Monday, January 12, 2009

Freak Like Me

It's safe to say that most people don't really make new years resolutions (everyone's given up smoking and people who are foolish enough to think that by paying a monthly membership they're actually going to go to the gym are already doing it). People do take up new hobbies at this time of year though, as I found out today.
I have an embarrassing obsession which is signing up for adult education courses at civic centres. I have been doing it for about 3 years now, and have tried a variety of different things: yoga (for geriatrics...or maybe they were the only people other than me who could make it on Friday morning), Sevillanas and Rumba dancing (I loved this one, especially the woman who took it so seriously she mesmerised me with her competitive stamping and clapping), Indian cooking (this was also a good one with a teacher who really knew how to stir up not only the ingredients but the students too), African dance (a disaster: I think I went to about two classes), Cooking from around the world (with a woman who strangely seemed completely averse to any food or people that weren't Catalan).
Two things they all had in common: there was always one freakish person who you got the impression was there as some sort of 'rehabilitation into society' programme and generally had absolutely no aptitude for whatever the course was, and secondly, that the atmosphere between the people in the class itself was surprisingly frosty.
So why do I sign up for them? It isn't anything to do with finding the inner me or releasing the dancer inside - they are cheap,I have the time, and because its good to try something new. It has occurred to me that it is me that is the freak in all these classes.
Today I tried to sign up for Modern Jazz dancing (not a joke), but when I arrived I was horrified to find the course full. It seems that I am not alone after all.

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