Questions?

The week is already half over. HOLY CRAP!

Time is flying by here in San Diego. We are already done with the first part of Half Moon in posture clinic. Who knows what the rest of the week will bring... But I will be sure to review it all in the weekly video update. Which brings me to my reason for this post...

Got any questions for me?

I've had a few people send me questions over the past few weeks. And I have been answering them piecemeal. But I thought they might make for an interesting post this week.

So, if you have questions for me, please leave them in the comments section below. I'll be sure to answer them if I can on Saturday.

Thanks!

Week 1: Done!

It's a little cut off, in terms of the framing... But here is my week one update.

First Class With Boss.

He was "gentle." Yet, I found myself dying at various points. And the room wasn't even that hot.

I decided to plop my mat down at the front, since no one was volunteering to go there when I first got in the room. I decided it would be nice to be right in front of the mirrors. And, a senior teacher told me that was the coolest spot in the room.

(I am chicken shit sandwich.)

The humidity was thick when we walked into the room. You could see a slight misty presence to the air around us. And we all juiced up the classroom's new carpet pretty well. In Standing Separate Leg Stretching, Triangle and Standing Separate Leg Head to Knee poses we were sliding on the carpet. Things were very slick. You have to work seriously hard to grip the carpet with your toes to keep from sliding.

It probably would also help if I didn't put lotion on my legs today after shaving them. The moisture from the cream made my legs extra slippery. And I have a feeling that is what made the bottoms of my feet super-duper slippery.

But Bikram was very kind today. And very funny. My favorite quote from today's class came when he started singing in the middle of the dialogue:

"Push bush! Push bush! Push the bush! Ants in my pants!"

Am I the only one who interpreted this as naughty?

Victoria: The Creepy Child.

Okay... So, I blogged about this over on my non-Bikram blog. But I think many of us here are weirded out by this...

Some of us have this picture of the little girl in our rooms. I have named her "Victoria." I am thinking about getting something to post over her face, as I currently can not sleep with my bathroom lights off because she scares me so.

We can't take the picture down, because it is glued to the wall. And I find myself wishing I had actually brought my "Wolf Pack" poster from my office just to hang over it. Because at least they could make me feel protected and safe.

And because they are hot.

"Bikram Yoga Is Simple."

Today was orientation day. This consisted of standing around in long lines. Long, long, long, long... As there are 400 of use at this teacher training.

FOUR HUNDRED!!!!

It is the biggest one there has ever been. INSANITY! But, on the "plus" side, this means I can blend into the crowd easily. No sticking out. No getting called "chicken shit sandwich"!

(Though I may have just jinxed myself.)

I finally got to meet a lot of the people I have been Facebooking and blogging with for a while. It was awesome!

We had our first few pep talks in the big tent during orientation this afternoon. The best one was from Jim Kallet, who owns a studio here in San Diego and was instrumental in finding a new home for the teacher training.

Jim said, "Bikram yoga is easy... You have everything you need... And there are three things you need to remember..."

• No expectations. (Let go of what you think this is supposed to be. Keep an open mind.)
• No judgements. (Again, an open mind. Forget about where you think you should be. Open you heart, your mind.)
• Listen. (If all you do is listen, you are in the meditation. You are doing what you are supposed to be doing. Get out of your mind.)

The first week, he said, will be a "transitioning week" for us. They will be "easing" us into the intensity. But I still expect tomorrow night's first class in the hot tent to be insane. I will definitely be nervous. Just being here is crazy.

I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE I AM ACTUALLY DOING THIS!

Getting Settled.

I am here!

Well, I arrived Friday evening with Chrissy. We quickly dropped our luggage in our rooms and explored the grounds of the resort in a chilly darkness. It took us only a few minutes to find the lecture tent...

And the practice tent...

"Feet together at the line..."

Saturday morning, Chrissy and I joined Bettina for trips to Walmart, Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. I got a ton of stuff at Walmart, including a rice cooker for my room...

