Trust the process

This morning’s class was taught by Kylee from Melbourne, Australia. She teaches a very easy flowing just keep going class with a voice that is very easy to listen to. Her voice is like taking class at home being taught by one of my home teachers.
After lunch we had more posture clinic, surprise surprise. I practiced my dialogue with Sunny, a lady in my group who is an auditory learner. It works out good for both of us because I can say the dialogue over and over to her and she learns it by me talking to her. We make a good pair because she makes me slow down when I say the dialogue, breathe and speak from my diaphragm. I took everything I worked on with her and applied it to my dialogue when I did my next posture. The feedback was so positive. Its funny, it felt like I was saying it really really slow and felt bad when I took a deep breath because it felt like a long pause. But what was painfully slow for me was absolutely perfect for class and received the best response. There is a handful of us from my group getting together this weekend. Each of us has a quality that someone else has to work on.
I talk fast so I am helping another girl speed up. There is a guy that speaks from his diaphragm so he can help me and someone else. I am still going to work on slowing down and breathing so someone else helps me with that. Others have to be more serious, have more fun, be meaner, be softer, don’t fidget, or just learn the dialogue. Its like putting together a puzzle to find what works. You’d think by week five we would have it figured it out, but we are all still learning and growing.

Evening class was taught by Jeff. I had a really good class. Before class there was a girl on the elevator that was going off about her dislike for Jeff after having him in posture clinic. When she told us he was teaching class I wasn’t sure what to expect. Before I left for class I decided to go into class with no expectations. I didn't want to let someone else pre influence my thought on someone I didn’t even know. So I did exactly that and went in and just let go. There wasn’t a whole lot of dialogue going on but I actually learnt a lot in that class about my own body. Every day I am learning something new about different postures just from letting go and listening, I love it.
After supper we had more posture clinic, and another posture. I would love to rip apart what happened in posture clinic tonight and give my feedback and the word on the street but I am not going to. Tonights posture clinic was the most tense one I have been in since we started them. It is amazing how leads can affect energy that much.
When I got home (the hotel room is now my home) after tonights posture clinic, I just started to write and write and write, and vent. I was so worked up after class that I had to get it out. In the morning before I posted this I decided to not post what I said. We are told to trust the process while we are here and up until last night I have done exactly that. I have not gotten caught up in other peoples drama or questioned why things are happening the way they are. I have seen grave examples of people getting worked up, questioning, and getting angry about what exactly is going on here. I would rather re-direct my energy into trying to memorize this dialogue and staying healthy. Friday nights posture clinic was the first time I actually thought, ‘what exactly is the point of this, wow’, among other words that I have censored for this posting. I don’t want to confuse you as I am not going to talk about the specific events that unfolded. Nothing was said to me directly, I was just a witness of the energy and tension in the room tonight. If it was not for the support amongst the two groups and trainees in the room I think there would have been some major break downs. After class there was a lot of anger and hostility coming out. It was not directed or caused by fellow students though. This is why I decided to vent to myself and direct the energy in other ways. With that said it was nice to go to bed and not have to stress about dialogue tonight.

