I'm still in Auckland. Work is busy, but not as crazy busy as when I was in Tokyo or the UK... which makes me happy.
Let me try to recap what's been going on... in no particular order:
- went to a Salsa party on Saturday. Salsa is very big here. Lots of talent.
- Ryan and I bought mountain bikes. Ryan got his first and went for a bike ride one Sunday along the beach: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=95reg1b.2tizsnfn&x=0&y=yvuag5
- went to Mt. Rupehu for snowboarding with Ryan, a coworker, and his friends one weekend. We roughed it and stayed at a backpacker's place called the Mt.Rupehu cabins. Good thing I brought ear plugs. It was difficult to get a place to stay that weekend because it happened to be when school was out.
- teaching regular weekly belly dance classes on Mondays at City Dance. 7:30 PM. There's about 9 girls each class. We start with a quick warm-up, then go into new technique or movements, then followed by a choreography that we add to each week. Of course I have the whole choreography already planned out, but I teach a little bit of it each week.
- going to Salsa class every Wednesday night. One of the guys on my project (on the customer side) is an Australasia (yes, that's a legitimate term here for Australia, NZ, Asia and Asia Pacific) Salsa champion. He's been salsa dancing since he was 16. Now, in addition to his tech job, he teaches salsa and directs a dance company called Dance Xtreme
- practicing on my own at least 1 hour a week at the dance studio inside the Auckland University Recreation Centre. I say at least because it's usually more than that. I go into the Rec Centre so much the people at the front desk recognize me. Well, they have to deal with me because I ask for the key to the dance studio. A few times now, I go in to the studio and there are people finishing up. They will ask what I'm doing. Then they'll stay and watch me dance a song. It's a nice feeling because most of them are breakdancers or hip hop dancers. But they show a lot of respect for my performance and that makes me feel good.
What's on the horizon?
- Tonight, I am a judge for the Auckland Regional Salsa Competition. My salsa coworker is heading that up. He asked me to judge, and I'm more than happy to. I know good dancing when I see it!
- Tonight, I'm performing at the Auckland Regional Salsa Competition. I'm going to do a latin-influenced number.
- This weekend, I'm going to a drumming workshop with Angela.
- Next Wednesday, I'm a guest teacher at Angela's class.
- October 1, I'm performing with the Dance Xtreme group in their show.
- October 22, I'm teaching two tribal fusion belly dance workshops in Auckland. Hosted by Angela. She is awesome.
- November 2 - 17, I'll be in Egypt with the Sabaya girls!
Lots of stuff going on besides working alot... so that is good news!