Wham!

This morning’s class was taught by the same lady that taught a couple nights ago who I didn’t enjoy to much. Again, she had the same tone and the same energy; barely there. Damian told me that after last class she told us that she had pneumonia or some throat thing. If she did tell us I had totally blocked it out because I don’t remember hearing that. Regardless I was not motivated, but the room was a good temperature so it made it that much better. The one thing about her classes is the music she plays at the end. We get to lie there and listen to this calming music while she talks to us allowing us to just think, reflect and eventually completely relax.
Oh and I totally busted my classes in class. I went to put my head on my knee and my glasses rode up a little on my head, and WHAM, my glasses broke right in half with two postures left. All I thought was, ‘are you kidding me, what is this telling me, this happened for a reason?’ Maybe all my talk about getting laser eye surgery manifested my glasses to weaken and break, lol. Oya, good thing I brought my extra pair. They are not the right prescription because they are about 6 years old but they will do. Maybe I will try to find some crazy glue this weekend at Wal-Mart, see what I can concoct.
After lunch we had posture clinic with Michael Harris as our lead. My group was with Damian’s so I got see the master at work, he‘s really strong up there. Since I did my head to knee on Wednesday I got to sit back, relax and watch everyone else today. I was ready with spine twist but we didn’t get to it. Oh well now I have all weekend to make it perfect.
There was a teacher that was in there with Michael today that spoke Spanish. She asked a couple people whose first language was Spanish to deliver their dialogue in Spanish after they had done it in English. It’s neat to see how their personalities came out once they got to say it in their native language. Some of them haven’t even looked at the dialogue in Spanish and were able to deliver it with such fire.
Evening class was taught by Ren from head quarters in California. He is fricken hilarious and I don’t think he could hurt a mouse. The majority of the trainees wore orange and black outfits for our Halloween class. There were the odd few that came with masks, cat tails, and horns on. Seeing everyone dressed up reminds me that I must be just over a year since I took my first Bikram Yoga class. The day after Halloween was only my third or fourth class. While I was waiting for class people were talking about an instructor that dressed up the day before, I think in a cape or something. I just remember thinking that it was cool to hear that the instructors could bring an element of fun to the class.
Ren learnt one guys name today during posture clinic so he used it constantly during class. It was actually quite funny when we would be in a posture and he would start saying, ‘hold it Mark, you can do it Mark, kick Mark, a couple more seconds Mark’ or ‘higher Mark, straight legs Mark, elbows straight Mark, looking good Mark’. He would get on him for a whole posture than leave him alone for awhile then go back to him. Someone finally asked him who Mark was and his answer was ‘you are all Mark, so when I say Mark, I mean everybody’. The immediate next posture he was on Mark again, so funny He than remembered "Mr. South Africa's" name and found out someone else’s name and got on them a couple times too. He also told all the guys they were a cute bunch, love it. I guess what I am trying to get at is that it was a fairly laid back but tough class. The tough part was because you work your ass off and push yourself more in the postures, he just demands it. It was laid back in the sense that everyone was smiling and having a good time. He teaches from the bottom of his heart with such compassion that you end up busting your butt a little extra hard.
Everyone was hoping we would have the night off since it is Halloween, but no such luck. We had a lecture tonight, a talk from Lynn Whitlow. She talked about expectations about leaving our bubble and going back to a studio to teach. As much as we didn’t want a lecture, I am glad we had it. It was very helpful and answered a lot of questions that have been lurking in the back of our minds.
My stomach had been hurting all day so I went straight to bed after lecture. I am hoping a couple hours of sleep will help.

