Life is great. God is awesome.

It's been some time since the last update. Quite a few events have happened since then. Before I get into those, one of the things I failed to update on my last posts has been my salsa class with the kids! At the end of the semester, we put together a show for the teachers and parents. The event wasn't exclusive to us, though - I guess all of the different after hours "clubs" put on a show, we just happened to be the closing event for it. ;-)

Anyway, the kids did great! It was quite a tiring week. We only started -really- practicing for it like one week in advance, so we had to practice for an hour or so each day. The kids, even though still being kids, put quit a bit of effort into it. We assigned partners (frustrating but hilarious process, as you can imagine with 10 year olds) and we practiced and practiced old and new moves. All in all, it was a routine that lasted roughly 60 to 90 seconds. Not much, but the crowd ate it up. I taught the kids how to do a dip at the end, and the audience really liked it. The kids dressed up and looked great. If you have me as a Facebook friend you can find the video of it in my profile. Otherwise, I can put it on Youtube if someone requests it here. For the moment, enjoy some pictures:

The boys.

Goofing off with the boys. =)

Ms. J with the girls.

The kids making their way onto the stage.

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A couple of weeks ago, work led me to New Jersey for a week. I went with people I hadn't really worked before, and had a great time. I got to know more of them at lunch/dinner and just being at work. They are good people, and I pray that God continues to bless them in all they do. We finished up pretty early on our last day of work in New Jersey, and decided to take the train up to New York for the rest of the day. What a blast. We visited Ground Zero (I hadn't been there before. What a blessing to be able to see the Ground Zero cross and listen to the story behind it!), had a hot dog, had a slice of New York pizza, walked through Central Park, went to eat dinner in Chinatown, played Tekken 6 at the Chinatown Fair arcade, had New York cheesecake, and concluded the night with a visit to the Empire State Building. Needless to say, we were super tired by the end of the day, but it was definitely worth it. The only sad part of the day was that it was the same day that Michael Jackson died. It was a weird feeling. We heard the news of him being in the hospital around the time we were visiting Ground Zero, and then late at night we heard the news of him being dead as we walked past MTV and saw all the fans displaying their RIP signs. Anyway, we took the ~11pm train back to New Jersey, and flew back to Texas the next day.

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I mentioned in one of my older posts that I was considering re-taking Vietnamese I and II again in the summer. So I did, and it was tough. The class itself was ok, but it's Monday through Friday from 5:30 to 8:30, which became exhausting after a while. After Viet I was over, I decided not to take Viet II. Well, I signed up for it, but ended up not attending. I went yesterday for the first time to help my friend with a class presentation, and plan to attend next week, but I don't think I'll put time/effort into it outside of class. Don't get me wrong, I'm still fascinated by the Vietnamese language, it's just that it takes quite a bit of time, which I seem to cherish more and more now. Anyway, I leave you with a picture from after our presentation for Vietnamese I:

With my partner and friend Hoang-Kim (she's the one I mentioned won the Miss Texas Jr Teen pageant)

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The final event I'll talk about happened this past weekend. I went to a Christian (non-denominational) retreat called Tres Dias. What a blessing. It's an experience beyond words. I'll just say that a lot of prayer and effort is put into it by the Christian community, and is aimed at the attendants experiencing God in a new, refreshing way. God really revealed himself to me this weekend, and renewed my strength and my faith, reminding me what He's done for me and what He continues to do. It was also a blessing to share the weekend with so many brothers in Christ. I met so many new people which I will call brothers and friends. I look forward to growing in my renewed relationship with Jesus Christ and my relationship with my new brothers, and I also look forward to serving in future Tres Dias weekends, that others may experience God in the way He chooses for them.

I invite you to take a look around for information on Tres Dias. It's an international organization, which means you can have that experience in many parts of the world. You can only attend if you're sponsored by a person that has attended previously, so if you feel that God is tugging at your heart for you to go and experience Him, I suggest that you ask around. I would also feel honored to sponsor someone to attend, so feel free to ask me.


May God bless you and keep you.
Until next time,
Pedro

spring update

So, I lied again. Not on purpose, though. My professor persuaded me not to give up on Vietnamese lessons, and so I didn't. I feel like I haven't been learning as much as I could. I've been busy with work, traveling, going out with friends, and teaching, among other things, that I haven't been studying Vietnamese as much as I should. I'm considering re-taking Viet 1 and Viet 2 during the summer, and really putting an effort into it. I put a lot of effort into Viet 1, that it almost seems a waste what happened to me with Viet 2. I really want to learn this language. It's hard stuff, but it's almost like a challenge I want to overcome. Never mind being able to speak fluently, I'll be content with being able to read/write and understand people in conversation. I figure if I ever end up visiting Vietnam, I can carry a notepad around in case someone doesn't understand what I'm saying. Silly, I know.


