Foolishness & Music

Aye, Clown class. Madre mía, where do I begin? I managed to get out of bed on Saturday morning and went to the University to participate in a class called Discovering Your Inner Clown. As a review: I am not required to take this class, I just wanted to, lol. I’ll just give you a chronological overview. Shall we? Pretty much the class is a giant game. I’ll tell you what I mean.

We did some icebreaker games, including Simon Says but instead of Simon it’s “Perrequito.” Finally the instructor had us lay down and awaken our inner child. So we went to sleep as young adults and woke up as 4-year-olds seeing the world for the first time. One by one, we rose and walked around the room. A bunch of people grabbed the rug in the middle of floor and rolled themselves up in it while others started a tickle fight or a spontaneous game of tag. One guy grabbed a poster stuck on the wall and wore it like a cape. All of this without words! Next, the “topic” of the session was The Importance of Laughter. The teacher had us dress up in the random pieces of clothing she had laid out and come out in front of the class and just look at the audience, making eye contact. I think she was trying to make us understand the importance of communicating with the audience. There was a bunch more we did but I don’t remember, honestly

In the afternoon session, we learned about the importance of Listening to each other. When I say “we learned” what I really mean is we played a bunch of games and when I say “Listening” what I really mean is getting the feel of what the other person is doing. We formed 2 clusters and each cluster had a leader, so whatever the leader did, the others followed. So we ended up having a spontaneous cluster war. One group would pretend to be monsters and growl at the other, and the other group would run away in fear. Then one group would stick their tongues out, while the other group shot at them with imaginary machine guns. Haha, let’s just say lots of sound effects and screaming.

Another activity was Siamese Twins. Whatever your partner does, you do. Your emotions are their emotions. You don’t have to wonder what they’re thinking—you already know. So we presented ourselves to the rest of the class, and stuck shoulder-to-shoulder, we had to “listen” to each other and react appropriately. It turned out to be hilarious to just watch people’s expressions and interaction. And all of these activities involve dressing up and wearing clown noses. The other American in the class absolutely hated it, and I have no idea why. All we really do is laugh at each other and have fun. We dress up in clown outfits for crying out loud! What’s not to like?? And somehow the above took 8 hours.

Sunday I had a little trouble catching the bus at 9am because I went to bed at 5 so I accidentally got up 40 min. late. But no matter, because when I got there they were just warming up. The topic of that day was “Emotions” which, knowing me, is my favorite. One of the games was to pretend we were on a spaceship going to different planets, so we all sat on the floor, and went to planets like Happiness, and Sadness, and Desire. Happiness was funny because everyone was jumping around laughing and shouting and hugging. Desire was…very awkward. Lol. Everyone was hugging each other and making flirty sound effects (you know what I mean, right??) and then they fell on the floor and were climbing all over each other. Whoa. Then the teacher said “You can desire the furniture!” so then everyone started kissing and caressing the floor and walls. When we got back on the “spaceship” one of our classmates shouted “I want to stay on this planet!” and the teacher said “Oh no, you’ve lost your captain! Someone save him!” and so the entire class rushed over and literally dragged him to the spaceship. Haha, it was crazy.

We also got in a big circle and the instructor had us do something we don’t usually do in public. So some people danced & screamed, some people scratched themselves or picked their noses, and me…I sang opera…and everyone clapped, lol. My professor said “Why don’t you do that in public??” and I replied that I didn’t get the opportunity very often.

Then we got into trios and in front of the class represented one emotion that started small and climaxed to insanity. One group did anger and by the end they were stomping and grunting all over the place, threatening the audience. Another group did Desire and….wow, that was disturbing. By the time they finished, they had taken each other’s socks off and they were playing intense footsie after caressing them. My group did Sadness and we were blubbering and wailing all over the place. I took out an imaginary knife and threatened to cut myself while my partners were trying to talk me out of it…all without words.

Haha, wow, what madness. I’m going to take pictures next week. Just describing it doesn’t do it justice at all. People’s expressions are just too funny. We don’t use any props except for the clothes we bring out, but somehow we find things to do. For instance, the group that did Happiness bobbed their heads in-sync and got more emphatic until they fell over on the floor laughing wildly. Insanity—all of it.
Anyway, enough of that.

Did I mention I went to see my friend’s concert? They played for like 15 minutes b/c it was a showcase but it was still great. This Friday they will have a full length concert and it’s the highlight of my week.
After the concert, I found them in the audience. I couldn’t remember the rest of the band members, but they sure remembered me even though I only met them one time, a month before that. I went to their band practice on Thursday and heard a bunch of their songs. I absolutely loved it, but I doubt they would let me come to all of their practices. They do it in this tiny room that the owners rent out to aspiring musicians. Lucas the guitarist/vocalist told me we should get together and compose a song but maybe he was just spouting off at the mouth. I ended up buying their CD for 9 euros, even though I could have haggled it down to 6. But #1 I’m not pushy #2 I don’t want to take advantage of their friendship #3 I want to support their band. While we were discussing the price, Lucas shut the door, leaned against it, turned the lights down, and with a cigarette in one hand said in a smooth voice “Laaaura…10 euros….” and at that point I just had to give in. After giving them the 9 euros I gave them 1 more and said “This is just a gift” because they had originally pushed for 10.

Through these guys I met 3 Spanish girls that are really nice. So now I don’t only hang out with boys. One of the girls said “You like flirting with the boys, don’t you?” and I said “I mean, I like talking to them, yeah…” and she said “Well do you wanna kiss them?” and I said “Omg, no!” lol. I mean, I can’t help it if none of my Spanish friends hang out with girls very often!

My madre kindly reminded me last night that I should not trust the boys here, and my padre added “The bed! That’s all they want!” but I insisted that most were gentlemen. “Do they study?” “No.” “Do they work” “Some of them, yeah, others, no…”
“Exactly.” Haha. I showed them my pictures of the band, and Juan’s group, and Fran’s group (because obviously not all of my friends know each other). My madre pointed out the one she thought was cutest lol but I told her that he was short and she sounded disappointed.

Ummm well, okay that was my week. Midterms are this week—ahh so fast! It’s only 3 classes, goodness gracious, it’s a breeze! And I have most of my Spring break plans in the making. Looking back, I probably could have gotten that ultra expensive train pass and end up spending the same amount of money as it’s taking for flights, etc. But too late now. I have Germany & Italy and that’s all I care about! XD
More to come!