickets of the same flight.

And then the next day I told him about my success of getting the ticket, and he said, in an awful shock, "Amy! I couldn't believe you take it so serious! Most of my interviews are official, and I am not sure if those people want to meet up for coffee." He told me to cancel the flight.

I think again I take people's words too serious-- or simply too credulous. But please, people, don't act like so inviting when you don't mean to! It does not hurt me that you don't invite me, and it is not okay when you use the pronoun 'we' and later you say that is a misinterpretation.
Fuck the time that I frantically spent on editing the resume till 4 o'clock for two nights in a row.

: (((((((((((((((((((

I am still going to NYC anyway because canceling cost 175 dollars out of the 239 dollar round flight. So recently I tried to find people to meet up in NYC to complete the trip, and also make few campus visiting for the law school. If I failed to meet anyone, then NY City Ballet Theater will be a good compensate anyway...


And I have been working and studying and dancing so much these few weeks, totally sleep deprivation. When I called home, my mom thought I am going on a love trip (she thought I am dating friend J), and my dad even questioned me if I worked hard enough. My dad does not believe connection is important for his daughter to find a job, and he refuses to wire me up with his friends who work in related industry. That was the moment I would really love to curse. And for Asian parents, your kids know the difference between friendship and relationship probably better than you, and they know who they are dealing with and what they are doing. There is friendship between two genders.

F that, I am going to spend the money I earned from the hours sitting in front of the laptop in the office at 7 pm on Friday evening.

So angry...

23 Sep 2009 Working now, Old but interesting news from NY Times

Hey guys just a quick post. This is ISR and I am reading old news from NY Times. There are many old but interesting, historically remarkable articles that draw my attention, even I am in a tight time constraint, with the EECS class in 30 minutes.

Newly Learned Useful Phrase Today:
"Wreak havoc"-- to cause a disaster

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/27/us/politics/27climate.html
HOUSE BACKS BILL, 219-212, TO CURB GLOBAL WARMING
It's about the Congress passed a heavier emission tax on the industry. It reveals the complexity of controlling emission in a developed country like U.S.A.. Furthermore, what is more interestingly is that, in the middle of the 1st page, it lists out the who opposes and backs the bill: it's surprising that the Board of Commerce is against and Dow Ind. and Ford back the tax bill!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/28/health/research/28cancer.html
Playing It Sage in Cancer Research
The truth kinda sucks. But no one wants to work without pay. I believe the flaws of existing research funding system are common in all research areas, and if you see the money that we have been devoting into the cancer researches, it is truly a lot and totally dwarfs the discoveries we have now.

One more thing that shocks me every time: the related topic labels of the 2 ongoing wars are such: Iraq War (2003-) and Afghan War (2001-)
Hey they are open-ended! And they have been 6 years and 8 years already... wow.

Okay, gotta bounce for class.

Practice today

Alex was good, and today I feel he is even amazingly better. His precision, control of muscle, and improvised choreography have a booming growth that I feel, he is gonna be someone. Even though on the dance floor he is not a performer, but he is promising... Fellows, he is only a team away from me, but I wonder how long it is gonna take me to be that good.

I notice that I have become really quite during practice at DTS. Gradually I lost the motivation to socialize, but simply want to grasp any second to practice more. I guess that is not a good thing because I distance myself away from others, and that will lead to frustration in the future. But I can't help it...! Time is too valuable, and things are too many : ( I need to relax I guess...

New words today from LA Times and NY Times; and Hustle-bustle across the campus

pha·lanx (fā'lăngks', făl'ăngks')
n., pl. pha·lanx·es or pha·lan·ges (fə-lăn'jēz, fā-).

1. A compact or close-knit body of people: “formed a solid phalanx in defense of the Constitution and Protestant religion” (G.M. Trevelyan).
2. A formation of infantry carrying overlapping shields and long spears, developed by Philip II of Macedon and used by Alexander the Great.
3. pl. phalanges. Anatomy. A bone of a finger or toe. Also called phalange.
4. See phalanstery (sense 1).

[Latin phalanx, phalang- , from Greek.]

=======================================================

My job as a research assistant is to read all the headline articles of LA Times and NY Times and summarize them into my excel files. Years and years, one thing noticeable is the increasing frustration and hatred of the public toward the wars, healthcare system and Obama's overhaul and banking system. I will delve into this more latter. Overall, the opportunistic mindset and selfishness of the banking industry is so common that seriously annoys me, and so do all the politics that frustrates the process of a good overhaul of the health care system . Also, lobbyists are not really lovely people from my perspective as a coverage summarizer because their involvement makes the same topics be brought up repeatedly days after days. Regarding to that, if you are interested, go watching "Thank You for Smoking." The famous quote from that movie is "If you can sell cigarettes, you can sell anything." Right, there's no right and wrong (sorry, Aristotle) in the contemporary capitalist world. If I find your argument is wrong, then I am right.

Let's talk about it later.

And I have been rushing from places to places for a whole day long. Monday. Wheew, Monday.
======================================================
Gadget

gadg·et (găj'ĭt)
n.

A small specialized mechanical or electronic device; a contrivance.

[Origin unknown.]

==========================================================

In fact, something fun is going on in my life today. No kidding, on Monday of Ann Arbor, rainy Michigan. I met this Singaporean-Canadian girl Sha in a newly open tea house Mo Mo Tea on South University, and I found out that she was on the team before, dancing in newcomer and bronze levels. I told her to come back, embracing the humidity and warmth (swelteringly hotness) of the DTS. "I should," said she. And from her I heard of some stories of the unknown graduated team people from Michigan and UIUC.

Again, resume back to work, I am reading an article about the legacy of Apartheid in South Africa frustrates the education resources for the African-heritage students. To me that doing this work makes me realize a few things:

1) if you want to be an optimistic person (or on purpose you want to look on the bright side of the life through the dusty urban skies), don't work in the journalist industry;

2) journalists are not all pessimistic; they are just more realistic, and effectively keeping their sarcasm as the last connection to humour/warmth of world/anything positive in life that you come up with a phrase. This lukewarm joking attitude toward things help them win a recognition of urban-Yappy-styled wittiness in any social occasions, especially when drinking martini in a bar;

3) justice should be done, and we can all dedicate something to this goal, but fuckers are always here and there around us;

4) things makes sense when they don't make sense. It doesn't sound logical? I think you got it.

