boo-bee-boo-boom-bop-tada-dee-dumm. Strutting his way across the floor he moves with the grace of a well oiled machine. Half human, half computer. DJ Chocolate switches the tunes and all of a sudden the robot freezes and loses his rhythm while his partner just stands there waiting for him to lead. He is a robot dancer.
Friday evening I went to the Law Courts downtown for the last time. The 'Law' has decided that the salsa dancing event is no longer appropriate for the venue. The 'Pitaman' as we call him announced this to everyone that evening and asked everyone to help by signing a petition. Will the law win if we fight it? Still it was a good night. Volleyball girl came out unexpectedly as well as some classmates of mine and my friends. I will miss this place as it is definitely considered by many in the vancouver salsa community to be one of the best places to go. I am glad that two of my other friends were finally able to come out to try it. In repeated attempts to get them to come, I had reassured them that since it wasn't really a club like place, there wasn't as much of the guys hitting on women but more just people going because they liked to salsa or wanted to learn. Unfortunately, the second guy who danced my friend asked for her number and told her that he loved her. She got out of there as fast as she could and quickly appeared standing besides me again. I guess it doesn't matter where you go these days.
In place of the law courts, a new salsa dance is being held at the Howard Johnson hotel on thursdays and saturdays.
Every tuesday is salsa night at Atlantis. Cakemaker found out about it and got all excited. This was our first time at the club and it wasn't bad. I've noticed that its pretty much the same crowd everywhere. The same people. You see the same instructors and the same organizers at all of these places. Cakemaker had lots of fun as I tried to show her some steps which we practiced over and over and over because she wanted to.
I returned to UBC on friday for the first time in many years since graduation. The Structural engineering company I work for received the contract to do the engineering for the work being done to IRC lecture hall number 6. I had to go there to verify the architectural drawings given to us. Many times we receive plans from architects which are not properly updated or are incorrect. Upon going there I ran into two people I knew right away while looking for parking in a service road near IRC and the hospital. After finishing my work, I called up my sister who works at UBC in human resources. They seem to trade office personnel between various departments. Currently she is in forestry HR and they had just finished having a staff pizza lunch. Then I call up and she decides to leave and join me for lunch. The campus is much different than when I used to be there. Tons of new buildings especially in the engineering end of the campus. A whole slew of new campus residences where the old B lot parking used to be. On the topic of food, there are many new and more varied food choices in the SUB and around campus. The barn is somewhat the same but now competes with outside franchises found everywhere else like Tim Hortons and starbucks. The old arcade inside the SUB on the lower level has been replaced with a fast food sushi restaurant. In the end, I decided to go back to the deli on the lower level. I used to come here all the time for their chicken breast sandwich which was my favourite. If I was a student now, back at UBC, things might be different with some of the other choices but for a quick and relatively cheap meal, this was it for me. We sat at a table nearby and chitchatted for a bit as I looked around at the place and all the students busily walking around. Even though there have been many changes, the place still feels the same as before. The old bus loop just outside the sub is no longer a bus loop. It is just a general parking lot. In front of the sub's south entrance the two giant twelve or fourteen foot tall walls are already up. The end of the semester is nearly here and the annual storm the wall event will take place. I've climbed that wall by myself once in my attempt at the ironman category. I barely finished that race. Partway through I started to feel like throwing up due to over-exhaustion and began walking. Another guy in my heat did the same and we started talking in the middle of the race. The majority of the people watching the race didn't see this as this section of the course was hidden behind the biology and chemistry building. Everyone else was at the SUB waiting for us to come dashing into the final sprint before attempting to scale the big wall. When the two of us got close to the last corner, we agreed to begin running again before everyone could see us. The event is a show and we were just acting the part for for the twenty or so minutes it took us to finish the course.
How did I do it? How did I break this blog page. Sorry folks, this blog site of Lei and others is currently experiencing technical difficulties. Please stay tuned. The approximate time to fix this blog is currently undefined.
I started taking a mandarin business language course at SFU and am trying to organize a team for urban rec beach volleyball's spring league. Last thursday I went to one of those motivational speech seminar things with Anthony Robbins. Susan Summers from the old comedy show 'Three's Company' was one of the guest speakers. She talked about her sex life and hormone therapy to promote her latest book 'Aging' or 'Ageless'. I can't quite remember the exact title and am too lazy to quickly google it. The recent president of mexico and his wife also spoke. They had just ended their tenancy in the mexican government this past december. Seeing Anthony Robbins speak at the end was certainly interesting. Or rather a bit weird because he is a really big guy to see moving around the stage like he does trying to motivate people with his words and the music they play. Personally, I just liked seeing the mexican president and his wife. They look like such a happy couple.
Saturday night my salsa class had a 'fieldtrip' to the Gecko club on richards. I invited some friends to join the outing which was good because most of the class didn't show up. None of the students from my class went but I met some students from my instructors other classes. This is where I would insert a pic of my instructor in some dance pose with some woman at the club except for the fact that it would cripple this site.
I met up with a friend for dinner at a restaurant sunday night and got sick during dinner. It wasn't the food despite what the restaurant staff was probably thinking as they kept looking over at my table and see my plate of food pretty much untounched. They had even offered to sear or cook the lamp chops for me. I guess I shouldn't have continued to sit there smiling and laughing the whole time. Thats how I get when I am sick and am stuck in a social situation sometimes. I think it was some kind of low blood sugar issue because the nausea came on really suddenly starting with a growing headache. I end up just eating some of the salad and fruits which my friend had ordered which I thought would make me feel better.
Someone broke into my truck the other day. All they took was my cd's. Nothing else. Phew!