Kpop dance class and bowling

Last week I went to K-pop dance class. It was potentially the single strangest thing I have done in a while. In fact it was damn bizarre. But I loved it. I sat at the back giggling through every hip thrust and face pose. I feel like I couldn't possibly describe this to anyone at home.

When I arrived at the studio with two girls who live around my block, I expected a normal aerobics class. I walked to the back office where a middle aged lady asked for my name and school. She was dressed quite conservatively in a calf length summer dress and cardigan. I just assumed she dealt with the admin for the studio. Wow, was I surprised, when the class began, and the same lady reappeared in sparkly gold hot pants with a matching crop top!! The top was lined with shiny fake rhinestones, all while her legs were ironically covered in beige stockings as if trying to be modest. Another two ladies came up to the front to lead the class, one of them wearing a hot pink leopard print tutu.

Suddenly I felt under dressed... for aerobics class.

Here is one of the bands that we dance to - Girls Generation. I am assuming that our instructors outfits are based on what Kpop bands wear? :P

Say what you like about the outfits and the pelvic thrusts... these women can dance. Some of them were arguably twice my age.. yet seemed to shimmy and pose better than Psy himself. Some of the songs are even pretty catchy... I'm just not sure what they are on about. All I can say is, yes it is weird, but I will definitely be back!

The rest of my weekend was pretty relaxed. I had my first taste of pizza since leaving South Africa on Friday, followed by more makkoli and beer. Makkoli is a type of rice wine served in Korea that is pretty good (especially the kiwi flavour). They serve it in a tin kettle and you pour the liquid into little soup bowls. Apparently the tin kettle starts off perfectly rounded but slowly gets all of its dents because drinkers are meant to punch it. I tried once... the tin didn't move at all. Maybe it only applies to people on their 4th or 5th pot. In all honesty I'm not too sure if its really what you do to kettles or if I am just easily talked into things.

Makkoli

On Saturday night I went bowling with Lindsay, Melissa and Robyn (Melissa and Robyn are also South African). Poor Lindsay was completely confused when we used the word 'robots" instead of traffic lights. Neither of us were particularly good at bowling but it was still a lot of fun. The teenage boy bowling one lane over by himself seemed to wrack up more points than all of us combined. So we called it quits after one game and went in search of a place to drink instead.