110% better

Morning class was taught by Troy from New York. He seriously had the best and most incredible energy I have seen or heard in a class. In posture clinics we have been told over and over again about using too much body movement in class because we won’t be able to last the entire class like that. I don’t think whoever told us that has ever taken one of Troy’s classes. Seriously the guy was like the energizer bunny that didn’t stop, just when I didn’t think I had anything left to give he would give us the encouragement we needed. I felt it was exactly what we needed after yesterday.
During class I felt nutrient depleted like I needed more than just water. So after class for the first time since training started I had some pedialyte. It was exactly what I needed after doing a triple yesterday.
We were told after class that we didn’t have to sign in until 1:30pm that gave us an extra hour. I was not in the mood for Chula Vista buffet so I ate my left over sandwich and took an hour nap, just what I needed. Afternoon lecture was more posture clinic with Bikram. We moved onto the floor series which is pretty good for the number of stories Bikram told us throughout the afternoon.
Evening class was taught by Ren again. Zia received her luggage so she was able to take class. Class was good and I felt a lot better and I powered right through it. Again the teacher makes such a difference and Ren is the biggest breath of fresh air you can find in a teacher. Love how he teaches in the moment in every class.
Zia came over for supper, for a gourmet rice cooker Italian feast. After supper we made our way down to the lecture hall. Before Zia arrived I asked Monali if she is allowed to listen in on the lectures. Monali gave her full permission and said absolutely so she joined us last night and tonight.
The night first started with us talking about teachers opening their own studios. We were allowed to ask any questions we wanted to inquire about opening a studio. I never realized that Bikram had such a close hands on approach on studio’s opening. He personally goes through every studio proposal himself and looks at every floor plan with his own eyes. After everyone had filled their boots with as much studio information as they could handle it basically turned into open mike night. We were allowed to ask Bikram any questions we wanted to. I seriously could have sat their and listen to him talk openly like that until morning class started. I was hanging onto every word he was saying and couldn’t get enough. I was hoping people would keep asking him questions so we could hear his hour answer. I love the way he has a story for every answer and just when you wonder how that has anything to do with the question, he links it all together, unbelievable. But than again it doesn’t surprise me because apparently Shirley McLean told Bikram he could sell ice to Eskimos, lol.
I love how this process and training brings out people’s true personalities. There are some people which I or other students have seen right through since the beginning. Some try to keep a low profile as to not be noticed by the staff. I think no matter what though it all ends up coming out. For example, Bikram started talking about a girl he threw out of training just yesterday. I had heard numerous stories from other trainees about how this girl has treated them personally or talked to staff. I personally witnessed her interaction with Bikram the other night in the lobby after class, going after Bikram with her lips just a going. She was going off the hook so Bikram had hotel staff take her back to her room, pack her bag and she was gone within an hour. Bikram started talking about different personalities and the process of the training and how well this yoga works. That is how he got on the subject of this girl he kicked out. He clarified why she got kicked out and told us how patient he and the staff have been with her this entire time. He told us that Rajashree wanted to kick her out when she was here because she had an interaction with her as well. He felt bad because this yoga could not help her. At the same time is glad it happened because he doesn’t want someone like that to represent him and his name as a teacher.
After talking about her, he called out someone else in the training, ‘another bitch’, as he put it. This girl had an interaction with Monali during our third class on Thursday. When the girl left the room, Monali made sure she was okay (her job) and faced some resistance. Monali told Bikram about this interaction and Bikram called her out about it yesterday in front of everyone. Bikram brought her to the front and asked her a couple questions about her life and why she decided to come here. I wanted Bikram to talk to her one on one but he was fired up so he did it in front of the entire class.
At midnight Bikram asked us if we wanted to watch a movie, in which we all screamed NOOOOOOOOOOO. He immediately started laughing and talking about the movie we should watch. We all groaned and he laughed more. He asked what we wanted to do and everyone shouted ‘BEDDDDDDDD’. He found that even more funny and responded with a “fuck you, LOL”. He loves to get a reaction out of us because he knows how much we enjoy our sleep.
After that he started talking about us and this teacher training saying he likes everything about us except that we like to sleep so much. He said the teacher trainees get a little bit better every year, and this year we are 110% better than the last teacher training. The staff was blown away with how fast we went through our dialogue, finishing one week earlier than last year and two weeks earlier than other years. We were lucky in the sense that it gave us more time with Bikram. Every training there is a mid-term evaluation where the teachers get together and talk about the students who are having more difficulty. It is than that some students are given a report card of sorts and basically told to pull it together if they want to graduate. This year the teachers had a meeting about that and they didn’t have to give an evaluation to anyone. Bikram said everyone that was in that lecture hall tonight was graduating (unless they break one of his rules before that). Having every single person who is here graduate has never happened before. He told us that this is the last teacher training where he plans to spend so much time with the trainees and he doesn’t want to teach so many classes. He started to talk about how fast his kids grew up and how he wants time for himself now. I think knowing that having this much time with Bikram is so rare made it kind of sad. I don’t know how much more one on one time we are going to have with him before the end of training. This weekend a bunch of senior teachers and guests start showing up. To think that it is all coming to an end pretty soon makes it so surreal, I am actually going to miss the late night talks and him making fun of us. We are now moving onto our week of the lasts, and it all began tonight with ‘our last Friday night lecture with Bikram’. He let us go to bed just after 1am without a movie.
This is for you Brit: Teacher training is going to be Palm Springs. He is talking to three different hotels right now to figure out accommodations. None of the hotels want to include a meal in the fee right now so that is where they are at with negotiations. Bikram figures it will more than likely be at the JD Marriott though.

