First order of business was showing up to a small room named "Lockwood Lab". In the basement of the ever-confusing Sidney Smith building on the west side of campus, I had been summoned for a psychology study relating to "attachment and dating partner preference".
Because the study is still ongoing, I can't really go into details, but it was an interesting first foray into the world of social psychology testing. I sat in front of a computer for a solid half-hour, answering questions like: "What do you look for in a potential romantic partner?" and "On a scale of 1-5, how important is trustworthiness in a potential romantic partner?".
I didn't feel like I wasted my time and didn't feel too much like a lab rat, so that's pretty good. However, I feel like what the study is truly intending to show (which I can't tell you) is an oversimplification of individual personalities. Maybe I'll talk about this more when the study is released sometime this summer.
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Second order of business was going to the Innis Library and using a computer to do some research on Auckland, New Zealand. I have a small paper to write that deals with globalization, colonization, and multiculturalism (among other things) and I have to use one particular city for my report. I had originally picked Alexandria, Egypt, but I found it too difficult to find information on the aforementioned topics so I switched my search to a city within a country I love and yet know little about: New Zealand.
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Final order of business, and indeed the trickiest part of my day, was a self-directed yoga session at the field house in the Athletic Centre. Given that this is reading week, I was expecting a lot of people to be there and I was not proven wrong. Not only were there undergrad students galore, but there were also a surprising amount of people clearly not there to exercise; parents, guardians, whatever, were scattered around the track and made it difficult for me to find a spot to lay down.
I eventually found a neat little spot shaped like an open trapezoid. I had to move a large gymnasts' mat closer to the nearby stationary bikes to make room for my Manduka©. This allowed me to make my own little protective rectangle of calm that is to be found on the mat.
It was difficult to have a calm and relaxing yoga practice, however, due to the sheer amount of energy being expended all around me. On the left, people pedaling incessantly; in front of me, hordes of joggers and sprinters zooming by. On the right, a sturdy wall with a bulletin board.
Well, thank god for that wall. Always dependable and non-chaotic.
It was a little funny, actually. About 10 minutes into my sun salutations, I hear the booming voice of someone speaking into a wireless microphone. Turns out there's a group yoga class happening directly across from me, over the track, and slightly hidden from my point of view due to giant curtains.
The teacher seemed interesting. She offered "bronze, silver, or gold" versions of poses and although I did my best to follow my own practice, sometimes her instructions would sync up with what I was doing, such that she would tell her class to breathe, and I would breathe as well. Or I would be in downward dog when the class was in downward dog, and I would hold the pose for a little bit longer because of her.
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Riding on the subway (and bus) home, I found it hard to not feel watched; judged; dismissed. The endless faces of commuters, many of them on their phones, but many also seemingly awake and peering out at the people all around them. I had to close my eyes to feel like myself and not feel like I was a reflection of the others.
Signed,
Kaleidoughscope
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