Fascia

Mark taught morning class and it was beyond awesome, if there is such a thing. It was fun and laid back, well once we got to the floor series for sure. When we came to full locust (fly like an airplane), someone in the room made a cawing noise like a bird, that was a first. So once we got into the posture Mark told us to make bird sounds. I was having so much fun he could have held me there for a minute and I wouldn’t have noticed. When something like that happens in class it totally loosens everyone up, not that we were tense to begin with. Once we started the sit ups, he had us practice the wave. He wants to blow away Bikram's mind when he gets back and thinks it would be funny if we did the sit up in a wave like fashion. We tried a couple different ways and I think he found one that would set Bikram off. Too bad he isn’t going to be here when Bikram gets back to check it out.
After lunch we had more lecture with Jon, the fascia guy. He talked about fascia; which is like saran wrap around our bones, muscles and tissues in the body. He also went into the heart, bones, muscles, tissues; the different elements in the body that contain and retain energy. He keeps us all interested by using a lot of props, stories and examples. He brought volunteers up on stage and wrapped them in saran wrap to give us a visual idea of what he was talking about. He made another volunteer dress in a wet suit to describe another element. He uses pictures, and passes pictures to explain something else. He also tells us real life stories and encounters to better explain his theories and thought process. He’s very good at breaking things up into small parts so we understand and then bringing it all back together to get the whole picture.
He got challenged on some of the things he was saying, and he said he embraces and encourages that. He had an answer for everything and usually incorporated examples or stories to back it up. It was funny to listen to some peoples questions as a lot of the same questions were being asked just using different scenarios. Not everyone is going to understand or grasp everything he says, and that’s a good thing, that’s what makes us all uniquely different. It is cool to sit back and be the observer of people who such a resistance against learning new things though. Not just with this but it’s a perfect example of how it comes up or out.
Evening class was taught by Mike again. The class sounded exactly like the one he gave us earlier this week. He told us the exact same stuff and lines about medical benefits in the same postures. The first time he said it I remembered it because sometimes the way he says things or the words he uses I’ve never heard it put that way before. Therefore when he repeated all the same stuff again tonight I was a little bored and it made me want to tune out. It felt a little hotter in there tonight but it was a little warmer when we first walked in the room so I think the room was heated before class started again.
We had more evening lecture with Jon. He answered any and all questions anyone had about everything he has talked about. It had been a couple hours since our last lecture with him so people had some time to let the info sink in and let the mind process it, therefore more challenging questions. He ended the night talking about disease. That was like opening up pandora’s box, the hands started shooting up like crazy. He told us some more stories to back up his beliefs and had an answer for everything. I don't necasarly believe everything he says but I really listen to everything he had to say. It's interesting seeing how different people react to having their belief system challenged. Its always scary to hear about something you don’t know too much about, challenges you and what you have always thought to be true and believed in. Eleni and I stayed up past 1am talking about this interesting lecture. Very fascinating.

The picture is of me and Lucy before evening class. She is the famour Lucy that I have a link to her blog my main page. Luv ya!

