Korean Salsa Dancing

Today was a day of language cafe work and salsa dancing.

In the morning, we went to Isaac Toast to get some breakfast and just headed to Gangnam, since it takes soooo long to get there.

After arriving at Gangnam station, we walked around to some shops and then headed to the Gangnam Financial Center for some lunch.

(I look like a pregnant lady in that dress!)

I think the lunch was just ok..... it didn't have a very spectacular taste as it looked :( bleh.

After lunch, we worked in the cafe for four hours.... I'm really really glad tomorrow is our last day. The more I work there, the more I think to myself "why am I in Korea to speak English for four hours with no pay? Even the students over there ask me why I want to spend my vacation working?" It's really frustrating that all I speak everyday is English...... and the only Korean I speak is "how much is this? How do I get there? Can I use credit card?" It's just so sad. I don't have anyone to practice Korean with, even though I'm in Korea! I speak more Korean in the United States than in Korea! Even when I'm teaching in US, I don't think I speak for four hours straight in English... I mean, four hours straight! And you have to keep up the conversation because the students may not be that good in English to be able to ask questions in English.... it always got super tiring by the 4th hour that I really just wanted the conversation to end. Sometimes what we talk about is really not that interesting that I would want to keep focusing.

I think this working on my vacation time without pay thing is really not for me. I remember feeling exhausted after work while in school... maybe I'm experiencing the same thing now that I am just so tired of talking to people after four hours that I just don't want to do anything afterwards.

After the language cafe, Joyce wanted to check out the salsa club next to the cafe. To be honest, I really didn't want to go (I think Joyce knows that too). I think I'm just a very introverted person in general, so I really don't want to try something I've never tried before... even more so in a language I'm not familiar with! I've never really feel comfortable in any dance-related classes.... whether it's a gym class or a real dance class, so I always feel very scared to go into the classes. Nonetheless, Joyce really really REALLY wanted to go, so I thought to give it a try.

The teacher spoke in Korean, but it's apparent that he knows we are both Americans and can't understand Korean well. Nonetheless, the body gestures pretty much tells us what we ought to do next.

So we spent one hour learning how to do the basic moves (the class was for beginners), and we got to dance with different partners for an hour. Everyone is pretty much on the same level. I don't think the moves were that hard... it reminds me of a zumba class, except this time with partners. After that, we went to the salsa club where the teacher gave us more practice time with each other for about another hour.

After that, he told us that we can't go home yet - we must practice! This is the time of awkwardness. The guys were so shy about asking us to dance that I was really tempted to just asked them if they want to practice together. Fortunately, after maybe 20 minutes, they started to loosen up and asked Joyce and I to practice with them more.

Some other people dance really well... but our beginner class basically just practiced the moves the teacher taught for the last 3 weeks (we only joined today, but it was easy to catch up with what he taught the last 2 weeks).

Joyce was very good at dancing!

Final thoughts? I'm glad I tried it, but I don't think salsa is something I would want to pursue later. I think I would be much more interested in Kpop dancing if they do have such class. However, it was nice to dance with other people, although we can barely converse with them.

Last thoughts: I'm not quite sure what I'm doing in Korea anymore. I think I may have a vague idea of what I expected to do when I come here, but now that half of the time has passed, I'm not sure if I accomplished what vague goals I had in the first place. I think I keep thinking about what I couldn't do.... like my Korean is not good enough to converse with other people, or I don't want to try asking about different opportunities because I don't know how to ask that in Korean... etc, and in some ways, it's frustrating for me, but I think it's just a thing I gotta overcome in myself.

Joyce found a Korean language exchange for me next Wednesday where I can speak in Korean for 2-3 hours. Hopefully I don't have to wait until next Wednesday to take some opportunities to really practice Korean.... 너무 답답해요 (so frustrating)!