The Academics have arrived

First week of classes! It's been quite the week. Still a lot of easing into things, doing prep work, going over syllabi and assessments...but also a lot of learning.

Monday we did paperwork, got our schedules and academic handbooks and worked with our learning goals. Mine are around being able to bring what I learn here home in a practical and productive way. I don't want this to be an isolated experience, as I often seem to have. So I'm focusing on the larger world and developing my marketable skills(job market or otherwise). I also hope to stay grounded in my place and work here and this goal, which involves doing something consciously physical each day to try to stay in my body.

Monday afternoon was our first LES for the term. As I said before, I'm working in Cullerne, which is the main food producing garden at the Park. I helped prepare a bed for winter, pulling up Dock which although is a very useful plant, is persistent and a weed here and not what we want in the middle of garden beds, getting out other plants with deep roots that will not die and decompose over the winter, and edging and covering the bed. I worked with a French woman, and it was nice. Also, at tea breaks up at Cullerne, we get snacks as well as tea, which is really nice. Especially the peanut butter. Delicious.

Tuesday we had our first actual class. It was Worldviews and Consciousness with David.
We went over the syllabus(we did this in all classes, so just assume it for the rest of the week) and then after tea went the the Main Sanctuary and talked a bit about meditation ending with a 40 minute "sampler." This involved David leading us in a meditation where he gave us different techniques to stay focused. Some of them were focusing on the breath, body scans, focusing on someone who is a great teacher to you....many things. It was a really empowering experience and a lot of fun. I like meditating, even though I find it difficult to sit still for so long. We each need to choose some sort of practice to reflect on over the term and I'm thinking of making it mediation in the sanctuary or at Shambala every day. It's between that and yoga at this point I think. I need to do a little more thinking on it before I choose. And if I choose one, I can still do the other too. It's not exclusive.

Tuesday afternoon was work at Cullerne. Jake and I helped Luke(one of the gardeners and Staci's husband) weed a bed of chard.

Wednesday was a bit intimidating before it happened. We had Group Dynamics with Mary all day. 9:15 to 12:15 and 2-5. A long day. But it was actually really interesting. It felt more like a workshop at a conference than a class. After business, we talked some theory and talked about consensus reality and dreamland. In consensus reality we talk in language that everyone agrees on. I am a student, I am a woman, I am an artist, etc. In dreamland we use symbols to describe how and who we are. We did a meditation and found ourselves as animals that symbolized ourselves. I was a rabbit in a cool, dark forest, listening with my long ears, watching with my eyes on the side of my head, and running fast through the trees.

Next we split into groups and had 30 minutes to create a freestanding shelter that could fit one adult person in it. I worked with Ina, Hannah and D-fly. We made a teepee and worked together quite well. There was one group that had a lot of problems, but we did well. D-fly has pictures. I'll try to get them from her...and speaking of that, there is a group picture of us up on the living routes website under weblogs, Findhorn Fall 2008. Check it out. The rest of the day was talking about groups and theory and edges and such.

Thursday we had two classes. Creativity in the morning and Applied Sustainability in the afternoon and evening. Creativity is going to be a great class. We're doing a bunch of different art forms including basket making, life drawing and creative writing. This coming Wednesday we're doing dance--the five rhythms from Gabrielle Roth's book Maps to Ecstasy, which was pre-course reading. We may also at the end of the term get to spend some time in the pottery studio, which I'm really excited about.

We spent a fair amount of time talking about our Art of Fascination assessment. We each are offering specific skills and art forms to the group to teach to other people. It's a study at something someone else is passionate about. After about a month, we'll present on these in class, our experiences, sharing the activity with the rest of the group...I'll tell you more as it gets clearer. I'm offering knitting, cartwheeling, and clothing alteration.

Thursday afternoon was Jonathan's class. It was interesting, but seemed a little too familiar to me. Going over a lot of stuff I already know. We talked a bit about permaculture, carbon and ecological footprints and biomimicry. It's all really interesting stuff and I'm excited for the class, but the intro stuff is a bit repetitive for me.

That evening Jonathan showed us Leo DiCaprio's movie The 11th Hour. It was an interesting film and I recommend it, but it is another in a series of environmental movies that preach to the choir. The people who go to see these movies are the ones that already know about the issues. Nonetheless, it was a beautifully done film.

Friday morning Tom and D-fly did a session on activism. Tom talked about a direct action project he was involved in in Indiana where he goes to school and D-fly talked about Guerrilla Art. We're going to do a project at the Park over the next couple of weeks. I'll post pictures afterwards.

Friday afternoon was attunement. We played tag and then had a discussion about gender and sexuality in the group. It raised some interesting issues and I think it was good to talk about it.

Friday night I watched Into the Wild with D-fly, Ina, and Emily Gretz. Having read the book and seen the movie, I have some strong opinions on the whole situation. But that is for another place and another time.

It's dinner time so I'm going to post "the week" and then I'll write about the weekend afterwards.