I also hit The Container Store at the huge mall next door to pick up a wooden drying rack for my room.

The trip to Whole Foods was for electrolytes. Trader Joe's was where I scored all of my delicious, cheap food...

Yep... Gonna be eating much healthier I have been. All things that my naturopathic doctor would approve for my intolerances.

Well... Actually. Not everything I got would be approved by her...

Really now, people. Are you even shocked?

"You Leave It All On The Mat."

It's a small delegation going to teacher training this Fall, from Toronto. So far, only three of us. And there are at least six active Bikram studios open here, and another two about to open later this year. So hopefully this means there will be classes available for us to teach when we get back.

But that is not the point to this post...

Anyway, because there are just three of us going, we have met up in trio once. And two of us have met up numerous times to practice side-by-side on the weekends. It's nice to practice next to someone who is going to be on the mats with you for the nine weeks.

• There's the camaraderie.
• The sharing of dialogue-memorization tips.
• The dissection of what to pack in the suitcases.
• The gossip.
• The freaking out that it's next week.
• And the sweat.

"The sweat?"

Well, yes. Seems like those of us who are prepping for training sweat a lot more than the average person.

• We sweat so much that if we have to pee in the middle of class, by the end of class we no longer have to pee. It has seeped out through our pores and onto our towels.
• We sweat so much that when we move our hips back fifteen inches in stretching pose, we hear a "squish" from our soggy Shaktis against the drenched towel.
• We sweat so much that when we roll up our mats after class, a torrential downpour escapes out the sides of the roll and pierces the silence of the room.

But this is all a good thing. Sweating is what your body needs. And a good sweat is a sign of a valuable practice.

"(The bucket of sweat you left on the floor means) you leave it all on the mat," I said to my fellow trainee today. I expanded my theory for her though...

"When you have a good sweat, it means your body got out a ton of junk: Stress. Chemicals. Pain. Stuff you don't need. You just sweat it all out and left it on the mat."

She agreed.

When in doubt, sweat it out. Bikram yoga is therapy.

Practice Schedule.

So, again, I have 12 days till I leave. And while I have received conflicting advice from teachers on how much I should practice before I leave ("Take it easy! Don't kill yourself before you go. REST!" to "You should be going every day and doing some doubles right up until a few days before you leave."), I have decided that this will (likely) be my practice schedule for the next few weeks...

• This week: Practice every day, Monday through Sunday.
• Next week: Practice Tuesday (maybe)

Yep. I will go every day this week, and then maybe practice Tuesday next week. I am going to take it easy the final few days before I get on the plane. You may think I am crazy... But I just don't want to exhaust myself before I go. And I want to spend as much time with The Husband as possible.

I Am Packed!

More or less.

But I am pretty much ready to go in t-minus 12 days.

TWELVE DAYS!!!

I will be taking one big suitcase...

And one small carry-on...

I have just a few things to wash and throw in right before I leave. But everything is mostly in there. I will only use two sets of practice clothes for the next 12 days for any classes I go to here in Toronto. But the rest of my Bikram practice clothes have been washed and disinfected. As has my main practice mat.

I will just be using the Scooby Doo yoga mat here in Toronto for the next few weeks. I feel it sends a great message.

What Will I Eat?

Yes. We all had the same feeling after finding out there was no food built into the price of our tuition and room costs for teacher training...

"WHAT THE DEUCE??!!!???"

Yep. On top of that nice price tag for tuition (which was even more expensive when converted to CAD), paying for a single room, buying insurance for the U.S., and paying for my flights... I now have to cover all of my food.

This wouldn't be too big a deal if all previous trainings (in recent years) had some kind of food component built into their cost. But with ours, we get none. Zero. So I spent the better part of my weekend thinking about how exactly I am going to be cost-efficient while still getting enough healthy food. I haven't come up with any hard and fast conclusions. But so far, I am thinking my diet will consist veggies. Raw veggies and the following...

I'm in the U.S. How can I not?