And 5) what really makes life brighter are the small delight of life, and of course the people close to you; so waste your time on the good things and people as much as possible.

So I say, dude, let's go to Cafe Jappon and have a pear tart.

=======================================================

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/21/us/politics/21watch.html

The photos are somehow amusing.

=======================================================

churn (chûrn)
n.

A vessel or device in which cream or milk is agitated to separate the oily globules from the caseous and serous parts, used to make butter.

v., churned, churn·ing, churns. v.tr.

1. 1. To agitate or stir (milk or cream) in order to make butter.
   2. To make by the agitation of milk or cream: churn butter.
2. To shake or agitate vigorously: wind churning up the piles of leaves. See synonyms at agitate.
3. To buy and sell (a client's securities) frequently, especially in order to generate commissions.

v.intr.

1. To make butter by operating a device that agitates cream or milk.
2. To move with or produce great agitation: waves churning in the storm; so angry it made my stomach churn.

phrasal verb:

churn out

1. To produce in an abundant and automatic manner: churns out four novels a year.

[Middle English chirne, from Old English cyrn, cyrin.]

churner

churn'er n.

B-Lesson, Spin Turn in Quickstep and Voltafogo in Samba

I was pretty homesick in the first few days after getting back to the States-- missing the convenience, chillness and constrain-free of life, family, and especially the friends in my dance studio and the lessons. I felt more comfortable with the harsh training and analytical breakdown of moves in my lessons; the preference probably has something to do with my serious personality and anxiety of becoming a good dancer who start dancing almost after puberty.

However, dance here becomes more and more like a side dish now: the reality of finding a job and handing out good scores for the law school strikes me too much. "Take easy, and learn more from the private lessons after going back to Taipei." I told myself. I think I have found a more comfortable way for me to learn to dance.

Anyway, besides those seemingly negative ideas, good things dawned and greeted me. Luckily, Joseph asked me for partnership after we danced some standard casually before the welcome event in the league. I have enjoyed the partnership with Joseph a lot so far: we are both pretty chilled about dancing for this semester, and he is graduating this winter, so we hold an unspoken consensus to have a good time but not to stress out.

We also luckily passed the tryout and found our names, followed by a letter "P" for provisional, under the B-team category. But this did not excite me as I expected; Mom was under a surgery at the exact same time of the tryout, and that distracted my from worrying anything about tryout. The result was good, but deep inside I know my fatal weakness and somehow can sense the missing part in my partner's dance, which is good to realize.

The welcome greeting from Steve and Susan in the very beginning of the class rang a bell: they considered it as a watershed of dance level. And from now on, what is looked for is not to dance "normally" but to level up and bring out the aesthetics of dancing. I was pretty calm for the standard lesson, but I got nervous in the Latin lesson. I know I am weak at Latin, and after dancing almost by myself for a year, I am also weak at decoding the leader's lead and partner connection. To be fair, connection still, fundamentally, has to do with the quality of individuals' basic steps. Nevertheless, since neither of Joseph and I am good at basic, Latin is a big challenge.

The foot pressure of the outside foot in Voltafogo was repeatedly addressed during the class, and I wondered besides a smaller step, what muscles and other body movement created a good foot pressure. It was not discussed, but I will find out anyway. There is my criticism to my own dance: I saw myself still had a lot of problems in the upper body and lower body coordination, centralizing the energy in the center torso, and channeling the foot pressure to the upper body. Besides that, my dance was not grounded; it was very floating and not precise. All those root in poor basics. As for Joseph, that's his job to find out, and so far I don't think I have any authority to comment. Plus, I might say things that is not correct.

The last words that my Taiwanese teachers left me is very useful: "It's a partner dance, so think of how you can make the other better. Be considerate."

So after this many serious words, even I feel they are serious, I laugh at myself that even after two years abroad, that very hardcore Chinese solemnity never changes.

3 Days Before Leaving for the States

I still keep dancing lolz: )))



I love watching Max and Beata dancing together. Max is an extremely lovely and creative dancer, but he never let his natural charisma or his inspiring creative moves and groundbreaking interpretation of timing to shadows his partner (of course it's also because Beata is great). He is very concerned with his partner and tries his best to show his partner, but even though his attempt to put the spot light to Beata, his dance is so noticeably amusing, entertaining and energetic with some little kicks from other types of dancing that the audience praise them as a couple, but not as "Yulia and her partner Maksim".
Beata's grounded basic allows her to extend and perform her unique feminine softness and nymph-like agility. She obviously enjoys working with Maksim a lot as you can see from this film-- her face shows not only the excitement of interpreting the cute, flirting music but also the happiness to dance with him. I guess they are my favorite Latin couple after Slavic and Karina.

A weird person like me

I heard from Mo and Fernando that, including themselves, many guys on the team are now looking for a partner to dance with next semester. It's both surprising and not at the same time because one, things change like flipping your palm and two, this is how the collegiate ballroom team system works. The more things seem to change, the more things to stay, and vice versa.
Somehow when they asked me to dance with them and try each other out, I did not feel excited-- I should have jumped high into the sky to possibly have a partner, and that was what I was wishing for a long time. However, after a painful struggling with the notion of "no partner, no team tryout" for almost four months, I gradually changed my mind from worrying about being on the team to just appreciating every moment of me being on my feet and dancing, alone or accompanied. Somehow it does not hurt me anymore to not be able to be on the team; somehow to drill on my own and basics makes me happier, although in order to advance I need a partner.

Somehow I don't feel happiness when I get what I want.

I just hope I can be so much better before I return to America and before I pair up with a guy. But that is somehow a self-conscious, arrogant and impractical idea.


I am just so happy being able to dance.

How I spend my day in Taipei can be unfailingly broken down into these: waking up before 7, eating an overwhelming breakfast and a huge lunch, practicing dancing in the afternoon, and running for about an hour at night. I pretty much lose the concept of weekday and weekend because I repeat the same routine of life 7 days a week. The only warning sign is that recently I slack off from running because the temptation of staying at the quiet home with A/C, TV and couch is too great compared to panting and sweating for an hour straight outdoors.

