It’s really not my intent to reflect only after almost a week since we had our first Storytelling Techniques (Ryan hates the module name, but I forgot why) lesson, but I’ve been busy looking forward to Hari Raya (oh, finally I can eat and drink in class again!) and all of the green packets. Hehehe.

The first lesson is so fun, I don’t where to start. Really. Ryan, if you’re reading this, I’m not trying to suck up or anything because if you read EVERYONE’s wordpress, each and everyone of them seem to enjoy ST.

When I reached school last Friday, I really didn’t know what to expect. The night before I was talking to my boyfriend about the modules I am taking this semester and when I reached storytelling techniques, instantaneously, that crazy botak head love of mine went “Once upon a time..” and I shuddered. Was I going to be taught to be like one of those librarians you find at the children’s section, or the storyteller at Borders? Then as the night went on, I began to dread Friday because numero uno, I HATE telling stories out loud because I tend to digress and then I just give up telling the story entirely.

And then Friday came and I arrived school on time for my lesson. Ryan introduced himself and told us to address him as Ryan. Oh joy. I love addressing people by their first names. It’s not so scary to talk to them that way. Don’t you agree? I mean if you address your mother as “mom”, then there’s that tendency that there are some things that you won’t discuss with your mom, or there’s some sort of etiquette you follow while talking to your mom. But that’s not really our concern right now I suppose. So anyway, Ryan passed us these white cards and told us to write our names on one side and 5 things about me that I’ll bet money on that my friends don’t know. That was an interesting one. We learn things about other people. And it’s too bad that it is only now that I am reflecting because I cannot remember what is it that I learn about other people.

After that we had this name game thingy which I really dread because I used to play this a whole lot during camps back then when I was in secondary school and junior college and I keep on forgetting what adjective I used along with my name. So there’s Rapping Ryan, Virtuous Vinodh, Sexy Sonia, Vain Vani, Action-packed Atiqah, Dominating Dom… and I forgot the rest. Whatever. It was really for the benefit of Ryan.

So during the lesson, I found out that contrary to my belief, Storytelling Techniques is not about “Once upon a time, dear little kids, there was once a hobbit who lived in Hobbitsville with all of his cute little friends”. Storytelling Techniques is only SOMETHING like that. But here in this course, we are required to write stories and stuffs. Of course at that note I totally light up because numero uno, I love (reading and) writing and numero dos, I’ve written two novels before. The only difference is prolly 3 three things: Present Tense, Active Voice and Third Person Account. But I doubt neither of those elements is going to create any sort of difficulty.

Then we were given a sentence (Dominic puts on his hula girl outfit and steps into the temple) and were told to create a short story within 20 minutes. It was really cool listening to what others had written and comparing to what I have.

Oh here’s mine!

Dominic puts on his hula girl outfit and enters the temple. He steps onto the platform and offers a hula dance to the unmoving gods that sit before him. A monk sees Dominic dancing on the platform and calls his other monk friends in amusement. Totally oblivious to the group of monks who are observing him, Dominic continues to his rhythmic act, carefully lifting one leg after another and creating small, beautiful curves with his hands. As Dominic continues his ridiculous dance ritual, one of the monks steps up onto the platform, initially with the intention to stop him from making fun of their gods but in return, he joins Dominic in the dance. Another monk begins to hum a tune, the sort that you hear when you go to Hawaii, and three other monks join him and then two more and now we have some sort of an a cappella. Visitors in the temple just look on as another monk joins in the dance and in their amusement, one by one joins in the dance ritual. And despite all of this, Dominic is still oblivious to the people and the music that is taking over the peaceful nature of the temple. Then, suddenly, Dominic stops his cute little ritual, takes off his hula girl outfit, runs out of the temple and into his car and drives away.

Sometime during the lesson Ryan said something about experiencing the “writer’s block” and I think his solution to that problem can really help me whenever I’m having my own blogger’s block. Sometimes I really feel as if I have/want to write about something, but not quite sure what is it that I want to write about. So maybe, just maybe this might work for me.

Oh! And I’ve got something cool to share about Ryan! He can speak BAHASA INDONESIA! LIKE PHWOAR, LIKE WOW, LIKE AHMAGAH! The only other American I know who knows how to speak Bahasa Indonesia is John, but John practically grew up in Jakarta so no surprises there.

NOTE TO SELF: REFLECT EARLIER NEXT TIME ATIQAH!