The picture is after our triple on Thursday. We are not allowed to leave the room before the teacher does. At the end of class Bikram played one of his songs from his cd. As he made his way to the back of the room the song was not over yet so he started to sing and dance inside the room. This picture shows all the people waiting for Bikram to leave the room so they could get the hell out of there.

Times three

Morning class was taught by Lisa Johnson from Las Vegas. I like her personality and her energy so I really enjoyed the class. I just let go and let her voice guide me through a great 90 class.
After lunch we had posture clinic with Bikram. He went over a couple more standing postures up to Triangle. He went off on some tangents about his guru and how smart he is.
Well I put my foot in my mouth, I really haven’t had anything to talk about up until evening class. Once 6:30pm hit the emotional roller coaster ride for all us trainees was on high alert.
Evening class was taught by Kylee, a young soon to doctor from Australia. I really liked her class and was kind of relieved to not have Bikram. I pushed myself really hard and had a really good class. It also helped that I liked to listen to her accent during this fast pace 90 minute class, great energy. The power flicked off and on during class, must have been all the energy we were generating.
When class was over and we tried to leave, Monali immediately got on the microphone and told us to remain on our mats. You could feel the anxiety in the room build and I thought ‘oh shit we are doing a back to back’. Sure enough Bikram came waltzing into the room, “check check 1 2 3 4 check”. You should have seen how fast the teacher line cleared out at the back of the room, 20 teachers out 23 grabbed their mats and bolted, quite funny actually. Otto from New York and Wendy (one of the regular staff memebers) were the only two that I saw stay and stood in the middle of their mats, ready to begin. Bikram walked to the front of the room and told us to get up and class was starting, so we did just that, no other option. I was really cursing myself for having such a good class before that cause I thought I was going to pass out in the warm up breathing. Bikram only made us do one set of breathing because we looked so bad, like we were going to keel over, wobbling back and forth. I was at the back of the room and I could see the lack of enthusiasm. I did about two breaths and felt like I was going to fall over backwards. I felt like my legs were jelly and I was doing the motions but I was by no means doing the breathing excercise properly. As we continued through class people started to drop, one by one, actually some people didn’t even start.
I had about ten drops of water left in water jug so that was my biggest concern. The guy next me left to get some water. He came back and realized I wasn’t stopping and that I didn’t have any water so he grabbed my jug and gave me some water. Bikram made fun of us the entire time about how bad we looked, it was actually kind of funny because there was no energy in that room. At party time (after the warm up when we are allowed our first water break) there was a mad dash to the door with water jugs.
By the time we got to the balancing series I was like jello and my body felt so light. When I lifted my leg up in standing head to knee it felt so light, though my arms felt a little heavier. Bikram was by no means holding us for the full time but it was still a struggle at some points. I think I just got to a point where I was so blitzed out that I was like a robot just doing what I was told to do. I was way too tired to think about what I didn’t want to do or didn’t think I could do, so I just did everything. There was one staff teacher that was behind me through both classes and actually this morning too. She saw me in lecture after class and gave me a high five and said, “You are strong girl, way to push through it today, good triple".
At the end of class when I went to lie down in savasana I saw Zia (Auntie Shirley) walking down the stairs. I just got a huge smile on my face and thought, ‘that’s exactly what I need right now, awesome’. I started waving and she saw me. The guy next to me asked if it was my mom and I told him who she was. He smiled and said, "you are so lucky, it would be so nice right now, to see a friendly face", indeed it was.
