Out-of-town Dancing Report - Hong Kong Swing (revisited)

On a Wednesday night in Hong Kong, I went to the Grappa's Cellar at Jardine House in Central. It is a bar restaurant, where the center of the restaurant has a wooden floor that is suitable for dancing. The floor is not large, so careful floor craft is needed. There is no cover. I was just reminded to buy at least a drink (a glass of sprite is HKD25, ~ USD3).

This is a place that I have been to twice. Three times before this temporary visit in Hong Kong, I had been to this place to experience swing dancing in Hong Kong. By that time, I was inexperienced in swing culture in general, and I just felt that swing was also fun in Hong Kong (I did notice that it would great to have more local people involved in swing). Now, I know that the swing that I am doing is vintage swing, which is different from west coast swing and ballroom swing in the US. Okay. I will do better to respect the vintage swing community. 

I only had four weeks in this temporary visit, and I tried to participate as much as possible. In this week, there was a band consisted of 4 or 5 people playing music with us. In this swing visit, I observed the people in this dance scene, and tried to dance with several people. It was great that there is a wide range of dancer skills. On this Wednesday dance, there was also a 30-minute beginner lesson for first-timers to try. I hope these first-timers will consider taking a few lessons to explore swing dancing more! 

On another Sunday night, there was another live band. This time, however, the band is big!

At this point, I started to get acquainted with several dancers. There was a lady from London called Lottie. She was fun to dance with and fun to talk to! I wondered if she was one of the swing instructors in Hong Kong. If some of you who reads this know some famous swing instructors, she is like Evita Arce. When people started to leave as the live performance came to a close, she remained staying to support them. 

Then, I met a mother-and-daughter pair. The mom loves swing dancing. The daughter likes the music, but the idea of swing dancing does not interest her. The mom introduced me to more people in the swing scene. The daughter, enjoying food and music for the night, still liked to stay with her mom and respect her mom's love of swing dancing.

After going to the dance events a few more times and having some conversations, I began to think if more assistance can be done to promote the spirit of swing dancing. I checked the Hong Kong Swing website, and found that there is a swing alliance in East Asia. Unlike the U.S., where a few hours of driving can get you to another swing scene, one needs to fly to get to the next swing scene in East Asia. Here is a list of East Asian cities that have swing scene. At several dances, I heard about a workshop that will take place in Taipei, and another one in Singapore. It takes 1 and 4 hours to get to these two places from Hong Kong, respectively. One experienced dancer, who used to be in a scene in Midwest (Indianapolis, I think), told me that attending workshops is much more convenient in the US.

Another question in my mind is how many swing regulars started learning swing dancing in Hong Kong? I went to salsa dancing in Hong Kong for a few times, and I did see several guys and gals that appeared to be local. In swing, however, not as many. (I started to feel that I may write something insensitive concerning ethnicity here, but I would take a shot to be neutral.)  It seemed to me that most swing regulars had danced swing for a long time (>1 year, at least, guessing based on feeling the connection between partners). Only a few seemed to be beginners.

The ratio of Asians and non-Asians is okay, around 4:6. I still hoped that more locals can involve in this dance, though. I knew Hong Kong people of my age doing amazing group dances. Perhaps swing jazz is too obscure in Hong Kong, which is more difficult to raise interest. However, I also heard that in Taiwan and South Korea, there are more locals involved in swing dancing. Something can be done to promote to the locals.

Another observation is the lack of guys. There were a lot of times to find female leads guiding female follows. I wonder if it is because leading is usually harder than following. This is especially true for swing, where the learning curve for lindy swingout is steep. I also wondered if it is a culture thing about dancing for men, but perhaps it is not true, since I did see more local male leads in Hong Kong doing salsa.

I was amazed on the number of French people in Hong Kong swing. I guessed there is 40% of the total swing people, based on my consistent asking of where they are from. If a Hong Kong local comes to this dance scene, (s)he may think swing is a French thing! With a little knowledge of French from Duolingo, I tried to comprehend what they are saying and failed. Later, I learned about the explosive growth of French community in Hong Kong in the last decade. Nevertheless, most of them are nice. If I have more time to stay, perhaps I should learn some French from them! (end of possible racial insensitivity)

Besides the bar restaurant dance floor, I went to another place in Tin Hau area on Friday, which is a dance studio, and there is a HKD 60 cover (~USD 7). Each time, there was a different DJ. The quality of the music depends on the DJ. Occasionally, there were some excellent music playing. What I remembered the most was the Shim Sham music. If one wants to dedicate his/her time in a swing scene, learning this Shim Sham line dance is important, since it is danced everywhere. In Hong Kong, I learned a few more music pieces that are suitable for Shim Sham, and I found them so fun that I asked the DJ for the source of the music.

