Thursday, April 17, 2008

Day 12: A Little Change of Pace

Variety is indeed the spice of life, and well, the variety in our days here at yoga boot camp are about as spicy as white rice. So, today a whole myriad of excitement occurred when...

- We found chicken curry on the buffet at lunch! Bikram has complained there is no Asian food, and the hotel actually was bringing in a temporary Asian chef. I didn't eat any, but Todd put a plate of it away and seemed quite happy about it. Again, this is what we've got now - a new item on the buffet and morale skyrockets!

- Julia taught 5 p.m. class! Julia is a senior staff member and former yoga champion, she has a great energy and was a fantastic teacher. Bikram's voice was bothering him, so he opted out. We all were delighted with the dialogue-based, 90-minute high energy class. Many remarked that they "felt like home" in that class, again, including yours truly. It was I think my most enjoyable (re: athletic, challenging, enjoyable, predictable, fun) class yet! Again, the change of pace just felt soooooo good - not to dis Rajashree, Bikram or Emmy - they are amazing teachers - but having a fresh energy on the podium was inspiring and refreshing.

There's a giant banking convention here as of today, 2000 people - and they are partying hard! Loads of drinking and 'fun times' in the lobby (re: mariachi bands until 1 a.m.) - and considering all our rooms are off the lobby, we're all feeling the loudness impact. We are delicate flowers, we yogis... :) This is a change of pace that is unwelcome. Crowded elevators (we're on a schedule here people!), cigarette smoke, noise and the party-down attitude of these people here to have fun. The nerve. ;)

Tonight we had a short lecture (8:30 - 10:15) with Bikram. He is going away now for a few weeks, and talked about not abusing freedom, and how too much freedom is not always a good thing. It was a good and interesting talk. He took questions after which were quite a potpourri of topics - from what he talked about at the UN to whether or not he himself is omnipresent....hmmm, his conclusion "um, I don't know" after two long stories of how he may just be.

Well, off to study dialogue!

Today's Pix:

Jin in the morning vs. Luke in the morning - what a juxtaposition!; Me after Class #17; me with the party animals after Class #18; Luke, Julia & Rowena, the senior staff; and Bikram's last talk before taking off for a few weeks.







2 comments:

Jenise said...

Jenn, thankyou soooo much for taking time to write about your experience, it has helped me soooo much as I am planning on going to training in Fall 2008! Sounds like you are doing great and your perspective on everything feels like it would correspond with mine!! what a trip, huh? Keep going, and keep writing! Jenise

digdeeper said...

I can't believe you are already at class 18 - its gone by so quickly (for me) :-)

just think you will never have this experience again - of becoming a bikram teacher - enjoy the curry (or at least the idea of it)

and thank you again for continuing to write - robin