Tea Breaks and Oat Cakes

Dear friends,

Classes have begun and it is a lot of fun so far, though the atmosphere of the program and the mood of the people here has definitely changed. Applied Sustainability was really intense and presented a lot of information about how unsustainable the world is in our first class (which was 6 hours long), which freaked a lot of people out. Our professor is really focused on the importance of community in sustainability which is nice for me because I can understand it better that way, but also nice in general because a lot of people only present knowledge about sustainability and ecovillages in the context of science and food and housing and waste management (which are all important aspects too, and things we will be going in depth into) but there has to be sustainability in the people who do the work and make the commitment as well, and that is created in large part through community. Also when we talk about the sustainability of groups it merges into our other classes. The classes are very well connected which I think will in the end provide an amazing holistic overview of sustainability that I will be able to apply to my life in more mainstream culture very well. Which of course is what this program is about. But anyway, you can read my teacher's blog here (link also at sidebar). I like it a lot. I also like Jonathan because he starts all his emails to us "Dear Friends" which is how I sometimes start correspondences too.

Today we had Group Dynamics and Conflict Facilitation class. This class is really interesting to me because I have learned facilitation skills in an environment fairly different from here, and to learn about essentially the same concepts with a different vocabulary and style is going to be a big, possibly difficult experience for me. Also a lot of my facilitation skills come from groups in which I have been working with other leaders - either in a co-operative sense or in leading conferences to help others develop their own leadership skills (and people here aren't all leaders), and in a community where all the participants share a set of basic beliefs, which is very helpful in group work, and which we don't have here. And finally, conflict facilitation is not something I have done a lot. I have been involved in a lot of group conflict but have only had to facilitate it a small number of times and am very excited to build skills in that area.

On Sunday a lot of my friends jumped into the ocean. I didn't go down to the beach to see this happen but they all stopped by our bungalow (it is the closest one to the beach, about a 10 minute walk, and a 7 minute walk in the other direction to the other bungalows and our meeting space) afterwards and we made them tea and hot water bottles and they sat by our radiators and warmed their pink hands. But speaking of tea, we have tea breaks twice a day. They are close to mandatory and they are splendid. I eat a lot of oatcakes and oranges and apples and drink a lot of ginger and lemon tea and because there isn't very much variety in food here usually we all talk a lot about things we would like to be eating instead of oatcakes and oranges and apples and ginger and lemon tea. But in all honesty I don't know how I survived this long without oatcakes and have carved quie a large space out of my heart for them to nestle right in and I am already planning to take many boxes of them with me out of the free food shed when I leave because if separated from them at this point I will likely go into shock. But if I do tire of them, of course I have the option of a rice cake instead. Or a hard rye-bread thing. Or maybe if I am feeling particularly wild, some cornflakes.

Tomorrow we have creative class and then we are going to see castle ruins with a Scottish bard and visiting a tiny secluded beach-cove (I don't really know ocean terminology) and then I have Kitchen Party (kitchen clean-up after dinner in the community dining hall, we just call it KP) and then we are watching a movie called The End of Suburbia. Probably sometime in between all of those things I will eat some potatoes and carrots and beets and also I will think of you.

Love,
Nora