After class, Zia and I went to the café and grabbed some supper than went back to our room to eat supper with Eleni. Well Zia made it here, but her luggage did not. When she arrived at the hotel they didn’t have a reservation for her either. She was wondering what kind of sign it was…no luggage, no reservation, hmmmm. Unless she gets her bags tonight or early in the morning she won’t be able to do class in the morning.
As we walked into lecture at 9:30pm there was chiaos amongst everyone in the lecture hall. It quickly spread that during evening class people’s rooms got broken into again and this time passports were stolen. All the safes in the other tower have electronic safes and apparently when the power went out it temporary unlocked them all. The safes in the main tower in our rooms have key locks, not that I feel any better. Everyone was running back to their rooms to get all their belongings out of their safes.
It was so frantic in there and the tension was so high. The teachers tried to address this as soon and best as they could. Monali and Lynn stood at the front of the lecture hall and tried to answer as many questions as they could. We started to hear about a bunch of other incidents that had happened over the last four or five weeks in regards to security. None of which we were aware of before tonight. There were stories about people getting knocks on their doors at 4am from guys that said they were maintenance workers, patio doors being left open by cleaning staff, people getting let into their rooms without ids, key cards being re-scanned without id, and other break ins. For the last couple weeks when the room break ins started happening Monali kept telling us that we are responsible for our own stuff and to take care of it. Just the other night she asked us to email a girl some photos from training because she lost her lap top, when in fact it was stolen from her room. A lot of the frustration tonight came from the fact that we have taken the best measures to do that and it is still happening, we can only do so much before it is out of our control. They told us this has never happened before in all of teacher training so they are as concerned as us. I understand the staff has to try and control 300 people and it takes a lot of energy, I just think it could have been handled better. The way some of the questions were being answered and directed made it feel like we were in the wrong and being attacked. That is not a good way to approach anything especially when defences are already up.
When Bikram arrived he arrived with the man who is the head of security for the hotel. He came to tell us what measures they are taking now to protect us. They have hired security guards to walk the grounds and the floors 24 hours to keep an eye out. He is going to talk to the cleaning staff and make sure patio doors are locked after cleaning. He also said the police are going to be involved and they wanted take finger prints. A friend of mine who got her room broken into four weeks ago was told that and it never happened, so I don’t know. Bikram asked the security manager some of his own questions about the safety in the rooms. They opened the floor to questions and the guy spoke very good English so he did his best to answer any concerns. In the end we were beating a dead horse so all I can say is that even though I don't feel safe anymore they say they are going to do their best in terms of safety until we leave.
After all that went down, Bikram began to lecture, but not before making fun of our warm up breathing and the way we looked in the third class. Seeing him imitate us was hilarious and was kind of déjà vu. He lectured more about the mind and the body tonight, kind of bringing it all together. When he finished his talk at 1am, he started a video. It was video tape about his guru and other yogi’s demonstrating how strong the mind really is. There was some footage of Bikram doing some morning shows in 1975 and 1978 too. As soon as the lights went out, people passed right out. Though it is hard to watch some of the crazy things that some of them can do with their bodies, I actually watched it all. We got dismissed at 2:30 for bed.