I took Stacy to check out my studio on Wednesday, and I was so glad to see a Michigan Ballroom person here in the swelteringly hot Taipei. The lecture was on Latin Rumba, with a special focus on spin and high spiral. I tumbled a lot in the first few trials. The image of Oksana doing 2 double spirals in a row hovered in my mind as if to question me whether I could "possibly tumble more if it was the national tumbling-after-a-single-spin day". With the great care from my teacher and Stacy, I gradually grasped the idea of spinning with a straight back and with the right force.

A father who is also learning Latin there if I had any other activity or leisure besides dancing. I guess under a scorching sun and with a humidity of 70, anyone who spends her money all on two new pairs of dancing shoes will feel the warmth of home and refuse to go out anywhere.

Or it is really the time to explore more fun here in Taipei...

Those violet trousers... If it was had not been Donnie Burns...

You will see after watching it.

Puffy skirt shows legs

1, 2, 3. Cheese!

I thought I lost my camera charger during moving to East Quadrangle but found it yesterday in my room in Taipei. It made my day, and from now on I can post some pictures on the blog.

I am now addicted to 恋愛サプリ, a Japanese TV drama starred by 伊東 美咲（Ito Misaki) and 龜梨和也 (Kamenashi Kazuya). It is not a great drama, but it is amusingly absurd as all the other office romance TV dramas that people always make things so complicated and say some so smart lines that make the whole drama seems so staged. I guess that's why I like Japanese drama: you just laugh and forget because it is so fake.

When I was doing a little research about that actress, I found out that she, a professional model, is 171 cm tall and only 47 Kg! Holy Christ, that's about my height, but she is so skinny to a degree that it is yucky to even just imagine.

Second class of standard

For ladies:
1) move, 2) construction, 3) softness and 4) performance
For men:
1) span (step), 2) direction, 3) timing and 4) power

My teacher recounted the jobs for each sex in modern dance in my second modern lesson, in which I learned tango and waltz. My standard teachers, Angel and Darren, also have classes with Glenn Weiss' former partner, Maya Sewald. They are great.

In the studio, I can see young professional couples drill on their steps. They are all about 22-28 years old, and their performance and dance are very beyond the couples dancing in championship level in OSB. That amazes me, and sometimes I wonder how far I can achieve by the time I am at their age.

The weather is extremely tedious in Taipei. My parents do not nag me as much as I expected-- I guess because I have been being very quiet since I came back. I just read a novel "Bomjours Tristesse" written by Sagan when she was only 19 years old in a cafe near Paris. I will talk about the book in a post later...

Resume dancing

Third day back in Taipei, I found a studio and coaches for both standard and latin and started my first standard class. The class will be based on silver syllubus moves, and I am required to learn both guy's and lady's steps.

The routine I learned today for waltz is:
starting from the long side
natural turn 123 facing DW-> back to LOD
natural spin turn back to LOD(4) -> LOD(5)->wall(6)
reverse turn wall->DC
open telemark wall(4)-> back to LOD(5)->DW(6)
chasse after pp
natural turn
open impetus
weave after pp

I was excited and was able to dance to the routine, but I still need to work harder on my heel turn.

The weather in Taipei is NOTORIOUSLY steaming: the temperature is always 87 above from 5:30 in the morning and a humidity of 70%. One thing bothers me is that when my sisters walk into my room, they always turn the temperature of the A/C up to over 73 degrees.

I shrugged my shoulders and said...

"I don't know what I suppose to say," after my sister complained about that I did not seem to be excited about going home soon (in fact, tomorrow.)

Well, I guess now I am a bit excited about going home, but after learning some many things at the IDB, I just want to practice them at DTS all day long. Moreover, I miss the art fair, which is another reason that bring me down a bit about going home tomorrow.

Every time going back home in Taipei symbolizes an end of a semester or a year, and every time seems to be too in a haste-- never have I felt I went back at the right time. I have friends, dance, good weather and fun here; on the other hand, I can stay with my family and take dance lessons in Taipei but also have to bear with highly humid weather, mosquito, house chores, and mom's nagging.

Hmm. I feel mixed feeling about going back home. Probably I am not old enough to be homesick.

Saturday, July 4, 2009 - Day 4
8:45 - 9:35am	Ballroom A	DanceSport Endurance	Todd Borzych
	Ballroom C	Yoga - morning warm-up	Stanley Kuo
10:00 - 10:50am	Ballroom A	Waltz - "Creating sway the right way"	Polina Pilipenchuk
	Ballroom B	"My lady smiles...I did something right! Similarities and differences in figures of Waltz"	Garry Gekhman
	Ballroom C	"Turn, spiral and rotate like Professionals!"	Oksana Zolotarevskaya
	Ballroom D	Jive - "Rise and shine"	Andrew Phillips
11:00 - 11:50am	Ballroom A	"Top 20 faults of Standard syllabus dancers"	Dan Calloway
	Ballroom B	"Mysteries of Viennese Waltz: Why even best of the best have a problem with it" (Advanced)	Garry Gekhman
	Ballroom C	"Arms as an extension of your back"	Victor Kanevsky
	Ballroom D	Paso Doble - "Body actions and shapes"	Andrew Phillips
12:00 - 12:50pm	Ballroom A	Quickstep - "To shape or not to shape?"	Glenn Weiss
	Ballroom B	Tango - "Power of focus"	Polina Pilipenchuk
	Ballroom C	Jive - "Feeling the rhythm"	Victor Kanevsky
	Ballroom D	Rumba - "Walks"	Dan Calloway
1:00 - 1:50pm	Ballroom A	Quickstep - "Jumps, skips, runs" (Advanced)	Glenn Weiss
	Ballroom B	"Rotation and CBMP"	Dan Calloway
	Ballroom C	Cha Cha - "Chasses: How many types are there?"	Polina Pilipenchuk
	Ballroom D	"Acting in dancing - Is it only for open choreography or should we do it when we dance syllabus steps too"	Andrew Phillips
2:00 - 2:50pm	Ballroom A	"Exercises and drills for Standard dancers"	Dan Calloway
	Ballroom B	Foxtrot - "Proper footwork"	Polina Pilipenchuk
	Ballroom C	Samba - "Hips, legs, knees, ankles"	Victor Kanevsky
	Ballroom D	"Creating intensity and dynamic movement in the latin dances" (Advanced)	Oksana Zolotarevskaya
3:00 - 3:50pm	Ballroom A	Tango - "Developing the impression of speed"	Glenn Weiss
	Ballroom B	"Every man's dream (Part II): Easing the pain of the leader's responsibilities"	Garry Gekhman
	Ballroom C	"Developing speed in Latin dances"	Oksana Zolotarevskaya
	Ballroom D	"Creating finished actions" (Advanced)	Andrew Phillips
5:30 - 10:00pm		Fireworks start at around 9pm on the National Mall in downtown Washington, DC. Group for the Mall will depart at 5:30pm sharp.

