Reason for the lack of posts

Hi everyone, I realize that I haven't been posting much at all to this blog and I sincerely thank all of you for your viewership in spite of that. The thing is, I've been too busy with traveling and going on adventures over here to have enough time to set aside to maintain a blog along with running the other social media that I am on. I've also realized that writing blog posts might not be for me-though micro-blogging is. As such, if you'd like to still follow along on the adventures I've been going on, I encourage you to follow my instagram @bboygermy or twitter/tumblr also named bboygermy, since my instagram photos get shared on there as well. You can also find these adventures by searching the hashtag #GermyinChina on any of the said social media. You may also follow my Facebook page, though I will not accept friend requests unless I have met you in person and we have talked. Thank you once again and hope to release some more videos when I'm back in the States! -Germy

Bboy Taisuke | Beijing Happy Valley (欢乐谷) Jam 2014 | Judge Showcase | Co...

New video is out; check out Taisuke's judge showcase from the jam I met him in a few days ago!



Here's my instagram/FB post about what happened (with a picture, of course):



Met the world famous Bboy Taisuke at a jam in 欢乐谷 earlier today! I asked him for a picture in my limited Japanese before the event started, then when I mentioned that I was from America, we switched to English and talked a little about Texas.



After the event ended (he was judging), we finally got a picture and talked a little more while he was being swarmed by fanboys/girls haha



Got to chill with Puzzles and Antics for a bit too when it rained midway through the event and meet more of the scene, which was awesome



Language really is power

 I also went over to 现代音乐学院 (Beijing Contemporary Music Academy) today to session with one of Puzzles's students that he introduced me to at this jam a few days ago; it took over 2 hours to get there but was soooo worth it. Turns out Antics was there and Puzzles had just came back from traveling, so I got to take Puzzles's workshop and act as a translator for the class :D learned so much in just that short time; such a nice guy and great teacher

I also ate with the 现音 students and got to know them more as we did so; all of Beijing's best bboys and bgirls are at this academy. Such nice people and great dancers. We sessioned afterwards for a little too, then two new friends helped me find the fastest route home. Definitely going back again when I can!

Hope all is well wherever you are,

-Germy

Germy in China | Air Force B.I.T vs Keepin it Real | Fight For What Vol....

Now I can say that I've competed on a stage in Asia :) 



New video is out; see our battle from Fight for What Vol. 3! 



This was a jam in Beijing that took place earlier this month; it wasn't even one of the major jams over here, but had over 200 bboys in the 1v1 and 80 crews in the 3v3.

It was so big that they had dancers line up in batches of 20 with 2 dancing on stage at the same time for the 1v1 prelims ._. the locals said that this was a pretty average-sized jam just from the sheer number of people in China despite bboying not being widespread to the general public haha 



We were there from 10am-9pm (the start and end of the jam) and were exhausted afterwards, but I had a great time dancing with friends and seeing more of the Chinese bboy scene! 北京现代音乐学院 (Beijing Contemporary Music Academy) offers a street dancing major where the students practice or take workshops for all their classes, so there were a lot of really awesome dancers 



Don't forget to #subscribe :D



Sums up everything pretty well. Also, I met Bboy Puzzles of Supernaturalz Crew there (here's over here teaching at the Contemporary Music Academy) and am going to attend his class one of these days!



Peace,



-Germy

My 21st Birthday in China! | Vlog | CoolAznTutorials

New video is up; here's a recap of how I spent my 21st birthday here in China!



I think this video sums it up pretty well and there's not much need for an additional post, so I'll just paste a blurb from my Instagram picture:



Had an awesome, very memorable 21st birthday here in China! 


Started out a little hectic getting 4 hours of sleep preparing for my managerial accounting teacher's present to us (the final), but once it was over, all was well :) got a nice dim sum dinner with my fellow exchange student friends and local 风雷 brethren; ended up getting 5 different birthday cakes from them in the end! We shared an ice cream one at the dim sum restaurant with everyone together, ate a chocolate one out on the concrete (in box pieces, don't worry) late at night with the 风雷 friends after sessioning, and when I got home, my roomates surprised me with a fruit cake! Still have two more left to eat haha
I'm really blessed to have met so many kind people from so many different backgrounds since coming here; I feel really loved by them despite only having been here for a little more than a month. I know the following months will be filled with happiness as we continue to get to know each other more :D

Hope all is well with everyone,

-Germy

Help from Unexpected Places

I got a second hand bike a few days ago to replace the one that got stolen and the back wheel had been making grinding noises since last Friday. After getting home about an hour ago, I decided to try fixing it using some oil that my (bello) Italian roomate Andrea had lent to me, but in my own inexperience with bikes, I flipped it upside down to try applying the oil to the underside of the back gear, and when I turned the pedal, the chain fell off and got caught on the inside of the front gear. I flipped the bike back up and tried fixing the chain by hand, but could see that I was getting nowhere.

 Not knowing what to do, I asked my apartment's security guard for help in slightly panicked Chinese with the help of a Chinese-English dictionary app that my friend from Australia, Cameron had showed me when I was enrolled in Chinese-taught classes. After the guard tried to fix it a little with his bare hands and a broomstick, he turned to me and started making statements that I couldn't understand. We worked through the language barrier (true Beijingers speak Chinese in a different dialect than standard Mandarin and have a lot of terms only used in the area) and I figured out that he was saying that he needed some tools.

 My roomates didn't have any, but I then remembered that I had brought my Swiss Army Knife that my parents had bought me in Middle school with me, so I rushed up to my apartment to get it and handed it to him. Carefully considering the tools it had, the guard took out the reamer and with a bit of straining, got part of the chain back onto the front gear. He then lifted the bike right-side up, grabbed a pedal with his hands, and told me to grab the other pedal to rotate the gear with him on the count of three. With two pushes, the chain snapped back onto the gear and was fixed!

