tonight i went to "nice ass yoga class" with nancy and a whole bunch of omfestival kids. this nights class focused on the heart chakara. we did this really interesting excersize where we pretended that we were going to work all angry and tired and walked around really fast. then we stopped in pairs and met eye contact and had to pretend different things about the other person. reminded me very much of mindfulness/buddhist meditation that i've done around compassion. we had to envision the person as the last person we'd ever see, a person with a terminal illness, a new parent, etc. there was one girl there who's face i stared at and i couldn't see her because she was covered in light. i am just starting to see auras and energy around people and it is very interesting, especially because i used to think so much of that stuff was bunk.

later on (10:30pm-4:15am) i did some reading about different types of colours for adobe CS and did some more layout stuff on the scrapbook. now it is time to sleeeep.

just got back from my trip. i am glad that i am alive and well, considering i had no idea how i was getting home. we ended up catching a ride with ed, a painter with hippie parents from aurora. we talked about gardening, immigration, car matenence, and granola munching. he was actually pretty cute for an old guy.

so yes.... myself, amanda, and zeesy were in montreal for the anarchist bookfair. we spent the majority of our time eating poutine with drum and bass dj's and admiring the greenery. the anarchist bookfair was amazing!!! i didn't buy any books but i did go to two amazing lectures; cindy from the institute of social ecology (ttp://www.social-ecology.org/), and matt hern (http://www.spinninglobe.net/prefacefielday.htm).

cindy's workshop was an intro to anarchism. i had been to her workshop before at the conference on organized resistance in d.c.. that conference was amazing!! it was organized by students who were affiliated with the animal and earth liberation fronts, as well as feminist, anti-racist, and queer positive activits. cindy's workshop goes over the western history of anarchism and breaks done some of the major ideas into bite size bits. the social ecology institute is an anarchist university from vermont and i talked to her afterwards about it. i've wanted to go there for a while but it has always been out of my price range. one of the other profs told me that i could work as a cook there and take free classes in the summer! they have a vegan/veggie kitchen so i wouldn't have to worry about cooking meat.

matt's workshop was on unschooling and it helped me a lot in thinking over my pedogogical theory for TIGed. he talked a lot about how students should have democracy in their education, and should choose what they want to learn. an interesting thing that he brought up is that he doesn't think children should be taught how to read. he told us that his daughter had taught herself and that children have a variety of ways of learning and should learn from curiosity, not force. i brought up equity in education and that was a big debate. matt was rejecting the idea of a cannon of learning. i was worried that if we just disolved the education system that communities would just pass down the existing prejeduces and hierarchies. his answer was that they existed anyways and that we needed to find a different way to institute democracy in education because right now we have no say at all. VERY interesting. there was a womyn in the workshop from the puerto rican school in chicago that was started by puerto rican nationalists back in the day. i had read about that school in BLU magazine and was really in awe that it was still around today. the CIA had raided that place a few times for bullshit charges. i really wanted to talk to both of them after but they dissapeared pretty quick.

i met a lot of amazing people and ate lots of good food. i also got a hole in my face! right underneath my lip.. kinda like an off-centre labret. i got home at 11pm last night and worked until 5am on the TIG macklin scrapbook.

it's like, woah.

http://www.augustana.ca/rdx

interesting program. i love the participatory research model and the ivan illich article! a must read for anyone doing this type of work. i think i might do this next year instead of rotting away in this smoggie city.

pink goo is coming up my throat slowly but surely. i hope i don't get too sick. i just got off the phone with birthright and i'm going to be going to israel on july 29th. that means that i can hopefully meet up with yehuda and josh in july as long as i'm back in toronto by then. wow... i can't wait to get out of toronto! organic farming, backpacking, earthships, hitchiking, planes, white water rafting, mountain climbing, direct action training, kibutzim, collingwood, mexico, israel, palestine, all in one summer. i am so hyped. this trip is brough to you by anarchy, zionism, and takingitglobal. if anyone lives in my travel destination area and is reading this please let me stay at your house! i will cook you vegan food in exchange for a place to sleep.

;)