Independence Day Ball in Washington DC 7/3 quick note

Friday, July 3, 2009 - Day 3
8:45 - 9:35am	Ballroom A	DanceSport Endurance	Todd Borzych
	Ballroom C	Yoga - morning warm-up	Stanley Kuo
10:00 - 10:50am	Ballroom A	Waltz - "Using head weight"	Anna Mikhed
	Ballroom B	Viennese Waltz - "Tango legs & Waltz feet"	Victor Fung
	Ballroom C	Rumba - "Using weight & foot pressure"	Victor Kanevsky
	Ballroom D	Samba - "Creative basics"	Taliat Tarsinov
11:00 - 11:50am	Ballroom A	Waltz - "Timing: Beyond 1, 2, 3"	Victor Fung
	Ballroom B	Quickstep - "Open choreography" (Advanced)	Taliat Tarsinov
	Ballroom C	Samba - "Creative open choreography" (Advanced)	Marcus Johnson
	Ballroom D	Cha Cha - "Locks and chasses, the finer points"	Dan Calloway
12:00 - 12:50pm	Ballroom A	"Sharing the moment together: Contact, connection, communication, relationship"	Taliat Tarsinov
	Ballroom B	"Principles of effective competitive open choreography in standard" (Advanced)	Glenn Weiss
	Ballroom C	Samba - "Hot body action"	Oksana Zolotarevskaya
	Ballroom D	Paso Doble - "An introduction"	Dan Calloway
		LUNCH	Wendy Johnson
1:00 - 1:50pm	Ballroom A	"Every man's dream (Part I): Technique of creating sway...better believe it works!"	Garry Gekhman
	Ballroom B	LUNCH BREAK
	Ballroom C	"Developing rhythm in Latin dances"	Oksana Zolotarevskaya
	Ballroom D	LUNCH BREAK
2:00 - 2:50pm	Ballroom A	Tango - "Picture lines"	Anna Mikhed
	Ballroom B	LUNCH BREAK
	Ballroom C	Jive - "Energy and stamina training"	Marcus Johnson
	Ballroom D	LUNCH BREAK
3:00 - 3:50pm	Ballroom A	Foxtrot - "Art of feathers and three steps"	Victor Fung
	Ballroom B	"Artistic use of the head - taking it to the level of Champions" (Advanced)	Anna Mikhed
	Ballroom C	Samba - "Rolls"	Marcus Johnson
	Ballroom D	"Vertical axis is the first key"	Victor Kanevsky
4:00 - 4:50pm	Ballroom A	Quickstep - "How to make it slow"	Glenn Weiss
	Ballroom B	"Tango - "Good old basic"	Garry Gekhman
	Ballroom C	Cha Cha - "Creating speed and dynamic"	Taliat Tarsinov
	Ballroom D	Rumba - "Balance and connection" (Advanced)	Wendy Johnson
4:50 - 5:15pm		COFFEE BREAK
5:15 - 6:05pm	Ballroom A	Quickstep - "Being light on your feet"	Garry Gekhman
	Ballroom B	Viennese Waltz - " Fleckerls: Breaking them down"	Glenn Weiss
	Ballroom C	Rumba - "How to fill the extra time" (Advanced)	Oksana Zolotarevskaya
	Ballroom D	Performance (Part III)	Wendy Johnson
6:15 - 7:05pm	Ballroom A	Foxtrot - "Good old basic"	Garry Gekhman
	Ballroom B	Tango - "Open choreography" (Advanced)	Glenn Weiss
	Ballroom C	Paso Doble - "Character"	Victor Kanevsky
	Ballroom D	Performance (Rehearsal)	Wendy Johnson
8:00 - 11:30pm		Independence Day Ball Social. Semi-formal attire. If you are not attending the camp, you are welcome to attend the social. COST: FREE for camp attendees $10 for academic students with ID $20 for adults

I was too tired and thus slept over the dance endurance training session in the morning, and that was a total mistake because I was not warmed up for the samba class teaching moves including the samba shadow roll.

The samba creative basics taught by Taliat Tarsinov was a great class. From Day 3, most of us 6 decided to choose classes by instructors rather by the title because the title could be somehow deceiving. Taliat was one of my favorite instructors at the camp, and he was truly a maestro: he did not teach much nor analyze into details, and he only taught one or two concepts in a class and the concepts would totally transform the way you dance.

In his samba class he gave a very interesting routine constructed by few basic syllubus moves:
girl: circular volta for 1, 2, 3, 4, counterclockwise, approaching to the guy
guy: hip action L R for 1, 2, 3, 4
both:
3 whisk: in the first two whisks, parallel and face your partner(5,6,7,8) , the third whisk, guy goes beside the girl and both put their hands on each other's shoulders (1,2)
foot change(3,4), shadow roll (5,6,7,8), promenade run, finish

He explained that every step has a meaning. The circulart volta for 1,2,3,4 is saying the girl is flirting the the guy, as if telling him,"Hey, come with me!" The whisks are the guy aggressively and very masculinely chasing after the girl, and at the third whisk he finally catches up the girl. The samba roll expresses softer emotion in this chereography, less masculinity, but more romantic and harmonic between the two sexes.

