Promises Promises

This morning’s class was taught by Merlyn, the same teacher as Wednesday night. Miss high energy, graduated in 1986, pre dialogue. She said we have inspired her to go home and learn the dialogue, because we are so good with it. I was in the front so I could actually get a good view in the mirror and check out my alignment. I noticed in some postures I was favoring my hip therefore turning it or not having it aligned properly. That is where most of concentration went for this class, but like I said before I like her so I pushed hard.
After lunch we had more posture clinic. Mine and Damian's groups were together today, so it was cool to get to see each other deliver a posture. It is funny because this is the first posture we haven’t worked together to learn. We had one of the same ladies today that we had yesterday so I was a bit nervous about what she would say after yesterday’s performance. Of course anything was better then yesterday but they gave me some good feed back. I was lucky enough to have Lynn, one of the senior teachers in there when I delivered mine. She said that I am like a bullet when I talk, really fast and strong. She said, “I can tell you have lots to say and you get so excited to get it out, not just the dialogue but in life.” My homework is to take more deep breaths, accept the silence and let my students suffer a bit, he he he, bring it on.
Evening class was taught by Bikram. He started the class by stopping us in the middle of the breathing exercise (warm up) and started yelling at two girls calling them lazy. That took about six minutes before we started again. After the breathing exercise was over, Bikram made a deal with us. If no one lies down we can have the night off. I looked around and Sunny from my group was on my front left, she has been sick all week and going down. Behind me were two girls that lied down all morning class. In front of me was a girl that has blacked out a couple times in some classes. No problem, we took the challenge.
Throughout the standing series, myself and another lady from my floor(Kim, aka David's Mom) who was in front of me kept giving reassurance and you can do its to everyone around us. Just remembering to breathe was the key to getting through those tough moments.

The class made it to the floor and then a guy walked out, everyone was screaming for him to come back. Monali came in and told us he had a doctor’s appointment, phew, onto the floor series. All 316 made up our minds and we did it, not one person went down the entire class. The energy was incredible and having everyone work together made it so easy to get it done tonight. Bikram kept his promise and gave us the night off. He did offer that that he would be in the lecture hall later to watch a movie if anyone wanted to join him, ha yah, sign me up.
Eleni and I got back to our room and Eleni noticed that our fridges were unplugged. Both fridge cords were lying there in the floor and the fridge was dripping water from the once frozen ice in the freezer. For F*#@ sakes, so we had to toss away everything in the fridge; yogurt, tortellini, milk, meat, cheese, chicken, salad, aghhh. So we decided to take a taxi to McDonalds than walmart to stock up again. There were about 20 other trainees at McDonalds, so that was quite the sight. We stocked up at Walmart for the next week so now we can concentrate on dialogue for the rest of the weekend.
I think the Mexican President is still at the hotel. There is press and a lot of professional people with name tags on still hanging around. Also when we went to Walmart, there were armed guards set up at the end of the driveway. We had to show our Bikram key cards to prove we were staying the hotel in order to get back to the hotel. Seeing the guards standing there with machine guns was kind of intimidating, but comforting at the same time.
I don’t think I mentioned before that I actually saw the president on Thursday night. I was practicing dialogue in the lobby and all of a sudden we saw and heard a bunch of flashes and cameras going off. I looked up and saw an older guy walking through the lobby with four body guards walking with him. Everyone with a camera swarmed around them as he walked straight into an elevator.
When we got back to our room there was a note under the door from the staff. It was a letter informing all the guests about Hurricane Odile. They said that it seems it has taken a turn towards the water but they are still keeping an eye on it. They warned us to expect heavy rains and strong winds tonight by 8pm so stay in the hotel. They said they are going to give us daily updates on the storm, so I will keep you posted.
Now its time to study some triangle and then get some shut eye for 8am class.

The picture is Bikram Yoga Edmonton in the hooooouse!

