Ballroom and Latin Dancing- 10 months on

Since Christmas, we have been in the improvers class and WOW. The difference. Some people in that class have been there 2 years! They dance and you just want to stop and watch them move. Four of us progressed on from the beginner class to the improvers class this semester, but we really are quite far behind in comparison. In many of the dances we have a lot of catching up to do. This semester we learned rumba, which I love, and it’s quite different from everything else we have done so far. The pace of the improvers class is much faster, and I feel like we’ve learned so much since Christmas. My usual dance partner wasn't there one day, so for the first time since I started, I was actually dancing with a man, as a woman! While in theory this sounded good, he kept complaining about my trying to lead...

No, this is not me, but this is a snap from our class!

We added new steps to our quickstep - the lock-step and pivot turn - which we still don’t have quite right so it looks a bit clunky. The cha cha is still probably one of my favourites because it's so up-beat. We got to add a new step called the cross-basic in the cha cha, which is taking a while to get the hang of. Since Christmas we have also spent much more time on swing dancing, and added a new step called the American Spin which is good fun but it makes you so dizzy after a while! It’s one of the only dances where I do the woman’s part, so a few times I got to dance with the teacher, and she's so amazing it's kind of scary to be her dance partner. We added in a "conversation piece" to the Foxtrot as well, so it's nice to have something new in there. When I switched to Monday classes one night, some other people in the class thought I had been doing dance for ages, which was a nice compliment to get.

Towards the end we had a very quick introduction to samba, which I would really like to learn more of because I love the music for it. We also did a "Yearning Saunter" which I think definitely wins the award for the poshest dance title! It is a strange sequence dance that feels as though it belongs in an Austen film adaptation. (I realise that all makes it sound interesting but really it’s more of a yawning saunter).

Before starting dance this year, I had never really grasped how much you have to use your brain for it. And a different part of the brain than usual, at that. But it really is the case that as soon as you start over-thinking the dance steps, you suddenly can't do it anymore. I imagine come September we will have forgotten a lot of what we have learned. The four of us who progressed from the beginner to the improvers class since Christmas are all planning to go back in September, which will be lovely. And I must say I am actually glad now that I learned the man's part, because otherwise it is very easy to allow yourself to be led, and never really learn the steps independently, but learning both parts means I am able to teach other people how to do the same dances.


PS: I have yet again- obviously- failed to take any pictures to actually show I do any of this (sorry). For the end of the Gaisce challenge, I do need to hand in a portfolio with pictures/videos of my various activities, so if anyone wants to volunteer to learn all of these dances and pose for pictures, let me know :P 

Volunteering in a Charity Shop- 10 months on

Since Christmas, I have got to know how the Irish Cancer Society shop works in much greater detail. For every donation we get, we have to figure out whether or not the item is ok to sell, and if so, we have to judge the quality (or brand) and put a price on it, something I am much more experienced at now. I’ve also come to realise how many businesses are involved with, and make donations to the Irish Cancer Society, like Tesco for example. When people rip one pair of socks/tights/underpants etc, out of a pack of three, Tesco can no longer sell them, and the item they have taken obviously isn't individually security tagged, so they just steal it. On the plus side, it's great for us, because all the clothes are brand new!

Inside the shop

I have met so many new volunteers over the last few months. We get a lot of student and international volunteers, some doing work experience, some trying to better their English. Some of our volunteers are doing internship placements with us, and for many it is their first time to work. Everyone has a different story, and it is really interesting that every few weeks, there is a new fellow volunteer to meet. 

Every so often I update the shop’s Facebook page with some interesting-looking item in store, and there has been more engagement with the page lately, but it is hard to keep it up to date as I am only in there once a week. The manager is very grateful for the page, though, and also asked me to design summer-themed posters and leaflets for an event in the shop. I sent my design into Reads in Stillorgan and they hand-delivered the finished product, much to the manager’s delight, and the event went really well.

In many ways, a charity shop is a difficult place to work. If we don’t get donations, there’s nothing to sell, so there are no customers. When a customer really wants something, they will often try to haggle over the price, even though all the funds are going to charity. Security is difficult because there is no way to identify an item donated to our shop once the tag has been removed, so for some, this becomes an opportune place to steal. But, although it is undoubtedly more challenging than my other two Gaisce activities, over the last few months, it has become increasingly significant to me on a personal level.

My grandfather passed away due to prostate cancer in May, and my grandmother and mother couldn't thank the cancer nurses and carers enough for all they did when treatment was no longer feasible. Although this was funded by the St David's cancer research group in Wales, I know the Irish Cancer Society provide the same resources due to the funding from their shops and regular fundraiser events. Given how much help my own family received from a similar organisation, I am really glad to have chosen the Irish Cancer Society as the charity to volunteer with. A lot of people just come in looking for a bargain, or the volunteers are just looking for work experience, but there are a good few there because they- both customers and volunteers- care about the cause. The work is not always easy, but I am glad to have given my time to this charity.

