painting in our slippers

it was just you know who and the guys this afternoon, practicing calligraphy and sipping pu-erh tea in an uptown gumi art studio. as i may have mentioned before, when i teach in gumi once a week, i have 7 hours of free time between classes. i have spent a significant chunk of that with my professor friends and have grown to absolutely adore them. we've made it routine now to go off on little jaunts every week during our long break: climbing mountains, playing ping pong till we're dripping with sweat, sampling new restaurants and now, lo and behold, creating art. we are committed to expanding our horizons! next week, our plan is to visit caffe ti-amo for some coffee and gelato, then head to the cinema to see "mamma mia!" these guys have seriously good taste.professor w. teaches chinese and is adept at chinese calligraphy. he invited the other two professors and myself to join him in his calligraphy practice session today. we drove all the way across town to find a sweet, little art studio way up on the top floor of an unsuspecting building. we took off our shoes, of course, and proceeded to paint chinese and korean characters, and a few zen circles, in our slippers. it was rather chilly up there, so we were bundled in our scarves and jackets as we strove to concentrate our minds into the brush tip..."the single point of power!" professor w. knows that i do yoga, as i bring my yoga mat with me to gumi every week. he kept reminding me that this practice of calligraphy is much like yoga. it is all about focus and stilling the mind. when, by heavenly chance, i drew an amazingly straight line with balanced pressure on my first try, his eyes widened, he gasped with his hand over his mouth and exclaimed, "professor jessa walters (this is what he calls me every time he addresses me) you have BIG talent!!" then he nodded profusely and said, "it is because of yoga!"

or, what some of us call, beginner's luck.

it was my first time using gigantic brushes and ink. there was a specific way to hold the brush with one's fingers, keeping it upright at all times and a particular rhythm and pressure to the strokes. i had to work to NOT let the form intimidate me, even though the atmosphere was light-hearted and sweet. i have never considered myself "good" at art. for years it has been a realm where i feel a bit clumsy and insecure. professor w. must have noticed my furrowed brow at one point because he came up beside me and said in his jovial tone, "professor jessa walters, don't worry, be happy!" after that, i simply couldn't stop grinning...ear to ear.

to close our session of volcanic creativity, we sat together and drank pu-erh tea. professor w. has traveled all over the yunnan province in china as a connoisseur of pu-erh. whenever he tells me stories of the bricks he has stored in his house of this rich, earthy tea, i start drooling! today, he added a couple of chrysanthymum flowers in with the pu-erh tea leaves to soothe our scratchy throats on this dry and bitingly cold november day. very, very nice. dark and smooth. the aroma conjured up images of fallen leaves and twigs returning back to the damp, autumnal earth.

i can't even begin to express how fortunate i feel to have crossed paths with these professors of chinese, japanese language and literature, and asian history. they are truly a group of unique gentlemen. despite our ranging ages and drastically different backgrounds, we all love to laugh. we love to tease. we each seem to be wholeheartedly open and ready to enjoy each moment, whatever it may bring in the wild world of gumi. sometimes that's all it takes for a person to have the time of their life.

this spring, they have invited me to join their badminton team at the university! i feel dizzy at the thought of the hilarity that lies ahead!