It begins with a pen ~

Today I went to a trial "pen calligraphy class". I had taken a calligraphy class in Tokyo and really enjoyed it but there was so much that I didnt know about the characters themselves that after learning to hold the brush, and create the ink from a kind of incense flavored stick, I couldnt accomplish much in just 5 classes. Thats why I decided to take a "pen calligraphy" class. Thats the name of the class I went to tonight but when I got there everyone was practicing the chinese characters used in Japan, called kanji, with brushes just like a normal calligraphy class. On top of that the teacher had come in while I was registering at the front desk and didnt seem too happy to have me joining the class.

Writing calligraphy is a kind of meditation so that when we entered the room everyone was already silently practicing their characters. But i expected at least a greeting from the teacher. not to be had. so i sat silently in the front for a few minutes thinking about how to get out of the class because it clearly wasnt what I was looking for and the teacher didnt have enough decency to make me feel welcome. he shoved a paper with hand painted characters on it, and asked

"can you read this?"

it was really hard and I couldnt read more than a few words. so I read what I could and let him figure me out. then he asked

"have you ever held a brush?"

I said yeah but he was expecting a no so he said

"no?"
and I said
"yes I have held a brush".

then he went away again, allowing me to fume for a few minutes. finally when he was in my vicinity again, i pulled out the list of classes offered by the culture center (conveniently across the hall from where I work on Thursdays) and said

"I thought this was a pen writing class, which is what I am looking for. I have taken brush calligraphy before but I want to do pen calligraphy."

He said

"you can use whatever you want. You want to do something like this?"

then he handed me a pen-written poem about being one with nature. i didnt know it till then but that is exactly what i want. i am interested in writing poetry and i would like to graduate from writing like a 1st grader. two birds with one stone! i got psyched and told him after reading it about ten times

"this is good".

he asked

"dont you have a pen?"

well they told me not to bring anything since it was a trial class. so no.
a nice classmate gave me paper and he gave me a pen. and this is where my new hobby begins...