Although it was overall fun to see a swing scene different from where I am currently at, there were some occasions where I felt the loneliness in the dance. This was akin to the sad experience in the past. I am now in Hong Kong, but when I get into a swing scene in Hong Kong, I feel that I am not in Hong Kong. Most of the time, I spoke English in the dance scene because I could not assume people in this scene know Cantonese. Moreover, swing dancing in Hong Kong brings me to a social circle that is strange to be in: there are more Asians than non-Asians. Perhaps I feel strange because when I grew up in Hong Kong, I seldom met people out of Asian origin. There seem to be a disconnection between where I am and what I am doing.

In my last Sunday in Hong Kong, there was a swing band live performance in Wan Chai. This was organized by Alliance Francaise, which, once again, gave me a geographical disconnection between the origin of swing dancing and the actual event. Nevertheless, the band sounded more like a gypsy jazz band, which closed up the geographical disconnection gap. Except the humid heat, it was still a nice outdoor dance event. Between the band and the audience chairs, there were some space that made swing dancing possible. At each band break, there was an short introduction class on swing dancing. Not many people jump in to learn. Perhaps for those who has never danced before, it can embarrass them on a busy street? Perhaps this short class was mostly taught in English, which might scare away some people?

I began to use Cantonese to talk to strangers on what swing dancing is. I also met a few more people who can speak Cantonese and are beginner to swing dancing. I feel more connected to where I am. At that moment, I had an urge to spread the swing culture to local people, but I also understood that I did not stay in Hong Kong for long.

The day before I flew back to the US, I went to the Wednesday swing for one more time, bidding farewell to people that I got acquainted with (like, adding people on Facebook). The trip left me thinking on how to make an international scene grow. I believe that swing dancing can be a lot of fun, especially for people who are interested in dancing in other types (ballroom and street dances seem more recognizable in Hong Kong).

May 7-8, 2016 Ontario Orienteering Championship (short summary: a lot of fun, but not good runs)

(I started to write this a week after this orienteering event, but other matters made this unfinished. After a month, I just wanted to finish this without giving too much thoughts...)

Prologue

One day, Jan from Czech Republic said hi to me, asking if I am interested in the Ontario Orienteering Championship in early May. Jan once helped me a lot in maintaining the new university orienteering club in the University of Illinois, but he left two years ago after his exchange ended. Before we parted, we went to Florida for a fun trip and did an orienteering there. We learned that in Florida, off-trail choices could be scary, since we met numerous snakes. Jan even met an alligator before.

Now, he stayed in Toronto, asking me if I could visit him. Yes. The drive was long (10 hours one-way), but from my spying of Ontario maps, I would enjoy navigating through this area. He even told me that Canadian dollars were very cheap now. Thus, I participated this orienteering championship and the road trip.

(Side note: he showed me a Toronto park map that he set the course with and asked me opinions on route choices. The map looks nice as a city park!)

On May 6 (Fri), I rented a car for this long road trip, stayed at a friend's place in Michigan for a night, crossed the Canadian border the next day, and arrived at University of Waterloo area.

Middle Distance

One and a half hour before the first orienteering event, I felt very hungry in the car. Thus, I went to the rest area for a burger meal. It filled up my stomach, but I made a big mistake for not drinking enough water.

When I got to the race venue, my start was within 30 minutes. While I managed to carry basic items for orienteering (plus the GoPro camera), I did not realize the need of water before the race. Before starting, I was excited to see a new map. When I actually got started and saw the map, I was still happy that I went to the right place to challenge my orienteering skills:

The map has a lot of contours to play with. The small map makes this a great middle-distance orienteering location, where the test of navigation skills is the focus.

Unfortunately, I felt the roughness of navigation at the beginning. To #1, I could not navigate at the correct angle, and needed the trail to reorient my direction. To #4, I made the wrong trail choice. To #5, my angle of attack deviated again. To #6, I walked back and forth to find the right gully (re-entrant).

After finding #6, my mouth started to get very dry. I started to feel that I just wanted to survive in the course, and started walking. Then, controls were not too difficult to find, but I lost the competitiveness.

