Eleventh workshop and adult ballet back then!

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This weekend was pretty fun! I attended a brunch with a Slavic lit professor from my school at my alumni club, who later brought us to watch the met opera (Queen of Spades!) It was my first time seeing an opera, and I was worried that I was gonna fall asleep in the middle of the performance, because it is 3.5 hours long! The opera was quite dramatic, with lots of strong emotions that were powerfully demonstrated through singing. I was sitting at the edge of the seat the whole time!

During brunch at my alumni club, I met a few amiable alumni who were in town to attend their grandkids’ birthday party. A woman was talking about how when she was a young professional in the 1970s, she discovered that her boss, a very proper, gentleman looking lawyer, was taking ballet classes after work! So she started taking ballet with him. It was a different era, so when other people asked them, what do you do for a living? They had to say they worked office jobs, sitting around all day and typing out words. They had to disguise that they were lawyers, because at that time, people could not imagine lawyers dancing ballet. Such a different time back then! Now the CEO of Goldman Sachs doubles as a DJ who regularly performs at the hottest night clubs in New York!

Ok, now back to class! Today was a really demanding but good class, we perfected several movements:

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Tenth workshop and loving yourself

in

There has been a very big news recently from my home country China that a young girl in the country’s best university committed suicide because of her abusive boyfriend, who is her schoolmate. The boy lamented the fact that she is no longer a virgin, and therefore asked her to get pregnant with his child and then abort it, as both a punishment and a demonstration of her love. It really made my heart sank, as I am sure many many girls have felt the same way and was there for her. As a girl growing up, especially raised by traditional Asian parents who are usually very strict and critical, it is easy to have doubt in yourself and not believe you deserve the best. Growing up in such an environment, girls always have a tendency to please other people and over compromise themselves to fulfill other people’s requests, and would be afraid that rejecting such requests would mean they would lose love and respect from others. It is this kind of thinking that negatively affects girls’ approach towards dating, as their willingness to over compromise prevented them from leaving their abusive boyfriends.

Being single and actively dating, I also sometimes find myself in the trap of being afraid of saying no, and would always terribly regret me not being sincere and genuine to myself and do what I actually want to do - especially after I said yes to a second date with a person I have no chemistry with, or go home with someone when I am not ready. I do tend to find myself being stronger as years go by, and would always remind myself to always reject whatever I do not like to do- something that seems easy to many people but hard for me sometimes. I did had a few moments of feeling free and independent, once after I had a very frank conversation with my ex and broke up with him, and I consequently had the best year of my life so far just by dating myself, exploring New York, visiting museums, going to shows, etc. Most recently, I also said no to a museum date in MoMa and had a great time going with my friend instead. Loving yourself - seems easy but is sometimes very hard. It means stop needing love from the outside and give love to yourself from within. It means it is ok that to not get love from everybody in the society, because at the end of the day, you will always be there for your own support. It means defending yourself in front of something you do not want for yourself, and care less about what other people think.

Anyways, a very heavy topic for an otherwise thrilling class of dancing!

Today we did many difficult dance moves, including coupé, grand battement, fondu, soussus.

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Ninth workshop and post-holiday routine

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So it turns out I spent a little bit too much money during holidays (oops) and I now need to think of new ways to save money again. Therefore I plan to cook my own meals and cancel my gym membership. That would probably put my savings back on track!

However, meal prep is def more work than it seems - there are lots of planning and logistics going on! Like during nights when you plan to be productive with book reading/blog writing, you find out you run out of rice and have to make a trip to the supermarket. Or you realize you dont have time to go back home tomorrow to cook but you only have leftovers left for 2 more meals. And also after I finish making dinner, eat it, wash the dishes and do all the chores, I am so exhausted that I am no longer productive. Ughh!!

I find that it is mostly because I sit in my bed a lot of the time, and then the next thing I know is when I wake up in the morning… today I try to avoid my bed before bed time and sit in a chair. So far, it works and I am still writing this blog! Sometimes, all it takes is some determination and a change of environment.

So far for the weekly thoughts, now back to ballet!

On Monday, we did a lot of rond de jumbe, did some tendu, pique, and ended with an exercise of the second port de bras.

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