Om mani padme...

Hey reader!!

First things first, congratulations to my sister M who now has a master in journalism!! congratulations! congratulations! Yeah yeah yeah!! You're the best!

I have not been writing in a very very long time, because I have been travelling, and very very busy. My summary of the last two weeks would be "I love America and resent the French Universities". But as my Yoga teacher says, "Everyday, every aspect of my life gets better and better". Good news, innit?

Anyway. I won't tell you about my journey to the US, reader, I took that big decision yesterday, after realising that I was so worried about what I would write that I did not write anymore, so let me just tell you how wonderful and great it was, how sunny and warm, and how welcoming all the people I met were. I just loved my 5 days there, and hope I can go back some day. With all my siblings, again. So nice to see them all, reader, really! We should do that more often! (said the girl whose plane ticket was paid for by her parents...)

The subject of today's post, therefore, will be yesterday's yoga lesson. My very first yoga lesson! My shakras are all nicely open, and I constantly feel like I am walking in a perfumed indian valley, with sunbeams massaging my shoulders and an inner peace close to nirvana. Oh, yeah, and a little guy from the Appalachians playing the flute in the background. See, reader? That's my problem with yoga, I just can't let go of my cynicism. (cinicism? ssinissizem?). I enjoyed the yoga session, and I'll go back again next week with pleasure, and any opportunity given a human being to lie down on the ground, under a soft blanket and gently doze off should be accepted with gratitude.

I think it's the position that's the ultimate cause of all problems. You have to lie still on you back, and I guess it's a nervous bypass or something like that, it always makes me laugh. Or, more precisely, if something makes me giggle while I'm lying flat on my back, it very quickly degenerates into terrible fits of laughter. So yesterday, I was kind of stressed out, because I did not want to start laughing alone during the yoga lesson and break the quiet and sacred peace of the room by snorting and coughing, so I tried to concentrate. And it worked. But still, I could not make my inner voices shut up. I had no idea so many people lived in my brain, and I figured maybe I should seek professional help. There is first of all "Serious" the one who thinks nothing should be halfway done, and while I am in a peaceful yoga-sancutary I should clear my mind of all silliness and concentrate on my shakras. There is "Stupidhead", -very loud little voice- which can't help giggling when the teacher says "perineum". There is also "Sleepy", which only ever snores, but who's very very loud as well. Next time, I'll put earlplugs on as soon as the relaxation session starts.

Besides, it might keep me from hearing my stomach growl. I don't know why, I don't know how, but my stomach seems to like its own voice very very much, so with its little stomachial ears, he listens very carefully for the most quiet moment possible before lauching into a very nice aria. But at least I did not fall asleep and snore during the relaxation session, which sadly happened to another student.

It happened to me when I was in kindergarten, we were trying to relax (I guess the teacher was mostly trying to make up stop throwing things at each other) and I fell asleep. It was very embarrassing, so much so that I remember it today, and I was only, what, 5 or 6 when it happened... The poor yoga student must have been at least 40! But then again, I don't suppose he recalls snoring.

I hate falling asleep in the wrong places. I remember having to fight off sleep at work this summer sometimes, and it just drove me crazy! Your head falls down, and you think "wake up, wake up, wake up, someone's going to see you, you are going to get fired, and you'll look stupid, wake up, wake up", but it still doesn't help! Why can't I fall asleep in my bed in the dark, but still can't stay awake when I have work to do? I think it's the same area of my brain which makes me be happy to do boring things instead of learning interesting lessons for my exams. The whole fun lies in making me helpless and ridiculous. I guess the worst place is in the train though. In the train when you have a neighbour, and you can see yourself, with your mind's eye, looking very pale and green and brown around the eyes. Then you think, damn my neighbour, I'm tired, I'm going to sleep. But then you feel you mouth open slightly, and you start panicking about starting to drool or something like that, or breathing noisily or something, and then you think, Wake up Claire, wake up! Wake Up!! But of course you can't, because that would be too easy. So you try to keep you head up straight, but it still keeps falling down, and in the end, you arrive in Strasbourg and you're fuzzy-brained as never before, and you wish you'd stay home.

Anyway. Life is tough on sluggish people... I have to run now (I have a terrible paper to write about "Integration of languages in Germany", I am supposed to talk in German for 2 hours, and I am considering, once again, changing careers completely...). Maybe some day I'll have time for a "how to end a post properly" course, but apparently not today! The call of duty, you know how it is!! Better be off! Have a nice day, reader!!