Still, I overshot at #16, climbed to the highest point when going to #19 (I thought of using the ridge to reduce the climb), and to the finish, I was attracted to the wrong control next to the apartments.

Finally, I finished.

Photo by Sid (the photo taker of this Championship)

To show that I did not totally rely on my GPS watch to recall my route, I drew on the blank map first. Then, I overlaid the GPS data on the map:

Here is the GPS data. I think I forgot how I went from 12 to 13, thus I made such mistake on my hand-drawn route.

The result was not worth mentioning...

Below is the video:

Sprint

The sprint was about two hours after the middle distance. The sprint occurred at University of Waterloo, which was <10 min drive from the middle distance course. I had been here before, but it was > 8 years ago.

I was the first to start. Still, I had some time to prepare because there was a 20-min delay in start times. Before starting, I took a picture with Jan.

This time, I was well hydrated, and I could run as fast as possible. When I got started, I found a troublesome leg for Control #1-#2:

This is probably the hardest leg of the race. Finding the shortest route to #2 took time. I overshot when going from #3-#4. I thought even if I overshot one block, at least the second block should have an entrance to pass through. However, the second block was not passable. I think there is a mapping error there.

After #4, things went smoother. I could find the best routes without much of the problem. There were still detours from point to point, but the choices are just either go right or left.

I did find this sprint was fun.

Here is my hand drawn route:

...and here is my GPS record. I think they virtually match exactly.

The fastest person finished in 16 minutes, though.

Here is the video on the sprint:

After the sprint, Jan guided me to his home in Toronto. He showed me an area that I had never been. We got some good food, and I could stay at his place for a night.

Long

Seeing that I could handle 10 km course last time in Cincinnati, I decided to take the M21 course, which is ~11 km long. The map, Mono Cliff, is at ~1 hour north of Toronto. I had an impression that maps in Canada are fun (read: complicated) to navigate. I hope I should at least enjoy the map.

At the start, we once again took a picture together. This time, the start was delayed for >40 minutes because course vetters came back late.

Here is the map. It was not as complicated as I thought. Still, at some local areas, there were still some navigational challenges. The course seems to have many short legs in the complicated area, and then one long leg to go to a new area.

It was a good warm-up to Control #1. When going to Control #2, a girl asked me what to do if the control punch did not beep. I told her to use the spare mechanical punch and report the faulty control after completing the course. Then, I moved on.

I feel the first big mistake when going to #6. I was thinking of taking the more direct route through the open land, but I failed to find the path that led to this open land. Thus, I just went for the less desirable plan: run through the trail, but I still needed to climb hills twice to get to #6. Not a good route choice for me.

Then, to #13, I failed to get back to the trail as early as possible, and I failed to see that the path east of the lake is a better route choice.

At #16, I started to feel tired. From that point on, I felt that I could only walk. This set up some of the biggest mistakes happened in later legs.

To #18, there were two cliffs that were so deep that there were ribbons to forbid people to pass through. The hilltop between #17 and #22 is quite an interesting area.

Then, I felt that #23 was truly my first big mistake. Even I could locate the large and shallow depression with a man-made object on the open field, I was lost when I went downhill. It took me a long time to realize that I overshot.

Later, there were a final rounds of short legs, which I thought I navigated through them well just because I walked. In fact, overall, I thought I did fine for those technical short legs. I still had a few smaller mistakes (e.g., when approaching #7, I overshot), but I did not feel fatal.

However, I could not believe that #28 took me so long to find. It was the kind of mistake that I had not made for a while: circling through an area several times, but I still could not find the control. I thought I could use the fence to guide me to the control, but later I found that I went to the wrong fence. I tried to find the right fence, but was not successful. I also tried to use the stream to guide me to the control, but it did not work, either. Finally, I just wanted to overshoot to the open area, so that I could backtrack to #28, and found it. It took me >30 min to find this, which was unacceptable in my standard. If I did this leg again, perhaps I should trust my ability to read contours?

Here is my hand drawn route:

Here is my GPS record:

I barely finished within 3 hours. I felt that I could finish this within 2 hr 15 min if I felt well.

Finally, here is the video. If I did not make such big mistakes, I should have the whole course taken.


Summary

Despite the negativity of my performance in Toronto area, I still enjoyed the orienteering courses in these three days. The maps, while not as complicated as I thought, still offer enough navigational challenges that I considered fun. I still felt that these 10 hours of long drive were worth of my time.