Speed bump #1

This mornings class was taught by Diane. She leaves today after lunch so it was good to get her one more time before we gave her standing ovation good bye cheer. I am really going to miss her, I have learnt so much from her in the last two weeks. She is nothing but here for the students at all times and always with a smile on her face. Monali (Bikrams assistant) told us she is going to try and bring her back before the end of training because she knows how much we all fell in love with her.
After lunch we had posture clinic, my group is now on balancing stick which is the last posture in the balancing series. I hit my road bump today and had a little cry in class. I am not enjoying this posture very much at training. In this posture, you are standing on one leg with the other one up in the air behind you and your arms over your head in front of you (picture above). You are supposed to bring your hips down so they are parallel to the floor. I have been struggling with my hip so much and it actually starts to hurt in this posture if I bring my hip down like we are supposed to. Also, on Monday our lead told us not to worry about memorizing the entire dialogue for this posture because it’s to much to say in the time the students are supposed to be in it. Tuesday we were told to memorize the entire thing like every other posture no matter how long it takes to say it. Yesterday we were told to know the majority of it but drop one of the last paragraphs. Today when we got in there we were told we had to say the entire posture, not missing any lines. I know this posture verbatum but was so stressed out about everything we were told; know this, know that, drop this, drop that, connect here, louder here.
I stood up to do my posture and got half way through and the lead Stacy stopped me and told me to ‘teach’ the posture not just reherse it. So I started again, and she stopped me at the same spot and said, ‘Melissa you are so strong I think you scare yourself and are afraid to take the control, you are the teacher, tell them what you want them to do, now start over.’ By this point I was shaking, having hot flashes, and a lump was forming in my throat. Everyone in the room started cheering and telling me I could do it, they jumped right on the ban wagon to get me going. I took off my sweater, took a deep breath and started again. She stopped me again and asked if I knew every single word on the page for that posture, and I said yes. She said forget about it and now yell at them to make them really listen to you. The tears formed, but I took a deep breath and was so shaky I stopped myself. I told her, “I can’t do this right now, I’m too shaky” as the tears welled in my eyes. It was the type of tears you get when someone hurts your feelings, she told me I was strong, figure that one out.
She let me sit down and I tried to pull myself together as I was in and out of having the tears roll down my face. Two other strong dialogue girls in my group also hit little road bumps on this posture, sat by me and gave me huge hugs when I sat down. Oh my gosh, why balancing stick? It is the shortest one, I don’t get it, anyways they were super supportive and gave me hugs and encouragement. A couple of people later, Stacy called me up to do it again and I was still shaking, everyone started cheering for me again. The lump was so big in my throat I couldn’t get the words out. Stacy made me come to the front of the room and I had to say and perform the posture at the same time so I could deliver it with heart. I did it and I did with fire in my pants. Stacy gave me a huge high five and hug after because not only did I say the entire posture that time with heart, but I stayed in it for the entire 45 seconds it took me to get it all out, lol. The posture is supposed to be only 10 seconds but the dialogue is obviously longer than that. The tears were bound to happen and now I feel stronger.
At break and before class, majority of the people in my group found me and gave me ahug or an ‘its okay’ and just being all over supportive, I love my group. I know there were a couple people that were glad to see us ‘strong’ dialoguers break but I think now we are all stronger than every. The three of us are getting together tonight to work together for the next posture, no where to go but up right!? I guess we’ll see.
Evening class was taught by Bikram. He called the guys out on balancing stick tonight, what irony. There were nine guys already lying on their mats so he made every single guy get up and told the girls to sit down on their mats and have some water. He waited for all the guys to stand on their feet and then he made them do another set of balancing stick. There are around 50 guys here and Bikram could only find one guy in the entire class (he’s actually a yoga competitor too) who had their body in a perfect T. Even with the guys performing three sets of balancing stick class was 90 minutes.
They added three more fans to the pillars in the middle of the room (row nine). In class I could feel the air on my body from one of the fans but I was not getting any fresh air, they did open the doors again though. There were six or seven people that had to be helped out of the room again because they were cramping up. The guy right beside me had his calf start cramping, it was pulsating like crazy. He lied there on his mat with it like that for about two postures than I noticed he was starting to clench and grind his teeth because he was in pain. We were near the back of the room so I signalled to Greg, one of the staff members over to help him. It took two of them but they eventually got him standing and he was able to stretch it out. They were going to help him out of the room but he opted to stay on his mat for the rest of class (last seven minutes). Some people have such amazing strength and determination. After I saw that I gave myself a big bear hug and thanked my body for being so good to me, lol, maybe I’ll reward it with ice cream later.
Lecture started at 9 like usual except it started out by us being told that Bikram had a little movie he wanted us to watch. It would explain everything he has talked about for the last week. Little movie MY ASS…the movie was four hours long. By about the third hour I was getting restless but none the less I did not move from my seat. I made up my mind when that movie started that I wanted to sit and watch the whole thing and get out of my mind. It helped that I didn’t have to go to the bathroom and had snacks to keep me entertained, but I did it. I actually watched the whole movie and read all the subtitles. Those Indian movies make me laugh sometimes, they are so corny but I understand why Bikram likes them. Bikram actually sat at the back of the room the entire time and watched the movie with us. When it was over he asked us if we wanted to watch part two, to which everyone yelled NOOOO. He started laughing and told us we looked like we were drunk and to go to bed. Good night!