The samba roll: the trick is to separate the body into the torso and the part below the waist (the hip), you have to change between the two to initiate the momentum of the roll. When the body bends forward, it is the upper body initiate the roll; when bending backward, you swing your hip hard and bend the knee to create the speed and liquidity of the rolling motion.
The footwork: I merge the concept learned from Andrew Philips class as well. Put the arms forward; when you bend forward, your arms point to the direction of 6 o'clock(to the line of dance) ; so when you bend backward, the arms are at the 12 o'clock direction(opposite to the line of dance), and your left foot should tap out with no weight on it. When the arms come to 9 o'clock direction, you transfer the weight to the left foot and then start to pivot on the left foot. Pivoting on the left foot until the arm again pointing to 12 o'clock direction (against the line of dance), you tap out your right foot to the side and split weight, and then left foot cross in front of the right foot. The lesson is, you pivot on the left and only transfer weight and cross in the very end of this semi-circular roll. Bend your body as parallel as possible to the floor.

The left foot can be eiher bent or straight, depending on the heights of the couple: if the girl is tall or about the same height as the guy, bending her knee can first ease the burden of the guy and second create more dynamics in the roll action. If the girl is short, then she can choose to do it on a straight leg.

In another Taliat's class of cha cha "creating speed", we learned a routine: 1 open right side frontcheckon the right, 2 open side hip twists, plus something linking to back lock step (lady; gentleman: forward lock step), lady one forward lock step and goes into mambo box.

The trick to create speed is to use ONE JOINT AT A TIME. For example, you only think of
knee when you do hip twist; do not be confused by the name and think of hip or try to squeeze your side of torso. Of course you have to squeeze your side torso and twist your hip, but those are the results come after a correct knee movement. "Results are very different from the fact." Taliat said. When you do the first step that goes into mambo box, what makes those pros move in a super human speed is that they use the shoulder to place their foot but not foot to place their body then their shoulder. So when you finish the front lock step and ready to place your left foot into the mambo box, while your correct position to the leader should be almost in one line, facing opposite direction, the leader's primary job is to place the girl's shoulder on the line, and the girl should let her shoulder goes forward first, and then her foot will immediately place in the correct place because of the work of gravity.

I didn't know the steps and footwork of mambo box, which was a pity. Nevertheless, it's a step of gold level; I will learn it someday.

I feel that I need to remember the correct names of the figures because that will ease the burden of communication.

I didn't stay long in the open dance at night. I simply do not enjoy sitting off stage and hoping people to ask me dance. Such self-pity or consciousness comes to me sometimes during the open dance as well; I realize, again, that I need to work on my dance; I need to learn more steps for social dance, and I need to be unaffected by the leaders' leading skill. I do not want to feel such feeling of being deserted. But is it a good thing that to work harder on dance because of being driven by such nearly awareness of humiliation? To me, dance brings me happiness and loneliness: I am happy that I can dance and communicate with others in a new language free from, but often I feel I am not talented enough to achieve anything in this field. And the pressure of partner search makes me bitter quite often.

Independence Day Ball in Washington DC 7/2 quick note

Thursday, July 2, 2009 - Day 2
8:45 - 9:35am	Ballroom A	DanceSport Endurance	Todd Borzych
	Ballroom C	Yoga - morning warm-up	Stanley Kuo
10:00 - 10:50am	Ballroom A	Tango - "Power with grace"	Glenn Weiss
	Ballroom B	Waltz - "Open choreography" (Advanced)	Taliat Tarsinov
	Ballroom C	Rumba - "Principals of movement "	Oksana Zolotarevskaya
	Ballroom D	Samba - "Whisks, voltas and botafogos"	Marcus Johnson
11:00 - 11:50am	Ballroom A	Waltz - "Creating movement"	Victor Fung
	Ballroom B	Quickstep - "The art of scatter chasses" (Advanced)	Anna Mikhed
	Ballroom C	Cha Cha - "Developing speed"	Oksana Zolotarevskaya
	Ballroom D	Rumba - "Creative basics"	Taliat Tarsinov
12:00 - 12:50pm	Ballroom A	"Tango character"	Victor Fung
	Ballroom B	"Creating controlled flight - balancing movement and control" (Advanced)	Glenn Weiss
	Ballroom C	Rumba - "Using energy to create power"	Karina Smirnoff
	Ballroom D	"How to add the spark to your routines to make them fun to watch"	Wendy Johnson
1:00 - 1:50pm	Ballroom A	"Spin like a Pro"	Oksana Zolotarevskaya
	Ballroom B	LUNCH BREAK
	Ballroom C	"Three Tangos: Argentine, American and International"	Wendy Johnson
	Ballroom D	LUNCH BREAK
2:00 - 2:50pm	Ballroom A	"Heart of the soul - Energy"	Taliat Tarsinov
	Ballroom B	LUNCH BREAK
	Ballroom C	Cha Cha - "Principles of effective and fun competitive choreography"	Oksana Zolotarevskaya
	Ballroom D	LUNCH BREAK
		LUNCH	Wendy Johnson
3:00 - 3:50pm	Ballroom A	Viennese Waltz - "How to fly"	Anna Mikhed
	Ballroom B	Waltz - "Creative syllabus patterns"	Dan Calloway
	Ballroom C	Jive - "Flicks and kicks" (Advanced)	Karina Smirnoff
	Ballroom D	Latin - "Posture and poise"	Marcus Johnson
4:00 - 4:50pm	Ballroom A	"How low can you go? Rise and fall in Waltz"	Glenn Weiss
	Ballroom B	"Lines and Poses in Standard"	Taliat Tarsinov
	Ballroom C	Jive - "The bounce"	Oksana Zolotarevskaya
	Ballroom D	Cha Cha - "Legs, ankles, and feet"	Wendy Johnson
4:50 - 5:15pm		COFFEE BREAK
5:15 - 6:05pm	Ballroom A	"Lead / Follow with weight and pressure"	Dan Calloway
	Ballroom B	"Using body action in Standard" (Advanced)	Victor Fung
	Ballroom C	"Connection: Dancing through your partner"	Marcus Johnson
	Ballroom D	Jive - "Influence of swing and Rock n' Roll"	Taliat Tarsinov
6:15 - 7:05pm	Ballroom A	Foxtrot - "Horizontal movement"	Anna Mikhed
	Ballroom B	Waltz - "Hip action"	Dan Calloway
	Ballroom C	Samba - "Hot hip action"	Karina Smirnoff
	Ballroom D	Performance (Part II)	Wendy Johnson
7:30 - 9:30pm	Ballroom A	"Pizza with the Pros" - Q&A / dinner session with the instructors. Pizza will be provided.

