The weekend just gone was a long-anticipated full weekend of dancing and hosting The London Ballet Company. Five dancers from LBC set off at 7am for the long drive to Swansea. They gave us all here a very enjoyable 3 hours of dancing to fill our Saturday afternoon, including a contemporary class and learning some repetoire from their most recent show 'James Bond - 00 and his 7'. It was refreshing and inspiring for all the dancers who came along, both those teaching and taking part, and hopefully a continued collaboration between The London Ballet Company and Swansea University Dance Society can be made. After a tiring day we headed out to the Saturday night bars of Swansea City to continue dancing the night away! Sunday morning involved lots of coffee and bacon sandwiches for LBC's long journey back to London, while I trekked off to the library. From one city to another, I have now finally sat down to write my essay from my study abroad programme in Colorado last summer, realising deadline dates are approaching! As I write my essay about the development of technology in society, I begin to appreciate just how lucky we are in the 21st Century to be able to travel across the country in just a couple of hours, and communicate with our professors all the way across the pond! It's amazing how seemingly simple pleasures such as dancing with lots of friends in a big room, actually does need a surprising amount of technology to coordinate! Well all I can say is that we had a brilliant (if tiring) weekend and would love to be able to repeat it in the near future. For now, the dance society here looks forward to a hiphop dance workshop next weekend, performing for the National Omani day, arranging charity events and flashmobs with Chinese and Bolloywood classes! Back to the degree now, may technology continue to flourish (without harming the environment!)
0 Comments
Forget unchangeable things such as weather or human race. Focus instead on intellect and material worth. I really dislike the latter, but identical to the majority of westerners, have failed to evade it so far. My intellect is gradually improving I think - just handed in my first essay of my final year, I continue to read the news and papers for my general knowledge. The BBC today have published a very touching and extremely important article to inspire everyone. Jose Mujica, president of Uruguay, has officially been named the 'World's poorest president'. This to him is of little consequence, he simply tries to help others in his country, and do right by them in politics. He chooses to live off a small income, donating up to 90% of his annual salary to others. He justifies his choice of living;
"I don't feel poor. Poor people are those who only work to try to keep an expensive lifestyle, and always want more and more." "This is a matter of freedom. If you don't have many possessions then you don't need to work all your life like a slave to sustain them, and therefore you have more time for yourself." I admire this man's parsimony and sincerity, if only others would realise too, that possessions mean little if they are not shared, and work seems only hard if one is struggling to keep up with and reward their selfish desires for materialism. Focus instead on improving what you have already, be thrifty, and, in the run up to Christmas, just remember; no present will ever be anywhere near as good as affection, friends and happiness. Today the world woke up to the news that Barack Obama has been re-elected as President of the United States of America. This momentus occasion was watched by millions around the world (I'm ashamed to say that sleep got the better of me!) however I've since watched Obama's acceptance speech in Chicago, and even if knowledge of American politics eternally evades me, I guess he sounds alright.
Obama spoke of optimism for the future and working collectively to develop the USA. He concluded; "We are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions" and to a background of deafening cheers also somewhat obviously remembered; "We are, and forever will be, the United States of America." Today also produces very exciting changes for Colorado. As I wrote about in my article 'Make marijuana NORML' back in July, law has now been passed legalizing cannabis in this state. This will bring about fresh changes and concerns in the state I'm sure, and it will be interesting to watch how this develops. (See The Collegian's views on Amendment 64). I write this blog as I sit freezing in South Wales, avoiding my first essay of my final year due in exactly 5 days. Without being too profound, I guess everyone needs to realise how important everyday is, not just electing the President of the USA. After all, if 'everyday' didn't exist, you would have no days at all! I think this takes me back to my summer I was fortunate to spend in six different countries! Sometimes I missed friends and home comforts, or got tired and wound up, but these are just part of the experiences, and nostalgia is a wonderful thing. Just occasionally, the best thing to do is stop. Be grateful for where you are and what's around. Who cares if the weather is truly awful and it's almost dark by 4pm, or whether you've run out of milk for your coffee. In the end, you're still doing okay. You can never stop getting better. And if your day is truly awful, pick up a good book and get lost in it, the power of fiction is underrated. On the subject of fiction however, I must say that I am unconvinced by the 50 Shades of Grey obsession. As an English Literature student, I have not read the books myself, for their apparent crudeness. I personally much prefer Jane Eyre or a Thomas Hardy novel, and with my new module on neo-Victorian literature, I must say I am inclined towards this genre too. Learning is such an eye-opening thing that in the developed western world most people wholly take for granted, however having an interest and understanding even of a few cultural or temporal differences of the world we can appreciate more where we are now. I am beginning to understand the world of twitter too now, and have found some fantastic sites/groups/people/whatever-you-call-them to recommend. http://www.uber-facts.com/ http://twitter.com/GreatestQuotes And remember - be grateful for the ability to learn a little bit everyday for better or worse. |
About meI enjoy writing and have had experience from my degree and through working on news posts. I hope to use this blog as a summary of extraordinary things I've discovered or witnessed in everyday life. Archives
March 2020
|