The big surprise

I woke up excited for class today, well not excited for class in particular but for the announcement before class. We were told on Monday that there will be a surprise for us this week, mainly Wednesday. I was anxious to know what it was and mostly to find out if we had posture clinic this afternoon. I got excited for nothing because Monali told us before class that we would have posture clinic this afternoon. Then she proceeded to tell us that we would have lecture tonight if the special guest arrives. Everyone was joking that the staff probably don’t even know what is going on so they can’t tell us. With all this anticipation growing it better be a good one, lol. I don’t care, after tonight’s class we will be half way through week 7.
Morning class was taught by Mike from California. He was here a couple weeks ago and now he is back for the rest of the week. He is a bit older so I remember the first class I had total expectations that he would be really slow and boring. I let go that first class and it turned out okay. When I saw him step up to the podium this morning I went back to that and remembered his last class wasn’t so bad. With that thought in my head I just let go. It was neat too because I talked about Carol in my blog yesterday and today we ended up practicing mat by mat, great energy.
Our leads in posture clinic today were Jellena, Katie and Esther. We never had Katie before and I thought she was great. She was really good at figuring people out and what was going on with them. She could really tell what they were working on to get better without cheating and looking at the books to see their homework. All three girls gave great feedback and examples to relate to what they were talking about so we knew exactly what we needed to work on.
Last night I stayed up for twenty minutes to nail down stretching posture. Man am I ever glad I did. I was one of two people in my group that knew it and was ready to present today when we finished Rabbit with lots of time left. I went up there and started a little shaky, cause I just walked up and starting talking, not giving myself any time to get grounded. After one line, Esther stopped me, made me take a deep breath and get grounded. It totally worked and I nailed it and was als looking for corrections and watching the bodies. I didn’t see any so I didn’t have to make any, but I’m confident I was ready for them. When I was demonstrating there was some really strong presenters in the other group so we got to make mistakes while they taught the dialogue. I truly had way too much fun doing it and could barely keep my composure sometimes. It was actually kind of hard to think about what I wanted my body to do wrong. Some of the things I was doing I would think, ‘how the heck would I correct someone if I was the instructor’. I told Esther that and she said that’s good and that’s being a teacher. Now all I have to do it remember all the dialogue to get them there the correct way.
They started calling names for people to go up to present their dialogue because the volunteers were falling short today. It worked out good though because it wasn’t a tense environment at all. Well I had already delivered my dialogue so I can say that but I was in the room though and it didn’t feel tense by any means. So again, the leads and their energy makes a difference of how they deal with a situation. Even after people were called to go up the feedback after was nice and not critical which makes a huge difference.
Talk about getting over the Wednesday night hump, I found the teacher for the evening class to be the most un-motivating teacher we have had for awhile. First off, all week they have been talking to us and implamenting the 'wear what you would to teach a class' to posture clinic cliché. They have been giving a lot of grief to people who have chosen to wear pants or full tanks, exactly what the teacher wore tonight. I let that go because I have seen various teachers wear pants to teach throughout the training, usually with sports bras on but I noted it and moved on.
Her voice was the same tone and speed throughout the entire class, not motivating me at all today. I really felt like doing nothing, but I didn't want to allow a teacher to take away my class from me. The class was ninety minutes though it felt like three hours long, but of course I am still here to talk about it, lol.
Our big surprise lecturer tonight was John Burras, the facia guy. Ang told me before I left that this lecture was her absolute favorite at training. I made her give me a little run down about it, and needless to say I got excited and couldn’t wait, so the day has arrived. We didn’t get into the whole facia thing tonight, that’s tomorrow so stay tuned tomorrow for me to explain it to the best of my ability on tomorrows blog. Tonight he talked about the mind and how powerful it is. I once again ate this lecture up, I absolutely loved it. He also talked about issues in our tissues, to give the short version it is basically what I blogged about on the weekend. I talked about how past events that have happened, whether physical or mental, our body remembers it and stores it. How our body reacts all depends on how we deal with something as we move through life. John said that every ailment in the body is a result of some past event that we couldn’t deal with at the time and it ends up getting stored in our body.