16-hour layover in Zurich, Switzerland

The unexpected trip

One morning, I received an email saying that I got a job interview in Hong Kong. While I was excited, I knew I might need to spend a lot of money to come back, since I had to buy tickets at the last minute, and end of May was probably considered as high season for air tickets (some students still need to travel back home after the end of an academic year). Upon the initial search online from kayak.com, I found a ticket that costs only USD 1,000 from SWISS, which looked quite inexpensive to me. However, the route included the first flight to Zurich for 8 hours, having a long layover, and then another 11 hours of flight to Hong Kong. I checked with my frequently-used travel agent in Detroit on conventional flight routes (i.e., direct flight to Hong Kong, 14 hours, by Cathay Pacific or United Airlines), and none of them were <USD 1,000. Since (A) I had never been to Europe before, (B) a connection in Europe is even cheaper, and (C) the layover is all in the daytime, I thought it would be a good idea to make a one-day trip in another continent. I know that my passport does not need a visa to visit most (if not all) countries in Europe, so this one-day trip can work out.

Thus, I confirmed the ticket. My plane left Chicago at 2:45 pm (local time), arriving at Zurich, Switzerland at 6:40 am the next day, having some fun in Zurich until the second flight that left at 10:45 pm, and arriving in Hong Kong at 4:30 pm the day after.

At the airport

When the flight descended to Zurich, it was overcast, but snow-capped mountains could still be seen. I thought: with the lakes around this area, this looks like Seattle in the U.S (or Vancouver in Canada).

After the arrival, I had to cross the immigration check. I found that people with passports from European Union have a special line for them. After half an hour of queuing, I walked through the baggage claim, with nothing to claim, since my checked baggage could go through Switzerland to Hong Kong. I only had a backpack for these 16 hours.

Public transport is across the airport. There is a travel info center, where I could buy a one-day Zurich card. It costs CHF 24 (I could pay USD 26), and it can be used to travel to Zurich downtown, and one fare zone surrounding it, without additional cost. The airport itself is one fare zone from downtown. Moreover, it could be used for museum entry, which is mostly free, while some has discounts. Sadly, I went there on Monday, when most of the museums were closed. I still used the card to travel around a lot, though.

A regional train (S-Bahn) in Zurich. The screen shows the next few stops and their estimated time of arrival.

The train only took two stops to go from the airport to downtown, which is the train station. Some of the platforms are on the ground, while others are underground. Most of the times, buying the ticket is under honor system. I did not encounter anyone checking the tickets at all. However, according to Wikitravel, the penalty is heavy if you are found that you do not have the ticket.

Swiss National Museum - closed on Monday

Uetilburg

Next to the station, there is the Swiss National Museum that I hoped to visit, but it is closed on Monday. Thus, I walked along the river to examine the city layout. Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland. Yet, the city did not look big to me. It is difficult to find buildings that have more than 10 floors. Perhaps this is how people live in Europe.

After playing with Duolingo for two years, I think I had the ability to guess the texts in Spanish and French. I did not get to German, which was what I needed here. In this trip, I could still decipher some words in German, like Bahn=train, Bahnhof= train station, and Bahnhofstrasse (the main street in Zurich) = Station Street. "Bahn" is everywhere in Zurich. On the ground level, there are many streetcars (trams) that are also called Bahn. It was a delight for me to figure out what train to take.

My first plan was to go to a hill called Uetilburg. There is a train going there, from an elevation of ~400 m in the city to ~ 800 m at the last stop. From the stop, one may continue to hike up to a hotel with an observation tower. There were also several hiking trails. One could already find a great view of Zurich city and the large Lake Zurich from the top. Farther away, the snow-capped Swiss Alps could be seen.

 

I went for a short hike to find a geocache. The trails nearby were pretty steep, but guardrails and chains were there to protect people from falling. It seems to me that there would be a lot of fun to hike in Switzerland!

Lunch time

On the way back, I went to a bakery to buy and try a pastry. I did not eat it until in the evening. It costs ~ CHF 3-4. When I was at the airport, I went to Starbucks to see the price of a mocha. It was almost twice the price in the U.S. Later, when I checked the prices in Burger King at the train station, the same pattern of twice the U.S. price was also observed.

