Right then guys, sorry I haven’t done that much for GIAG over the last two days considering the amount of events they’ve got going on, but here’s a quick review of what I have been up to.
Yesterday, the were only two events and I chose to attend the French masterclass (boy oh boy am I going to be top at languages by the end of this week, I’ve got Spanish tomorrow!) and you know what? I was really suprised how much I’d remembered from my school days.
Although we only touched on the basics, our tutor, Mark Orme had designed a session that was aimed at intermediate students of French.
We began by learning the basic greeting and general polite manner that the French try to adopt, but I have admit this threw me slightly as the French I had been taught in school was the informal, rather than the formal, so it was only the odd word that helped me to understand the sentence.
Following on from that we learnt how to ask and reply to questions such as; where are you from? are you married? and are you a student?, before going onto learn how to order things in a restaurant.
Unfortunately, by that point time had beaten us and we didn’t get on to asking for directions, but the worksheet Mark had produced gave us all the information about what we had learnt and the rest of his plan for the session.
I have to say his enthusiam for the language and culture really came through in this short session and it was quite nice being in such a small group (there was only three of us) because it meant we could stop and practise and perfect our prounounciations, which helped a great deal.
An interview with Mark will be going up on Friday (I’ve decided to hang on to the few interviews I have and get them all up together).
So, onto today! Well, I began my day by trying my hand at Origami, one of those annoying things that sounds easy but is really tricky in practise.
During the session we made a square box that didn’t have a lid (though you could make one by making another box and fitting it on top, a small lantern type thing that didn’t look much until you blew into it and it formed something that when decorated, could make a nice Christmas decoration and finally, we made a crane (the bird form I might add).
It’s suprising how a small , insignificant piece of paper can be turned into something so different, but the annoying thing is that it’s so tricky, yet so simple to do. All you have to remember is that everything starts off with a square sheet of paper and it’s all about the folds and bends that you make that will hold it in place when you have finished.
On top of the session, we were given a small piece of origami paper, which is what the professionals use and probably makes the finished product look much better, whilst also being a better quality paper to work with and we also got a introductory sheet into the Japanses culture, which is where origami comes from.
Might I just add that I’m proud of my crane, even if it looks a little too skinny and won’t stay upright on its own!
Unfortunately, I was so involved with this one that I didn’t get any pictures and I’m sorry to say the rest of today’s activities turned out to be the same, but for this one I didn’t even manage any interviews, but never fear, I did get some for Indian Head Massage and Belly Dancing so keep an eye out for them.
And that neatly takes me onto my next activity of the day, Indian Head Massage.
Now I was gutted to miss this event last February, so there was no way I was letting it go by again and I’m glad I didn’t.
As with last time, our instructor was Eddie Burgess from Reflect UK and he led us as we partnered up and gave the techniques a try taking it in turns to be the giver and the reciever.
I cannot explain to you how relaxing it felt. We began by “saying hello to the head” by placing our hands on the top of it and then began to warm up and massage the back, neck, shoulders and upper arms using a variety of massage techniques. It really helped to get you in the mood and I could feel my whole body relaxing.
The soothing music and lavender scent that I could pick up in the background was an immense help and if you closed your eyes (which helped when the actual head massage began and my hair was in my eyes) you really felt like you were drifting off into a tranquil state.
The head massage however, was a bit, shall we say, not quite what I’d expected, but then I’m not sure what else I could have expected.
Basically, the same movements that you would do in a normal massage were applied to the scalp and at times it was done with the same pressure, which was an odd experience. I really didn’t expect my hair to get quite so messy though!
We followed that we soothing little massages across the forehead, temples and across the eyes, nose and cheeks, before removing our hands from our partner’s head and “flicking” (yes, that’s right) the excess vibes away (or at least I think that’s what it was about).
Apparently, the whole idea of Indian Head Massage is to oxygenate the head and I have to say, I certainly felt that was achieved and I think my partner for the session, Tom Richens would agree as I have sneaking suspicion that he was drifting off as I massaged his head!
And so, onto the last event of today – Belly Dancing. This event was such a laugh because my technique can only be compared to that of a ‘Thunderbirds’ type puppet! I have no movement in my hips whatsoever and although I tried, I think I probably looked completely awful.
However, our tutor, Sally Smith is a 3rd year Dance Performance and Teaching student and took lessons as part of her course and she looked much more professional.
There was a good turnout at the event, although it was all girls, even though traditionally the dance is taught to both boys and girls, but pretty soon we were all giving it a go and most seemed to pick it up quite easily.
Apparently, it’s all about the movement of the hips, so you should concertrate on where they are moving and your legs will follow, but remember to keep your torso straight. Sally told us that when the right outfit is worn, the skirt is so long that you can’t see the legs and feet moving at all and so it looks like it’s all down to the movement of the belly.
We learnt how to roll our hips, move them in a figure of eight and tried to, well the only word I can use to describe it is ‘jiggle’ them, which is pretty tricky because you want to move your entire body and therefore, look like some weird vibrating mad person!
Nevertheless, it’s definately something I’d like to try again and there are classes available in Preston (details of which I’ll get up tomorrow), but I feel, as with most things, it’s something you have to keep practising so I better get jiggling!
Well, that’s it for today! Amongst tomorrow’s events are the Student Life Fair in 53 Degrees, Spanish Language Taster and Table Tennis, so I’ll be back with all of those for you.
Tata. x
Giving It All A Go 2008 