Vomit Launch

The morning class was taught by the lady from Virginia again. I like her classes because she makes specific corrections on people when she sees them. It’s hard sometimes to know if your alignment is correct without a mirror in front of you. I've mentioned before how interesting it is to see how out of whack your body can get from not being in front of mirror for four or five classes.
Lunch wasn’t much better than yesterday and I am finding it more and more difficult to find protein to eat everyday. Today there was pasta salad with pesto, which is good, but I am not a big fan of cold pasta. I convinced the guy at the quesadilla station to throw the pasta on the grill for me to warm it up. He kind of looked at me funny when I explained what I wanted but he did it. I even got him to throw some hamburger meat on that they use for the quesadillas. They don’t have the pasta salad everyday so I will not make a habit out of this. It was a nice switch though, even if they think I am crazy.
After lunch we had posture clinic, onto camel. There is a lady in our group, Carol (she is the oldest one here at 63), and she teaches rock climbing. She attends Michael Harris’ studio in Bent, actually I think she is the only one here from his studio. One of the climbs she does is called vomit launch. Every year she brings some rock climbing kids to the studio to do some kids yoga. Michael told us that the kids have renamed camel (backward bend) vomit launch, lol. I just bring this up because Michael was our lead today and Carol had to perform her posture in front of her studio owner. How suiting that we had him today for this posture. The first time Michael introduced himself to the entire tt group he made Carol stand up because she was from his studio. He told us that she was the reason he was still teaching today, how cool is that to hear from a senior teacher and studio owner?
When he told us about the kids renaming the posture it made me relate back to myself in this posture a couple times too. This is also the only posture ever that I actually felt and got sick in. There was a class I had after my challenge and I actually puked in my mouth when I came out. That sounds revolting but it was the first time I actually came out early and had to take a minute to regroup. I sat there and I remember thinking, ‘wow this is what people feel like when they get sick in this posture’. I had never experienced anything like that in a posture before so I really embraced it, and at the same time I hoped it wouldn’t happen again, lol.
The first time I ever did this posture I got up on my knees, dropped my head back and felt nauseous, which is totally normal for the first time. I sat down than got back up and tried again, finishing the set. For the second set I stood on my knees and didn’t attempt it. I had Ricky and he said straight to me, “Melissa (I was one of two first timers so he remembered my name) you can do this, just try, start with putting your head back”. In my head I was thinking, ‘how does this guy know what I can and can’t do’, I looked at him and he smiled. Then my thought changed to ‘FINE’. Without thinking about it I did it, and have done it every single time since. Just a little self reflection for you today.
Posture clinic was good, its amazing how a lead with a smile can create such awesome energy. Michael told me that my voice, delivery, and dialogue was perfect today. Now my homework is to use names, see corrections and make them if I feel I won’t lose my dialogue. I have not had a very good habit of practicing with bodies until I get to the posture clinic room and do it the couple minutes before it starts. Therefore this will be a little more challenging and out of my comfort zone, I’m excited to see what happens. Today I got up there and tried not to think about breathing and my voice so much, and it obviously worked.
Evening class was taught by Patricia from California. She leaves tomorrow and I think she planned it to be here before the election takes place. Every time we have her in class or posture clinic she reminds the Americans about absentee votes or something. Patricia said that every teacher should ask for feed back after each class they teach if there is another teacher in the room. She said the feed back she got after the last class she taught us was that she didn’t hold us long enough in the standing postures. At first we all grunted and groaned like we would be held for eons. Seriously a couple extra seconds never killed anyone and it turned out okay. I like her pace, she keeps you going steady all class without giving you time to think about yourself or what is next.
After supper we had more posture clinic with Victoria that taught us class yesterday and Dale from Vancouver (one of the regular staff members) as our leads. At first the night started out with a weird energy because we weren’t allowed to clap or cheer. Every time someone is finished with their dialogue or goes up to say it usually the groups clap and cheer for the person. The hotel received a complaint yesterday from some other hotel guests. Apparently last night one on the posture clinics woke up a sleeping baby with the cheering. At first there was no real energy because there wasn’t that excitement from cheering and encouraging each other. At first we started to cheer for people by holding our hands in the air and waving our fingers, the sign language way. Our group was getting anxious from all the silence so we started snapping for everyone. That totally changed the energy around and was much better.

I delivered my rabbit posture and was told to speed up, lol. Slow down, speed up, slow down, speed up, I think I was worried about where to use names and corrections (my homework) that I was thinking to much. The good thing about that is that I was really remembering to breathe this time. Two more postures to work out the kinks. We have heard that next week we might get the opportunity to start linking postures together, so that will be helpful.
Oh and there was another earth quake last nigh in the middle of the night, it was a long one that was still going once it woke me up.

The picture is me with Eleni, Damian and Kellie (a teacher from my home studio) that visited us this week. She leaves us tomorrow. I know you are all laughing at my snow white legs compared to her dark native looking skin. I'm the native, shouldn't it be the other way around, !?