Breathing normal

This mornings class was taught by some old man from I don’t even remember. That’s how enthralled I was with his class. He just had a monotone voice but maybe it was just me. I wasn’t feeling very motivated this morning though I wasn’t tired, sick or bored of the yoga. I just simply didn’t feel like trying that hard and I didn’t hear it in the teachers voice to either so I didn’t. I think it was the slackest class I had, and it was all me taking it like that and only working to about 62%. They installed four more fans at the back of the room now, not that it is helping much it’s still really humid. I’m not going to complain because I’ll take 65% humidity over 97% any day.
More posture clinic today., I got to perform my standing bow pulling pose in front of Lynn, one of the senior teachers. She just gave me a thumbs up and told me to keep doing what I am doing, it’s working. Our group moved onto balancing stick (last posture in the balancing series), groups are moving so quickly now. It is so awesome to see people grow and start to find their learning method. People who were struggling to get the first couple sentences out before or totally blanking when they go up there are busting out the dialogue now. My group is awesome too; we are all so supportive of each other. We were with a group earlier in the week, and you could feel the tension in that room between them. It felt like there was some competition amongst them, and they were trying to impress us and each other, and they never clapped for each other either. Some of them got called out on it by the leads but they stood there with their arms crossed with the wall up, not taking any of it.
This evening’s class was taught by Marlyn who teaches at head quarters. She took the first ever teacher training in 1986 before the dialogue was even created. She was a teacher before they had teacher training. Bikram and Rajashree were convinced to have a teacher training, so the people who were already teaching the yoga had to go to it. They had three Bikram classes a day, for three months, and they all lived, slept, ate and stayed at Bikrams studio the entire time, lol, could you imagine!? I think there was only eight maybe ten of them at the time.
I really really liked her class and actually worked the hardest I have ever worked this week, maybe I was just making up for this mornings class. They say your postures are going to suffer while you are here but I felt really strong, like I was going deeper into postures this evening. I had great energy around me to, my strong girl Hillary whose knee is swollen and throbbing pushed through it today. People were still lying down today, it’s almost like there is no air at the front of the room now. It felt like they have turned off the fresh air intake fans on the roof. The teacher asked the staff to open the doors at the back of the room to let more air in so people could get off their backs.
After supper we had lecture. We were told that the Mexican president is going to be at the hotel tomorrow so to be on our best behaviour. We were told to carry around our special Bikram key cards; it’s basically a get out of jail free card.
The lecture started out by us watching the DVD’s with all the shows Bikram has been on, a bunch of the late night shows, including Johnny Carson. We saw the video of him being run over by a motorcycle while he is lying on a bed of nails. It is so neat to see those shows and see that he has never changed like on the late night show Bikram stripped down to his speedo to teach the yoga. He also made Johnny Carson take his shirt off so he could try some of the postures, I was laughing my head off, some things never change.
Bikram lectured about food, age, sleep and told some more stories. There is one cute little Chinese lady in our training that Bikram calls ‘mama’. He was talking about how there are 60 year olds and 20 year olds at the training. Then ‘mama’ said to him in mandarin that she is not 60 she is 59, Bikram started laughing so hard he nearly fell off his chair, it was so funny. He continued talking about food and told us he ate tacos today and felt sick and needed coke to make him feel better. He said he can live off of half a sandwich in three days. Mama told him that if we had more time to sleep we wouldn’t eat so much so we could eat half a sandwich like him. He thought that was so funny and asked us if we were ready to watch more movies with him until 6am. Everyone screamed noooooooooo, he thought that was even funnier that we answered him back. He asked Mama if she would feel better with sleep and she said oh yes, he laughed and said “good night everybody”. We got to bed around 12:30.

