"All the flowers would have very extra special powers"

My first "knee-touching" partner Julia I drew

Second day of our "Performance Workshop" was more interesting though we did some weird stuff. We had to sit cross-legged with both knees touching our partner's and sketch them for an hour. How awkward it was to draw that close to someone, but I loved being able to finally draw. But the second part....then we switched partners, sitting the same with knees touching, staring at each other "being present" for an hour. Most awkward time of my life. Try making eye contact in silence without movement with someone you barely know within intimate almost-kissing space. My partner Katie and I would look around the room in the beginning and occasionally make eye contact than giggle, blush, and look away. It felt like the first time you kiss someone: that awkward time before where you keep getting closer and closer waiting for it to happen, but not wanting to be the first. As time progressed we became comfortable enough that we stared at every detail on each other. I know every freckle placement, the structure of every ligament and muscle in her face, that she doesn't have split ends, she wears contacts, the smudge of her makeup underneath her eyelash, that her nose tilts to the right a tad, etc. The only time most of us humans have experienced this intimacy knowledge is in a relationship usually when you're laying naked with each other, but to feel this close to someone I just met with only knees touching was the most fascinating and nerve racking thing ever. Some students had no problem staring into each other's eyes in the beginning; that just shows my confidence needs to build and I need not to worry so much.

96 onions shredded layer by layer

Get ready for this third exercise: we sat in a circle each with 4 onions and were instructed to peel them layer by layer in silence at a slow pace. We all giggled at first thinking it was stupid and watching people beginning to cry, but an hour and half later everyone was serious, silent, sobbing. For some reason just the release of 24 people crying together became this monumental event like something tragic had happened. Another amazing thing to experience (though a few of us, including me, didn't cry because of our contacts). I know all these things sound weird, yes it is contemporary art and may not make sense, but I'm experiencing and learning so much from it all. Not going to lie though, the crevasse under my fingernail became an open wound from peeling, but i kept going and the stinging onions got inside so now my thumbs wreak of onions and are swollen...delightful.

Folded underwear...yes I wear cute ones :)

So our host mom asked for my laundry, and I gave her everything figuring I'd get it back the next morning....no. After 3 days later of wearing my sweats and bikini swimsuit bottoms as underwear I finally got it back--fail. I didn't realize they air dry everything outside in the damp, gloomy weather. Live and learn. But she did fold my delicates, thongs and all!

Our grand performance...making a fort 

So after this whole 16 hour weekend of "Performance Workshop" we had to take what we learned and perform something for the public. Our intelligent, brilliant, artistic students came up with the idea to literally build a fort out of the furniture like we were 5 again--stupid, but it was actually really fun. After we completed it, the audience came and sat inside while we all ate croissants. The most wonderful thing about contemporary art: easy to bullshit since it can be "everything and nothing, there is no right or wrong" ha ha.

Inside the fort...as I'm falling