Week 7 begins

Morning class was taught by Michael Harris again. It was a ninety minute straight flowing, get it done Monday morning class. There was no pain in my knee so that was a bonus. My body felt stiff but that’s to be expected on a Monday morning after a day off. Like I said last Monday though, I don’t stress over it because I don’t have any expectations on Monday mornings.
Okay I have gotten to the point where it is getting hard to eat the same food every day. I never eat anything off the breakfast buffet line so that eliminates a lot of options. The other options are eggs (which I don’t eat), quesadillas, Mexican food (which I don’t even open the lids to anymore), and the three lunch items which are always Asian dishes. I am quite lucky though because I know a lot of people who were tired of this food by the second week. I am thanking the stars it took me this long. Eleni gets so tired of the same thing that she doesn’t even go downstairs and eat lunch sometimes, she makes something in the room. Don’t get me wrong there is only three more weeks so I will survive, but food is a huge thing when you are working out as hard and as much as we are here. I haven’t gotten the nerve or desire to try the fish yet either. I think I can survive three more weeks without trying seafood. This weekend we are planning to get off ‘the compound’ as Michael calls it, so that should help.
After lunch we had posture clinic. It was alright, though I wasn’t a big fan of the other groups dynamic. The lead was cool but she started making the girls teach in their sports bras to get out of their comfort zone a little. The other group was making comments and it just didn’t feel like an overly comfortable environment and for that reason I chose not to present in the afternoon.
Evening class was taught by Victoria from San Diego. I had my best class in a long time. The temperature actually felt half decent, similar to a class at home as they didn’t turn the heat on until the class started. It was somewhat cooler at the beginning and not instant sweat dripping when you walked in to put your mat down. The fans didn’t come on until about half an hour into class and then I felt this cool kind breeze because they all turned on at the same time. It is similar to when the air vent is open more than normal at home and you can feel that fresh cool breeze come in. Then Victoria requested that the doors be open at triangle (half way through class) and I was at the back the room so that was a bonus. It by no means was cool but it might have been just me because I wasn’t focused on the heat during class. I talked to some people and they said it got really hot and stuffy where they were.
Before class I was not feeling well and I thought I was going to struggle tonight. I tried not to get inside my head and to just listen to the teacher and it totally worked, imagine that. I pushed myself 127% and my body ate it up. It helped that she was funny but tough at the same time. Every time she said the word "and" people would come out of the posture because they thought it would be followed by an ‘and change’, but it never was. In triangle it was "and twist your body more", in half tortoise she said "and keep your arms together whether you are going into, coming out, or in the posture." In the last posture, spine twisting, it was "and look at the glass windows." It made for some light hearted moments when she would call us on it and got a smile out of everyone when they realized what had happened. I truly felt like a million bucks after class so I rewarded myself with a cannon ball into the big pool. We turned our clocks back on Saturday night so it was weird to walk outside and have it be dark walking to the pool after class. It is still really warm out in the evening though so it’s just a little light adjustment.
After supper we had more posture clinic. We had Dominique who is one of the full time staff members here and graduated spring 07. Our other lead was a lady from Devi and Ed’s studio in Victoria, she graduated fall of 05, it was a great night with a lot of positive energy going. Dominique had not seen us or our posture deliveries since the first postures together as a group in posture clinic. Of course he was blown away with how far we’ve grown, I should hope so after four weeks. After I did mine he told me I talk like Wendy and Kellie and wondered if that was an Alberta thing, the other lead said she didn’t think so. I took as a compliment because I like both their voices, lol. Everyone in our group finished half tortoise so we are now onto the last four postures and dialogue we have to remember, awesome.