Mind over the matter

This mornings class was taught by the Dallas, Texas studio owner, I don’t remember his name. That is bad because I had him for posture clinic in the afternoon too. This mornings class felt a bit cooler but more humid. It might have felt cooler because I was sweating so much more, I am feeling a little more hydrated in the mornings. I have been waking up at 6:30 in the morning to go to the bathroom. So I go and then before I lie back down I chug half a liter of water, seems to be working. It might be working almost too well because I had to go to the bathroom soooooo bad during the AM class I couldn’t think about anything else, maybe that’s why it was such a good class. Before class the instructor talked to us and assured us that they are working to get the room fixed. They are trying to bring more fresh air into the room so it is efficient enough for 400 people. He also assured us that Bikram storming out of class was not part of the “script”. In all the years teachers have been coming to training they have never seen Bikram leave in the middle of a class, they were as shocked and scared as us about the lecture last night. He also asked us to dedicate our class to Bikram, so with that said we all worked together and rocked it out.
The teacher also told us that last night people were so determined to stay in the room when Bikram was on his rant that they did things they normally wouldn’t do. One person actually peed on their mat because they didn’t want to leave. Another person went to the back of the room to puke and when he realized the buckets were outside, he actually swallowed the puke that was in his hand. I was so grossed out when I heard that but it goes to show the measures we go to.
Now that anatomy is finished we have posture clinic all afternoon. My group and the one we were with today started on the next posture. Some groups who have a couple people with English as their second language are going a little slower, none the less we are clipping along at a fairly rapid pace.
Evening class was taught by Bikram again. Before class he said that the heat guy came to fix the problem, Bikram was told that the humidity was pumping in at 97%. “No wonder you lie there like dead meat”, he said before starting class. Today they had a couple fans in the room blowing fresh air and they still propped the doors open in the middle of the standing series. When we were leaving the room, the heat guy had a gang of about ten workers ready to get in the room and on the roof once we vacated. Bikram told us he was much more impressed with us today, and it showed, we did a 92 minute class.
Before class a guy that is actually in my posture clinic group came up to me and said he had to tell me something. He said, “I want you to know three things, one you are smart, two you are beautiful and three you have are strong”. I said thank you with this look on my face that was like, ‘what are you smoking?’ He said he was serious, he’s not hitting on me or trying to make me feel uncomfortable. It came to him twice since Monday he has heard someone mention me and they are always smiling and saying good things. He finished with “don’t settle for anything less than you want, you don’t deserve it.” I told him to walk away before my eyes started to water. So it was kind of neat to be singled out like that, and I don’t think he says it to everyone, and its not like he said it in an uncomfortable way, lol, it was totally sincere.
Bikram lectured tonight until midnight. He could tell everyone was tired and a lot of people were falling asleep. He was very entertaining tonight telling stories to do with life and comparing men to women. He even serenaded us with some singing while we went on a five minute bathroom break.

The picture is me, Eleni and my strong little Group 13er Jennifer from New York.

