learning Japanese

she said she goesto an all girls school and she has to wear a uniform- just like the animes !!

So right now I'm listening to "Wouldn't it be nice" by the Beach Boys, sitting in my dorm room by myself because my roommate went to visit her Japanese friends on the other floor.  I already mentioned this before- but my roommate is this adorable girl from Japan who doesn't speak  too much English...but if i speak clearly she understands a lot.   She definitely knows more English then I will ever learn of Japanese...and shes SO good at picking up new words.  However, whenever I ask her how to say something in Japanese, I almost immediately forget it or mess if up so much she can't understand me when I try to say it later.

Sometimes we have a hard time understanding eachother.  For example, I'll say "do you want to go to breakfast or just wait here for a little bit?" and she'll say "yeaaah!" (not an option).

But I admire her so much for coming to a foreign country to train and for being so diligent about learning the language. She has this little electronic dictionary that she studies sometimes...

Here's three things I learned to say in Japanese

sen cha : green tea
tsukareta: i'm tired
onaka suita: i'm hungry

So now I can complain in Japanese at the end of the day when I'm tired from dancing! I'm still loving the program.  Theres only 2 weeks left!!

Balanchine style

the middle girl is sofiane sylve who taught us last week, and the right girl is sarah van patten, who took class with us yesterday!

The thing I love about the San Francisco ballet program is how they are so focused on diversity.  Even though they train classically, they also mix in the more expressive, extreme Balanchine style.  I'm not an expert on the many different ballet curriculums, but I know that I have been trained mostly in the ABT (American Ballet Theater) style.  Many of my teachers encouraged training in only the one style, because they thought it was important to maintain consistency and also because ABT training is supposed to be anatomically correct...  But instead of adhering to the rules of one school of thought, the San Francisco ballet seems to promote an acceptance of all styles.  There are instructors who prefer the classical and others who lean towards Balanchine.  I think it's great to be open to the other techniques.  I understand why many teachers want to maintain focus on one style, but for this summer I am happy to get a taste of Balanchine( even though Balanchine classes are so hard for me!) I think that all the styles of ballet are beautiful, and so far this intensive has made me appreciate all equally.

Fisherman's wharf/pier 39/Ghirardelli Square

The ballet program is so intense for me because I'm not used to so much pointe work! Its fantastic and I feel like I've already gotten a lot out of the program.

But I've been too tired/lazy to post anything so I'm behind on my posting- here's some cool, touristy stuff I did last weekend that I thought was worth sharing.

We took a "bay cruise" tour that took us around all the famous landmarks- the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island, Angel Island...It was a rare sunny day so it was really beautiful.  I never understood why the GOLDEN Gate Bridge was red...but seeing Alcatraz made me want to go back and check it out! I know it's kind of creepy that some torture chamber prison is now a huge tourist attraction, but its so cool!

Afterwards we wandered around the Pier 39/ Fisherman's Wharf area. Even thought it's really crowded, the area is actually really charming.  And there's a Boudin bakery that smells AMAZING...I think sourdough is a San Francisco thing??? I actually got lunch at this cute little shack called "Tish's Dishes" - huge sourdough bread bowl and clam chowder that I devoured...yummy.

oh yeah artsy shot from my cameraphone

And to finish off the busy Sunday, we walked to Ghirardelli Square.  It's only a couple blocks away from the Fisherman's Wharf area.  Definitely worth visiting! Firstly because the whole place smells like chocolate.  Theres a couple big Ghirardelli gift shops full of those little chocolate squares, and they hand out whole squares as samples (free samples are always fun).  And theres a really delicious ice cream parlor where they make all these super fancy sundaes and stuff that are 500 calories a lick (100 if you look at it)...but REALLY expensive! I shared a single scoop of chocolate ice cream with my sister and it cost me almost 4 dollars! It was worth it though- so rich and chocolatey.  As you can see I had a whole day of eating last Sunday...

cool mermaid fountain in ghiradelli square

doesnt sound too authentic japanese does it?

 Here's a couple pictures from Fisherman's Wharf- I'm obsessed with mermaids so I thought the mermaid bar sign was really cool and the "flying ninja sushi" just needed to be documented...

chinatown

sorry my phone was out of battery and i didnt take any pictures this is from the internet its the chinatown gate we saw