For a long time now, I've been following Azrael's blog GaijinSmash. It's a very entertaining blog, about an American living in Japan. He started out teaching English, and is now married and "officially" living out there, etc (I'm not very good at summarizing, so I suggest you go read some posts to get a better idea). Anyway, recently I've found sorta similar blogs, but of Americans living in Vietnam, posting about their experiences and stuff. I don't know if that kinda stuff interests you, but if it does, check out Living in Saigon, Vietnam and Lisa's Live Journal. Very interesting blogs. Just thought I'd share.


Recently, I got into salsa dancing again. My instructor and friend (Nick) started teaching at his house again, and now has a decent group of nice (and consistent!) people that want to learn. I've gotten to know most of them, and they're all good people. I've gone to salsa clubs with them (as a group), attended birthday parties (fun!), and just had a blast on Saturday's lessons, which usually go from 11am to like 3pm, sometimes followed with everyone going out to lunch. I've gotten to improve on my salsa dancing at the same time, which is great. I'm still like 1/16 of what Nick is, and I'm cool with that. I just need to know "enough", at least for now. :-)


As for my teaching, I still teach English at the Vietnamese Community Center, and salsa dancing at the elementary school on Fridays. The salsa class has had its ups and downs. Sometimes the kids are really into it, and sometimes they just want to run around and not really pay attention. I continually pray so that God gives me the patience I need to teach them, hehe. I don't remember if I've mentioned it yet, but all my salsa dancing students are Hispanic. One thing I noticed about them is that they prefer to speak English as opposed to Spanish. At first I didn't think much of it, but after talking to some of them, I learned that they simply know (a lot) more English than Spanish. So naturally, I decided to talk to them only in Spanish, and force them to talk to me in Spanish as well (they try to sneak English in there sometimes). It feels nice when they ask how to say a certain word, or when I get to correct them on their verb conjugations or whatever. Overall, I'm very happy with them (except when they go nuts running around in class, haha), and hope I can continue to teach them in the future.


Other than that, I've gotten to do other cool things in these past few months. In March, I spent two weeks in Florida for work. It was awesome, for the most part. I got to see my mom again and spend time with her (she flew from PR). I've been to San Jose a few times, and going there again next week. Work is going good.

I also got to participate in another event with the Vietnamese. This time it was during "International Week" at Tarrant County College in Hurst, TX. We sang the Vietnamese anthem, one girl played a Vietnamese instrument (don't know the name), which was cool, and then we did a little 'fashion' thingy, which consisted of us walking on stage with ao dais. I got to take some pictures with the girls (in ao dai), which was cool. Maybe I'll post some later if they don't mind.


Last week I got promoted at work. The bosses gave me a good scare - they played it as if they were going to fire me, by calling me to their office and being all serious and stuff. It was well played on their part, haha. But anyway, I'm now a Software Engineer II, yay!

Finally, I'm going to Puerto Rico in two weeks, God willing. I'm excited! I haven't been back to the island in almost a year now. I miss my peoples, the food, the weather, everything! Can't wait! Some friends are also going, and we'll be doing some sightseeing around the island. Lots of food and salsa dancing will be happening as well. =)


Hopefully my next post will happen sometime before December.

hi there

I know it's been a while since my last post, and I realize I lied about “elaborating” on some of the happenings I mentioned in it. However, I've been pretty busy lately, and the free time I get, I try to spend with friends, or just catching up on my Bible reading, or any other book I happen to be reading at the moment.

As I type this, I am on a flight to California due to work. I am hoping this will be the last trip I make in a minute, since I've been flying out pretty much every week this year, and for the most part of late last year. Don't get me wrong – I really like California, but I think I'm about ready to call it a day, and stay in Dallas. All this travel has had me miss out on church during the week, and I'm very much behind in my Vietnamese class, which I think I may end up taking in the summer if this keeps up.

On the positive side, I'm usually back in Dallas in time for my salsa class with the kids on Fridays, and I'm also able to go to church, and to teach English on Sundays. AND I get to hang out with friends, if only for a couple hours. Another positive, which I thank God for, is that I still have a job.

The bad part about not posting in a long while is that I have much to tell, so posts end up being really long. For that I apologize.

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I spent the Christmas holidays with my family in Atlanta. It was good to see my family - especially my mom - again. It was also pretty awesome to eat Puerto Rican food again, especially without having to cook it myself, or pay for it. I failed to go to church while I was in Atlanta, but I was glad that my family prepared a little Christmas program on “Noche Buena” (December 24^th). We sang some Puerto Rican Christmas carols, had prayer and even some Bible reading. It was great. I don't think I'd had such an experience with my family since I became Christian.