The pic is my dryer; chairs on the patio

Spanish class

Ulyssis from Mexico City taught the morning class. He asked us if we wanted to have a class in Spanish, to which the majority cheered. He agreed and said he would give us the Spanish dialogue if we worked together and shared energy. If we didn’t work together it wouldn’t work.
In the warm up the students have to interlock their fingers and put them underneath their chin. As soon as he started talking everyone put their hands up ready to start. He stopped us and started talking sternly about us not listening and to wait for him. Then he went to start again and he started laughing and said, ‘I wanted to get mad at you for not listening and I forgot you do not understand me, okay, I’ll give you the clue’. From there forward he would give us the visual clue of what to do in certain postures or say a sentence or two in English. It was neat to hear but I found it much more difficult because I was thinking more about the dialogue and what I had to do. There was a lady from Mexico City a couple rows in front of me so I found I spent a lot of energy trying to get clues form her on when to move and what he was saying. It’s not that I didn’t know what to do because we can all do this in our sleep backwards by now, I was more worried about when to start or go into a posture. By the second or third posture we all had caught onto what the word ‘change’ is in Spanish. It took a lot more energy to concentrate on myself today because I was thinking so much about the dialogue. It also wore on us because it was a two hour class; we haven’t had one of those since the first week.
After lunch we had lecture with Bikram. It was a mock posture clinic where he started to go through all the 26 postures one by one with us. He brought people on stage to show the difference between the perfectly executed posture and the not quite there yet posture. He also helped those who thought they needed a little extra push in some postures. It was neat to see what one’s true potential was with the a little helping hand from Bikram. I went on stage to get help with the eagle posture. Since the beginning of teacher training I have struggled to get my hands-palms together and under my nose in the posture. Bikram just grabbed my arms loosened them up then cranked them under each other. It didn’t hurt but I could totally feel the difference in my back from the twist.
Just to give you a little example of Bikram’s personality, I have the perfect story. Half way through lecture this afternoon Bikram stopped us to go to the washroom. After the break he came back and told us that he thought there was girl peeing beside him in the toilet because when he looked in the mirror and saw pink panties. He then proceeded to pull down his shorts and show us his pink underwear. He then went on to explain that he only wears white or black panties (he calls all underwear panties). I know I was wondering how he ended up with pink underwear. Then he started shouting at Monali for mixing up the panties and that he was wearing Rajashree’s (his wife) panties, we were howling.
Before evening class there were rumors of a double class tonight. Bikram had threatened us on Monday that we would have three classes in one day either Tuesday or Wednesday. I brought an extra water bottle with me just in case.
Bikram taught the evening class and he was in one hell of a mood again, in a good way. He was fired up because today he had a big bottle of coke instead of a little can like Monali gave him yesterday. He likes to taunt us with it while we are in the middle of a posture. He was in a good mood and it was a pretty mellow class, well as mellow as you can get when Bikram is teaching. During camel he came off his perch and stood on a couple people’s hips to show how far they come back. He tried to do a hand stand too but it was too humid to get any traction. Today was the first time since Bikram has been back that he played a song from his cd for us at the end of class. When the song started playing I am sure a few bodies relaxed knowing that was our last class of the night.
After supper we had lecture with Bikram. He talked about the spine, cars and told us a couple more stories about saving some movie stars lives.
At 11:45pm he opened the floor to us for any questions and then he wanted to take a 15 minute break to start a movie. Everyone started groaning and shouting noooooo, to which he laughed and started to talk about how much we like sleep. We all must have looked really out of it because after the question he said ‘go back to your coma, good night’.

This is not Disneyland

Morning class was taught by Ren again. He is exactly who we needed this morning after last night’s ass kicking class. Some people, me included, were still trying to catch their breath from last nights class. I drank so much water and this morning I still felt I wasn’t hydrated enough for class. My body must have been ready because it didn’t seem that was the case. I was surrounded by a group of people I have not practiced beside before, it was great. Ren has such great energy and I love how he teaches for and in the moment. We have only had two classes with him and both of them have been completely different. I like how he allows the energy of the room to guide him through the type of class he gives us.
After lunch we had posture clinic but a different style this time, it was held in the lecture hall. On Friday after finishing the second last posture of the series, each group got to decide who they wanted to represent them. The selected person got to say the final posture in front of everyone on stage with the microphone. Exactly how we started training with half moon in front of Bikram. There are about 21 visiting teachers and they were all there to give feedback today. Each group got to go on stage and perform the posture while the selected person said the dialogue. It was a fun way to end posture clinic in the last posture.
Our group had picked two girls to represent us, we didn’t want to have to choose one or the other. Luckily we had Michael Harris as a lead that day and he came up with the brilliant idea of solving our dilemma. Jennifer and Tracy had to arm wrestle to decide who would get to say it. Tracy won, and today before she said the posture on stage she announced that she won via arm wrestling. She told everyone that the evidence is posted on facebook and you tube. What a great way to begin the posture.
Posture clinic finished about an hour before we could be dismissed. We spent the last hour asking questions to the senior teachers that are here, giving us a chance to ask any questions we had about teaching. It was a great opportunity to pick the brain of the different teachers. Each teacher had a little something to say about each question, building onto the reply of the previous teacher.
Bikram taught evening class again. Tonight was a ninety minute, no time to think, move your ass class, it was great. He was once again calling people out on postures, but it was more towards corrections than making fun of them tonight. He used many 'Bikramisms' tonight, but my favorite was "this is not an amusement park, this is not the place to be lazy, this is not Disneyland", lol. Oh I'm going to miss him. He told us at the end of class that tonight’s class was our best class yet. Last night someone asked Bikram if we could watch the American Presidental election tonight as the votes come in. He told us we would all gather in the lecture hall to watch it all go down. But tonight as he walked out of the hot room he said tonight was the best he has seen from us and then announced that we get the night off.
YIP-EEE

