ode to lovely

the dance off

The (Ice Skating) Dance Off from Natalie Garcia on Vimeo.

Manuel and I went ice skating on Sunday with some of his coworkers. We realized that going around in circles was a bit boring and decided to have a dance off instead, to see who had the craziest and most embarrassing moves. Obviously, I won the competition. 

fantasia pool party

We went to this all day pool party at a water park a few weeks ago. I was beside myself when I saw Taiwanese girls interpretation of a "pool party". 

To me, the pool party meant: fun in the sun, water slides, acting silly with friends, no makeup (cause i'd be getting wet, duh!), summer dress, flip flops, dancing, beers, and getting tans.

To Taiwanese girls it meant: wear the smallest bikini possible, with high heels, a face full of make up, fake eyelashes, perfect hair, and go there to flirt with boys.

Even the girls that got in the water (there weren't that many who did because i've also learned that many Taiwanese can't swim), would run to the bathroom after getting wet to quickly touch up their makeup. 

Talk about cultural differences. If I were to see a girl wearing makeup and high heels and fake eyelashes at a water park in the states, I would just laugh. Here, its normal. Actually, is expected. Now I know that I have to look and dress hotter at my next Taiwanese pool party in order to fit in.

Enjoy the video. I'm barely in it, but you can still get an idea of what the pool party was like!

luckily, dance is a universal language

I went to a dance class last night. Hip hop, to be exact. I was nervous that the lack of mandarin was going to be a big factor. But I was able to keep up. I was very impressed with the class, but more importantly, with the teacher. She was absolutely AMAZING. Apparently, she is a well known badass hip hop dancer. She's danced for P-Diddy, (or Diddy, or whatever he is called these days), and choreographs a lot of good stuff around here. So, you better believe I will be back next week, busting a move with Diddy's backup dancer.

And because I don't like to post without a picture. A little view of my neighborhood here. Have a great day!

relevé

Off to ballet class. Then to Paper Source. Then home to quilt for the rest of the afternoon. It is going to be a lovely saturday. Full of tondu's, releve's, pretty paper, and designer fabric. Lovely, indeed.