Issues in our tissues

It’s so funny because I always make jokes that I grew up in a bubble. For example it wasn’t until I started working at the studio that I found out what a vegan was. I had no idea what planet organic was until I went with Melissa to get some soup there one day. I also didn’t know what chakras were until I started the yoga. I guess growing up in the country makes you a little naïve sometimes, hence the bubble. I am definitely not going to complain because I love being a country girl and I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. Not even an hour drive into work stops me from leaving my little bubble. I bring this up because it is so funny how things like that are a mirror image when we are brought into an environment like teacher training. I have heard and expected that after living with the same 300 people for two months that there would be drama. The funny thing is that I have stayed in my own little world, not gotten involved, and never realized how much drama there is here until last night at the bbq. It was so funny to stand there and just listen to it all. I thought I would take a couple minutes to reflect on that because I found it quite amusing.
Last week when Michael was lecturing us, he told us his story and what brought him to and kept him doing Bikram yoga. I will maybe save that story for another day. After he had us riled up about his story he brought another teacher up on the stage as earlier that day she has opened up to him and told him her story.
She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer years back, before she discovered Bikram yoga. I don’t remember who exactly got her started on the yoga but none the less she tried it. She was in and out of doing it for awhile, not sure what to make of it. She eventually had to get her ovaries removed and after that she made the decision to commit to the yoga. Six months before she was supposed to go to teacher training her doctor called her. He told her to come in because they found something on the last test they did. She had been cancer free for some time now but still getting regular check ups. Before she went into the doctor’s office she made a testament to the universe asking God to give her the strength to deal with anything that was thrown at her that day. In the doctors office she was shown an x-ray of her insides and he pointed to a spot above her uterus. The doctor said to her, “I don’t know how this happened but one of your ovaries has started to grow back”. She sat on the stage telling us her story with tears streaming down her face, probably similar to the way she cried in the doctor’s office that day. You NEVER know someone’s story.
I feel blessed that I am in a position where I am able to hear these stories. I feel sorry for the people here that don’t understand English and totally miss out on the amazing stuff we get to hear. That teacher ended with the best line I heard all week, "I don’t know if it was the yoga, but there is no reason for me NOT to believe in it with my entire soul".
Last night when I was sleeping I got woken up with a cramp in my left calf. At first it felt more uncomfortable than a painful hurting feeling. I was too tired to deal with it so I gave my leg a shake and went back to sleep. I don’t know how much later but I woke up again with the same cramp and my entire lower leg was throbbing. I actually started to laugh because I have not had a cramp since forever ago, I don’t think it helped that I was half asleep. I flexed my foot a couple times, stretched it out and went back to sleep. This morning I woke up and my calf muscle was sore. I told Eleni about it and I was actually laughing about the way it happened. I think it’s entertaining that I was so out of it, that a leg cramp that gave me a sore muscle the next day barely woke me up. Okay it’s not that funny but little things like that amuse me these days.
That night when Michael lectured he talked about issues in our tissues. I am a true believer of this and am starting to really understand how it is all related. This past week I am just starting to personally feel some past issues come up in my body. I have said a couple times how good my body has been to me and how lucky I am. Besides my hip ailment that I had to work through a couple weeks ago, I haven’t had to push through too much pain or stiffness. At the end of this week I started to feel pain in my left knee. At first I thought maybe it was from the way I twist my body around when I come out of savasana. I have become a little more aware of that movement and it did help. By Saturday morning though, it was tough to lock my knee for the full sets of anything. I knew standing there and doing nothing wouldn’t help it so I continued to work through it posture by posture.
Later that day I was thinking about my knee a little bit, trying to figure out what was up with it. Earlier this year, I think in Feburary I twisted my knee in a soccer game. That night I couldn’t put pressure on it because it hurt so bad. The next day I couldn’t even bend or fully straighten my knee but I had to work so I grabbed an ice pack and iced it on the drive in. I decided that the best thing to do was to get in that hot room, so I went in at noon. I couldn’t lock my knee for the warm up or for the first posture. The second posture is one where you have to bend your knees and sit in an imaginary chair. I was able to do the first two parts of the posture. On the third part when you have to go all the way down, ha, I couldn’t even bring my knees together to touch. By the time we came to the balancing series (half hour in), I was able to completely straighten my leg and lock my knee. It hurt and I was in and out of the posture because of the pain but it was all good. After the class I couldn’t even tell my knee was hurt a couple hours ago. I felt a little twinge of pain for the next week but nothing compared to the morning after I hurt it. I even ended up playing soccer that weekend.After remembering about that injury I was able to relate the two pains. The pain at the time of the injury was exactly the same as I am feeling right now.
I talked to a couple people that have said in the last two weeks they are starting to feel old injuries resurface too. I am glad that my body is able to bring this up and deal with it in a non painful manner so far. At the same time I am kind up upset that is has taken me this long to bring up something from only six months ago. Patience is a virtue.
I was talking with Damian about ailments that come up and how different people deal with them. We have seen many examples of people who have a lot of anger and rage inside. They don’t have any clue how to be with themselves let alone deal with what is going on inside them. Any emotions that come up turns into what I call drama in the yoga room; moving, drinking, wiping, closing the eyes, and running out of the room. One of my biggest challenges here is to not let those people affect me and what I am doing. It is so easy to get caught up in the drama people create for themselves so we don’t have to focus on ourself, it is hard to look at yourself in that mirror some days. That’s why there are days when I say my yoga for the day is trying not to focus on and get caught up in that energy/drama. Don’t get me wrong, the first week here I was all caught up in the drama and anxiety of the room. I was lucky enough to realize it, reflect and come back to myself.
I told Damian the reason I don’t have anything come up is because I dealt with it when I was little; that’s what brothers are for, haha. I make a joke out of it but I think that having a sibling close to your age makes a huge difference. I really think it helped me learn to deal with and channel my emotions, sometimes not in the most civilized manner. At the time there might have been better ways to deal with it but looking back now I think its better then holding it all in. Who would have thought that all that yelling, screaming, pushing and crying would flourish into one of my most secure relationships as an adult.
I spent much of this blog reflecting, it seems to be my Sunday routine these past few weeks. I end up doing this on Sundays because it is our day off from everything yoga, well except for studying dialogue. I think this weekend should the last one for worrying about memorizing dialogue.