Class is over, I'm not finishing class

This mornings class was taught by Mike from Chicago. The microphone kept going out so Mike had to teach off and on with out the microphone. I was at the front today but it seemed he projects well. I didn’t find him that motivating but it seemed to be a good class but I had my strong little smiling Jennifer beside me again so that always helps. She is feeling better so we just fed off each other and it was a great class. After class I jumped into the pool with the waterfall. I stood under the waterfall for a good five minutes and received a hard free massage.
After lunch we had our anatomy test. Before the anatomy test we got introduced to more visiting teachers. We got to meet Jenn Steff, who has become famous to all up and coming trainees for her blog she wrote while at Spring Training here. She was a god send for a lot of students preparing to come to training this fall. I actually printed off her packing list she had posted and went through it to get an idea of what to bring with me. Totally helpful.
So the anatomy test started out with total disorganization. They handed out the tests then realized they didn’t have enough so we had to hand them back in. Diane entertained us with answering posture questions while they went and photocopied some more. It was a ten minute delay then we did our last and final anatomy test, YAAAY!
After the test we were back into our anatomy groups. I preformed both eagle and standing head to knee. For eagle, I had no corrections, ‘just keep doing what you are doing, its working, and you are rocking the dialogue”. I had not practiced standing head to knee yet with bodies. Damien and I semi did it last night but only the one time so I wasn’t feeling to confident, but I did it anyways. They told me I had great speed in that posture and Lyndsey asked if I liked this posture in class. I told her the truth which is…I love is at home, but I am not loving it here. I still do it but I am not loving it like I used to. She said that she could tell in voice at what parts I was enjoying because it came out in my disconnect with the students in one or two sentences. She said it will get better because things are changing and shifting all the time here so its going to happen.
Evening class was taught by Bikram. Before it started I spotted Jenn Steff on her mat beside her training buddy Todd. I went over and introduced myself to them and we started talking about training and exchanging stories. I was bugging Todd because he had brought back his big orange water jug to use. Jenn has down graded to a smaller red one, oh the memories they have with those water jugs, lol. Todd has lost 45 pounds since starting training in the spring, I guess that gave him the right to practice with his shirt on today.
Bikram’s boil has popped and now he is back with a vengeance. The class started out with some jokes, smiles and a gun (muscle) show. Throughout class he was telling us how lazy we were, how everyone had excuses for not doing postures, which equals lazy people in life. The class was brought to an abrupt stop after half tortoise (5th last posture). Bikram told us that we were pissing him off and wasting his time, and that none of us are capable of being teachers. He then threw down his microphone head set and stormed out of class, telling us he wasn't finishing class.
There were major break downs going on after he walked out. There were five people around me just sobbing on their mats. People stopped to comfort them but the staff came in and told them to leave them by themselves. Walking out of the building and looking around, people didn’t know whether it was appropriate to smile and laugh or not. Personally I’m glad it happened and I'm surprised it took until week four. At the pool, some people were talking about how it was nice to be let out early, it was already a 110 minute class and there was still four postures to go. Are you kidding me, I feel jipped I never got to do all the postures. Bikram gave up on us in that room exactly how people give up on themselves in life. The hardest thing to do sometimes is to look at yourself in the mirror. My mind gives me a thousand reasons to say no and quit, but my heart won’t let me stop.
I remember when I was on the last day of my challenge, day 101 and Ricky was teaching. Before class I made a comment that I was going to do the first breathing exercise and then lie down the rest of class. I didn’t have it in me to do that and he called me on it half way through class, he knew I was too stubborn to just sit there. I don’t know why this story came to my finger tips but it made me think about all the times I have wanted to just sit out at posture at this training, but didn’t. Even when I had the option to, and my mind was made up I couldn’t stop. I know Bikram sees the potential in us and I think this is his way of giving us a kick in the ass. I can’t wait to see what he has in store for us tonight at lecture.
Back from evening lecture……
When we were in the lecture hall waiting for Bikram the staff told us to be absolutely quiet and still while we wait for Bikram. Bikram arrived with a smile on his face and his hair still in a little bun above his head. He said he had a nice filling dinner of cauliflower and potatoes and was so angry he forgot to take his hair bun down from class. He told us why he got so mad in class, 65% of the class was lying doing nothing on their mats by triangle (half way point of class). After class he went upstairs and did his own yoga by thinking and talking the other teachers about this. He started to think and realize that something wasn’t right and it wasn’t just the students.

He then proceeded to tell us that he called the guy who did the heating system for the room and told him “to get his Mexican ass on the plane and get down to the torture chamber NOW”. So needless to say the guy was on the plane tonight on his way to the Fairmont to look at the room. Bikram went on to tell us that never in all the teacher trainings has he seen so many dead bodies on the ground in week 4, hence pissing him off. He realized that there wasn’t enough fresh air coming into the room, therefore we were all breathing in carbon dioxide the entire time in the room. The last couple days the only way they have been getting fresh air into the room is by opening the two back doors near the end of class. He also went on to say that is one of most extreme conditions in terms of humidity that they have ever had at teacher training, and they can’t control it in the room. He still blamed us though, saying we were killing each other by working so hard and giving each other the carbon dioxide to breathe, it’s a lose lose situation, lol.
After he explained that to us, Bikram lectured again for a couple hours about karma yoga. He told us some stories too, the most interesting one being the time he met Elvis Presley two weeks before he died. I was very intrigued by this story, the guy has met everybody. When he finished lecturing we got to watch three 45 minute movies to do with Yogananda. We are only on episode three so maybe by episode 80 we will start to understand exactly what those sub titles are talking about. Bed time was 2am tonight, I’m sure I will craving the yoga in the AM after only five hours of sleep.

