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The rest of Costa Rica was good, but shadowed by bad news from the States. We worked on things I found more difficult, and they put together a program for us all to take home. I took notes on what to pack next year (not just the bug-bite zapper, extra batteries for the bug-bite zapper) and what not to (Q-tips, which go soggy and useless in the humidity). I got very tired, but still managed some good-feeling stuff, including the single easiest and simplest kick-up of my whole life. Also had some success with a drill I've never succeeded at before, which I'm very excited about and want to keep replicating. In the end my big thing was to work on never bending my elbows while ideally doing other things right also, and progress was made.
We didn't do fun shapes on the last day, to my mild disappointment. No hollow back, scorpion or croc. We had the afternoon/evening off and I was quite the party pooper; no tours, no going out to the nearby little town, no going out to a bar with almost everyone else in the evening. No, I soaked up all the peace I could and took more wildlife photos and selfies (and shaved my legs, and packed). From what I heard of the evening everyone else had, that was the right choice for me.
I did hang out more with the Boston crew, including getting a picture of all of us doing straight handstands together in a line. Pretty great. I think I half-talked RB into teaching a contortion handstand miniseries in the future. And maybe made a Minneapolis friend? And a different Boston person might be more friendly now; she's a somewhat shy tattooed contortionist girl with a PhD in immunology, and she would like to meet Caltrop, so I will try to make it happen.
In an attempt at savoring/learning, I also made a playlist of the music the teachers played for us (all the songs my phone could pick up on), and ordered two items of clothing that I saw other people wearing.
Today started with a five-hour bus ride to SJO, and now I'm on my second flight home. I'm wrestling, in a more immediate way now, with my feelings and thoughts about the TRUMP STORMS BACK headline I woke up to on Wednesday. I'm not in a great place with it, truth be told. The pundits seem to have moved on to blaming the Democrats for various campaign things, but I don't buy much of that. We're not judging high school debates here. I do kind of buy the idea that a lot of the electorate is currently lower on Maslow's hierarchy of motivations than is comfortable to think about; and people who are truly worried about lower-down stuff aren't going to be as swayed by idealism. (The Dems maybe could have done a better job arguing that life under their regime would have been better, in terms of basic needs being met.) But I also think that we're going to learn about fascism the hard way, which is deeply stupid, unnecessary and sad. And I feel... reprimanded by the world, reminded that I'm not particularly in the majority in most of my thinking. There's nothing to fight against because democracy worked in this case; popular vote matched the electoral vote, and people wanted a posturing, hate-spewing rapist strongman (and convicted felon). Let them have it then.
Last year my cat died the morning after I got back from Costa Rica, so at least that doesn't seem to be happening.
We didn't do fun shapes on the last day, to my mild disappointment. No hollow back, scorpion or croc. We had the afternoon/evening off and I was quite the party pooper; no tours, no going out to the nearby little town, no going out to a bar with almost everyone else in the evening. No, I soaked up all the peace I could and took more wildlife photos and selfies (and shaved my legs, and packed). From what I heard of the evening everyone else had, that was the right choice for me.
I did hang out more with the Boston crew, including getting a picture of all of us doing straight handstands together in a line. Pretty great. I think I half-talked RB into teaching a contortion handstand miniseries in the future. And maybe made a Minneapolis friend? And a different Boston person might be more friendly now; she's a somewhat shy tattooed contortionist girl with a PhD in immunology, and she would like to meet Caltrop, so I will try to make it happen.
In an attempt at savoring/learning, I also made a playlist of the music the teachers played for us (all the songs my phone could pick up on), and ordered two items of clothing that I saw other people wearing.
Today started with a five-hour bus ride to SJO, and now I'm on my second flight home. I'm wrestling, in a more immediate way now, with my feelings and thoughts about the TRUMP STORMS BACK headline I woke up to on Wednesday. I'm not in a great place with it, truth be told. The pundits seem to have moved on to blaming the Democrats for various campaign things, but I don't buy much of that. We're not judging high school debates here. I do kind of buy the idea that a lot of the electorate is currently lower on Maslow's hierarchy of motivations than is comfortable to think about; and people who are truly worried about lower-down stuff aren't going to be as swayed by idealism. (The Dems maybe could have done a better job arguing that life under their regime would have been better, in terms of basic needs being met.) But I also think that we're going to learn about fascism the hard way, which is deeply stupid, unnecessary and sad. And I feel... reprimanded by the world, reminded that I'm not particularly in the majority in most of my thinking. There's nothing to fight against because democracy worked in this case; popular vote matched the electoral vote, and people wanted a posturing, hate-spewing rapist strongman (and convicted felon). Let them have it then.
Last year my cat died the morning after I got back from Costa Rica, so at least that doesn't seem to be happening.
