Bal bal bal bal!

The past few days have been the All Balboa Weekend in Cleveland (actually independence), Ohio. Four. Days. Of. Balboa! Since no one else from Waterloo was able to to come, I made the trek on Thursday morning up to Toronto to get a ride. Driving, borders, and traffic were all super kind to us and we got in with lots of time for dinner and dancing. Toronto (and surrounding area) dancers progressively showed up until there was a group of around 20 of us. This also happened to be a rather happy boisterous group, so Toronto was definitely present at the workshop weekend. The first night is always great to reconnect with people you've seen previously at dances or to show of the moves you already know so that people will want to dance with you (paraphrased from someone else, I wouldn't have planned something that carefully). Sharing a room with Reesa, James, and Phil, we all went to bed rather early because a bunch of us had level-testing in the morning.

Similar to last year, there are a bunch of circles of dancers for the advanced, advanced plus, and intermediate-advanced trying to bump up to advanced tracks, which require auditions. Having not gotten pulled out of my group, I got to be in the advanced-plus track with Phil, Reesa, and Dongshin. I was really impressed with the overall level of Toronto dancers, with many of them in the advanced track and lots in the intermediate-advanced. Apparently the good bal dancers of our region are only going to get better!

Friday's classes were with David and Teni in the morning and Mickey and Kelly in the afternoon. I found the classes to be at a quite decent pace for both leads and follows to generally get the moves/ techniques. Friday evening was my first ever Jack & Jill (randomly assigned lead and follow), and I don't think it went too badly. Not that I made it through the preliminaries but it was an experience. After more wardrobe changes, there was dinner and then the evening dance. Despite Friday not being the main 'fancy' dance, women are still in dresses and skirts with guys in collared shirts and suit pants. Oh, how balboa is different than lindyhop. The dances that evening were starting to integrate items that were learned during the day's classes and overall people felt a lot more comfortable with their dancing.

Dancing the night before could go super late since there weren't level testing classes in the morning but just the normal sessions. Saturday was the second full day of classes where we had Jeremy and Laura in the morning Andreas and Teni in the afternoon. I enjoyed listening to Laura for her energy while instructing, and I liked Andreas' focus on the stylings of the original dancers (also his red socks with black/charcoal shoes and pants). After the lessons, Reesa and Phil scrambled to get ready for the ACBC strictly balboa competition while the rest of the Toronto people chilled out before the dance. I believe this was the evening where we were what I called "Canadian rude" at the local Middle Eastern restaurant where we were boisterous and silly, fun times. Saturday's dance with the Boilermaker Jazz Band was by far my favourite (though the Mint Julep band was probably more lively) because I had a lot of really fun dances with lots of interesting dancers. Halfway through was the ACBC finals and at 2 am they had the pure balboa competition. This involved very fast tempos and bal in purely closed position, it was pretty fun to watch, though how to do the first round of eliminations fairly when everyone's clumped together is beyond me.

Sunday classes started off slower than the other two nights because people were getting tired and were up late, typical of workshops. But we had Bobby and Kate in the morning which was a lot of fun. Concepts from this lesson were different styles of stepping for bal, and then having the follows teach a new move to the leads who were asked to leave the room. In the afternoon was Chris and Beth from California, which I had not heard of previously. They were an interesting couple where they got us to do a lot of double turn work and arm catches. I thought Chris had some neat slides for the leads which I also tried for myself, why not right?

The afternoon after classes a lot of people napped while some people started to depart. These were times that I was glad I had my laptop because when you're tired, one of the most satisfying things is to flip through cat pictures or imgur with friends. Sunday night's dance was good but I wasn't around for long because I was actually getting tired by then (since I don't sleep or nap much). I managed to get the last few dances with people that I was hoping for, and starting saying goodbye to people that I probably wouldn't run into the next morning. Since Reesa and James left on Sunday, I migrated to Stefan, Amanda, and Johanna's room (along with Rob from Kingston) for the night. There was enough space so I didn't need to take the bathtub.

Monday morning I finally made it out for the run I was hoping for since Friday was level testing, Saturday and Sunday my feet were tired and not feeling like running. I headed east on the main road (similar to Hespeler road in Cambridge) since there was a nice big hill that I remember from driving around with Stefan and the crew on the first day. At the bottom of the hill there was a trail (apparently called the Towpath Trail) that followed a canal and river, so I followed that south past several locks and a waterfall. I returned to the people in the room waking up so the obvious thing was to excitedly tell them of my adventures and the pretty spot I found in Independence. Actually, it wasn't Independence, it was the adjacent city, Valley View. Even the city signs are old-timey whitewashed boards.

Overall, a very excellent weekend. Great friends, learned lots, and kicked my balboa fanaticism into overdrive. :)

Yes, I fail at 'B'-ing, so I've been told

Remix shoes I got at ABW

[Image courtesy of Ralph Brown]

[Image courtesy of Ralph Brown]

A Game of Firsts

My first presentation of my first paper at my first conference.