More recently, I attended dragon dance performances for the Chinese/Vietnamese Lunar New Year celebrations. They were pretty cool, although I don't understand the symbolism/story behind it. The one that threw me off was one where there were firecrackers exploding, and it seemed like the dragons were kinda following the firecrackers as they went. I also don't understand the boy with the monkey face with the staff, or the little dude with the fan. I guess I should look it up. -_-

Anyway, if you remember from my last post, I participated in a fashion show late last year for the Vietnamese community. Well, they had another one, but this time it was for their Lunar New Year celebrations. It went great. There were more people participating this time around (five guys as opposed to three, and what seemed like a lot more girls too). The father of a now friend of mine was taking pictures, and happened to take a pretty good one of me (in my opinion anyway). Check it out:

In addition to the fashion show, I was asked to put together a salsa performance for that day. I was to teach two girls and a guy how to dance. With two weeks notice. Needless to say, it was hard, but we pulled through. I taught them some basic steps/moves, and we simply repeated some of them at the same time (so it looked like we were doing the same thing). Had this been in Puerto Rico, I would have really freaked out, since even though not everyone knows how to salsa dance, we have all been exposed to it at least at some point. On this one, I really banked on the thought that the Vietnamese people in attendance had not been exposed to it at all, and so they wouldn't know if we did good or not. ;-) However, I later learned that I was wrong, and some people there did know how to salsa dance. Oh well. Anyway, my friends were there to cheer us on (you guys are awesome), and they managed to record the performance on camera. It's up on YouTube somewhere now, haha.

I mentioned that I am typing this on an airplane on my way to California, which means that I now have a laptop (netbook, to be exact). I got the Asus EEE PC 1000H. It's pretty sweet. It's red, and has little flower drawings on it. You might be making fun of me as you read this, but the first reaction I got out of a girl as I showed it to her was “oh, that's cute!”, which was totally awesome. I figure it might make for a good conversation starter at Starbucks or wherever. ;-) Before getting this laptop though, I tried Sylvania's gOS netbook, which I found online for $240. It's pretty light, with decent battery life and whatnot. However, I could not get the video drivers properly installed/configured on any of the operating systems I tried, and YouTube was really choppy. Also, the wireless NIC had very bad reception, at least in my room. I read the computer is decent if you install Windows XP on it, but that kind of defeats the purpose of buying such a cheap computer (might as well pay extra for a better computer with XP already on it). To make a long story short: I returned it and got the Asus.

Even though I teach it, I find that I'm still learning English with every passing day. That said, I have a story that I think you will find interesting, regarding English muffins. Stay tuned. I promise my next post won't be eleven months from now.

pink shirts, yellow balloons and fortune cookies

So we made a trip to Austin, TX this labor day weekend. Our "out of town" plans usually consist of a combination of meeting up with friends, eating, salsa dancing, and sleeping. We sometimes do some sort of sightseeing as well. Austin delivered in all aspects, but what might be exciting and cool to me might be boring to you, so I'll try to keep you from clicking the "x" button in your browser by only posting the highlights.


Friday night we went to 6th street for some Cuban/Puerto Rican food and dancing. I think it was the first time ever that I went to a salsa club, actively asked a good number of different people to dance, and didn't get rejected once. At one point I danced with a very nice (and cute) Mexican girl with a great attitude. I played the "beginner" card which resulted in her being impressed as I did the more advanced (not really) moves. So she had a good time, and ended up introducing me to her (also cute) friends so I could dance with them as well. Zing.

Later on some of my friends wanted to get drinks so we moved to a place called The Library. I just did some people watching while my friends had their drinks and did some dancing. At one point, one of my friends sorta challenged me to go up to a group of girls to take a picture with them. So I did.

Me: *walks up* Hey, let's get our picture taken. (or something like that)
Them: Uhh... *one of them points to another* take a picture with her!
Me: *looking at the single girl* Ok! Just look at the camera over there! My friend is taking the picture
Her: *with a confused look* why do you want to take a picture?
Me: -_- ... I just want to have a cool picture to take back to Dallas! :-)
Her: Uhh...
Me: Aww, come on. Am I a scary guy?
Her: *touching my shirt* ^_^ No, you're wearing a pink shirt!
Me: OK! Say cheese! :-D ...
Her: Cheese! :-D
Me: *explodes*

So I guess it didn't turn out too good haha. I'm not the kind of guy that "begs", but I really didn't want to walk away without getting that picture taken. It went from a group of five to just one girl, and me having to pull out all sorts of tricks from my bag (I omitted stuff from the conversation) in the process. I did get my picture taken with a random cute Austin girl however, and learned that wearing pink somehow lowers girls' defenses. Woot.



We're back in Dallas now, but Austin was such a great experience that we can't wait for another chance to go back. I'll just make sure to keep stocking up on pink shirts.