Yoga...10 months on

After getting a yoga mat for Christmas, I had great intentions of doing yoga each night before bed, but as with most New Year’s Resolutions, that never really came to pass, but I still have made some progress over the last few months. In January I got a bit of a surprise to find one of my lecturers from my master’s course was in my class too!

One of the most interesting things about yoga is the diverse ages, abilities, and flexibilities of the people in the class. No two bodies have the same level of flexibility, and even something as simple as having a cold can dramatically change your ability to hold a pose. At the beginning of each class, the instructor checks to see if anyone has any injuries, and it’s rare someone in the class doesn’t. One class in particular had loads of new people there, somewhere in the range of 40-60 years old, and they were all trying to "one-up" each other on how long it had been since they'd done exercise, and how stiff they felt. This of course gave me the impression that they were going to find the class difficult. How wrong I was. The more they spoke, the more I realised they were all yoga fanatics, and they very comfortably (but also competitively) were doing splits and all sorts of mad poses no problem, while I looked more like an awkward baby elephant.

Not every class leaves you feeling relaxed, or at peace- sometimes it’s simply exhausting. So much so that one student stormed out of one class saying “I’m too old for that sort of thing!”. And although I enjoy the “focusing on your breathing” aspect of yoga, some classes where we start off "stimulating the third eye" leave me a bit bewildered. But in general, I'm really glad I started yoga, and I think it really is helping to minimise my stress levels. It isn't until I'm in the class that I realise how tense I've been holding myself, even down to my facial muscles. During the warmer weather, we did yoga outside on the balcony, over-looking the sea, which was really nice.

Overall, I have to admit that every time I go to yoga class, I can never be sure how it’ll go. Sometimes doing the simplest of poses can trigger lots of cracks and creaks in my joints that really don’t sound good, and other times, I feel like yoga is exactly what my body needed to do. I am seeing a gradual improvement, and it is certainly something I will keep up when I have finished the Gaisce challenge.

Meeting New People

In the space of 2 weeks, I started three new things: dance classes, yoga classes, and volunteering at a charity shop- and didn't know anyone in any of these places. It has been both challenging and incredibly interesting, and in this post I would like to focus on the people I have encountered in my challenge so far.

Myself and Linda
about to start into the Cha Cha Cha

Dance- The Greatest Mood Booster

The dance classes I signed up for were part of a 10 week course, so I have finished the first block now, and I can confidently say I enjoyed every minute. Over the course of the ten weeks, our wonderful teacher, Eithne, has taught us the Foxtrot, the Slow Waltz, the Cha Cha Cha, Swing, Quickstep, and also the Barn Dance (a bit like a Ceili, where everyone continuously changes partners). Eithne is an excellent teacher, so full of enthusiasm and has such a great sense of humour. No matter how my day has gone, I always come away from dance class in a better mood. In the very first week of the course, I met Linda, and due to the imbalance of men and women on the course, we ended up as dance partners for the remaining weeks. Linda is such great fun, but also really determined to get the steps right, and I can't help but smile at the happy little giggle she has whenever we manage a complicated turn. Linda will also be continuing on to the next course this February, so unless more men miraculously appear, I look forward to dancing and having more laughs with Linda.


Yoga

I have really enjoyed getting to know my yoga instructor, Katelyn. She is actually my age too, started practising yoga 5 years ago, began teaching it three years ago, and only in the last year decided to move to Ireland from Canada. I feel very unadventurous in comparison! Most yoga studios have mirrors, but as our one does not, it is difficult to tell if you're doing it right or not, but Katelyn is always really helpful when it comes to making changes in posture (I am terrible at "downward-facing dog"). She makes the classes really inspiring, encouraging us to take the feeling of calm we get from our yoga session out with us afterwards, and it is great for reducing stress.


Volunteer Profiling 

The first volunteer profile

Since I set up the new Facebook page for the Irish Cancer Society in Dun Laoghaire, I have started profiling our volunteers - basically I take a picture of one of them at work, and ask them to tell me how long they have been volunteering with us, what their favourite thing is about working there, and why they chose to volunteer with the Irish Cancer Society in the first place. Our bubbliest volunteer, Catia, featured in our first volunteer profile (shown here on the right). I have really enjoyed doing this project so far, because not only do I get to know my fellow volunteers better, but by putting these posts on Facebook, it also allows them to get recognition for their work. I am looking forward to profiling more of our volunteers in 2017, especially Pauline, who has been there for an impressive 25 years!


I hope you've enjoyed getting to know some of the people I've met during my Gasice challenge so far, as they have made the experience so enjoyable, and even though the activities themselves are exciting, without these people, my Gaisce challenge so far wouldn't be half as special.

Not quite Strictly!

This week's blog covers the Ballroom and Latin Dance classes to date. 

