First impressions on the dance course

Hi folks!

Today I had my first dancing lesson. Let’s have some fun describing my first impressions.

Despite the wind and my crappy bike (working on it. I swear), I arrived just in time (even though I had to run the last 200m). Of course I couldn’t find room 231 alone, so I had to ask to the balie medewerker:

- Room 2-3-1?
- Upstairs, in the left corner.

I went up again and when I opened the door I was not sure whether I had entered the right room. I looked around and only saw girls in ballet clothes, but the teacher said “Jazz dance”, so it must be this one. I knew this Jazz dance course was not really about Lindy Hop, but I was not expecting this. I felt a bit strange with my normal trousers. Maybe I should have brought my tracksuit instead. Anyway, let’s remove my shoes and start the class.

Our teacher is a young girl that is studying modern dance, ballet and Jazz dance in Rotterdam. She’s quite nice and a good dancer. She started introducing herself and asking our names. There are 2 Chinese girls, one from Korea (I guess), and the rest I think they are Dutch.

Did I tell you already that I’m the only man? Eight girls and me. Amazing! Now I understand how my friends studying Biology were feeling. The truth is that I felt a bit “strange”.

We started doing some warming up exercises (that have nothing to do with what we do in a Karate class). We started right away with dance steps, moving the arms and the legs around. Oh my! I was already in trouble and we were just starting! :O

Hopefully, there was enough room and a mirror, so I could see all her movements. Well, because I’m so clumsy, I just put myself at the end, so I could see everybody. I swear I didn’t look too much at the other girls, even though you can imagine it was difficult to concentrate.

All the steps were a bit girlish, but I don’t care. What’s important is to learn to coordinate and keep the rhythm of the music, which is really wonderful. Really! We listened to all kind of Jazz music: street, modern, even some songs were a bit swing. Just that is worth the course.

Then we also practiced some turns, after which I felt quite dizzy. And afterwards we moved in pairs from the back to the front making even more difficult steps and arm movements. I did this with 2 other girls who had some compassion on me, to not let me alone feeling ridiculous. But don’t worry, we are not really “dancing” in pairs. We just practice choreography on our own. No touching.

At the end of the class we did some stretching, which was easy for me. Concentration, on the other hand, was difficult.

So, despite the fact that I couldn’t make any good movement, I had a rather good impression. The Korean girl was also nice to me. She said:

- It’s the first time you are taking dancing lessons?
- Yes. Well, I did some workshops before, but not really took lessons.
- Oh, you are very brave! Because there are only girls in here.
- Yeah! I didn’t know that… But it’ll be fine. Need to practice.

We had a little chat while dressing and then we went out. I’m looking forward to the next lesson. This is gonna be a big challenge!

Another challenge is going around Delft with my bike chain falling apart all the time. I’m getting used to it, but it’s a real pain in the ass. I’ve finally decided to buy a new bike using the company’s fietsplan, and get it insured against robbery, but now I have to decide which bike to buy. I’ve already looked at a few bike shops, but I can’t find a simple bike around 600EUR. All are fancy ones. Keuzes, keuzes…

Ok, that’s enough for today. Next time I will write about the worst book a I ever bought (I should have read those reviews before buying it).

Sleep tight!

Misty Sunday

There has been fog the whole week, but today you had to be careful to not bump into someone. You can only see a few meters ahead. That gives the city an air of mystery quite interesting.

This morning there were Kyu exams in our Karate club. I arrived late, as usual, but still on time to take notes about the performance of our students. Not too bad. Most of them still lack spirit, but it is slowly improving. After the exam we have gone to a cafe to have lunch and evaluate the results. Gezellig!

I’ve also decided to buy a new bike with the company’s fietsplan. The one I have can’t handle it anymore. It needs to be retired as soon as possible (chain is constantly skipping).

That’s it for today. Now I want to just “relax”, then repair my PC (kernel crashes randomly) and finally prepare some dinner. I think I’ll go for fish tonight, with some sushi as appetizer… Yummy!