Be nice to me please

Michael Harris taught the 8am class this morning. He taught a nice easy class with lots of breaks in between postures and the doors open the entire class. It was a 110 minute class but no one seemed to mind. In postures such as second part of awkward, standing head to knee, and standing bow, he let the peeps in the posture hold it until they fell out. The guy who held it the longest in awkward is one of the oldest guys here. I think he is in his late 50’s and he is from Brooklyn. At the end of the posture Michael labelled him the old young guy.
My body did not want to do anything for me today. As I stood on my mat my body said to me ‘I’ve been good to you, be nice please’. My entire body felt tired, I think it knew it was Saturday, time for a little rest. I pushed through it and promised myself that at the end of class I would jump in the big pool and sit under the waterfall.

Today in class Michael was trying to inspire us to give it all we got while we are here for the next three weeks. He told those who have been hiding in the shadows that now is the time to step up. He told us that everyone here has a story. I know this is true for every Bikram Yoga student whether at training or at any studio. Any one who has taken a Bikram class has a story about how it has helped them or why they began it. He said among us trainees was a snow boarding champ. She has all the bumps, bruises and ailments all over her body from that sport. Her knees became very week where she could only be on her board for a couple hours a day. To compete she needed to be on the board constantly, but her body wasn't holding up as good as it once did. She found Bikram yoga, and hasn’t looked back since. She is now in our teacher training so she can help people fix their bodies and lives. As for the snow boarding part I know she still does it but not sure about the competing part.

At the end ofclass I enjoyed a twenty minute savasana and then kept the promise to myself as I jumped into the big pool with Robert from my group. It felt so nice to cool down in there after.
After lunch I did some laundry and then took a nap. I only woke up because my stomach was eating itself, besides the maid needed to clean the room anyways. I went to the lounge area by myself and nailed down another posture. After that, Eleni and I went down stairs for some ice cream, then walked down by the ocean for a bit but decided to come back when we kept getting harassed to buy things. It was worse than being in Rome.
There was a bbq tonight being hosted by the hotel for all us Bikramites. It was $20 for the meal, and I was not impressed. My hamburger was not cooked, and I absolutely refuse to eat meat when it is still red. I don’t eat seafood so the fish was out. There were hot dogs but I haven’t eaten those since I was in elementary school. I guess I am just spoiled with our Alberta beef, and I kind of like it. I can’t wait to get home and eat one of Mom’s home made burgers, mmm.
After being disappointed with the meat choices our table decided that we would fill up on dessert. That idea kind of crashed when we went up and there were only three options. There was rice pudding, some flan cake thing that had corn in it, and some other cake. We were totally disappointed to see no chocolate.
Next item on the menu after the dinner was a bon fire. They had it set up so we could roast marshmallows on bamboo sticks around a fire pit, totally neat. I was really excited because we were told we could make smores. I don’t know about here, but when I go camping we make smores with graham crackers and chunks of chocolate. On the buffet they had graham crumbs that didn’t taste like anything near graham flavoring. They also had chocolate sauce and chocolate chips. I found it to be a really weird choice of toppings to choose from. Oh well, all in all, the hotel tried and it’s the thought that counts and it was nice to see everyone dressed up. It’s funny to see the other side of people when you see what they wear when they get dressed up.

The picture is of me and my room mate Eleni waiting for the bbq.