The course I chose for dance classes covers a few different ballroom and Latin dances. So far, we have done the Foxtrot, the Waltz, and the Cha Cha Cha. Luckily the dances we have been doing so far have very similar steps for men and women- the steps just mirror one another. I always go to class with great intentions of taking photos for the blog, but always get so caught up in the dancing that I forget. I will try to get some next week, but in the meantime, I am including Youtube tutorials which cover some of the steps we have been learning.

The first dance of the course was the Foxtrot, and I am feeling much more comfortable with that one now. The Foxtrot is always danced in 4/4 time, so we mostly end up dancing to Frank Sinatra songs, and some Bobby Darin.

We progressed from the Foxtrot onto the Waltz, which I think everyone has an idea of, but I realised I had no clue what I was doing. At home I tried to practise to some of the well-known waltz music, like the Blue Danube or Shostakovitch's Second Waltz, but they are way too fast for the waltz we learned, which looks something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCch-zPc_BY. Instead, I figured out our waltz fits much better with the Godfather theme tune!

We also started into the Cha Cha Cha, which is so exotic compared to the other two. It's such a show-off dance, but is very fun (and fast). While I enjoy the Cha Cha Cha, I find it much harder to stay on beat with those particular songs. The easiest one we danced to so far was the Pussycat Dolls' cover of Sway. 

We are already in the eighth week of the ten week course- it has flown by. The people in my class are so lovely, and we're all really enjoying the course. Everyone watches Strictly Come Dancing, so - much to my Dad's horror - I've started watching it too. Ed Balls may get a lot of criticism for his dance skills, but he's still leagues ahead of us all! Unfortunately, the follow-up course won't start till the end of January, so I'll try to find some other dance course to fill the gap. If anyone knows of anywhere good, let me know.

I hope you've enjoyed the deeper insight into each activity I'm undertaking for the Gaisce challenge. The next blog post will cover my progress in all three activities- thanks for reading :)

Yoga

 I have now done 4 weeks of yoga classes and I am really enjoying it. What I love about yoga is that the instructor frequently reminds us that it's not about the poses other people in the class are doing; it's not about all being at the same level, but rather about doing what feels comfortable for you. The instructor will adapt different positions depending on what different levels people are at. It can be hard not to push yourself to a higher level, but when the instructor starts doing crazy poses where all the weight rests on her hands only, I know I am not ready for that (yet!) but I look forward to being able to do it.


Aside from the physical aspect, the instructor focuses on the "meditation through movement" aspect of yoga, telling us to focus on positive thoughts, to let go of negative feeling, and to try and carry that attitude out with us afterwards. On the morning of Trump's election, it was lovely to go to yoga to forget about it all!

I'm surprised how different yoga is from week to week. It's hard to remember the names of all the poses too, but as you can see I have a few pictures here of some of the poses we do. I had to miss yoga one week because I was ill, and my body really knew it- my joints kept cracking throughout the following week's class. I am definitely going to invest in my own yoga mat soon so that I can practise at home.I can tell I am making progress with my ability/inability to touch my toes, so I am delighted with that.

"Ye're doing great work here"

Our shop front

This week's blog will cover the Irish Cancer Society, next week's blog will cover yoga! 

Something you might not have considered before is that unlike normal shops, in which new stock is guaranteed, charity shops must instead rely on the public to bring in donations…meaning that while it is great when an item is sold, we rarely have a replacement for it. As charity shops almost always sell second-hand items, it is essential that they are of high-quality. We appreciate the many donations from the public, and are always grateful for more. 
 

Part of our
Autumn window display

Real community involvement

I am so glad that I chose to volunteer in a charity shop for my "community involvement" part of the Gaisce. Since I started volunteering with the Irish Cancer Society, I have met the volunteers and regular customers, but also people from around the area who want to get involved in fundraising, such as employees working with BT Telecom and some workers from Today FM. It is great to see so many involved in the charity, and how giving people are. For most people, charity shops are the best place to get a good deal, but it is heartwarming to see how much the charity means to certain customers, who take their change and pop it straight back into the coin box for Breast Cancer Awareness. 

One of the many curious donations!

The new Facebook page

One of the new things I brought to the shop this month was a Facebook page. This page will be a new way to promote sales and shop events, or to attract customers in with unusual, quirky items, like this little fella on the right. So if you're interested or living in the area, please give it a like and a share: https://www.facebook.com/dlcancersoc/ 

To finish this week's blog post, just a quick reminder that this is Prostate Cancer Awareness month, so to all the men, get cracking on sponsorship for those Movember moustaches. Although one of the customers told me "Ye're doing great work here", the vast majority of funding comes from donations from the public, so, women, if you want to do your bit for Prostate Cancer Awareness month too, please text CANCER to 50300 to donate €4 - and if you're feeling adventurous, draw a moustache on your face and share it on Facebook.