South Korea to Play Spain

South Korea will play world number one ranked Spain in June. That's going to be a heck of a game.

They'll need to bring a little more than they did in their last game, in which they narrowly beat Latvia 1-0.

Of course, the US lost to Honduras this week. So that makes me sad just thinking about it.

Salsa Video!!!

Here's the one I know you've all been waiting. This is a video of me practicing my salsa dance. The dance includes the first 6 moves of our routine. There are, I think, 9 moves total, depending on where one move ends and another begins.

My partner in the video is one of my favorite dance partners. She definitely knows what she's doing, and was infinitely patient with me as I pounded through some of the moves repeatedly to burn them into my brain.

Of course, that patience is a characteristic that all the girls in the academy share. And it's thanks to them that I caught up with the training team routine in only 5 classes. And on Wednesday, my 6th class of the training team, I matched their level, and even put myself a tiny bit ahead.

At the end of class, our instructor was reviewing our steps, and he pumped the tempo to the music up to about twice as fast. My partner and I were the only ones who got all the way through it. It felt really good.

So I'll say it yet again: Salsa is rocking.

Sorry about the quality of the video. It was filmed on one of my dance buddy's cell phones. Then, I had to flip it into the vertical position, and that green bar stuck on it and squished it a bit. But you can still get an idea of how the class is going.

Enjoy the video here!!!

Hambak News Teams

Here are videos of two of our 5th and 6th grade news teams. They did this presentation as part of the braodcast news lesson. It was the final lesson of the week. We had a great time putting this together and the students did really well. Ron Burgundy would be proud.^^*

News Team 1 video

News Team 2 video

Korean Olympic Roster

The Korean Olympic Committee announced the roster for the Winter Games in Vancouver. Not surprising, the team features 26 speed skaters out of 45 athletes. Korea really destroys most other countries when it comes to speed skating. It's only major competitors are the United States and Canada. There should be some great races this Olympics.

G20 Schedule of Events

While there isn't much really pertinent information in this article,it does list a schedule of upcoming events leading up to the big G20 conference that will be held in Korea this year.

The Korean government is thrilled to be involved. As I said before, this is the second year in a row that the G20 will basically be held in my hometown. Last year, it was in Pittsburgh. This year, it'll be in the Seoul Metropolitan area, which includes Incheon.

Korean Icons

On the cultural side, here's an interesting article about different things Koreans view as the most influential pieces of their culture.

While foreigners hear all the time about kimchi, Jeju Island and taekwondo, there are a few things on the list that are new to me. It's worth seeing what makes these Korean cyborgs tick.

New Ajumma Style???

I love this article because it's so hilarious. It talks about how all the "ajummas" (married Korean women) are adopting a new style.

From the article:

If your idea of "ajumma" is a hot-tempered, married woman sporting loose floral print pants and tight perms, you're living in the wrong time period. It's been a while since the symbolic group of middle-aged ladies started overhauling their long-held image.

From leather jackets to thigh-hugging jeans, a drastic change in fashion is what's leading today's ajumma makeover.

Here's a news flash: Changing style won't change attitude. While much of my more personal contact with ajummas has been good, I don't want to run into any randoms on the street. They come with elbows high and politeness non-existent.