In day two my feet started to hurt, and now it's day 3 and my feet hurt like a bitch, so do my calves, thighs, shoulder blades, neck and eyes.

It's hard to decide which class to go because every class was great and full of useful information.

The samba class of Marcus Johnson was interesting because the way he taught about the basic was quite different from what Steve taught us. But I think Marcus' class is only good after learning the solid technique from Steve. Steve and Susan always emphasized on the importance of using hamstring and sway the hips to create the action in samba, and Marcus, Taliat, and Karina moved my focus to other part of the body and explain the joint effect of those other parts of body. It's like a tree that S&S point out the root and trunk, and those pros tell us with branches and leaves can a tree be like a tree.

I nearly gave up in Oksana's cha-cha class because I couldn't remember the hard routine she gave us:
front check, rounde, back check, a sliding door figure (well i think it's not the correct name, but the move is that you have your right feet ball nail to the ground in front in a side position), a side step of left foot and going into two hip thrusts (arrhh i don't know the name; the move is you are in the side position, bending both knees, and your hip almost like sit on your right foot, and then you thrust your hip to the left twice. In Bryan Watson and Carmen's chachacha teaching video by Dance Universe, Carmen did that move in the very beginning), left foot back, right foot to the side, front check, two side cuban break to the left, a slow one, move your weight to the left foot in the front then whoooosh turn on the and between 3 and 4 (that's the trick to creat speed!) and then use your left foot to push your body to the right to have a macho present posture. There are still 5 figures after these, but I cannot recall and I don't know there proper names. The class challenged me a lot. I spent almost my attention on grasping the steps, and I didn't have spare energy for the technique. Since this class, I avoided going to Oksana's class except for her samba basic action ("Hot body action"). She was an amazing teacher, but the material was to advance for me. Even Matt D. has problem learning the steps.

In her "Spin like a Pro" class, she gave us:
Alemana to the right, spin, Alemana to the left, back check, spiral or double spiral (left turn), and then three rumba walks.
Freak, I can never do double spiral; even single spiral challenges my balance.

Victor's tango choreography:
Natural pivot (1, 2) into Ronde (3) (lady, right feet inside the gentleman and turn 180 and then land in a check position with right foot in the back: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-St7DoJBnAY for natural pivot, and gentleman's right thigh has to be connected to lady's right thigh, so he can push with his thigh to notify the lady's timing for the rounde: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5ut92V-ijs for Ronde into PP), gentleman does a pivot on the ball of his right foot (on 4; or you can choose to do a ronde as well), lady does twister on 5 'n' 6 (left-right-left), 7 'n' 8 be into promenade position. Fallaway whisk and slip pivot (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_Hpf1slOXw the asshole step that always confuses me), reverse turn on heel, contra check.

muhahahha, I think I was so distracted by learning the steps rather than technique.

In Taliat Tarsimov's "Heart of Energy", he introduced 7 knots of energy of human body:
1. butt connects to earth;
2. energy gathering in lower abdomen expresses creativity, and
3. in below the chest expresses confidence;
4. the knot in the upper rib cage connects to "life and emotion": if your chest is open, it shows positive emotions; if closed, it show negative feelings like sadness.
5. the knot on the throat is the "expression" knot, which makes sense because you talk with air vibration that channels through the neck.
6. the forehead is "focus and attention."
7. the top of the head connects to the universe

So if you gathers energy or use the muscle around the specific knot, you express different feelings, which is the philosophical interpretation of body language on top of the common physical movement. He made an example with spin turn in standard dance: i n the moment when the guy has to push forward and be on the ball or both feet, he opens up his rib cage area, and that expresses confidence and positive energy (life); the lady has to show and extends her body, and that move opens up her upper chest and expresses "life" and happiness.

In Anna Mikhed's "VW: How to Fly" class, she mentions the relative sway motion and wave altitude in natural turn and reverse turn: natural turn requires stronger swaying motion, and lady's head initiates her part of swaying. Reverse turn is almost flat in altitude, or it contains little swaying because the lady is on the right side of the gentleman, so it's a physical and mechanical obstacle that causes reverse turn to have less swaying.

In Taliat's jive class, he first introduced 4 dances in the jive dance family, from the slowest to the fastest in musicality: west coast, east coast, jive, and rock 'n' roll, which is kicking motion. He mentioned that there is no need to create new moves or to learn high level moves in jive; we can borrow moves from other dances (or "get inspiration" as he put it) to enrich jive, the relative young dance in Latin that was added into Latin dance in the 1950s. He gave a very interesting choreography that merges west coast swing, jive basic, and rock 'n' roll: (on lady's perspective)

sugar step right(1)-left(2) forward and right behind the left foot like a backward lock(3), right back(4), left back, right, left foot tap out (5 and 6, or "triple step") and split weight on both feet ('n'); sugar step right(7)- left(8), turn with a right foot rounde, left, right (1 'n' 2), swivel (left foot, right foot, 180 degrees in total) (3, 4), jive chasse basic (5 and 6) rock step (7, 8), chasse R to L, under arm turn, turn back, American spin, and then another chasse R to L, the lady and gentleman should face the same side because now he lets her go... (maybe it's called Whip throwaway. I don't know the figure name, but it looks like on 7 and 8 both guy and girl slowly collect their left feet to the right feet; the whole weight is on the right), then it's a figure looks like side cuban break, but with kicks (left front check, right foot kick once, right foot back, left side, right front, left kicks twice, left back, right side, left front, right taps on the back of the left, and then kicks backwards, taps; 3 times) left on toe crosses in the back of the right, halt for 2 beats, turn and partners face each other, back to jive basic.

I like the choreography, and I practice several times after that day.

Karina's hip is God's masterpiece; I never see human body can move like that. We did (I think) corte jaca, whisk, and cruzados. She told us to squeeze one side and prolong the other, and how you open the hip to the side and collect the foot in the back to the standing foot by squeezing your abdomen, and shoulder placement. The most important thing was that she reminded us, so did her teacher Victor Kanevsky, that there is no need to dance too hard when doing samba. Everything, every movement comes naturally if you use one joint at a time, and the joint will bring up the motion of the other joints. (Here I merge some concepts learnt in Taliat ("creating speed") and Kanevsky's ("arm as an extension of your back") classes.)
In fact, I cannot really describe how good her lesson was because a big part was based on her demonstration. Her demonstration was very clear and amazing because her moves were precise and huge.)

