Brio and creativity

Word of the week: Brio - enthusiastic vigour, or great energy and confidence. (Merrian-Webster online dictionary)

I think I need a little more brio in my life. Some zest in the things I do. I am really feeling the autumn coming with shorter, colder days, and after a busy weekend catching up with old friends and getting new ones, I feel I need something that will energize me. Enthusiasm in what I do is often essential to give me that extra push through the boring everyday tasks.

Lately I have had this feeling that I want to create something - be creative. But I have so much to do, and I know that ideas don't come unless I invite them in. So I just go around trying out different mediums to express myself creatively, and try to feed my addiction to creating. It is a bit weird to have these periods where I just want to create something all the time, although I have few ideas, just a nagging feeling.

Random bad drawing of a giraffe
with broken legs (I'm bad at drawing legs)
in front of a Kilmanjaro I wish had that much snow on it's peak.
The original random line became the giraffe's back and neck.

I feel like when I suppress my need to express myself creatively long enough, it just bubbles to the surface like this, giving me this distracting need to do something - anything - creative. As I said, I don't have many concrete ideas, but often, if I just start creating something random (like drawing a picture of a giraffe  eating from a tree in front of Mount Kilmanjaro - from one random line), it's like I unclog the pipes, and the creativity starts flowing again. Not very well at first - frequent blockages are usual - but creativity, like so many other things, improves with frequent usage and practice.

I would really like to keep my creative side honed and ready on demand, but so often I don't have the capacity and energy needed. It's yet another facet of my life that I have to fit in and balance correctly with all the other important things. But my comfort is that I doubt I can destroy my creative side. It will always be there, just sometimes buried deeper than other times. The tubing will there, it just needs some periodic maintenance or a thorough cleaning to work again.

Books read: 45
Pages read: 12971

PS: Since I write this blog partly (or maybe mainly) to keep my creative side awake, I will be posting some of the written things I create here. Mostly, poems go on this blog, while photos go on tumblr. My output for the latter isn't very big, so don't expect much original content over there on tumblr (but you can still find funny, pretty, nerdy, book-related, nerdfightastic, and wonderful things here.)

Shall we dance?

Since I got back to Trondheim this autumn I have taken up dancing again. I dance swing, a type called 'fastingswing' or 'folkeswing' in Norwegian. I think it's really fun, and also, it gives me a great workout. The thing that surprised me, though, when I started dancing, was how many boys there were. Last time there were approximately ten more boys than girls.

So the question that pops up in my head is: when did boys start to like dancing? I turns out it's generally a couple of years after they start university. Most of the boys I have talked to while dancing are in their second or third year at university or above that. In comparison, many of the girls are in their first year and have already discovered couples dance.

I, and many other girls, have a general problem when dancing a partnered dance. I love to have control. I want to lead and be sure of what I'll be doing next, but that is not how it works. Quite often guys smile and say that I'm bossy, or 'you tried to pull my arm down in the turn' or 'wrong way' and other things of that sort. At the same time, I have heard that it can be quite difficult for boys (at least in the beginning) to adapt to being the leader and deciding everything. As a girl, the best kind of guy to dance with is one who is strong and confident, so that she feels secure, while a guy, I suppose, would prefer a girl who was good at following him.

It is quite interesting how society has created a set of values where girls are taught to be independent and have control, while boys sometimes miss out on this lesson for some reason. But when it comes to being on the dance floor, I find that I really prefer following, and I have the most fun when the boy I dance with is a confident leader. Sometimes it is really nice to just leave that responsibility and desire for control in the changing room and just enjoy myself for a few hours.

So put on your dancing shoes, get out there and have fun! If you're a boy, practice your leadership and gain confidence, and if you're a girl just leave all the worries by the door and practice trusting your partner. And above all: enjoy yourself!

Books read: 45

30. Ping-pong

In the common room of the academy, there is, in addition to tables, chairs, and sitting groups, also a ping-pong (or if you prefer to be specific, table tennis) table. This ping-pong table is a gathering point in our free time, and a very fun game is played on it.

The game we play here is for as many people that want to join (or however many rackets are available...and we have a lot of them). You then divide into two groups of roughly the same size, who line up at each end of the table. The first person in one of the lines starts by serving. Each person then hits the ball once, and then moves around the table in the anti-clockwise direction. If you fail, that is, either you don't return the ball over the net, or you let it bounce more than one time on you side, or the ball you hit doesn't bounce on the table at all, you loose one of your two lives. When you loose both your lives, you are out of the game.

The game is played this way until there are only two people left, who then play a match which goes to two points (or three, if it's initially a draw). It's a lot of fun to play, even though I often end up going out of the game at an early stage. It's also fun to watch, and you can always hear it being played from a long way away, from all the hoots of laughter, shrieks, and shouts coming from the direction of the common room. Today, after dinner, I played this game with two other people. There's a lot of running to do when there are only three people playing this game (and no lives to lose). I had to return the ball the person behind me hit, so it's about being both fast and accurate. It was a lot of fun, and also really tiring. Sweat was running down my face when we finished.

If you ever have the chance to play this game, I highly recommend it. It is a very including game if you only have one ping-pong table, but lots of rackets. So this was today's dosage of out-of-breath fun.

This is the last day of BEDA, in case you hadn't noticed. I am looking forward to getting back to my usual blogging schedule, even though this month has been a good experience. I have become better at writing, and also at noticing the small and interesting things in my everyday life here. I am now completely into my routines here, and this has really become my home. I am looking forward to sharing the next couple of months I spend here with you.

Books read: 18

Pages read: 4886

PS: For a really catchy funny song titled "Ching chong!", click here. I thought it would fit with today's post because it sounds like the title...and I often have it on repeat in my head unwillingly.