After thanking him, I told him the original reason why I was trying to fix my bike (the wheel was still making noises); he grabbed the back wheel and frame, pushed hard with his hands, and fixed the problem in a matter of seconds. Looks like I don't need to take my bike to a repair shop anymore :)

If the guard had decided that I wasn't worth the trouble and not agreed to help, my friend hadn't given me that app after we got to know each other through a Chinese-taught class, or my parents had never bought me that Swiss Army Knife/I hadn't brought it along since I rarely use it, none of this would have happened. Thank God for modern day technology, multi-tool knives, the goodness of people, and help from unexpected places!

PKU 风雷社 Audition 2014 | Germy (Air Force Crew) | CoolAznTutorials

New video is out! Guess I'll use this space here to double as my blog post about this :)

   Last Friday was International Women's Day (国际妇女节), and I learned from other exchange students that PKU's Guanghua school was hosting a party that night celebrating the event with food and games. Being a college-aged Texan with a big appetite still not used to the relatively small meal portions served in China and pretty much the rest of the world, the words "free food" grabbed me in an instant and I went with a group of exchange students to the party later that night.

   At the party (which only had small snack foods as it turns out free meal events rarely happen in China unlike back home), we played karaoke games as the group message had stated, but what I didn't anticipate was that there were performances too. I had previously obtained information from a local friend about PKU's Hip Hop Dance organization, 风雷社 ("Wind Lightning Society", pronounced "Feng Lei She" in pinyin reading) and had found them at the club fair the week before; it turned out that they were performing for the festival as an opening act!

   While they were performing, a gymnast had a solo and started doing flares, and my exchange student friends started asking me if I could do the move too. When I said yes, one of them yelled out loudly in Chinese "We have someone here that can do that too!", to which the gymnast somewhat angrily replied "If you can do it, then do it!"

   Before I knew it, the crowd's eyes were on me and they began cheering me on to dance. I went to the center, performed the move, transitioned to some more acrobatic moves, and ended with a dynamic freeze facing their dance team, to which the crowd went wild and applauded. 风雷社 nodded in approval, then continued their performance after everyone had settled down. It felt great to dance again and see what the dancers here in Beijing were like, and I was now even more excited for 风雷社's informational and auditions, which were to take place the next day.

   Oh yea, my friend and I were still hungry after the party, so we went out for some late night Japanese food and tried fried blowfish *spoiler alert*- it just tastes like really pure tasting fish.

Le fried blowfish for $8.67 USD, because yolo right?

   The next night, I headed to the main gym for 风雷社's informational after a full day. They gave a brief description about each of the dance styles they offered- breaking, popping, jazz, and hip hop (choreography), followed by demonstrations of each style by groups of their team members along with a solo demonstration by their professional dancer that taught popping classes (they have a performance team and also host dance lessons with professionals for interested students). Immediately after the performances finished, they held auditions for their team and called my name first.

   Since I come from a (dance) battle culture back in Texas and in a battle, a dancer has no idea what song is going to be played and oftentimes doesn't recognize the song that gets played, I had told 风雷社 on my application to play any song they wanted, as long as it was a breakbeat. After shuffling through a few songs to find one, I went out and did my thing. The crowd rang with applause and the bboys took me to another room to begin my first practice session with them.

   During the performances, I had noticed that there were some very dynamic bboys who hadn't performed the day before. I approached them and learned that they were from the surrounding area, and that street dancers from the area gathered at PKU during practices to dance together- which meant that there were more bboys in Beijing than what I had just seen. I learned that they had originally come from other regions, and that there were bboys in all of the different parts of China, which widely took me by surprise. 

   When I was researching about Beijing back in America, it had been incredibly hard to find any information about the dance scene or Chinese Hip Hop culture, so I was under the impression that it was either really small or didn't exist. Yet here I was, practicing with Chinese street dancers and finding out that they have a massive scene, only unbeknownst to the Western World because of the social media cutoff. I learned that they even have their own website, "街梦网" (street dreams web) that they use to connect with each other and spread Hip Hop knowledge. During practice, one of the dancers, 大志 saw me dancing and asked if I wanted to join him for a 5 vs 5 dance competition happening in May. Looks like I'll be competing in China and meeting more members of their dance culture!

   Every day remains really busy, so I apologize for how infrequently I've been posting on this blog and appreciate your patience! Adding on to my previous post, I will be writing blog posts attached to my vlogs just like this one when an additional story needs to be told that goes along with the video, and will also post about significant days that I don't have videos for. I'm off to eat a late night dinner, so be it on this blog or on other social media, I hope to see you all again soon!

-Germy

Germy in China | Vlog | The First Week | CoolAznTutorials

My first travel vlog is out! I know that I haven't been very active on my blog for a while, and that I've now fallen behind on a sizeable number of days; keeping up with videos and writing daily blogs takes a lot of time that I thought I would have, but every day's been busy and adventurous in its own way, so there hasn't been much time to keep up.



To compensate for this, I will be maintaining my focus mainly on making vlogs with the time I have (not necessarily weekly recaps), and I will try to write posts only about particularly interesting days that I'd like to highlight and hope you might find entertaining. You can also follow me on my instagram @bboygermy or on my personal Facebook page for more immediate public updates (follow, I do not accept friend requests from people that I have not met in person.), along with liking the Cool Azn Tutorials Facebook page.



Regardless, I hope you enjoy this video recap of my first week in China and that all is well wherever you are!



-Germy