parasitegirl | Day 5: More RAKS

Saturday 11:00-12:30: Artemisia: Workout and stretch or Elisa Gamal: Solo Choreo Therapy

I’d already done solo-choreo therapy so it was time to workout and stretch.

NOT SO FAST! It’s time for another venue issue! The studio set aside for Artemisia was full of Zumba-ing ladies. WTF?!

As we waited ( and some of us peeked in, caught the moves, and hall danced) Artemisia went off to figure out wtf. We were right. They were wrong. It would take calling in person X to remove the Zumbatics and by then much of our time would be up…so we were given the basket ball court.

HAHA! No sound system. HAHAHA!

A few minutes into Artemisia leading us through a relaxing workout, without the help of music for keeping time, I realized. I HAZ iPAD!

It wasn’t loud, but it was loud enough. I don't keep much music on my iPad but I do update my dance lesson playlists. My beginners’ lesson folder is full of songs that are up-beat and don’t change tempo. We had a solution…and when it was time to cooldown and Artemisia needed calmed music…COOLDOWN MUSIC GOT CUED UP!

Better living through technology. First world solutions to first world problems. Between portable iPhone speakers, solar lights, candles, and my iPad, I’m able to enjoy a yoga practice or lead a class in case of blackouts. Earthquake legacy.

I loved having a workout with stretch time at the start of Saturday. The night before we’d had the hafla…and you KNOW many of us probably didn’t take enough time to warm-up, cooldown, and stretch. If there were muscles I couldn’t stretch by a rigorous post-show face scrubbing, hair washing, and body cleaning…I probably didn’t. My desire to fall asleep eclipsed my knowledge that I should stretch.

12:30-1:30 Lunch.

This would be the time that guest teachers started to fall in love with a non-alcoholic drink being called an Eskimo. Grapefruit and Tonic I think?

13:30-15:00: Delanna, Turns Turns Turns or Elisa Gamal: The Magic of Breath.

I’d already done the turns, time for more Elisa. This class was about being aware of your breath and using it to fully embody your movements. I already use a lot of breathing to make my movements gooey, so this was more affirming than new for me.

This also ended up being the second of Elisa’s classes I had to take a break from. Paying too much attention to breathing deeply caused me to get dizzy from over-oxygenating myself. When my asthma isn’t acting up, I have some powerful lungs…and they get bronchial steroids everyday to keep the asthma issues away.

Over oxygenating didn’t just make me dizzy, it triggered me. About four years ago a perfect (ly shitty) storm of asthma, allergy, spiraling asthma medication side effects, anxiety about H1N1 in the schools and an emergency inhaler (that had the side effect of EXTREAM ANXIETY) culminated in panic attack hyperventilation to the point of blacking out about 6-7 times in a row while my co-workers drove me to a hospital. I thought I was going to die.

Yeah, that feeling flooded me. I excused myself. I briefly cried for about 3 minutes in the bathroom because I knew it had to be let out but that it would derail a workshop. I returned to the workshop room and found a place in the back to lie down and focus on my breath while listening to Elisa.

I felt much better. After the workshop I explained myself to Elisa, although I knew I didn’t have to, and was back on track.

15:00-15:30 Break. Answered questions about zills, now that I’d established myself as a ZILL LADY!

15:30-17:30 Artemisia: Intro to fanveil or Elisa: Beyond the veil.

I went with Elisa for more veil. I’m glad I did, because it helped me with a veil flourish I have internally named the “Fuck you! Flourish” because Elisa made us drill an arm path not unlike flipping someone off to help master this move before wer were allowed to put our veils back on. AND, Bonus, I got to teach Elisa a veil move Mishaal has taught all of her students many times (Eshe, it’s that up on the neck and around the arms…dance, elbows together, spin and transform the neck section to peeping head-tent.)

However, I’ve spent the last two days drilling fan veil movements because I think my new Bella needs some peach fan-veil drama…so wish I could have taken both classes.

17:30-18:00 Cooldown & Stretch.

We did that.

Then we went back to our hotel to clean up before: Optional Outdoors Poi Session Weather Permitting.

Back to the same café as the meet-and-greet. This was great for a few reasons: I knew where it was and could walk there…thus I could leave if knackered and drink what I wanted to. YAY!

Elisa’s mom joined us. Elisa’s mother came along on the trip to Belgium and, while we all took lessons and danced, was the one foreigner who actually saw all the sights the area had to offer. Elisa’s mother reminds me a bit of my stepmother…and that’s a good good thing.

We all ate and drank.

Cultural Fact: Belgiums are very picky about beer pouring and insist that it be poured for maximum beer head. I come from a culture that generally wants minimal beer head. I was roundly MOCKED and informed, more than once, of the special diplomas people can get for learning how to pour PROPERLY. I was also shown the special line on my beer goblet where the head SHOULD have been reaching.

Cultural Fact: Words written in Dutch look silly. It is a written language that makes me giggle. Seeing it on signs everywhere made me smile. It’s something about the vowels. I am not the only American who thinks this.

Yes, Belgium takes beers very seriously and beers come with their own beer-specific glasses (designed so Belgian people can mock my pour). Elisa has a whole iPhone photo collection of beers she experienced.

We all had massive fun drinking and getting to know each other.

-Elisa found a TINY TINY CRAB in her tub of mussles. Photos were taken. Waiters were shown but did not grasp how CUTE it was.

-Belgians argued with us about if a Belgian Waffle would be WAY TOO MUCH dessert for one person. They said yes and insisted that Elisa and her mother would be better off sharing one …they don’t understand how American stomachs work*.

-We got to know Sarah, The Enthusiastic Student, more.

-I poured my second drink “correctly” but by then my mockers didn’t care.

-Poi often look like sextoys. Light-up poi moreso.

Then we played with poi and zills outdoors!. Well, I was given poi to play with and Delanna instructed me how to use them I quickly started whimpering that I wanted my zills back. Poi are way out of my comfort zone. I got rid of them as soon as allowed. I may be a coward, but the next morning I was a coward without random bruises!

Got tipsy, went back to the hotel, slept.

*In America, a place like TGIFridays would insist on cutting the Belgian Waffle served in half and using it, toppings and all, as a sandwich for more ice-cream and syrup….and would think it was suitable for one person…I had the horror of explaining to Khalida that the restaurant depicted in Office Space is based on the very real TGIFridays and that Office Space didn’t exaggerate things.

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