First, I must say that having class four hours a day and six days a week is not something I am fond of. At all. Especially when I am used to having Fridays off and a three-day-weekend every week. Maggie and I woke up this morning and were like, "Yay! Wednesday! Halfway through the week!" And then a few seconds later, "LOL, JK. We still have 7 classes left in the week. Wah!" So we trudged along to class, not in the greatest of moods.
Our first session of class today wasn't too terrible. We started off with our normal relaxation exercises in semi-supine and then did some visualization stuff with our eyes closed that just made us really dizzy. Our teacher has been trying to have us speak from our "seat of power" which is apparently somewhere between our genitals and our belly button; right in the abdomen area. I don't know if it's just Maggie and I, but this is near impossible to us. Maybe we just aren't the visual type or open enough to truly understand what he means, but we try anyway. It seems that he rather enjoys singling me out and making me create weird sounds with my breath and voice which apparently come from my "seat of power." When he asks me if I feel a difference after stupidly repeating the same word multiple times, I just reply "yes" so that he leaves me alone. Maybe eventually I will actually understand what the difference is! At the end of class, we sang the little song we learned again and then turned it into a rap which was a lighthearted way to end class.
The weather in London, although it has been beautiful and cooperative, is still colder than I expected it to be. For someone who packed mostly t-shirts and tank-tops and only one sweatshirt, I have been absolutely freezing. So during our lunch break, Maggie and I trekked to Oxford Street, which is a really popular shopping area. There, we visited Primark which could best be described as a combination of Marshall's and H&M in that they had a wide selection of clothing for everyone for extremely cheap prices. I could have stayed in that store all day and spent way too much money, so it was a good thing that we only had about an hour. We each bought a few cardigans and sweaters, and I left feeling relieved a little better about London in general now knowing that I had things to keep me warm.
During our second class session, we were introduced to Charles, who will be replacing Antonio as our teacher once Antonio leaves on Friday. Today in class, we talked about role-play, status, and power. We spent the whole two hours playing a game Antonio liked to call, "Master and Servant." Basically, one person was handed a baton made out of rolled up newspaper, and they were titled the master and each master was given a 'servant.' The rules were that the Master could ask the Servant to do anything for them besides leave the room, sexual favors, or going to get personal items. The Master was allowed to hit the Servant if he/she was dissatisfied with the Servant's instruction-following. If the Servant really pissed off the Master, the Master was allowed to point at the Servant and yell, "DIE!" and then the Servant had to perform the most dramatic and operatic death possible. The catch to this game? The only communication you could use was Jibberish. Yes, Jibberish. Everyone had their own make-believe language that they spoke. So there we were, all yelling at each other in Jibberish, trying to tell each other to do things, and getting smacked on the butt with newspaper if we didn't follow instructions right (don't worry, the newspaper didn't hurt.) It was interesting to see how easily some people took on the role of Master, while some preferred the role of Servant more. It was also interesting to see how some people were a dictatorial Master, while others were more like a Monarch, a mother, or an older sibling to a younger sibling. Some people got really angry and physical while being the Master, while others tried to help their Servant understand as much as possible. I found that when I was the servant, I was very obedient as I did not want to get hit with the newspaper even if it didn't hurt. I didn't prefer being the servant more, but I also didn't like being the master. Being the master, I never knew what to do with my power. I would tell the servant to get me a chair...and then what? It seemed silly to be asking someone to get me a chair when I could be getting one myself. When we had a moment to discuss, I talked to my partner about how I am the type of person who would rather do things myself and see them done right, then have someone else do them for me. It seems that this master and servant game just wasn't my cup of tea (haha, tea. get it? I'm in London!)
After class, Maggie and I had planned to go eat at this place called Queen of Hoxton which was supposed to have a cute little BBQ menu and a rooftop bar. Well, they did have quite a nice rooftop bar, but their food choices were limited and the crowd was much older than we expected. So after taking the Tube to somewhere in Shoreditch to go to this place and realizing it was not what we expected it to be, we were at a loss. This area was more financial and business-ridden, so there were a lot of pubs and bars open with happy hours going on, but none of them really had food! So after getting ourselves lost for quite some time, we finally decided to get back onto the Tube and search elsewhere for food. We ended up getting of at Oxford Circus, a high-end shopping district and touristy area, and finally found ourselves at a very cute British pub/restaurant (finally!) called Shakespeare's Head. I took the leap, and ordered "Hunter's Chicken" which is apparently a traditional British Pub food here and it was DELICIOUS. So I am proud that I stepped out of my comfort zone, was 'spineful', and ate something out of the ordinary. Of course, both Maggie and I ordered what has become our usual Beck's pint of beer...mostly because we are afraid to try anything else. It is rather ironic though, because the beer isn't even British, it's German. So, I guess we might have to try something new soon. After filing our tummies to the brim, we walked back home to our cozy apartment and are absolutely 100% ready for bed.
Tomorrow is Thursday which means we are MORE than halfway through the week and classes (yay!) and tomorrow night we are going on a bar crawl in Camden with almost all of the students on the Dialogue!
I miss everyone at home so so much and am hoping that you are all enjoying reading the very silly and entertaining adventures that I am having.
Until next time!
xoxoxo
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