Taking it all in

The morning class was taught by Lisa from Texas. Don’t have much to say about it, she threw in some yee haws in there to give a throw out to where she comes from, it was a good class. I was at the front today so I was able to see myself in the mirror. I can tell things are out of alignment when looking at myself in the mirror though it doesn’t feel that way. I think I was right about the protein thing yesterday because I am feeling like I have more energy today after making sure I had some.
The after noon posture clinic was lead by Mark from everywhere (he taught last nights class). I say everywhere because he travels a lot. He used to own seven studios and ended up selling them or giving them to people. He now owns one in Buffalo and is only there in the summer because he hates cold weather. He owns another one some where hot, over seas I think, and is there in the winter. He also travels a lot visiting different studios and teacher training of course. You can tell he just loves interacting with people and has such a big heart for the Bikram family.
I really enjoyed him as a lead and it was a lot of fun today. When I first got here I didn’t think posture clinic was supposed to be fun. It wasn’t until all the more experienced/senior teachers arrived that posture clinic has become a little less formal. Don’t get me wrong there are only two or three senior teachers that have fun with us. It seems I learn so much more in those posture clinics as well. Everyone is more relaxed, and you also end up absorbing more, in regards to the posture, dialogue and about class in general. I like when they interact withus, sharing stories and experiences with us. There is so much going on and so much information flying at us that a little fun takes a little stress off our shoulders. It’s nice when we can actually just sit back and take it all in.
Evening class was taught by Michael Harris again, this class was a little less key than the first one he taught. He said he had the best and most fun class ever teaching last class. He didn’t have on his bangle tiger shorts on this time. He still brought two people up to the podium to say two different postures. It was cute because he brought Robert up from Amsterdam who is on my posture clinic group and English is his second language to say balancing stick. After class when I asked him how it was he started criticizing himself. He was mad at himself because he forgot to tell us that it was a ten second posture and he forgot to clap when we went down. He said he didn’t have time to think about anything cause it just happened and we did whatever came out of his mouth. Its so cool to see some of our fellow students go up there and be teachers, thinking we will doing that in a month, holy crap.
Supper time was spent getting cobra done and making some yummy pasta preparing for a lecture tonight. There are 13 new visiting teachers here right now, that doesn’t even include the other 10 or more that already introduced themselves this week. Michael told us his life story in a nut shell and how he ended up being a Bikram teacher and on that stage last night. He has a pretty inspirational story and it reinstates everything I believe in and love about this yoga. Jeff another studio owner gave us a run down of his life too. The guy has had everything wrong or done to his body and is here because of this yoga, I love hearing those stories. Ester another visiting teacher told us how Bikram yoga saved her life and what it brought back to her life. She was balling like a baby telling us her story, pretty strong incredible things to listen to here. Everyone has a story of how and why they started Bikram yoga or why they became a teacher. I wish we had time to listen to them all.
Michael continued to lecture by answering some questions we had about anything. Then Monali did some meditation with us cause she said we are all still holding onto our emotional baggage. You could just feel the calm energy from everyone after we got dismissed, very mellow, and much needed.

