Day 93: Spring Fling!

What went well? 

1. Checked out the Fling happenings in the Quad and around campus (aka frat houses). Lived vicariously through observation (damn vocal health precautions!!!!). Anyhow, I have to say, this is the happiest and liveliest I have seen Penn (thanks, alcohol!). It was just a weekend of complete letting go. But everything contributed to it - the gorgeous weather, the activities in the quad, friends hanging out together, flowering trees...it's Spring!
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2. Went for a nice long run around University City and along the river. It's actually so beautiful outside at the moment. I realised that Penn's campus is even prettier in Spring - there are so many flowers and flowering trees everywhere!
3. Helped to publicise the upcoming Calm Clarity workshop at Penn, and someone in one of the Facebook groups I shared it too kindly offered to help spread the word further!
4. Despite getting much less done than I hoped I would (I'm going to blame it on Fling!! It's really hard to do stuff when you know everyone else on campus is having fun!), I'm going to give myself credit for at least finishing the etymology section for Western "mindfulness" (first draft, anyway), and finishing the explanation of the translation of the Buddhist sati into mindfulness.

What did I learn? 

• Spring Fling can be summarised as: "A weekend of complete hedonism."
• Also, Fling is a time when the cliqueyness of Penn is super salient! People in various groups (e.g. sororities, frats, clubs, performance groups) walk around in packs, wearing the same shirts (with some clever Fling + group-related slogan). So, from a social psychology POV, Fling is a lot about affirming group identity and a time of group bonding.
• Not everyone is a fan of Fling. One guy in my dorm thought that it's "pathetic", "for various reasons". I'm not sure what these reasons are, but I am intrigued.
• The "ugh" (feeling of resistance to tasks - e.g. writing papers) can be pretty strong sometimes. To overcome it, I printed out my notes, grabbed my notebook, and walked somewhere without my phone or laptop and started writing out the section by hand. I didn't get that far - two solid paragraphs - but it was something. In the meantime, I've given up (lack of sisu, the Finns would say!!) on the idea that I'll get anything more done today and am going to actually have an early night. I will be in bed by 10.30pm!!!