the onset of summer

HOT.

The steamy Daegu weather has arrived. Unlike in Canada, where weather changes slowly creep up on you, Korea basically has summer and winter, where spring and fall are like a joke. At best, a few days of glorious weather around 20 degrees. This is also the time when middle aged folk bust out the best of their hiking gear: black polyester pants, and bright coloured sweat-wicking long-sleeved shirts, and .... hiking polls.... to hike up pathed pathways that are more like sidewalks than challenging mountainous terrain.

For me, this means bursting open my wardrobe to expose brightly coloured skirts and dresses, lightweight fabrics, and my impressive shoe collection... and extra walking and biking. Asha has a habit of setting up her throne in one of two places to catch some vitamin D during our rigidly enforced "Fresh Air Time" aka break, which lasts from 11:31-11:44 and 4:31-4:44 daily. We see a lot of interesting things from a perch in the sun. One side is the sidewalk, and the other is a shoddy little parking area. Shoddy, because the "chain" that closes off the four-car parking area is neon green, and plastic. Yesterday, a driver pulled up to the chain, got out of the car, and de-linked two segments of the chain. He drove into the lot, parked his car, then re-linked the chain back up.

We have also seen:
-Crazy old men on bikes with cool straw hats, who yell at us and want to practice their English
-Children who run by brushing their hands along a ledge, and then freeze when they see us
-Old women who stare intensely until you look them in the eye and say "annyong haseyo"

And today I bought a strange ice cream called an "ice pine", which sounds more like "AH-ee-su PA-eye-nuh" - but before you gag and think about pine-sol flavour and Christmas trees, rest assured that this baby was shaped like a little pineapple the size of a pine cone.

Last Friday we had a salsa show at Urban club. The owners are a great bunch of people, and they took care of us as we rehearsed all week, providing orange juice, water, and snacks. We did a rueda with five couples, and our "salsa showcase" with two couples. It was a lot of fun and went really well. Our girls were decked out with dramatic smokey makeup, and the dances went well - the only scary moment being when both Christine and I were being flipped in the air upside down and our feet hit each other mid-air.... there is a troupe of Brazilian professional dancers who work at a local amusement park, and bringing them to a party is like opening a can of worms of fun. We had a conga line going, and danced up a storm until close to 4am, where we ended up at Burger King where I had a shrimp burger. Sorry ... See-oo bah-guh.

I don't do this often. My days of partying till 6am are pretty much over. If a crazy friday happens, I am pretty much out of commission on Saturday. So Sharifa and I lounged about in the sunshine on my rooftop, lying on bright fuschia fabric and wearing skimpy clothes. My Korean neighbours consider the roof a place for drying clothing, and storing garbage. Most Korean people do not suntan, as the many whitening products and SPF 100 creams prove. But in a country where summer and beach season are defined by dates, and have nothing to do with the actual weather, a pair of sunbathing foreigners just look plain crazy. My neighbour and her two kids were peering at us from behind a wall. I am talking about obvious spying - their heads would pop out against the wall edge, the rest of their bodies hidden. The positive side side of the rigid ideas of when it is appropriate to go to the beach, is that when beach season is considered over, the normally crowded beaches become a pleasant place to hang out. The weather is exactly the same. No more world records for the most people on beach (Haeundae in Busan a couple of years ago). Just me, smiling up at the sun, as Korean girls teeter through the sand in their stilettos.

Me? I religiously wear my heels in appropriate places like a salsa club. Not while hiking. And salsa is a big part of my life these days. I am taking my on-2 Ladies Styling class and loving it so much. Que viva la salsa. My teacher whose English name is Kitten, and the Caribe owner, whose English (Spanish) name is Gitano also showed up at the fiesta last weekend. Good times in Daegu.

And last but not least, I really appreciate some of the people in my neighbourhood. Like the middle-aged man I bought my bike from last year at his used bike shop. On Sunday I was biking downtown, and as I passed his shop I decided it would be a good time to put in air. I also have been having a loud squealing noise coming from my brakes every time I slow down. This startles many pedestrians (people here bike on the sidewalk and largely without helmets). So I said this to him in Korean: "If stop, "_____" sound loud hear!" He laughed at my ghetto Korean, and proceeded to... fix it. And refused to take any money. He's a hilarious character who usually has a cigarette sticking out of his mouth, but also a jolly smile. These people around the neighbourhood that I see on a frequent basis create a sense of community for me here.