Getting Involved
22 Feb 2010 1 Comment
in Study Abroad Tags: dance, history, meditation, School, societies, yoga
The number one way to meet people and stay busy is to join clubs. The first thing I did was check out the Refreshers Fayre. On-campus student organizations are all called societies here, and officers from each one decorated their table space with posters to recruit new members.
The biggest difference between the societies here and the ones at my home university is that you have to pay a fee to join. After one walk around the Fayre, I was interested in the Equestrian, Hiking, Meditation, History, Dance, and Yoga societies. But after adding up the amount it would cost to participate in all of them, I crossed off the first two from the list.
Meditation: £1
A weekly on-campus meditation class is hosted by the local Dharmavajra Kadampa Buddhist Centre. I’ve been exploring meditation for the past two years and I really enjoy it. But I’ve never done it in context of Buddhism before. At first, I felt uncomfortable because the teacher begins the class with a prayer song that praises Buddha the way God would be praised. I remain respectfully silent during that part. The meditation itself helps me slow down my life and maintain a sense of inner peace and balance.
History: £2
I’ve never been too enthusiastic about the subject of history. But I joined the History Society for their events, socials, and activities. The first social I went to was at Playzone – a huge indoor jungle gym for kids. It’s equivalent to Discovery Zone. Wikipedia informs me that DZ went bankrupt in 1996 and that’s why they all disappeared.
The HS rented out Playzone for a night and it was swarming with college students. We climbed padded ledges, crawled up twisted tubes, toed through nets, squirmed through tight spaces and shot down slides into ball pits. We also played jungle gym tag, where the person holding the yellow ball was “it.” I used muscles I forgot I had and let out a good scream every time I went down the heart-thumping slides. They were about 20 feet high. You had to sit on a ledge and drop your body at a 90 degree angle, then the slide curved beneath you two body-lengths down. Basically, it was a blast.
Dance: £10
The Dance Society is the largest group on campus. (I think HS is second largest). They have classes everyday, the genres ranging from tap to breakdancing. But I’m only interested in the belly-dancing class. The teacher works on different body movements each week, while the second half of the class puts them together with a routine. At the end of the semester, there is a dance concert that features all the different styles and one routine from each. Maybe if I learn the routine well and I’m perfect at it by the end of the term, I’ll participate in the concert. That’s an enormous maybe. I don’t know if I even have the guts to do that. But so far, I love it.
Yoga: £25
I had never done yoga before coming to Wales. At the end of the first class, Leanne and I went to introduce ourselves to the instructor. When I told her that it was my first time on the mat, she was surprised and said that she would never have guessed it. Of course that made me feel really good.
After going to 3 classes, I can say that I absolutely LOVE yoga. I am definitely going to find a class to go to regularly when I am back in the States. It helps me develop a better relationship with my body, stretches my flexibility, and fuses my body and soul.
