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Sunday:
Today I took part in a "salsa boot camp". In other
words, a salsa masterclass of sorts. Brent and
Adalia, 2 dancers from Canada and the US did a 4 hour
class with us. I picked up some technique pointers,
and got the chance to dance socially and freely.
Again, still wishing that there were more guys (who
can dance and don't have gross sweaty hands,
preferably) in the class! Anyway, I'm really really
enjoying my salsa lessons, and I wish that I had
started this years ago.
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Wednesday:
So seriously, our salsa class really really really
needs guys. There's this one little man who is quite
possibly the worst dancer I have ever seen, and he
also has the sweatiest hands I've ever touched. Then
tonight, this total dickhead of an old man showed up
thinking that he was so great, but in reality, he's
even worse than sweaty hand man; however with him,
it's always the girl's fault. Aagh!
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Saturday:
So, lots going on in Seoul this weekend. The Hi Seoul
Festival is this big huge 2 week long festival that
takes place once a year all over the city. There's
tons and tons of events, like magic shows, concerts,
water sports, arts and crafts markets, even high wire
competitions. And the best part: it's ALL free! The
weather was beautiful today, so I spent the afternoon
just walking around the downtown core, checking out
the arts market and some of the stages. I can't
express how awesome it feels to be able to walk for
longer distances again! Plus this is the nicest time
of year in Korea-- soon it's going to get disgustingly
hot and humid, but right now it's perfect. Pretty
much all of Daegu came up to Seoul for the festival,
so later on at night, I met up with some Daegu friends
at a hookah bar in Hongdae. We wanted to check out the
World DJ portion of the festival, but getting there
ended up being kind of a pain in the ass: we had to
try 3 different cab drivers before we found one who
even knew what neighbourhood we were talking about.
The festival was taking place at a park along the
riverfront, close to the World Cup Stadium. So the
driver dropped us at the Stadium, and there was
nothing going on at all. There were 2 other groups of
foreigners who were also looking for the festival, so
we joined forces to search. We found a Korean guy who
helped us out by a) walking with us to make sure we
were going in the right direction and b) asking every
person he saw on the street if they knew where it was.
He totally went out of his way for us! Every time
something like that happens here, I always think
about how unlikely it would be to expect that kind of
kindness from a stranger in Canada. Anyway, getting
from the stadium to the park grounds turned out to be
quite a hike: we had to cross 2 major highways, go
down a massive set of stairs and walk for another 20
minutes, all the while not even sure if we were going
in the right direction. One of my big beefs with
Korea is that they really don't make things easy for
tourists. There should have been big signs, clear
directions, shuttle buses from the world cup stadium,
taxi drivers who knew where the location was . . .
instead we wandered around for 45 minutes not even
knowing if we were going to get there eventually. No
wonder so many foreigner avoid these kinds of events.
Anyway, we did eventually make it there, and it was
pretty awesome! The park covered an extremely large
area of ground, and there were 3 different stages
going at the same time. And wouldn't you know it, we
had been there for about 30 seconds when we ran into
Zach and Sam from Daegu. Furthermore, we all got
split up several times and managed to actually find
each other again in the massive crowd! And the crowd
was pretty massive-- there were people EVERYWHERE,
dancing, waving glowsticks, taking pictures on their
phones, drinking, pushing to get closer to the stage.
Pretty awesome vibe. We left when the sun came up,
and it was still going strong. (I love the idea of
dancing out in the open air until dawn. So much
better than being buried away in some dar club and
then being slapped in the face with daylight when you
walk out)
When we left, I thought that we'd have to walk all the
way back to the World Cup Stadium to catch a cab, but
somehow we lucked out and got one just outside the
park, despite the fact that there were a lot of people
waiting for cabs. We dropped the Daeguites off at
Seoul Station, and then had some Mcdonalds breakfast.
That was my first Mcdonalds in about 5 or 6 years, and
believe me, my stomach is still regretting it. Or I
suppose that could also have something to do with the
mass amounts of alcohol and tobacco smoke I consumed
tonight . . . hmm . . .
My plans for Sunday . . . do nothing!!!!! Lie in bed
and watch movies all day!!!!
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