So I didn't make it out of P-town and into the Adorondacks as I had planned for today, but oddly enough I saw more new scenery and had more new experiences than I probably would have if I had driven 5 hours north into the mountains. I attended the first dance class of my life this afternoon--a West African Dance class, taught to live drumming. I have never tried ot learn any kind of dance before, at least not in any focused and organized fashion, and this certainly did not come easily. I danced terribly. My movements were all wrong, and out of synch with the others. I fell way behind, and couldn't coordinate my feet and hands with each other. I would try to move one hand with the opposite foot, and one of them would fall out of line, or one of the other hands or feet would try to get in on the action,and the whole movement would be lost into a sort of moving body mush.
I had SO much fun. Learning without language is thrilling--a kind of learning I almost never do, that I have never really tried to cultivate. I studied some of the areas involved in action imitation over break--one of my mentors thinks areas of action imitation may be the basis of some of our more complex cognitive abilities--and the image of those withered and neglected parts of my brain groggily waking up and slowly starting to make new connnections, that image staid with me throughout the practice. I am going to try to keep up with my work so that I can have time to go back next week.

Tonight, once again, I tried to leave Providence to have dinner with my friend shira and her mom in Brookline, but Providence wasn't having that. My car refused to start, and decided instead to give me a two hour immersive experience in soliciting acts of lovingkindness from strangers and learning the subtle art of jump-starting. So I drove around the campus for a bit until it recharged, decided not to try to exit the city limits for the rest of the day. I made it to the grad center bar for the first time tonight, talked about the future of art and world travels and new england colleges around a pool table with Jesse and Seth, my roomates from last year.
I am very proud of myself this weekend. I am making good on my promise to reprioritize.