The picture is Lucy and I after tonights class, nice and juicy.

I missed you guys

I woke up this morning with red marks all over my stomach. I think I got bit by something when I was sleeping, they are so itchy and they weren't there when I went ot bed. They are all in a cluster right around my belly button. Every week it seems we have have to deal with something in this stupid hotel. Anyways you might be able to see the lovely beauty marks in my picture. I got some sun this weekend so don't be alarmed by how dark my skin is, lol, (I am serious about the getting sun bit).

Monday morning week eights class was taught by Michael Harris. It was a good class and I actually was not stiff this morning, that was great. Michael was starting to call people out on things and making individual corrections. We have that on and off but he was really making a point of it this morning by coming off the podium and walking around amongst us.
Today I was beside a friend I have not practiced beside since the second week. The last time we practiced beside each other he had his big orange water jug filled with ice water, Gatorade, emergen C (electrolyte powder), and an extra towel to wipe. Throughout that class he mixed the emergen c into his water jug, than drank it all by half way through class. When there was only ice left he than took some ice out to chew on or lie on. Every couple postures he would pour some Gatorade into his orange jug with the ice and let it sit there and drain throughout the posture. When the posture was over he would take a drink. This happened after every floor pose and some standing ones. He was continuously wiping himself with the extra towel and shaking his legs during savasana. By the fourth last posture I finally said to him, “Stop with all the drama”. At the end of class he asked me for some water because he ran out.
I don’t think he liked my two comments and I probably should not have said anything, but enough was enough at that point. This is probably why we haven’t practiced by each other for the last month. Today the guy drank water only at party time and didn’t bring in any other things to fidget with throughout class. Today Michael Harris actually made a comment about the fact that we should only drink water in class. How fitting was it that I was beside the very person I told that to five weeks earlier. At the end of class today he smiled at me and said, “no drama, EH!?” That deserved a high five.
After lunch we had posture clinic with every group finishing the very last posture of the dialogue. Some people said it’s nice to be done. I agree with one aspect, it’s nice to be done the memorizing, but it’s just the beginning. Now it’s a matter of going back and making sure it’s still all there. I am totally going to miss my being with my awesome group every day though.
Bikram is back so he taught the evening class tonight. He has been gone for three weeks so he was fired up to see us. There was so much anticipation for his return. Would he yell at us and tell us we got worse? Would he be impressed with how we have improved!?
The first thing he said when he walked in was “Did you miss me?” I told Eleni he would ask that, he followed it up with an “I missed you”. He talked for about seven minutes before class about all the places he visited. He got to see his mother because he was in Calcutta, but only for 24 hours because he had to get back to us. He told us about all the interviews and news conferences he did. He also told us that he made an announcement that is no longer doing anymore seminars, he has his last one in February than that’s it. He wants to take more time to get back to his yoga and doing advanced classes, maybe teaching a couple. I guess we will see what happens in the next little while.
Class was just under two hours and man oh man did we get out butts kicked. He yelled at people, called people out on different postures, called people names, made fun of them, and swore at others. This is the Bikram I had heard so much about. I don’t think one person walked out of that room after with water still in their jug. It felt and looked like the first week the way people were lying down all over outside after class. A couple people puked during class and he tried to make a couple people leave by making fun of them, telling them to go home. It didn't work though, we are so strong now, working and sticking together to the end. In final savasana he told us it was our best class ever.
One of my friends here that Eleni and I sit with at lecture every night got sick from the class. We were looking for this person when we got to the lecture hall because usually we save seats for them or vice versa, depending on who gets there first. When they hadn’t showed up by 8:50 I went to check the sign in sheet to see if they had signed in, since it was not like them to be there that late. There was no signature on the sign in sheet so I tracked down their room mate. The room mate said they didn’t come back after class and figured we all just met for supper or something. I tracked down Molly, the nurse on staff, and asked her. She said had brought one person to the doctor for IV after class. When we told her who we were looking for, she confirmed that that is who she brought in. This person has been taking really good care of themselves for the entire training, especially after getting sick the first couple weeks. In class tonight they felt like puking the entire class, had a head ache, and really thought they should leave. Even though they felt like they were going to pass out at any moment, they did every single posture in that class and didn't leave. It wasn’t until after class when they got up to leave that they actually ended up passing out on the ground. This just goes to show how hard we all push ourselves when Bikram teaches. I’ve always said I will have to be blacked out on my back before I sit out a posture in any class. Hearing what happened to them tonight actually made we step back and think about how hard I do push myself sometimes.
I had a raging head ache throughout the entire class, and ended up drinking all my water by the end of class. I have not done this since the first week and the orange jug was my best friend. After class I couldn’t wait to get out and lie down outside of the room before my head exploded. I am so glad the energy was so good in there tonight and we were all supporting one another, we really needed that. After class everyone’s reaction was basically the same, ‘he kicked our butts’. He did in deed, and those moments when I thought I was going to keel over I just looked at myself in the mirror and smiled, I knew I could do it. It’s amazing how a little smile can give you a little burst of energy to keep you going long after you think you are done.
At the evening lecture, Bikram told us we are the strongest class ever in teacher training history. He told us he used every bad word he knows in English in class tonight. He said the meanest things to people and gave us the toughest class we have ever had, trying to break us, but we are too strong. He wanted to keep there us until someone left crying, shitting, puking, farting, fainting, or something coming out of one of our orifices. He said he tried everything he could but we were not going down. I have heard horror stories from past trainees about these types of classes from Bikram. He said some pretty mean things to some people but as a group we held strong, supporting each other and kept going. That’s why he loves and missed us!?
Tonight at lecture he talked about the mind, and the elements of the mind. He asked for an example from us students about how the mind influences us, like I said before I love hearing people’s stories. Monali made him some chicken rice curry for supper so he was feeling tired so he let us go just after 1am. That was pretty early considering he was threatening us in class with movies until 4am. The Americans want to watch the election coverage tomorrow night so us Canadians might have to endure a night of American politics. We’ll see what happens.
Oh and a side note for Shauna and Nikki; there are eight teachers here right now that were at training with you guys. They all planned to visit at the same time.

