Comfortable as an old shoe.

Why am I going to the Ukrainian speaking club when I cannot speak a word of Ukrainian? The reason was the topic of the day: theatre, plus friends who wanted to drag me there and my usual “letshavealook” attitude, that has granted me many unexpected and pleasant opportunities as well as many lame ones.

As I got in to the library I was asked to take my shoes off and to leave them in the entrance hall. I couldn’t get the reason and thought it was just the way they do it, or maybe to keep the place clean… whatever, let’s take my old shoes off. As we sit down in circle, naked-feet, in the next room we were asked to go back to the “shoe-rack room” and get a random pair. Once this step was done, all of us would guess the owner by carefully looking at the shoes and describing them to the audience, paying attention to all that they could communicate about their owner, about their story. We had only two chances and once the owner was guessed he/she would trade places and find out the next owner.

My experienced, tried by life shoes could tell a lot about me. That was the first time I actually thought about that. Not only about my attitude to use (exploit, I would say) things until they crumple, about my attitude to get used and grow fond of certain things and being not able to get rid of them, about the fact that I love walking and treat every kind of shoes like they were trainers. All this is clearly depicted in my leather-brown, old, worn out, dirty, small-size, “Italian style” shoes (as they were described), which I got, moreover, as a gift from a dear friend. An additional reason not to throw them in the trash. (I even got them fixed once.. to tell the truth). This was a really good energizer, indeed! It contributed to create a friendly atmosphere even though I hardly knew 5 people out of 40 (maybe more). I felt comfortable.. Comfortable as an old shoe.

Francesca

At today’s meeting of the Ukrainian Speaking club I went with Francesca and we walked. It took us an hour. But it was fun, at today’s meeting. The theme was theater and I was surprised when I came because we were told to collect shoes. This was the first time something like was requested at club, but knowing the diversity of our meeting I thought it would be fun.

I loved dancing to the music when one person at the beginning of the dance and the other three persons repeated her movements. Sometimes different people perform funny movements, amusing the audience to tears.

I really liked the spontaneous scene where eight people played roles, and so it was: the dog and his owner, two students from the school, grandmother of 70, an actor, a boy going on a first date and the person who was claustrophobic. Positioned in the elevator scene, which was broken. It was pretty funny, but unprepared actors presented the situation realistically. And so the dog ate the flowers the boy had for his date. Grandma reprimanded children, the actor lamented that they do not have time for the premiere, and finally a man of claustrophobia in which no one paid attention.

I really liked the whole meeting, which was held in a spirit of joy and fun. A turnout was amazing about 50 people.

Weronika