Summer Classes

When I decided to stay home this summer and enjoy Madison, I knew I would have to schedule myself a bit so that I could avoid the pajamas-all-day-malaise that seemed to set in once I was done with coursework this spring. A climbing gym in town offers classes I could never take before because of scheduling conflicts - sign me up! The university extension classes (aka community ed) offers African dance, which I've always wanted to learn - sign me up! Tonight marks the last of my climbing classes.

I've passed my belay exam and now know how to tie myself to a harness and how to scramble up (only the easiest of) routes. Love it. Isn't it a great gym? The floor is made of 12" thick foam - super fun to walk on. Next Wednesday is our dance class' recital when we will perform "sinte" to live drumming. I'm really going to miss coming together with the girls every week and hearing Mandjou's awesome djembe playing. That's him in the back of this video - our dancing is not this complicated (yet!), but I definitely recognize some of the moves.

One of the lessons I've learned this summer is to keep learning - to keep doing things I'm not good at it (being that one of the things I'm not good at is not being good at things ... so frustrating!). I definitely want to learn more skills, too, and not rely just on getting good at writing paragraphs that no one will read or engaging in esoteric debate. Bo-ring. I want real skills - how to tie a knot or how to do a dance step, for instance. Next up: quilting and sushi-making.