Living on a prayer

This morning’s class was taught by Latisha again, she leaves right after class to go back home to New Mexico. I think I am in my angry phase because all she did was annoy me today. Anything she said outside of the dialogue annoyed me. I actually found myself mumbling under my breath, “shut up”, “seriously what are you talking about”. She kept talking about the mind and how it’s so weak and we are so weak, I wasn’t in the mood. I don’t think it helps that my body felt very tired today. Finishing morning class was the half way point of training. I didn’t even think about that, but my body was telling me that. Don’t tell my dad I said this, but maybe I am getting too much sleep. This week we have been getting to bed earlier than every other week, around midnight. I think I was doing better physically when we were only getting only five or four hours of sleep a night. Maybe there actually is a method to the madness, than again it’s probably all in my head, lol. I truly felt exhausted today though. My body has been holding up pretty damn well so I thought about it and I realized I didn’t eat any protein yesterday. There was nothing good on the buffet and for supper I had pasta with sauce, no meat. So I am chalking the weakness up to that. Today at lunch I made an extra effort to get some protein in me.
After lunch we had more posture clinic, finishing off the standing series today. We were told at the end that we have posture clinic again tonight. People are really starting to stress now, with such little time to cram it into our heads. I am feeling that way but I am trying not to think about. People are actually making themselves sick with vomiting and diaherria just thinking about it. I am really feeling bad for the people who have English as their second language, it is hard enough for me to get in, I can’t even imagine.
Evening class was taught by Mark, he owns three studios, the only one I remember is in Buffalo. When we first met him (when he introduced himself to the group) I thought he seemed kind of arrogant. You are always told to never judge a book by its cover but he had these mannerisms about him that demanded respect, which isn't necassarily a bad thing. I am sure his look of being tall, with a clean shaven head and broad shoulders doesn’t help the matter. I really enjoyed his class as he was so easy to listen to. I didn’t think about anything that class, I seriously let go, his mind and my body, it was awesome. I had a great class that complimented what a great teacher he is. He ended the class with playing ‘living on a prayer’. Every student at teacher training got a little lift singing as we lied on our mats holding hands with our arms pumping in the air singing “WE'RE HALF WAY THERE!”
There was a girl beside that decided to sit down after the third posture and study her dialogue on her mat, that annoyed me but I just let it go. In evening posture clinic my group was with this girls group, she jumped up ready to say her posture. She completely blanked and got so mad at herself when she finished. She told the leads that that is the first time she has ever done that for a posture and she was completely embarrassed. You can tell the stress is building when people are sitting out classes to get extra study time in.
We got half way through the groups but I didn’t say mine, there were a lot of people who just wanted to get it over with tonight so I wasn’t in a big hurry to jump up there. We got dismissed at a little after 11 for bed. I decided to take advantage of the early night. I took my dialogue paper and went into a lounge area on our floor to study the next posture. Once memorized, I tucked myself into bed at 12:30am, knowing the next posture verbatim. Bring on the dialogue dreams; it has been a couple months since I have studied dialogue before going to bed.