Ja ne!

Shall we dance?

Let’s swing!

Today I finally registered for a dancing course!

It’s a Jazz dance course (for beginners just like me) they give at the TU Delft cultural centre. I’m not sure whether we will learn Lindy Hop, but I don’t care too much. What I want to learn is the basics (posture, swinging a bit, how to move my feet), so I can go to dance parties and swing!

Who knows? Maybe I can use my skills at Christmas.

Looking for a new home

Yesterday I was up until late looking at Funda (like I promised) for a suitable house (with garden, near the centre and cheap), and requested to visit some of them.

Today they’ve called me and I have 3 appointments for next Wednesday. I should have done this much early, but better late than never. I’ll keep you updated about my quest.

BTW, someone with hypotheek experience? I guess I’ll need some money…

What I’ve been doing

Besides looking for a girfriend and a house, I’ve done a couple of things more the last couple of days:

• Started giving Karate lessons on Friday at our Karate club. I’m still a newbie teacher, but I’m learning, and I’m happy to help my fellow karateka to improve their technique.
• Learned to delegate tasks to my job colleagues. Dutch people say: “delegeren kan je leren”, and it is true. I’m quite happy about that, because I feel much more “relaxed” at work now. There is still a lot to do, and sometimes I still feel “stressed”, but it’s better than before. BTW, we have 2 (two!) vacancies for sysadmin. Anyone interested?
• Started playing chess online at Gameknot. It’s cool, because you can play when you want, against humans, and you can choose how much time between moves. However, having 3 or more days to respond makes it difficult to remember which was your strategy (if any) or why did you move in a certain way. Anyway, I’m playing 2 games right now. We’ ll see how they end…
• Started watching The IT Crowd. It’s quite funny, and I especially like their answering machine. That would certainly help us!
• Donated to the Wikimedia Foundation, because I use it a lot:
  
• Went to the TU Delft library (I was already at the campus to register for my dance course), and studied some Japanese. It took me 1 hour to fully analyze 2 conversations, but it was rewarding. Then I reviewed some old grammar, from the first course, and I realized how much we have learned in the last 2 years. It was so easy back then, when we only were using the masu form. Being at the university, surrounded by students, is also encouraging.
• Watched the last episode (from the first season) of Treme, a drama about the Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. I like it because they are playing good music all the time, and the characters are well played. Each episode is quite long (more than one hour), but I really recommend it. Thanks Pere!
• Scheduled an appointment to renew my Spanish ID. This time I’ll get an electronic one. I’m quite curious to see how it works!

And, last but not least, I’ve written 3 posts this month! Hurray!

Now is time to sleep.

Oyasuminasai! (sleep well)

秋

秋（あき）means Autumn in Japanese.

I like the autumn season. Of course is a bit cold, but watching the leaves fall makes me remember the time we spent into the mountains, near the “foganya”, or when walking into the woods. Everything colored in orange and redish. Beautiful!

今日（きょう）はとても寒（さむ）かったです。3度ありました。

Today it was very cold. I just checked the weather, and there were only 3 Celcius degrees. Brrrr…

日本語（にほんご）の授業（じゅぎょう）はおもしろかったです。おんあのオランダじん来て日本語（にほんご）を話（はな）しました。彼女（かのじょ）はきれいとおもしろかったです。彼女（かのじょ）は日本語をはなすじょうずですね。

Our Japanese class was quite interesting. A Dutch girl that is studying Asian culture came and talked to us with a very fluent Japanese. すごい！

私は明日明日いそがしです。私はあとで書きます。

Well, I’m glad I could write something, even though it took me some time. Trees are already preparing for the winter. I guess I should do the same, and start looking “seriously” for a house, but I keep procastinating. No good…

Tomorrow will be a busy day, so I’ll write about that on Wednesday. Promised!

おやすみんさい。

Sleep well!