YES

“All your life you are told the things you can not do.
You will be told you’re not good enough.
They’ll say you are the wrong height, the wrong weight, or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this.
They will tell you no a thousand times, until all the no’s become meaningless.
All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. They will tell you no and you will tell them YES!”

I wrote this quote as an inspiration from my friend Kaylee back home at the studio and Lucy who is here at TT with me. Before I left for training Kaylee gave me a package of letters labelled one for each of the nine weeks I am here. I have been reading them one by one after each Saturday’s class. Week seven’s letter had this quote written in it so I thought it was appropriate. My TT friend Lucy, also a blogger, posts quotes on her blog every now and again, so that’s where I got the idea.
When I read this quote my mind instantly went back to when I decided to go to training. I don’t think anyone ever told me they didn’t think I could do it. I know there were a couple people that probably wondered if I really would do it. They probably asked themselves if this was one of those whim things I got in my head like when I decided to take a break from college and live in Italy. When I make up my mind to do something it’s pretty hard to change it, I think my parents figured that out a long time ago, I blame it on the Italian in me. I also blame it on the fact that no matter what crazy thing I decide to do I am supported 127% by my parents. They might not like the idea but at the same time they don’t hold me back. I think I might have talked about this before; I’m having a déjà-vu moment. I am mentioning this today because the two times we had Joanie as a teacher this past week she always ended with a few inspirational words. She told us to think about the people we left behind and those who sacrificed their own lives to make it work for us.
I am one of the lucky ones that doesn’t have a lot of attachments and things ‘to take care of’ before I left. There are people here who left their kids, some very young, behind to take this opportunity for themselves. There are three women here that have their small children here with them. Two of them have nannies and the other one’s husband is here to look after the baby while they are in class. I just look at them and think that I could never do that. Then again I am not a mother and I think Mothers are the strongest people alive.
Other trainees have told me how they had to pre pay bills, get someone to look after their house, pets or family, quit their job or took a leave, sold their car, and of course took out a loan. It actually doesn’t surprise me the sacrifices people make to come here. I don’t really have a story to tell so I like to listen to everyone else’s.
Today was another day spent going to Wal-mart and McDonalds. We also found Eleni some shoes to go with the dress she bought yesterday, fun stuff I know you wanted to know about. I spent the afternoon lying by the pool, in the shade of the palm trees with some friends. We didn’t even talk or think about dialogue at all, it was so nice. I know I should be taking advantage of this time and going back and reviewing but it was nice not to think about it.
My posture clinic group decided to go out for supper tonight. It was really nice to get out, dress up a little and carry a purse; first time I have done that since I got here. We went to 100% natural, which is a local hot spot restaurant among yogis. We ended up staying there for three hours just talking and having a good time. I didn’t realize we were there that long until I got back to my room, the time flew by.