Independence Day Ball in Washington DC 6/30& 7/1 quick note

After coming back from Mackinac Island in north Michigan, about 5 hours of driving and half hour on ferry, and my last general lesson this summer and a sweet birthday celebration for me held by Mon, I hopped onto the car to a 5-day ballroom dance camp in DC, with a hope to become much better at dancing.

We drove nearly 9 hours from Ann Arbor to the camp at Hilton Hotel, which is 7 stations from downtown DC.
(And Glenn Weiss, the champion of champion, just walked by and greeted my with a nod.)
At the first night we went out to the downtown, but unfortunately it was pouring for a whole evening. But we still got a chance to take pictures of the National Memorial for the Vietnam War and have some Chinese food in a famous but sketchy-looking restaurant Fu-Kee the Chinatown.

The first day of class:

10:00 - 10:20am	Ballroom A	Information and Welcome Session
10:30 - 11:20am	Ballroom A	DanceSport Endurance	Todd Borzych
	Ballroom C	Yoga - morning warm-up	Stanley Kuo
11:30 - 12:20pm	Ballroom A	Waltz - "Basic action"	Glenn Weiss
	Ballroom B	Foxtrot - "Open choreography" (Advanced)	Taliat Tarsinov
	Ballroom C	Cha Cha - "Basic action"	Karina Smirnoff
	Ballroom D	Jive - "Basic actions"	Marcus Johnson
12:30 - 1:20pm	Ballroom A	Foxtrot - "Heel turn basics" (Beginner)	Anna Mikhed
	Ballroom B	Tango - "Basic action"	Victor Fung
	Ballroom C	Cha Cha - "Making the connection work"	Marcus Johnson
	Ballroom D	Paso Doble - "Open choreography" (Advanced)	Taliat Tarsinov
1:30 - 2:20pm	Ballroom A	"Dance as body language"	Taliat Tarsinov
	Ballroom B	LUNCH BREAK
	Ballroom C	Rumba - "Basic action"	Wendy Johnson
	Ballroom D	LUNCH BREAK
2:30 - 3:20pm	Ballroom A	Quickstep - "An introduction"	Glenn Weiss
	Ballroom B	LUNCH BREAK
	Ballroom C	"Exuding confidence on the dance floor"	Marcus Johnson
	Ballroom D	LUNCH BREAK
3:30 - 4:20pm	Ballroom A	"Frame: Strong yet flexible"	Glenn Weiss
	Ballroom B	Foxtrot - "The secret of timing" (Advanced)	Victor Fung
	Ballroom C	"Biggest faults in Latin dancers that slow progress"	Karina Smirnoff
	Ballroom D	Samba - "Basic actions"	Marcus Johnson
4:20 - 4:45pm		COFFEE BREAK
4:45 - 5:35pm	Ballroom A	Quickstep - "A Beginner's guide to chasses and locks" (Beginner)	Dan Calloway
	Ballroom B	Tango - "Sit back or not?"	Victor Fung
	Ballroom C	"Improving your skills in Latin: 3 types of weight transfer"	Taliat Tarsinov
	Ballroom D	Samba - "Isolation: Controlling upper and lower body" (Advanced)	Karina Smirnoff
5:45 - 6:35pm	Ballroom A	Waltz - "Connection: Moving together"	Anna Mikhed
	Ballroom B	"Closed and Promenade positions"	Taliat Tarsinov
	Ballroom C	Rumba - "Using your back" (Advanced)	Marcus Johnson
	Ballroom D	Jive - "The finer points"	Wendy Johnson
6:45 - 7:35pm	Ballroom A	Viennese Waltz - "An introduction"	Anna Mikhed
	Ballroom B	Tango - "Articulate feet"	Dan Calloway
	Ballroom C	Performance (Part I)	Wendy Johnson
	Ballroom D	"How to practice alone and with a partner"	Marcus Johnson

All the classes are amazing. The classes in bold and italic font are the one I participated in.
My first impression of the camp was that there was always things to learn, even though Steve and Susan had already taught a lot. It's always nice to have a third opinion, just as Wendy Johnson says that whatever we hear from her is her opinion for dancing. In the camp, the dance level of the class is wide and there are not too many champ or pre-champ couples. But we are all practicing and learning hard.

I went to many classes teaching basics to see more technique, rather then getting confused and frantic about learning steps in higher level classes. The technique classes were absolutely fantastic-- the instructors broke down the moves and talked about which specific part of body muscle to use. They teach us how to play with timing and make the basic steps sharp and competitive.

The first dance endurance session was truly impressive because they used ballroom dance mixed up with taebo to work out. After the 50-minute class, everyone was sweaty and panting, but for sure we were all waken up for the first day of class.

Anna Mikhed, Victor Fung's partner was adorable. She looked very shy and scholarly without the ballroom dress. After her heel turn class, I felt I could do heel turn with no problem. See, the good part of the camp classes is that the masters can always give you just a little key point and totally transform your dance.

Glenn Weiss gave us a pretty challenging choreography in the class of introduction to quickstep, which Alex said that the steps were taught in B-team lesson, defintely not an introduction. I danced with Jehangar in that class and almost all the other standard classes since that. He is a physician from DC and he dances in gold level, and he is absolutely a gentleman and a comfortable person to dance with.

The quickstep choreography is (if i remember the figure names right):
natural turn, spin turn, (I think there are some figures but I don't know their names) a syncopated chasse (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVTKejqx3kU) , two slow hop with turning, 2 slow hops and 2 quick hops, and a backward lock step finish.

I was happy to learn some new steps just as happy as to learn the techniques. I still consider the latter and basic are more important, but sometimes new steps just add more fun to dance, which is "mundane and tedious, and requires a high disciplined dancer" commented by Marcus Johnson and Karina Smirnoff.

In Victor Fung's tango class we did:
spin, rounde (lady first then the gentleman), twist turn into promenade, fallaway, snip turn, reverse turn on heel, and counter check into finish.

I always messed up the snip turn. Victor Fung is one of my favorite dancers, and it's awesome to know him personally. He is young, has great sense of humor, hearts Transformers 2, and has awesome partnership with Anna. All these seems so reversed to my impression of him performing elegantly on TV. In fact, the pros that we meet in the camp are all friendly and humorous.