I certainly helped that the CSCE (Canadian Society of Civil Engineers) 2013 conference was held in Montreal, QC. After a bit of a shaky practice the day before in front of Sriram and Scott's research teams, I fixed things up majorly on Tuesday ready to present on Wednesday afternoon. There were a few other people from the civil department going, but Scott and I didn't happen to coordinate transportation with them, so we rented a car and drove down early on Wednesday. Plans for this trip also included doing the same type of field work that I did at the bridge in Brossard but at the bridge that lead to the spa Bota Bota (also built by MAADI Group), see Turlough, and go dancing at Cat's Corner.

After some really great and enlightening talks along the way, in the last few hours of the drive I finally pulled out my laptop and went over the changes in my presentation with Scott. Arriving within good time for my 3:30 session, I had to change and get ready (after a 6-7 hour drive) in the hotel bathroom since I couldn't check in. We weren't in the conference hotel, but we got bumped to each our own executive suite, which was ok with me!

A familiar view

Due to some mix ups, Scott was not able to attend my talk, and it turned out to be a very empty room. The one person I did know that was in the room was Jacques from the Aluminium Association, so I had a good presentation, but not too many witnesses, but that's ok. From then on, I could enjoy the conference!

The first night at the young professionals social, I met Kevin and Matt, two recently graduated UW civils that were in the dynamics class I TAed. There was apparently a new competition at the CSCE conference to present capstone projects and UW sent them. Hanging out with and a few others from University of Saskatchewan at dinner, the evening ended relatively early because everyone was very tired. But now that I had found to UW students I knew, Scott's conflict the next morning with chairing a session with the time slot we arranged with Bota Bota do to accelerometer instrumentation on their aluminium bridge would no longer be an issue.

The next morning I woke up, I meandered to the conference for breakfast, gathered the guys and took the car to the Vieux-Port with a heavy bag of big accelerometers (the kind we had before), accelerometers the size of sugarcubes, my laptop, the DAQ, and the mounting blocks we built for the last field test.

Portfolio picture from MAADI Group's site

Having a few extra hands around was a huge help, and it would also would have taken a much longer time had I also had to jump on the bridge and collect the data. After a few hours of us collecting tests and moving the accelerometers, Scott came by after his session to check out our installation. Scott and I later met with Alex at the office for a bit and got to hear about some really neat things he has in the works. When I responded yes to whether I brought my swim suit with me, Alex gave me a pass for the Bota Bota spa. Already planning a run the next day, I now knew how I was going to do my cool down.

Returning the equipment back to the hotel, I returned to the conference to listen to more talks and meet some pretty interesting people. Dinner was at the 3 amigos for the young professionals group, and I found out that many of the organizers or older people of the group were GNCTR captains or on the committee when it was at their university in recent years. Needless to say, that was a really awesome dinner table for me because I'm still very interested in being in the loop (UW Alumni team!).

I made a slightly early exit from dinner to go visit Turlough who originally invited me to the Rialto, but did not feel well enough to go in the end. So I went out on the metro to see him at his new place by Jean-Talon. We drank tea, chatted, and watched classic Doctor Who. It was a very comfortable evening!

Saturday morning I woke up early (like every other day during this conference) and went for a run down Peel to the Lachine Canal, along the water past Bota Bota, into Old Montreal, and back. Still catching breakfast at the conference, I went to the morning presentations and at an early lunch I scooted out to the spa. It was my first time at a spa and it was very tranquil. The sauna was peaceful and I just lay there for a while trying to let go a bunch of stress that had built up in the past few weeks, the driving, and presenting. I had to say, looking out over the edge of the jacuzzi and seeing all of downtown Montreal was pretty unique and awesome.

I eventually left and made my way back to the conference (I felt I should at least make a token appearance that afternoon?). Scott had his second and final presentation, which was nice that we didn't have to stick around on Saturday when people would be leaving the conference throughout the day.

Attempts to meet up with my cousin fell through sadly, but I made it out to Dunn's to have a victory smoked meat sandwich, walked up and around Mount Royal, had a small nap, then walked over to Cat's Corner. So ensued a really awesome (as expected) 4 hours of dancing, along with meeting new and old faces. After the run, lots of walking around Montreal, and dancing, my legs were getting pretty tired. On my way home, I came across a café that was still open and had some tasty looking macarons, which made a nice treat on the way back. Second super late night of the conference, I crashed and woke up 3 hours later!

Saturday was just a pack stuff up, get a little breakfast and head out, where we made it back to Waterloo around 1pm. Oh! and the one day I only had a coffee as a lunch, but I won another free coffee, so there were lots of happy things that happened on this trip. Oh yes, and I bought a pillow from HMV that looks like a TARDIS, I would have kicked myself if I assumed the small HMV in Waterloo had it and then didn't.

I miss Montreal. Is there a way I can live in multiple cities at once?

Apartment full of women!