The pic is me studying dialogue by the pool, though you can't tell its by the pool.

Getting out

Morning class was taught by Mike again, same thoughts as last time.
For lunch we got to switch restaurants and eat at a new restaurant that just opened in a new part of the hotel. They had the same food as Chula Vista, our regular lunch destination but it was a change of scenery so I really didn’t mind.
We sat with a couple other yogis’ today and it was interesting to hear their take on the different teachers. One of them told me that he didn’t enjoy a certain teacher the first time we had him. The next time we had him he made up his mind to really listen to everything he was saying. He said after doing that he had a different take on him. I think it is cool to hear how people deal with the different situations they are faced with and other peoples take on different classes or teachers. Some times when I have a view on someone and it’s not necessarily a good one, it’s good to hear someone else’s reason for loving them. Not that we are supposed to analyze the different teachers, reactions, classes or anything for that matter here. I think it is good sometimes to reflect on why someone had a certain impact/reaction on you. I like being able to bounce ideas and talk about different situations with the people here who are going through the same thing. Everyone reacts differently and that’s why we keep coming back. How boring would that be if everyone had the same reaction to teachers or situations? Being able to experience the different teachers and reactions has allowed me to grow so much in such a short time. Talking about it is also a good way to vent if everyone agrees with you, lol.
It seems Halloween is an entire weekend event here. Mexicans celebrate Halloween as the day of the deads. They believe that past ones visit them each year on Halloween. There is a day for children, adults and a day for them to return to the place of the dead. They prepare by making Mexican bread as an offering in preparation for the visit. We got to enjoy some of this tradition as they delivered some to each room for us to enjoy. I enjoy seeing and experiencing how different cultures celebrate their traditions.
After class I was on my computer and a girl from my floor came storming down the hallway with a laundry bag. I didn’t even have to ask her before she started telling me what happened. She had pulled a dress out of her closet that she was going to wear out tonight but to her surprise the dress had mold all over it. She proceeded to go through her entire closet and realized that anything she had not worn in awhile had mold on it. She packaged everything up and was on her way downstairs to deal with the situation. Immediately after that I proceeded to raid my closet looking for the same thing but it seemed my clothes were in good shape. I did however come across a pair of sandals I have worn once since being here. They were covered in mold and it totally freaked me out. I washed them with soap and water and sprayed them with tea tree, I'll have to see what happens when they dry. Eleni was not impressed when I told her about the closet situations, ‘aghhh, hasn’t there been enough things to deal with in this stupid hotel’. Can you tell we are about ready to go back to the comforts of home?
After taking our routine Saturday afternoon nap Eleni and I headed to the mall. She needed to find something for graduation. Just in case you care, she did find a dress that looks amazing on her, so the trip was worth it. We had to take a cab there, and he came back and picked us up two hours later. We saw about 50 other yogis in the mall, I guess they all had the same idea. This is the first time we have left the ‘compound’, other than our Wal-mart or mega trips. It felt great to get out, even for a few hours. I didn’t even touch my dialogue today and it felt great. I ran into some people and they tried to talk about studying but I nixed that right in the bud. I should be taking advantage of this time and going back to review, that’s what Saturday’s have been for the last 6 weeks. It felt great to not think about it; class, nap and shopping took up my entire day, and I ain’t complaining one iota.

The picture is of the Acapulco bay from the top of the hill on the way to the mall.