Workshop is a Success!!

Hi all,

Sorry, it's been a bit of a while. We've had very little time for almost anything with all of the planning and sight seeing and now teaching (workshop is finished!)

Sadly, we STILL have not seen a kangaroo, but not to fear! We have plans to go to the zoo or the Hillsville Sanctuary (I think that's what it's called). We will have lots of pictures of wildlife if out camera comes to (it died earlier today, but it died earlier on the trip as well and became fine, so we'll see).

So now I'm just relaxing after a long day of teaching. We're going to enjoy a nice homemade lasagna at our hosts, so we can spend our money where it really matters -- chocolate. This place is busting with cute little cafes of every culture and they actually have quite a few luxury chocolate shops. I'm very impressed and long for something of this caliber in Austin. Jeez! So excited about the chocolate we have planned for Monday. We went to visit the place already -- it looked very nice and quite expensive. A proper date night. I'll let you all know if it tastes as good as it looks.

So, number 1 question I've been getting about America -- "why do your toilets have so much water in them? The splash factor is very creepy"

Our answer -- "Because we're a very wealthy country and we just don't care about conservation in any way. Also our toilet technology isn't as advanced as yours, so our low flow toilets don't actually flush anything." Their toilets over here are fabulously economical because it's such a desert country. Everything over here is very efficient. They even have an hour glass that you can use while you shower. It's fun -- it turns showering into a kind of suspenseful game.

So the workshops went really well. I had no idea what a big deal this thing was. They rented bands! We had about 80 people in class. This is the first time that anyone has rented a band for me. Or flown in, for that matter (some people came in from other OZ states adn even from Tasmania!)

Saturday was a great success. There were a few moments of lower energy, so Mike and I took note of those and why they happened, and then eliminated them for Sunday. That said, things weren't without hiccups. The last class of Sunday had a mini train wreck for about 10 minutes, which was a total shame and I feel very bad about that. But, all that considered, everything else was so great. I believe that we actually taught an all levels class. The very advanced people were challenged and the beginners learned something. We went into a lot of technique and played a lot of music. I would have liked for there to be a bit more dancing and a bit more review. I would have loved to do the Ste & V thing of using all of the moves from all of the classes into a big final sequence masterfully crafted to music. But, that aside, we did a great job and there's talk of bringing us back next year :) :D

The Aussies were completely wonderful and I think I may like teaching them better than Americans. Maybe it was this particular bunch, but they were so into it and so easy to laugh and so forthcoming with questions. They came up and asked to try it after class, they had us do the moves so they could videotape everything, they practiced it with each other during the breaks. It made me very happy to be a part of it all.

Teaching with Mike, of course, was also wonderful. He's the bomb. The cheese to my maccaroni ;)

Ok, sorry this update is a little all over the place. We're a bit tired. More later :)