After ballet class last Saturday I got to go to chinatown! Asians are VERY good at taking advantage of tourists. Chinatowns are generally packed with cheap, touristy junk, but they have great food and you can usually find some interesting stuff.  The Chinatown in San Fran is definitely the largest and most picturesque that I've seen.  New York Chinatown/Canal street is great for finding knockoffs, and LA Chinatown has some fun shops , but its easy to see why the one is San Fran is so famous.  Sure it's a little run down and dusty looking (and not a great place to be at night) but for some reason it has this charm to it.  Something about the banners hanging over the busy streets and the carts of exotic vegetables mixed in with bins of plastic toys...it has a really interesting atmosphere.  There's actually a lot of cool buildings that imitate asian stye roofs.  Even though its all plaster and show, there's an ironically authentic feel to the San Fran Chinatown, just because it is so old. It's where so many Chinese immigrants made their home in the United States.  I loved it and since I'm going through a cut-up shirt phase, I bought a couple cool T-shirts.  I won't worry about ruining it if it only cost a couple bucks right?  It's so funny- I saw this really awesome vintage looking "Port of San Francisco" shirt on display under a bunch of newer shirts and I asked the lady if she still was selling it.  She kept telling me that it was not for sale and there was no more, so I asked her if I could just buy the display (it was taped on the edge of a table).  She thought I was crazy and tried to convince me that it was too dirty until I begged her to let me have it for 2 dollars.  I should have just asked for it for free.  She obviously didn't want it and look she got 2 dollars off of me for an old T-shirt no one else was going to buy.  Lesson learned- next time bid lower.

San Francisco Ballet Intensive Week 1!

So today was day 4 of the San Francisco Ballet intensive! I am so sore.  I hope that I will come out of this intensive stronger, because its is such hard work! Here is a little example of how my day goes....

So I have been waking up around 7:30...which is sleeping in compared to the school year! Then I eat breakfast in the dorm cafeteria- they actually have a lot of interesting food for breakfast. Like today they had a quiche! I've been eating SO MUCH here- I feel like I need more energy to dance!!

It takes a long time to get from the dorms to the ballet school.  We have to walk to the MUNI train station (it is like a combination between a subway and train), then we take a 20-25 minute train ride into the city.  Then we walk to the ballet school! 

We have ballet technique class pretty late in the morning- 11:00.  That goes to 2:00, then we have a break or go straight into pointe class.  But we take the entire ballet technique class en pointe! Yesterday we didn't have a break between technique and pointe, so we have 3 hours straight of pointe class!! My feet are in so much pain! I feel like such a wimp here- I hope my toes toughen up!

After pointe class we have another shorter break, then we have either pas de deux (partnering class), contemporary, or repertoire/variations class ( where you learn solos from famous ballets).  

Then I go home and fall asleep! 

Haight-Ashbury

50s dress

I'm in San Francisco!! I got settled in the dorms and met my roommate.  She is so sweet; she is from Japan and still learning English.  I never realized just how poorly I speak English; I need to get rid of the "likes" and stop slurring words together so I can help her understand better!  I am amazed at how brave she is to spend a whole summer in a foreign country...

Before I checked into the dorms, I got to check one of my destinations of the list!  My mom took us to Haight-Ashbury, a location that was the heart of the 1960s hippie movement.  It's a district in San Fran that is considered the iconic center of American counterculture. 

strange i know....

It is actually a very picturesque neighborhood.  It has a bohemian feel, and there are a lot of interesting stores.  I went a vintage store that was categorized by time period and I found these amazing dresses that were supposedly '80s "valley girl".   Then we found this adorable dress shop that was filled with these sailor-style/ '50s clothes that looked like they came right out of Back to the Future! I wonder if the people who work at these stores just hated me; I had a blast trying on a million dresses but didn't buy anything.......

The best came last- we wandered into this outlet-style store called Crossroads Exchange and found a bunch of used name-brand stuff for super cheap! I bought an Andrew Marc coat for 27 dollars (actually I didn't know who he was before, but the coat is beautiful).  I thought it would be perfect for the summer...why a coat for the summer? Because it is freezing here! It was 50 degrees yesterday! I'm going to have to get used to this strange weather....

vintage clothes

I spend hours with my cousins and my sisters trying on our grandma's old clothes.  It is absolutely hilarious to see what people wore "back in the day".  Shoulder pads are the best! They look like a football player. And high waisted jeans are great too.  I love the 80's; I want the 80's to come back!

Going through my grandma's closet is always fun.  My grandmother was probably one of my favorite people in the world. She was the most hilarious and glamorous grandmother I could ever imagine. She was also a shopaholic. I think living through the Great Depression made her appreciate material possessions more.  And food.  She used to tell us that she and her 11 other siblings used to scrounge for bits of tar to chew on for lack of sustenance.  Well, in the time I knew her, she was certainly prepared with enough food to last through a several depressions.  She kept stashes of stale or expired food all over her kitchen, and when criticized she would explain plainly, "when the famine comes, you'll all be coming to me for food".  She was the same way with clothes.  I have countless fond memories of shopping with her, in which, after spoiling me and my siblings with presents, she would spend hours searching for the best pair of white socks in a pile of a hundred identical pairs, or buying multiples of the same perfect blouse.  So usually if we find something in her closet, there's a twin somewhere!

She used to tell me about how she went on dates almost every night (before she met my grandpa), and how she would go home and sew a different dress before each date!  I desperately wish that she kept all of them...

Although the date night dresses are missing, her closet is stuffed with clothes.  I honestly don't know how one woman could have worn so many clothes.

I wear her clothes to school all the time, and I always get so excited when people comment on them.  Vintage clothes are a blast.