Weekend

This weekend, a whole bunch of archies came to town. We went to the MoMA, PS1, a Japanese place called Ippudo..uh... The current exhibition at MoMA was great - prefab. They had actual prefab houses on exhibition in a side lot which we all walked through. Olafur Eliasson had an exhibition at PS1 which pretty much consisted of a giant mirror suspended from the ceiling, slowly rotating. It was so enamoring that we went and lay on the floor staring up at it for a grand total of an HOUR.
I escaped the archies to join Marlen and her boyfriend, Mark for some tango dancing. First time tangoing ever, second time I've ever tried dancing with a partner. I think it went well - Mark gave me a quick run through of some tango moves. Then Marlen and I attended a free beginners tango class where I danced with a Parisian man named Philippe who had danced a couple times before. It was hilarious at one point when he said in his super French accent, "It is forbidden to pass." Of course, he was talking about the rules of dancing in the circle. No passing, no switching of direction. There are a whole bunch of other rules. Only a man asks a woman to dance, never vice-versa. It starts with eye contact, the woman nods and the man approaches. And the code-word for, "I no longer wish to dance with you" is "thank you." And if you agree to dance with a person, you dance for 3-4 songs, at which point they play a completely un-tango-like song to indicate a change partner moment. Argentine tango...mm...rules... An old guy named Joe kept following me around until I agreed to dance with him, and it turns out he's very good at leading and taught me a few things that Mark didn't show me. There was another guy who insisted on a "close embrace" (that's what the hold is when the two partners are closer together) and being the total beginner that I am, I wasn't able to see his feet and didn't really know how to go along with it, so he kept stepping on my toes. Lots of fun, though. I'm going to go to a free tango class tomorrow!
Also, my cousin Ling and her family were over for Friday and Saturday. I was out all Friday so I didn't see them, but I spent the earlier part of Saturday with them. Ling, the sprightly little 7-year-old that she is, watched me put on makeup with many questions and then insisted I hold hands with her when we walked to have a delicious dimsum lunch. I wondered if people looked at us and thought I was her mother... On our way out of the restaurant, my aunt whispered to me, "Hey, that white guy just checked you out." I turned around and sure enough some white guy was staring at me. I just thought it was funny that my aunt pointed it out. O, and gramma's moved back in since Jonathan came back from Germany. Let the gluttony begin!
Speaking of hitting on me, today after I got back to Flushing after spending a few hours with a friend in Brooklyn, I decided to go get some snacks. Ariel, my boss at work, has dubbed me "Snack Queen" so I'm only trying to live up to my title. Anyhoo, walking along, someone suddenly asked me a question. I smiled and nodded and kept walking. Then he kept walking with me, and kept trying to get me to talk to him. I wasn't particularly interested so I just smiled and shook my head and tried to speed away. Except that its Flushing, and you can't speed away because there are too many d*** people everywhere. So I kept going, shaking my head - he asked if I spoke English, I shook my head. Asked if I was Chinese, shook my head. Japanese? Shake my head. Korean? Malaysian? Singaporean? Thai? (Thai?!!!) He tried to give me his business card - I don't get how he'd expect a girl who didn't speak English to call him...
O, and today on the subway I saw a beautiful mixed couple. I think they were both half Chinese, half whatever else. Both gorgeous. I hope I didn't creep them out, but I kept staring...