Standing series complete

This mornings class was taught by a guy from Northern California. It was the most boring, unmotivated, monotone class I have had since I got here. It was very hard to understand him when he talked and he was a very slow talker. He started the class with a seven minute explanation of what the yoga did for us, what it involved, how we will feel and what the breathing exercises do. I could just feel the energy level go down and the eyes rolling when he did that, not a good way to start a class. It would have been perfect at home explaining the class to beginner but not here when we know it all already and at this point I just want in and out of the hot room.
During class it took so much effort to listen to him that I actually tuned him out after party time (between third and fourth posture). I took that sip of water and then my mind took a trip back home. I was back at my home studio and all I heard was my teachers teaching me class at home. I came out of head to knee stretching (second last posture), looked at the podium and I remember thinking, ‘oh wow, I totally forgot what was going on up there. I haven’t looked up there since the beginning of class’. That’s not exactly what you want to do in class but it was necessary for this one. I was just doing the motions and it was the second time since I got here that I thought about sitting down the entire time because I was bored. Next thing I know I hear Latisha’s words that she told us yesterday come into my head. ‘This is week five, you are over the hump. You are teachers now, be a leader’. So I sucked it up, went inside my head and got through it. I don’t think it helped I performed about 21 triangles yesterday in preparation for or in posture clinic. For those of you who don’t know, triangle used every muscle, joint, organ and gland in the body, yah a little exhausting after a while.
After lunch we had posture clinic, onto the last of the standing postures. It is so crazy to think that we know the dialogue for 50 minutes of class already, it blows my mind when I think about it like that. We had Michael Harris today as our lead, he owns a studio in Bent, Orgeon. It was by far the most relaxed and fun posture clinic we had had so far. He was in people’s faces, making people do posture mistakes so they would have to be corrected. He was also demonstrating the postures, corrected our postures and made break throughs with students.
We have one student in our group who has English as a second language. He has been struggling to get the dialogue out this entire time, he knows it, it just doesn’t come out. Michael did some things with him and asked him if he was ready to have a break through. Michael worked with him, in the class, in front of everyone, he was ready and it worked, he did it. It was unbelievable and so cool to witness, everyone in our group was hootin and hollering when he finished. I think he just broke through his barrier, this is just the beginning for him now. It was also nice to see a smile on his face when he finished…so cool.
Michael also taught evening class tonight which started off with a bang. He walked in with a robe, sunglasses, hat on, and escorted by two female staff members to ‘Eye of a Tiger’. It was quite funny and a great start to the class. He started teaching with his sunglasses on but ended up taking them off because they were fogging up on him. At eagle he pulled 63 year old teacher trainee Carol from his studio up to the podium. He gave her the head set, took her place on her mat and she recited Eagle for us. It was so cool to see one of us trainees up there teaching the class. At balancing stick, he pulled another girl up that locked her knee in standing bow to say balancing stick to us. They both received big cheers and applause after, they rocked it out. There was some light hearted moments in the class but most of all everyone rocked it out with smiles on their faces. At the end of class he asked Dale if anyone had left class, to which Dale yelled ‘NOOOOOOOOOO’! What a difference a teacher with a little fun will do for 300 students. The class still ended in just over 90 minutes which I wasn’t expecting it to. In Savasansa Michael got them to play ‘Cel-e-brate good times, c’mon’, as he was walking out. The class seemed so easy because everyone was so loose and really enjoying the class, what a shift from the AM class.
Tonight we have more posture clinic and Michael announced in class that once we are finished the standing postures they are going to give us a bit of break. They are going to take some time and talk about different yoga things with us and give us a breather because we have been cruising so quickly. Now its time to study tree and toe stand, last standing postures so I can relax a bit.
Our group was half a posture behind others because it took us so long to get through the them this afternoon with Michael. They ended up switching us with another group that was all ready to perform tree and toe. I really didn’t think we were going to get to it tonight, but you could tell the other group was happy to stall for a bit longer because we still had the previous posture to finish up with. I decided to perform my tree and toe postures tonight. I am at the point where I am tired of worrying and thinking about presenting each posture. I still get a bit nervous when I get up there but its something I’ve had to deal with. I even wake up in the middle of the night saying the posture I just presented. I just give my head a shake and say, think about the next one, usually that works and then my mind warfs into crazy dreams.
Let me tell you, the dreams have been crazy. They have involved my family and friends and involved anything from killing people, to casing people, locking doors, driving cars, playing games and visiting people. I looked them all up and they all have to with training, new experinces, learning new things, new doors opening and being in a new strange environment. So cool how the mind talks to you sometimes.