I saw several grocery stores called Coop - at the airport, at the train station, and on Bahnhofstrasse. Some of them looked like a supermarket (grocery stores much smaller than Walmart). Another one looked like a to-go food court, selling only food for lunch. The one on Bahnhofstrasse is like a department store (like Macy's), selling all kinds of clothes and having a food court on the top floor. I got a lunch there, seeing that I could use the restroom there. Most of the public restrooms (WCs) need CHF coins to use, which I did not have. Just ordering half rice and half meatballs with sauce, it already cost CHF 10. Yes, the price in Zurich was like doubling the U.S. price for everything.

After lunch, I checked the price of chocolate at this Coop basement. Some of the cheaper ones were ~CHF 2-3, while those in boxes could go up to CHF 10-15. What makes them so different?

Around Lake Zurich

In the afternoon, I went to the river and took a river and lake cruise. Zurich card covered the cost. I felt that I wanted to sleep, but I could still see the river and Lake Zurich when I tried to keep my eyes open.



There were several ferry lines on Lake Zurich. The fares are like the trains, which depends on number of fare zones crossed. On the lake, I could find the familiar mallards, but there are some ducks that I had never seen, and big white birds that are probably swans.




I was tired and my brain was not functioning. I found a large building with historical architecture. Thinking it must be a museum, I went in and being asked what I was doing. After several back-and-forth responses, I found that I was actually in an office building!

Altstadt (Old Town)

I walked back to the downtown area, where a large part is the historical Altstadt (Old Town). There are several churches in this area that are worth visiting (e.g., St. Peter's, Fraumünster, and Grossmünster). They looked huge and old.

Interior of Fraumunster

Grossmunster

The clocktower of St. Peter's

I walked through the narrow streets that only allow pedestrians.

These two pictures compare the residential area and the tourist area of Altstadt

There is a cable incline train (Polybahn) that moves people to an university area.

At this point, I found that I had not seen places for charging phone battery for a long time. Before even getting to the issue that the plug in Switzerland is different from the U.S., I found that a lot of public places do not have power outlets at all. I saw the first power outlet later in the afternoon (like 3 pm). Yes, it did not matter, since I did not have an adapter. I did not see any USB charger throughout the Zurich trip. This is good to take note of if I come to Switzerland again and use the phone often.

There is also a challenge in using free Wifi outdoors. In Zurich, to use free Wifi, one needs to provide the phone number, but visitors outside Switzerland do not have one. In this trip, I only found that Starbucks has a way to get around the phone number, and only had internet access in Zurich when I was near Starbucks.

I was happy to visit one Swiss gift shop that has many creative toys. The manual music box that can be customized is one of them. I think each of these products is also an art.

I walked up the small hill of Altstadt called Lindenhof, which provides another view of Zurich. I saw several people playing chess outside.




Main station (Hauptbahnhof, HB)

This is the transportation hub of everything in Zurich. Long-distance, international trains can be found on the ground floor.

Below the ground floor, there are many underground shops. I peeked the Asian restaurants to see if there are any differences in interpreting Asian food between the U.S. and Switzerland. I was not sure. This place looked like Panda Express in the U.S., but the food served seems different to American Chinese.

One more floor below, there are many regional trains. Many goes to suburbs of Zurich, and some goes out of Zurich (e.g., S-Bahn).

Back to the airport

It was 8 pm. I should buy some chocolate before heading to the airport. When I went to the Coop department store, there was already a guard gesturing that the shop was closed. Argh! I forgot from the travel guide that Swiss people close shops early. Thus, I caught a tram back to the main station, knowing that shops there are the exception of closing at 8 pm.

It was still bright at 8 pm in summer! Zurich has a latitude close to Seattle, WA, US

After buying a few package of chocolate in a supermarket called Migros, I got on this train back to the airport.



It is interesting to find that at the airport, I went through first round of passport control and baggage scanning, walking through several terminals, and getting another passport control again. I guess this is how Switzerland deals with local and international flights in one airport.

Afterthoughts

It was rare for me to sleep at least 4-5 hours on the plane before waking up. The night I got back to Hong Kong, I had a wonderful sleep. It seems that having a day trip in Europe helps overcoming jet lag!

(This later proves untrue, since I did not sleep that well in the next few nights)

I still feel that if the air ticket that makes a stop in Europe is as expensive as a direct flight, I may consider doing such bonus trip again. Perhaps I would allow myself staying there for one more day.

Concerning Switzerland, I sense that the best of the fun would be outside Zurich. Upon some research, in about 2 hours of train from Zurich, I can get very close to the lakes and Swiss Alps.

(One of the research sources: Amazing Race, Season 3, Ep. 8 : Rheinfall, Zurich, Grindelwald)