LEEP

Happy 4th of July! I can hear fireworks from Pier. But, I do not feel like celebrating...
I had a minor surgery called LEEP on the last Monday.
After I have had a pap smear, moderate level's abnormal cell (CIN2) was found from the cervix.
The level is 2 steps before cancer but it might develop to cancer cell so Dr. recommended to have the procedure. Most of the time, we can clear abnormal cell by our own immune systems but it seems like I could not do it.

The procedure itself took only 10 minutes. Fortunately, there was no pain since I was on local anaesthesia.
I googled a lot about LEEP and abnormal cells, HPV... and I found that LEEP is quite common procedure.
In fact, one of my flamenco mates has done this about a month ago. She did not tell us anything at all.
On the other hand, I was telling everybody even our company's CEO...
People react differently but I felt I am immature... Ughhhhhhh......

Anyway, the doctor told me that I should not do any heavy exercises like weight lifting or running or riding a bike...so I asked her "how about flamenco?". She said "it depends how hard and how long you do but I recommend you to take it easy for the first few days".
I was at home almost all day for the first 2 days (Mon and Tues) and no flamenco although I had no pain. Then, I went back to work from Wed and went to a flamenco class on Thurs.
Until today, no sever pain or bleeding so far.

However, it's started bleeding today...

In Japan, we say "病は気から(Illness comes from the mind)”. This is describing ME perfectly!

So, now I do not feel good and might be no flamenco class for a while!? etc...I tried to watch my favorite Eva Yerbabuena's video but it did not help this time...

This makes me think a lot.  

First of all, I must strengthen my immune system!

Here are the things I found the followings commonly to strengthen the immune system from my Google search : )

1) Eat healthy

2) Eliminate sugar

3) Exercise regularly

4) Manage stress

5) Drink plenty of water

6) Take supplements

7) Avoid smoking

I really recommend all women should take a screening test, Pap Smear regularly.

Shoes

It is raining in San Francisco today.
We have so many rainy days this year... I should get colorful rain shoes.
Today, I put my flamenco shoes photos.

Brown with little dots and Red ones are Senovillas.
Black and Dark Blue grayish ones are Gallardo.
They all are my current shoes. Especially, Gallardo ones are very comfortable fitting my foot perfectly now.  

There are many flamenco shoe makers out there...Gallardo, Senovilla, Menkes, Coral, Alte something... I love Gallardo shoes. Their shoes are lighter than Senovilla and I feel they make me dance well : )

Senovilla has great selection of leather. They have dalmatian white&black dots, funky vivid color, gold etc...so many choices.

Probably, many people have experienced about online shopping problems like receiving wrong size/color or not received etc... very stressful. Here is one of my stories. Yes, just one of them.

I ordered one pair in mid July 2010 from flamenco-world.com since they are on sales. They charged full amount right away. And I waited and waited and waited but no update from flamenco world.com. So, I emailed them but still nothing. Finally, after several emails were ignored, I received an email saying "it takes about 60days due to the leather I ordered" in SPANISH!!! Then, waited and waited and almost forgot about the shoes then I suddenly got the shoes. I took 6 months!!! Can you believe this? 
This story did not end here. I opened the box and there are beautiful beige shoes!! I put them on......OMG! They are TOO BIG!!! I emailed "flamenco-world" but, of course, NO response.
I seriously do not recommend the website. They are selling lots of items and have information on their website so I use them only to get info but never ever ever shop anything from them!

Senovilla and Gallardo had small issues but they always responded quickly. Especially a Japanese lady working for Senovilla answers my emails next day!
The shoes? Fortunately, my friend bought them. Thank you!
Have you had any problems ordering flamenco shoes or dresses?

Sevillanas

Today, we had a gay parade known as "Pride Parade" in San Francisco.
I went to Castro area with my friends last night. It was already crazy even a day prior! At the last bar, my friends said "I guess you are the only straight woman in this bar". maybe I was! : )
Most people were celebrating "NY's approval of same sex marriage". We were dancing and singing. It was fun! I was thinking if this was in southern part of Spain, people were dancing Sevillanas!?

I guess almost everybody learning flamenco knows and can dance Sevillanas. 日本語では、セビジャーナスとかセビヤーナスとかと訳されてるよう。
I heard that everybody starts learning Sevillanas in Japan. They sometimes study it for a year!! I think since this dance has almost no typical flamenco footwork, it is good for beginners to start with.
Sevillanas is danced by pairs or groups of people and is performed at fiestas of all kinds throughout Spain like weddings or parties and has 4 separate parts, #1~#4. Each one takes only one minutes or shorter depending on speed of music. #1 and #2 are very easy and #3 and #4 are bit complicated.

This reminds me BON ODORI (Japanese summer dance). We do not learn how to dance BON ODORI but we can dance it somehow because we learn simply by being constantly surrounded by it.

I've been learning flamenco for a while but, I have never learned it till the last performance!!!!!!! そんな奴が存在するのかというくらい、珍しいことだと思う。。。
I had many opportunities to learn Sevillanas but I took one lesson then stopped going, on and off......so I never learned the entire dance.
I was not going to dance it at the last performance but my teacher has changed her mind one week prior! Yes, she told me that I had to dance!!
I was almost panicked...Fortunately, my teacher was teaching Sevillanas #4 for beginner students so I joined just to learn it and my classmate taught me #1~#3 for one hour. Yes, I only had two hours to learn all of it. After that, I practiced every night with YouTube. Thank you, YOUTUBE!!!
My Sevillanas is still rough but I can make it though because we don't need to dance the same way although there is a basic rule.

This is my favorite Sevillanas video. The music sounds very melancholic than traditional one and they elegantly dance like ballet. Please watch til the end. It takes only 4 mins.

I need to dance Sevillanas in Aug again so I want to find my Sevillanas style till then!

OLE!

Performance!

Our performance group has just done one performance on the last Sat. It was a great opportunity for us and we all enjoyed it.

The pic shows my flamenco dress for the performance - Pink and Brown - my friend said "Oh it looks yummy! because it reminds her strawberry chocolate".  : ) Ahiiiiiiii

Anyway, it was outside performance so the stage was just built up for the weekend festival. The floor was terrible...it was slanted. Everytime we turned, somebody was wobbled...It was very difficult and unconfortable floor we've ever danced. But, we manged it through... IT'S ALL GOOD NOW!

After the performance, one of our dancers invited all of us to her bachelorette pad. Great food, wines, music, palmas and of course, flamenco dance! It was such a fun night!! Of course, I had a hangover next morning...yes yes...too much wines...

I'll have classes tomorrow so I must go now. Good night, everybody!  See you next time!! T

Welcome!

This is my BLOG opening day! OLE!
I do not even check my facebook frequently but suddenly TODAY, I thought it would be nice if I could share my life with somebody, anybody in the world!

I am living in beautiful San Francisco, California but am originally from Osaka, Japan.
As you see in my blog title, currently, I am very into Flamenco dance.

I will keep posting my daily life.

Thank you, ARIGATO, Gracias helping me to do this, my great friend, Yayatto!!

Tita.