No expectations

This morning’s class was taught by Latisha, studio owner from New Mexico. I didn’t find she brought a lot of energy to class but I didn’t let it affect me much though, it is only Monday morning after all. I don’t know how or why but I found myself coming out of my head and just listening to her. I wasn’t thinking about how long we had to hold the posture for or if a body part was tired. I don’t know if it was her voice or if it was the fact that is was Monday and I went in there with no expectations. Monday mornings are not necessarily tough, I am just a little bit stiffer after a day off. Therefore I don’t go there expecting my body to be at the same place it was in Saturday mornings class. I think it’s a good take on it because I can see the frustration on peoples face after a day off. Its only yoga right!?
After class I rode the elevator with another yogini. She was saying how she hates Mondays because she is so stiff and she is always angry in Monday AM class. I told her my view on Mondays. She smiled and said, “I never thought of it that way, I need to let it go. I am going to promise myself that next Monday I am going to focus on smiling and remind myself not to have any expectations.” I told her there is no point in getting worked up about it, its done, she did it, if anything be proud and focus on that.
We did Triangle posture this afternoon in posture clinic. Our group decided on Friday (between ourselves) that the ones who usually go last were going to go first this time and vice versa. The people who usually go last liked that idea because they had all weekend to study so it was still fresh in their heads. Everyone in my group rocked this posture out. Of course there are still corrections and homework (things to work on), here and there, but we got it done. I was nervous going up because I kept mixing up two lines, switching their spot where they are supposed to be said, therefore throwing me off. I went up there, and I didn’t miss a word, I slowed it down like they told me to last time, I didn’t cry, and I got them in and I got them out. When I was finished Lynn said to me, “I would hire you in a second. That was absolutely perfect. You command respect. Keep doing what you are doing”. Okay, so I hope that doesn’t mean it’s downhill from here, oh gosh, lol.
Lynn told me after that I am so comfortable with the dialogue that next time she wants me to say it so painfully slow that it makes me feel uncomfortable, this could be interesting. My homework for myself is remembering to breathe. I get so excited when I say it sometimes that I forget to breathe at the beginning of the sentence and then I run out of air.
In posture clinic people were talking about the people who got really sick during Friday evenings class. Apparently there was a girl who actually puked into her towel, two times, folded up the towel she puked in and put it at the front of her mat. The girl next to her gave her an extra towel to have just in case she needed it. The girl just put the extra towel on top of the puked in one so it wouldn’t start to smell. After she took care of the towel she stood up and carried on with the standing series.
Another girl had her body cramp up so bad by the end of class that she had to be carried out by Dale and put on IV. I heard she was taken by ambulance to the hospital but she might have just went to the hotel doctor. Her neck was cramped up so bad that her head was glued sideways to her shoulder. Both her one leg and arm was cramped in the bent position with her foot in the pointed ballerina position. Dale had to carry her out in that position, scary stuff man. I can’t say anything cause I would probably push myself to that point too, which is even scarier. It's amazing what people put their bodies through for a night off, for themselves, for us, for Bikram.
Tonihgt's evening class was taught by Bikram. a good steady class. I was struggling for air in the standing series but I paced myself and was able to hold myself up and together to finish strong. A lot of people in my row were going down, not sure there much air flow going on in the middle of the room tonight. None the less I did it, and so did the other 315 trainees there.
Bikram lectured us tonight, I really enjoyed his lecture tonight. He told us stories about how Bikram yoga has saved so many lives. He told us the story about the one time he ever felt the most guilty in his life, he said he was so depressed he didn’t want to talk to anyone. He stayed in his house for one full day without talking to anyone. People kind of laughed when he said that but it was pretty major to him. When you think about someone being depressed you think they want to be alone for more than 24 hours, especially in the state he explained. He told us stories about people who have been in his class that have died when they stopped doing the yoga, people who had life long ailments. He talked about how yoga helped prolong their life and then they died when they stopped doing the yoga. He mentioned how Quincy Jones was told he would never walk again by the same doctor that told Emmy that. Emmy and Quincy did the yoga and are still alive but the doctor is dead, lol. I love the way he tells stories.
I feel kind of jipped because at the beginning of training we were told Bikram would be with us for the entire nine weeks. Last night he told us that he leaves tomorrow morning for 13 days for some seminars. He also told us his flight schedule and it is beyond ridiculous. He is on the plane every day flying all over the world…Bombay, California, Florida, Europe, thirteen flights all together.
Bikram let us go to bed at midnight because his stomach was growling from some tacos, lucky us. I was actually disappointed to be let go that early, his stories were so entertaining. Before he dismissed us he re-minded us of his rules about no smoking, drinking, touching, kissing, and fucking. He told us that he has already let seven trainees go home because they broke the rules. It doesn’t surprise me that people did this but at the same time it does because it is such a waste. Why bother coming here in the first place if you are going to fuck it up like that in the first two weeks. He also told us that he was talking with the staff and visiting teachers about how this training and how efficient, smart and fast we all are. Bikram said he is amazed how fast we are learning and growing at this training. He said we have had some physical battles with the stupid room but we are the fastest learning and most efficient teacher training. He is excited about that because when he comes back he can take all our extra time to talk to us about the yoga because we are way ahead of any other training in the past. I am very excited for that as well. Rajashree (Bikrams wife) and Kellie (from my studio) arrive next week so that gives a little something extra to look forward too after this five week hump.