Post winter term exams, it was finally possible to get a time where Sara, Monika, Becky, Rachel, and I could all take a weekend to drive down to New York to visit Mike. This had been in the works for a few months so I was excited this got to happen.

Unfortunately, I couldn't help drive on this trip because my standard driving hasn't been practiced in many years (and it wasn't great to start with). Leaving right after work, there was a massive hail storm on our way out of Kitchener, nothing interesting elsewhere, until we met a rather lively border guard at Fort Erie that was probably really bored (apparently I look like trouble?). Getting in at 4 am to Brooklyn there wasn't an ounce of traffic in Manhattan, I'm not sure what everyone gets so flustered about. Mike was ready to greet us with a living room full of air mattresses, and from then on the weekend's theme was that Mike had an apartment full of women (reference to binder full of women).

The next day a bunch of the girls slept in (naturally), while a few of us went for breakfast at the cafe of Mike's recommendation and walked along the Manhattan Bridge since it is nearly at the base of Mike's place.

When he returned from a token 1/2 day at work, we went to explore (go to the Savoy sign in Harlem was something I wanted to do), see Times Square, and try for a ticket raffle for Wicked.

Truckin' at the Savoy

Though we didn't get the tickets that day, we tried for Saturday afternoon and got enough for all except Mike and Sara to go. Since Sara had never been to NYC, he took her to some of the iconic places. We walked through Central Park, where everything was in bloom, and there tons of runners and cyclists everywhere. It made me anxious to go running even moreso because I brought my gear with me.

Band cover art, anyone?

That night we had dinner at the Mexican place near the Metropolitan Opera, which had an awesome fountain. I wonder if fountain engineer is a thing?

Myself, Becky, Monika, and Sara at the Met

Some of the group a bit tired at this point, so after passing by Times Square again, we headed to Brooklyn, gathered our things and went to a club that Mike heard of that was on a rooftop and gave you bathrobes while outside. Needless to say, being right by the Empire State building and Chrysler building is a good backdrop.

Saturday morning! Well, mornings took a long time with five women in a bachelor apartment, it was rather comical. Oh yes, and Rachel arrived into the bus terminal that morning so Mike and Becky met her. I believe by the time we gathered everyone, it was time to head to the theatre to try for those rush tickets to Wicked. More wandering happened between getting the tickets and the show, which included a walk to the west side with a box of $1 pizza slices!

Wicked was great, even though Monika's seen it before, she was super excited to see it again. We were in the front row so I waved at the musicians in the pit before and after the performance, some responded, and I think some of them pretended I wasn't there (it was fun regardless).

We had dinner at the Chelsea Market (an indoor market kinda like the St. Lawrence Market in Toronto), and afterwards met Mike's girlfriend Karen at the Highliner walk on the east side of Manhattan. She was a really interesting, being into the math-biology field, likes running and biking. The crew then went swing dancing at Swing 46. I'm glad people had fun because I'd feel pretty responsible for 6 people not having fun on my account. The evening ended with getting cupcakes and then Mike and I catching up while eating cupcakes in the gym of his apartment building (people were sleeping in his apartment and every other room was locked late at night). I think that was my favourite part of the trip because for me, having been to New York, was seeing Mike and doing non-touristy things.

...yup...

Sunday morning was right before we were going to leave. Mike and I went for a run which took us across the Brooklyn Bridge, past the Freedom tower, around the Hudson river, and through Battery Park. On our way back over the Brooklyn Bridge, we ran into an MS walk crowd, where we dodged the crowd and got high fives from the organizers of the walk.

After a bit of well-earned brunch with Mike, Karen, Sara, Becky, Monika, and Rachel, we headed out for our drive back. A great weekend!

Winterstock

Back during the Family Day weekend of reading week in February, a bunch of Toronto and Waterloo dancers trekked up to Wolf's Den just outside of Algonquin Park for Winterstock. Lindystock in the summer was so popular that the notion of a winter version was tossed around for a year or two before the organizers gave it a shot. It was an event that sold out in minutes and we had the best weather a winter retreat that we could have asked for! Lots of snow with a healthy layer or fresh powder as we arrived.

[Photos courtesy of Matt Wiebe]

[Photos courtesy of Matt Wiebe]

The days were filled with either indoorsy stuff (reading, board games, dancing), and outdoorsy stuff (renting cross-country skiis, hikes to the falls where we were in the summer). It was super beautiful! The dancing in the evening was fun (and so was DJing said music). Some people had arranged ahead of time to go on a dog sledding trip, which was by far the coldest day when we were there! Despite being a lot more work than they expected, and some of them being dragged behind the sled while their spouse was completely unaware, they all seemed to love it. One of the favourite events of the weekend was 'Winterscotch', where people brought in their bottles of single malt scotch for a tasting.

[Photos courtesy of Matt Wiebe]

[Photos courtesy of Matt Wiebe]

[Photos courtesy of Matt Wiebe]