Greetings, readers. This entry reaches you from the Dunkin Donuts near my house because I decided to opt for close and comparatively cheap tonight. Last weekend was a blast. Friday was a sad occasion in that it was Jasmin’s going away party which, of course, means she’s gone. But the festivities were delightful. A big group went out for galbi first, which was full of deliciousness and socializing. I got to remeet some folks I met at the cabaret and spend more time with some good people. From there we headed to Go Go Party, where one of Melinda’s salsa students, a nice dude named Jamari, was playing some very well chosen music. There was much boogying. Saturday morning I kept it lazy. All I really did was make a short trip to Emart before meeting up with Nakia for some more BBQ action. She also donated some clothes to the Asha-needs-more-nice-clothes fund. We parted ways only to reunite a few hours later for some dancification. For the first time, I had a really, solidly good time at Old School. I also experienced the military curfew for the first time, as a result. It’s actually pretty funny to watch. Once 1:45 rolls around, they start filtering out until there is literally 1/6th of the people in the club left. Then, after two, three fatigue wearing officers appear to do some rounding up. A woman I know once got grabbed by them because they thought she was military and she wouldn’t show them her ID because she didn’t know who they were. It was bizarre dancing while watching them peruse the place for errant soldiers. Then the dancefloor was all ours and we took advantage of it. We were the last to leave. A very successful night.
So when you consider those two nights, you can tell why it’s a bit of miracle that I made it up in time to attend Susy’s hip hop class on Sunday. I even had enough time to skype with my super awesome friend in China first. Susy, who you may recall is Melinda’s salsa co-teacher, is also a very good hip hop dancer (and a martial arts fighter, because she’s just that much of a machine). So she, along with a couple of skilled helpers, is teaching a hip hop dance class every Sunday. So I missed the first couple of classes but made it to this one. And boy did she kick our butts. I was a little late because I got lost, having never found the club it’s at during daytime. I arrived to see 20 or so students engaging in some warm up. Now Susy’s style of warm up is, in fact, conditioning, which translates to squats, crunches, staggered push ups...Yeah. I wasn’t ready. After barely surviving that, we got to the dance, which was a bit more within my skill set. The choreography we are working on is fun and looks good, though it was a tad difficult for me to catch up with the rest of the class. The class includes cool people I already know, cool people I’d seen around, and cool people I just met then. Post-class, some of us went to eat. The crowd was an awesome set of folks who provided much entertainment. Among the new folks were a Guyanese-American video game expert, a super friendly and smart South African woman, and a really cool black American girl who I kept thinking would get along really well with Maanda. It was also nice hanging out with Susy’s boyfriend Nick, who has, among other good qualities, an incredible memory for TV show quotes. To round out the group there was Susy herself, Krissi the very sweet woman from Atlanta who I met my first weekend here, and Matt, another martial arts and dance machine. It’s funny; Sunday actually made me feel as though I really, truly live here more than I have felt before. Maybe it was the non-work related daytime activity or the deliciously nerdy and clever crowd, but I really felt a home this weekend.
Which is what made it worth it when I woke up in pain on Monday. My legs felt like jello and I could barely bring myself to walk to work on Monday and Tuesday. Knowing my overworked muscles needed some help to recover after being utilized more in one weekend than they’d been in months, I made a date with the jimjilbang on Wednesday. I took a long a co-worker who’d never been before. We both got scrub downs. For 14,000 won, you can get the scrubbing of a life time. They are provided by an ajummah who wears nothing but her panties and some oven mitt-esque scrubbers on her hands. It seems like it would be weird, but she is so business-like about it that its actually not weird at all. She really goes to town on your dead skin; you can actually see it strewn across the table. It hurts a little bit but afterwards you feel as soft as a baby’s bottom (which I have heard is very soft). We’d soaked for a long time before getting our rub downs and we were both pretty hungry by the time we’d both had our turn, so we forewent the hot floors and headed home instead.
So yeah, life is good. And this weekend, I’ll be doing it all over again, heaven help me.
Love,
AAA
P.S. Music rec time! I give you Epik High, one of the first Korean hip hop groups I ever liked. One of the rappers has a master’s in English Lit, which is pretty sexy if you ask me. Which you did, with your mind.
Enjoy!
older track: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUS-RoxWI_w
newer track: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZbxsM9RUtU
P.P.S. I also wrote a restuarant review for Daegu Pockets this week, which shall presumably appear in the next issue. I'll keep you guys updated on that.
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