Day 27: Angry Class #41, and more...

In the morning, we were taught by Ulysses, a studio owner/teacher from Mexico City. He inspired Bikram to bring training to Mexico, helped to facilitate the agreement and effectively, is in large part why we ended up here. He is a very nice person, has a great energy...but his class, my God, that class infuriated me!!

Allow me to complain.....

Pranayama Deep Breathing, the breathing exercise that is the beginning of each Bikram Yoga class, typically is two sets of 10 breaths each, every breath being a 6-count inhale, and a 6-count exhale with some jazzy little hand/shoulder/neck motions. It takes usually about 5 minutes. Well, Mr. was on Mexican Time and we did 17 - that is, SEVENTEEN - breaths in the first set, and 11 in the second. All of our shoulders were on fire. It lasted forever, and was not an inspiring start. His energy level was so low, coupled with some frustratingly-timed ESL-related pauses, I wantd to go up and slam in the clutch and throw boyfriend into 5th gear!

Fellow Group 14'ers nearby also had focus on par with that of a 5-year-old who missed his dose of Ritalin. We were all a disaster - eye rolls abounded, frustration was everywhere and every minute felt like an eon. In the front right corner, first 3 rows, first 5 mats - that is, of 15 people - 9 laid down at some point in the class. I stayed up, and didn't miss a posture, but I was not having any fun at all, let me tell you. A huge part of the room behind us was down too, and Craig apparently walked around and told people to "get up and take responsibility for yourself." The people laying down around me were not people who normally do this either (a few were some of the unlucky chronically injured/sick folks who bravely stay in the room by laying down).

The fury and anger in my area (and, er, on my mat) was like a star about to go super nova! He went 15 minutes over (I'd say 10 were in Pranayama!) and it was perhaps the longest-feeling class of my time here. Even Bikram's 2-hour classes keep such a rockin' pace you hardly have time to think about the clock. The only saving grace was the postures he did in Spanish, at least they sounded fast...

During posture clinic, some people are clearly stuck emotionally - holding in loads of feelings. Sarah (staff member) recently took a woman out on the balcony, shut the door and had her scream. Honest to God, it was right out of a horror film. After last night's posture clinic, coupled with today's morning class, I may need an appointment on the balcony to utter a lil' blood curdling scream of my own!!

---End of Complaint---

The rest of the day was actually delightful, on the upside. After lunch, we were surprised with no posture clinic!!!! Jim, who taught last night, lectured us on a variety of topics (yoga, opening a studio, teaching in general) and took tons of questions. He's had a studio for 10 years and is a nice, mellow dude who really just wants to help us. Evening yoga class was just fine, I was by my pal Raj and we rocked it out. Good class, and the bonus was, before it even started, the teacher (Linda) told us we had the night off!!!! We were all inspired for a great class after that!

A bunch of us went to dinner at this lovely little spot a $5 cab ride away called "100% Natural" - it's an open air place with pitas, pasta, juice bar, guac & chips, and last week, I had brown rice in a 1/2 pineapple, with veggies and grilled shrimp. YUM! I studied dialogue at lunch figuring we'd have posture clinic either tonight or this afternoon; so I just wanted to chill with food and friends for a bit. It was the usual suspects, Todd, Jennifer, me and Christian, and our neighbors, Steve & Priscilla (who are married) came too. The restaurant was so packed with yogi's we were joking it was the new Chula Vista (where we eat buffet daily at the hotel).

Bikram is to be back on Monday, which means our nice little schedule-based existence is shot to hell. It's ok though, just a different set of challenges. I can hardly believe Week 4 is one yoga class short of being done, I've done dialogue up through Triangle, with just 3 postures left in the (55-minute) standing series! Yay!

Photos:
Above, Angry Jenn Class #41; Christian & Jennifer practicing dialogue; Diane saying goodbye; Jim locking the f'ing knee; Raj, my afternoon practice pal; a few in the yoga room; me on my mat, end of Class #42; Dinner!