Happy Thanksgiving

So those of you who like feet, this picture is just for you, I have been nursing some bites on my foot. I thought I would take a picture so you know exactly what I am talking about. At first I thought they were bed bug bites but I did some investigating and I think they were ant bites. I went to the pool one day and remember shoeing ants off my leg, that night the bites appeared. The next day when I went to the pool I noticed ants on my sandals when I got out, so I am assuming that is where I got my bites from.
Some people really did get bed bug bites, on their feet, necks and arms in the last two weeks. One trainee had to switch rooms in the middle of the night because they bit her all over the back. Another girl I know took a nap after posture clinic and when she got to evening class her foot was red and swollen. I counted the red spots on her foot and there were 23 bites on her foot. The nurse told her they were mosquito bites, but there is no way, she had not been outside for a couple days. Every night before I go to bed I rip the covers off my bed and check for bugs. Eleni thinks I am totally nuts when I am crawling all over my bed looking intensely for those creepy crawlers, but I am not taking any risks. I even considered spraying bug spray all over my sheets before I get in , but that’s just another level of insanity, good thing that thought only lasted three seconds.
Today, as every other Sunday is a day off. We did our run to Wal-mart on Friday so the day was ours to abuse how we felt. Eleni had a lunch date with someone from her group, so I went with her for lunch. After lunch the three of us went and found a quiet place to do dialogue. We practiced two postures to prepare for the first couple days of the week. We did that for about an hour than Eleni and I headed back to our room to chill and study some more.
Later I went and met Damien down stairs by the pool to review some more dialogue. I am not a big fan of the sun so I didn’t last long out there. The afternoon was spent trying to reinforce the dialogue into my head. For supper we ordered pizza from down stairs and spent the rest of the night studying some more and then watching a little bachelor for some comic relief. I like our little Sunday night tradition of curling up in bed for a little bachelor Rome before getting some shut eye.
So my extent of Thanksgiving dinner this year was having a pesto covered turkey breast for lunch, take what you can get I guess. Oh I forgot to mention that I saw the president again. We were trying to leave the restaurant after lunch today and they had it blocked off to the hallway so we couldn’t leave. There was a guy in a suit standing there and told us we had to wait for five minutes. Less than two minutes later the president walked by and actually waved at us, wooooooh. I said to the suited man, “oh we were waiting for the president, cool”. He just shook his head yes and told us we could go now.
Over the weekend they were supposed to drill a hole into the wall of the hot room to bring in more fresh air. The room is still really stuffy with no fresh air, especially the standing series. The fans are better than nothing but it does not help with bringing the fresh air in. They are still opening the doors at the back before class is even half way finished.

If I remember correctly I think my group is in the middle lines (4-6) tomorrow. I don’t know if I have mentioned before, but we rotate lines every day, with 16 lines in the room. The back three lines are left for teachers, staff and visiting hotel guests (they get to practice for free). Every group is assigned a different set of lines every day that you must practice on, the lines are offered in groups of three (1-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10-13). They rotate the lines back every day so every group has the opportunity to be in front of the mirror and at the back of the room. Line 10 has three pillars on it, so they opened up line 13 to us to, so everyone can fit. There are usually four groups sharing the three lines at a time. If you are caught on the wrong line, you get two make up class, so it’s essential to pay attention, though they clearly haven't enforced it. Just a little tid bit for you so you understand when I talk about where my group is or I am practicing in the room during a class.
Other then that, Happy Thanksgiving!

