When in Rome

The River
When in Rome, do as the Romans do; when in Columbia, go to the river. The high temperatures and oppressive humidity drives South Carolinians to bodies of water. Without the ocean lapping at our doorstep, the river claims the title of liquid attraction We are discovering the pleasure of the river and in doing so realize that the locals do know best. In an attempt to bolster social activity while battling dusty wallets, we have begun to frequent the river and made two trips this past week. The first evening was spent eating, hanging out doing some diving from the larger rocks. Two days later we found ourselves farther upstream amidst light rapids (think Greenhorn creek vs the Colorado River), exploring the woodland beyond the opposite bank, and floating down the river.

Dance, Dance
Always having enjoyed dance, yet plagued with the Anglo-Saxon rhythm, I limited my solo dancing to venues filled with enough people to hide my awkwardness. Late one night (in part likely due to the ‘late’ aspect) I ventured in to new dancing territory: Dance Dance Revolution. I joined millions of Asian teenagers by stepping to pre-set patterns of foot placement to techno remixes of America’s favorite pop songs. Musical hits naturally included Justin Timberlake and Kelly Clarkson but harkened back to classics (??) such as Captain Jack (“In the Navy” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNgMVx_NJOM ) and Papaya (“Pink Dinosaur” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FzLxIW0eTA). Oh man. None-the-less, the Dance Dance party was a highlight of my week. I offer my future dancing as a tribute to Michael Jackson-the king of dance.

4th of July
I picked up a shift on the 4th and had a wonderful time at work. After a terribly slow start and management sent half of the servers home for the day, I waited on about 4 tables (which added to the two from the previous few hours). I hardly made any money but had a wonderful time with my coworkers. We stood around and talked and laughed and told stories and, in hindsight, I would work the shift again.
After work we went to a house for a cookout. We grilled hot dogs and everyone brought something to share. I greatly enjoyed the company and had a wonderful time with the people who came. We saw some fireworks from the baseball field a few blocks away, but focused on the company and the cuisine. The evening topped off a wonderful week.