65 classes to go

In the morning Eleni and I had a lunch date with Damian. Eleni told him to call when he gets up to eat in the morning. His room mate usually wakes up every morning at 6am so we threatened him with his life if he dared to call that early. We received the wake up call around 11, we were both still out cold but managed to pull our selves together and make it down before the buffet closed. After lunch, the three of us hopped on the shuttle and got dropped off at Wal-Mart. From Wal-Mart we walked to Costco, which was about a seven minute walk. There I found some more tortellini and ravioli, so I am set for the week. I had half the staff working there looking for some alfredo sauce for me. I asked a couple people and they spoke little English. When I finally found someone who kind of understood what I was looking for the hunt was on. I was following him all through the aisles looking for it as Eleni and Damian followed behind me with their big Costco carts. It was quite the scene, as he stopped to ask 17 different people in Spanish if they knew. He showed me ranch dressing, ceasar dressing, tomato sauce, some white cheese sauce, clam chowder, basically anything with white sauce as I shook my head no every time. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall watching that unfold. In the end, we didn’t end up finding any, so I am going to have to suffer until next weekend. Don’t worry I bought some tomato sauce and veggies to make a good pasta dinner this week. I also loaded up on animal crackers, milk, cereal, almonds, apple juice, and chocolate covered raisins.
So the trip to Costco was about the most entertainment I have had all weekend. I am not going to complain though, cause it seems boring is working for me. After we got back from Costco I had a massage appointment booked. Too put it into words, that place is a little piece of heaven. They have fluffy robes to warm you up when you first get undressed. As you walk through to the waiting area they have a steam room, sauna, and hot tub to help you unwind before or after you go in. The waiting area has these big comfy seats by a water fall where you can sit and have tea, water, juice, muffins and cookies while you wait.
The massage was awesome to say the least, duh. She stretched, cracked, and massaged me. For the last couple months my right hip has been out. My massage therapist at home told me I was out of alignment and was surprised I didn’t have chronic head aches. The massage lady here stretched out my hip and cracked it a little. At one point my hip popped and it kind of just felt like someone pinched me, but I got an instant headache. I just thought, ‘oh fuck’. The lady just said, “don’t worry, don’t worry, I make you straight”. I was scared for about 1 minute until she moved my leg around again than massaged around it and my headache was gone. She is lucky because I would have made up Spanish swear words to say to her. No, I was really just hoping she knew what she was doing.
After my massage, they gave me a little glass of juice they call jamaca juice, it tasted like raspberry iced tea. I then chilled in the waiting area, had a cookie, and took advantage of the sauna for about six or seven minutes. Then I proceeded to the shower to wash off. They have shower attendants there that give you a shower cap, razor, scrub pad, and towels. The showers are outfitted with shampoo, conditioner, exfoliating body scrub, and the yummiest smelling body wash. Each shower has its own little mini changing room with these cool little frosted glass doors. Oh my, I just talked about showers for four sentences, can you tell I have been cooped up for three weeks? The littlest things bring a smile to my face right now. When I stepped into the elevator to leave the spa I just thought, “Ah, I want to go back to heaven.” I know, it sounds like I have never been to a spa before, I have, but this one was over the top. You just walk through those front doors and your shoulders untense. I can not wait to spend the afternoon there with Auntie Shirley when she comes.
When I was in the waiting area at the spa, I started talking to a couple that are here from Florida (for the training). We were talking about teachers visiting and they said they had a teacher here this week. Their teacher told them that the temperature in the room has been between 115 and 120 degrees Fahrenheit since we arrived. That’s between 46 to 49 degrees Celsius to us Canadians. The humidity has been at an average of 74%. At home, I am not sure exactly what our studio is kept at but the recommended temperature for a Bikram studio is 40º Celsius (105ºF) with 40% humidity. Eleni got mad when I told her that, I guess that’s why they don’t tell students what the temperature is in the room. I told her to look on the bright side, when we get home the room will feel like it is air conditioned, lol. Wishful thinking but it made her smile at least.
When I got back I called and talked to Grandma. It is her birthday this weekend and the family threw her a birthday celebration. She sounded pretty excited when I talked her, to see all her friends and people she had not seen for awhile. I tried to talk to Grandpa too but he gave the phone to dad because he couldn’t hear anything. I asked dad what was going on and he said Grandpa was holding the blackberry like a microphone; it wasn’t even on his ear. See, I told you he makes me laugh, so cute.
Eleni and I have started to watch ‘the bachelor rome’ on Sunday nights to really relax and have a good laugh. Damian ruined our fun by calling to see if we wanted to go over anatomy, I threw out an s–bomb. I TOTALLY forgot about the test tomorrow, so the evening was spent reviewing standing head to knee pose and anatomy. After this exam, anatomy will be finished then we will be having posture clinics all afternoon from 12:30 to 4pm. That means we are going to start rolling through these postures this week.
Time for bed, onto week 4. Did I mention we are 1/3 way done?