Week four finished

It’s Saturday and I don’t have much to say in terms of what happened today. I am spending the weekend memorizing dialogue, preparing for this week. We went to Wal-Mart last night so I don’t have to think about that cutting into my day. Class this morning was taught by Marlyn, who leaves today. She had brought her son who looks like he is in his early teens with her for the week. If she wasn’t teaching she was taking a class, and on occasion that meant doubles. Her son also joined the class on the floor series, so the last half hour of class. During class she was taking pictures of us in different postures, sometimes it meant holding a posture a little longer than normal but no biggie, anything for a good picture right?
I thought since I don’t have much to talk about today I would talk about how I am holding up physically. Not that that will give me a lot to talk about, I am actually holding up really well in terms of muscles. I am waiting for the week to come when my legs feels tight and I can’t touch my toes, I’ve heard it happens. I have not had any soreness really anywhere yet. The only thing I have felt, and it has only been this week since my massage, is my hip. I knew before I left that it was out of alignment and I think the massage therapist put it back or something because it was playing tricks this week. I didn’t let that stop me though, I worked through it, but it also helped that it wasn’t an intense pain, just a discomforting feeling.
The one body part I have felt the most has been my arms though. Some mornings they feel so weak I don’t even want to hold them up for awkward (straight out in front of your body). After eagle (after awkward, third posture which brings fresh blood to the arms), I always feel better. Other than that, like I said before my body is loving this yoga. I am going to give credit to my after class swims in the salt pool. I think the swim has really helped me stay loose, and allows the salt to soak into my body after sweating it all out.
As far as sleep goes, I have learnt to accept things just as they come. I am not taking sleep for granted because it is hard to come by these days. I don’t think about that night or moment when we are there until 2am. When I go to bed I am just thankful that we got to bed that early because it could always be worse and could always be later. I remind myself that the weekend is just around the corner, whether it is one day or five days away. I know that on Saturdays we have class then lunch and then I can have a nap. Let me tell you I was out cold today during my nap. Eleni left the room and I didn’t even hear her when the door slammed shut. When I woke up I was so groggy I just thought to myself, “I could totally sleep for another couple hours”. Then I wondered if I sleep that much if I will be able to sleep tonight, so I opted to get up and procrastinated into studying.
Emmy told us the first week of training that the people who have a little extra ‘cushion’ on their bodies will do better during training. She said that the body only holds enough energy to allow a body to work out at the same rate consistently for sixty minutes. After sixty minutes the body uses the reserves (fat) and converts it to energy to use for the rest of the time. The people who came here with the muscled out or really skinny bodies seem to be the ones that have struggled the most over the last couple weeks. Bikram has even made comments to people in class about eating more food. He said one day, ‘I thought the hotel was making better food, why does it look like you stand under the x-ray machine. I see your bones, this is not healthy. It is not possible to live the healthy life if you are just the bones walking around’.
I have also talked to two people who came here as vegetarians. It was suggested to us the first week to drop all eating habits and eat what you can, they directed this straight to the vegetarians. Rajasgree wanted them to consider eating meat while here to ensure they are getting the proper amount of protein for the amount of exercise we are doing. Eating was not my biggest concern coming here, getting sick from the food weighed a little on my mind though. A buffet is included in our stay so it can’t be avoided and I am not going to complain because it is one meal I don’t have to worry about. I am trying some of the new food they put out on the buffet. It seems I have always been able to find something to eat though. If all else fails and the Asian cuisine Bikram has convinced them to cook doesn’t work there is always the old favorites to choose from.
At the time we eat, the buffet is actually considered the breakfast buffet. Every day there is always cereal, toast, bagels, eggs, oatmeal, bacon, sausage, pancakes, and French toast to choose from. There is also the omelette/egg bar where they make you eggs the way you want them. Since I find eggs so yummy, I have stayed far clear of that counter. They also have a quesadilla bar where they make little mini quesadilla’s with your choice of filling. I make my way here usually once a week. They have ground beef, mushrooms, potatoes, green peppers, and corn as fillers to choose from. The buffet also has some lunch items too. It usually consists of three or four Asian dishes that change daily. Consistently there is a meat (chicken, beef or pork), seafood, veggies, and rice or noodle dish to choose from. The buffet also has some Mexican dishes to choose from, I don’t even look what is under those lids anymore. Usually it is beans, or Samos’s (?), tacos, beans or lentil something. There is also a salad bar with fresh green salad, fresh fruit yogurt, tomatoes, and prunes. The daily salads change every day too, anywhere from pasta, rice, lentil to potato salad. And I can not forget to mention the chocolate milk they have every day and the fresh juice. They have cantaloupe, grapefruit, orange, and mango juice daily that tastes like you put a straw directly into the fruit. In between the juice and milk fountains there is the biscuit section. They have an assortment of coffee cakes, cinnamon buns, muffins, buns, struddles, and biscotti’s.
Lol, well I didn’t expect to get into that much detail about the silly buffet but since I have to endure it every day I thought I could mention it. So now you know all about it, and more than you wanted to.
My evening was spent reviewing dialogue and watching for the president. They set up metal detectors all around the compound at every entrance. There is also army looking guys walking around with machine guns and photographers walking around just waiting to take a picture of him. The Olympic committee is also here so I think it has something to do with that. I met a guy from Toronto in the elevator and he said Mexico is trying to get the Olympics that is why he is here. He is from Toronto and saw me after class one day with my yoga mat, he stopped and asked about the classes and all the yogi’s walking around. His face lit up when he found out there are over 300 of us here. He said I always see all these young people walking around with smiles on their faces all the time and it is so cool to see. He told me he wasn’t going to come to a class but he was going to stop by and peek in to see what it is all about and that it would neat to see 300 people practicing at the same time.

The picture is of all the trainees doing camel posture. How cool is this picture?!