In Marcus Johnson's "How to practice alone and with a partner class", he gave us a routine for practice sessions to follow: practice 1 dance in one practice day; always practice to music; not always practice to the mirror (to avoid shiness); break down your focus into six sessions and conjugate the focus with your partner: posture, rotation, feet, timing, connection, and free expression (which is basically don't think anything BUT IT'S NOT THAT YOU FORGET WHAT YOU FOCUS ON PREVIOUSLY). Each focus needs to go over 5 times, so it's 30 times in total. If you practice to a routine, then finish the routine everytime. After you finish, have a present posture as in a competition, and don't talk to your partner. The reason of no talking is because once you start talking, under the high stress of practice it's natural that people start blaming on partners and quarrelling. So no talking helps you to focus on your own dance efficiently. The practice can be very mundane, but it is very effective for progress. I think whether it is mundane or not really depends on how one think of dance. Dancing is not always fun; in fact, it is mostly hardworking, frustrating and stressful. But if one considers it as only a social activity, then it is fun, but the quality of one's dance is expectably not impressive. And he recommended us to read Walter Lairds' technique book.

Today when I was sipping my favorite Comet iced coffee

I suddenly felt I was such an irresponsible person who made no effort for living but had so much.

It's a kind of feeling that comes to me when I just wake up and sit in bed, not yet rubbing my sleepiness, I see dimmed sunshine shining onto the carpet through the shutters. It comes to me also when I feel philosophical after reading a good novel on a couch but soon realize life still goes on and I still refuse to donate a buck to the beggars on campus--"If they at least do something to earn their money, I will think about throwing a dollar to them." But I do nothing great and have a comfortable life here in Ann Arbor, far away from home.

The guiltiness continually recurs to me, and it always wins.






I guess I am just overwhelmed by the poor grade that I got from my econ class which I consider to be super easy.

End of Spring semester

Obviously for the chachacha, you have to have a good ab to perfect the precision of the dance. Today (technically yesterday) is the last day of the final week. After a good run to MLB to hand in my last Slavic paper on Yugoslav wars, I started my favorite activity--roaming around the town. I bumped into Silu and found out there was an Argentina Tango workshop taught by one of the dancers in the performance Tango Connection tomorrow. It was interesting because Argentina Tango is very different in form and techniques from all the ballroom dances that I know, but doing ballroom dance definitely helped me pick up the sense of it quicker. I tried to learn the leader part, and it was challenging. But it makes me realize that only if I can do the leader part, can I be a good dancer. But leading is really hard.

My met a cute girl in the workshop and her name is Ariel. No kidding, she is just as sweet as the little mermaid Ariel.

After that I hit the gym and ran a good thirty minutes. But probably getting exhausted from the two hours of dancing, I did not run too fast-- only 2.5 miles in 34 minutes, with many two minutes breaks.


I felt a bit bored when I was practicing chachacha basic at DTS today. I guess I was just being immature, feeling a bit lonely when I saw everyone was dancing with a partner, doing very fancy moves. Undenially, basic is the foundation of everything; from the experience in S&S' general lessons I learned that even the advanced dancers on high division team also have problems in their techniques and basic steps. However, I was still a bit envious that they could do really cool moves... I want to do something fun...

So that's why I think I am immature. "Dance is work" as written on a poster at DTS, I should realize that since I have set a goal and a high standard, I should think of more about precision instead of having fun. I have to hyponotize myself that all these will be paid off-- I will enjoy dancing more as soon as I get much better.

But I doubt if this Spartan training philosophy is healthy.

Sigh...

"Wet, Hot Summer" --Jimi Hendrix

After two crazy days of studying and working on my final paper (which is about Yugoslav wars), finally the day of no class comes and kisses me on my forehead as the beautiful Michigan sunshine in summer.

Mo and I threw a BBQ party. It was quite amusing and somehow sad when I saw Eric's bitter response on the event page, but I invited almost everyone regardless they were in town or not with a hope to let them know wherever you are, we always remember you (the biggest cliche I ever wrote on a blog!)

The day before the BBQ, two of us went on an epic grocery shopping, which took us nearly 5 hours and blew off almost 300 dollars from Mo. It still amused me that Mo as a vegetarian threw a supposedly-for-bloodthirsty-meat-lover BBQ party; he told me it was summer so no matter what it took, he was going to have a party.


But I guess he just wanted to see girls in bikinis.
(Gee... I hope Mo is not following this blog privately. I AM JK, Mo!)



The party was fun--swimming, eating BBQ, playing badminton with Mo's skillet and barefoot running. Eric T. initiated the barefoot running based on his theory that barefoot running helps our sneaker-protected feet to develop the muscle of the arch part. When I was running with him, I could feel the veggie chicken patty tumbling in my stomach. But after five minutes, I learned how to run without shoes--"Just imagine that you are like a child." said Eric. Basically you have to run tiptoe because the front part of the feet is the most sensitive part that allows you to respond quickly if stepping on anything that hurts you. Thus, you will have this bouncy motion, and that's why it helps to flex and train your arch muscles.

I am a pretty good runner in CCRB that I can run 3 miles in less than 30 minutes, but I got tired from the barefoot running after 8 minutes. Maybe I should start to do some real outdoor exercising to gain higher stamina for dance.


So every girl was in Daisy's bikinis except for Malinee wearing her own, and Jen being too self-conscious in her beautiful dress.
Unfortunately, a bird drop fell on Malinee's ocean blue saree and ruined it when she and Jen were sunbathing...



I think it's funny.





Yes, we did have a bit hard time when lit up the fire.

Mo is the happiest guy in the world!


...and




This is the most ghetto picture in my whole entire college life. I cracked out when I saw it, and then a line hit my mind from the TV commercial ad of Konica, "I get you, but you can't get me."

I think I put myself into a ridiculous situation.

The pants were Mo's because I was all sweaty after running, and Mo told me that I was bleeding. I thought it was my period blood so I asked for a pair of pants, but it was actually my elbow was cut by some stone. I somehow like the pants, so I wore it to the open dance later, and people found it amusing to see a girl in baggy hip-hop jeans doing waltz.