Some reflection

Saturday started off with a class at 8am with Diane. She didn’t have to yell at anyone, everyone worked together, you could tell it was Saturday. After class I went to the pool for about half an hour to soak and veg, it felt nice. Eleni wasn’t feeling well so she went straight to bed until she had to leave for her massage. This has been a continuation all week, hopefully a little rest this weekend will help.
As I was walking to lunch a man stopped me and asked me if I spoke English. When he realized I did he started asking questions about all the people walking around with yoga mats. He is a doctor from Montreal and is here for a conference until tomorrow. He said he has heard of this type of yoga before but doesn’t know much about it. He was very excited to know that we learn anatomy and take first aid and everything while we are here. He told me about his body problems and how he hurt himself, it was quite funny, he just opened right up. It was a little introduction into the types of things I will have to talk about once I am teacher. I gave him the briefest run down I could and by the end he was convinced to check if there is studio near him back home.
I went to lunch today by myself and ended up being seated with two other singles taking the training. I’ve of course seen them around but I had never met them before. English was the second language for both of them but we were still able to hold up a great conversation about the training. One of them was talking about how he can’t believe that this training is so intense and doesn’t understand what the point of keeping us awake until all hours of the night is. He got really worked up when he started talking about the silly Bollywood movies and what the point of them was. I asked them both if they were planning to teach full time when they got home. One said they didn’t know because there are lots of teachers at their studio so she doesn’t know if she will get any classes. The other one said, 'I don’t know yet, but first hopefully I finish this training then I will teach'. We started talking about why he thinks he might not finish training. He started comparing the training to a marathon. His biggest argument was he said that people can train months or years for a marathon then the day arrives and they get sick or something and they can’t finish. They have wasted all that time preparing and now they are a failure because they can’t finish. He told me I should have a more realistic view that something could come up that would cause me not to graduate. He has been sick the entire time, he has never felt like this, getting sick wasn’t supposed to happen and why is there a crazy 80 year old that talks about non sense teaching us anatomy. He even started talking about how Bikram should run the training. There is always someone who thinks they can do it better. It evolved to talking about our expectations before coming and now being here. In the end I just ended up telling him that I understand where he is coming from but I just don’t agree with what he is saying. I think all his misinterpreted expectations and not feeling well have just built up into frustration.
I guess I am really lucky because I received a ton of advice from teachers at my studio on what to expect, how to prepare (not that you really can), dialogue, getting sick, and taking care of myself in preparation for training. I was told on a couple of occasions that I was over prepared, puh. Looking at my packing pile I second guessed myself too. Before I came I didn’t need just training advice though, I had over whelming support from friends and especially my family. Even some of moms friends have logged onto my blog wondering how I doing and I am sure intrigued by the whole process as well. I guess all in all I didn’t come here blind, I knew it wasn’t going to be a walk in the park. It’s going to be the toughest, but best thing I do in my life. I came here expecting that I am going to get sick, have a break down, have a break through, be tired, stressed, overwhelmed, feel angry and get little sleep. I might even feel them all at the same time, lol.
See what happens when I get a little spare time on the weekends. Eleni is sitting on her bed watching tv shows on her laptop and I am reflecting, I think. This must be a reflection of some sort, because I started talking about my day and my enlightening lunch, and I ended up writing for half an hour, lol.
SO ANYWAYS… after lunch I lied down for half an hour than I had first aid/cpr. I really enjoyed the first aid class actually. A couple of the teachers and the nurse (who is also a Bikram teacher) talked about different situations and events that can arise at a yoga studio. I liked hearing the different stories and experiences and how they were dealt with, always good stuff to know. After the first aid class we had our anatomy review, which was fast, I liked that even more, lol.
Eleni and I ordered room service again and then Damian came up and we worked on memorizing standing head to knee. We are going to try and make a run to Costco tomorrow and see what they have there.

The picture is of Me, ELeni and Damian representing E-town outside of the lecture hall