Teacher Training

Frenchie

Tue, 30 May 2006 00:57:45 -0400

Happy Memorial Day. What did you do for the holiday? I was stuck in the Bikram studio the whole time. See, Bikram doesn’t believe in holidays. He feels that the privilege of learning his yoga is a holiday in itself.
My weekend bicycle excursion certainly did wonders for my yoga practice this morning. I could barely move. I feel as though I took several large steps backward in my practice. On the other hand, I delivered the dialogue for two postures today, so I am ahead of the game in that category. I’ve only got one more left. Once we finish that, the only things we have left are lectures and mock classes. Those will be a lot easier and less stressful than memorization and posture clinics.
Today, Fred (aka, Frenchie…because he’s a visiting teacher from Paris) told me that he is going to miss all of my wacky T-shirts. He also told me that he would love to take my class someday. I’m going to miss him; he’s been good to me. At this point we’re all sort of getting a little sad at the prospect of leaving each other. But don’t get me wrong; I can’t WAIT to be home.

He Lives On Top Of A Huge Mountain

Mon, 29 May 2006 00:49:45 -0400

Bikram’s house party was fun. We ate lots of Indian food and gawked at his lavish adornments. My triathlete friend convinced me that it would be a good idea to ride our bikes. Big mistake. I told Kathy that Bikram lives in Beverly Hills (with emphasis on the second part of the neighborhood…hills.) And to use the word ‘hill’ is quite an understatement. He basically lives on the top of a huge mountain. So we drove 11 miles up some of the steepest slopes in LA. She’s a triathlete; it was a piece of cake for her. For me…now that’s a different story.
She was a good sport about waiting up for me and once we got there, an hour and a half later, we had a great time. Lots of Indian food and

Hey Boss...

Sat, 27 May 2006 00:46:34 -0400

Week seven turned out to be a pretty good one. I had one of my best classes ever on Wednesday evening with a guest instructor from Boulder, CO. I had two really great postures and don’t think that I have ever worked so hard or received so much personal reward from any single class. I also had a few good deliveries of class dialogue this week as well.
At one point during the day today, while standing in the hallway, Bikram came up to me, grabbed my belly and said “Hey Boss.” It was so weird. I mean, he calls everyone Boss, but having personal one-on-one contact with him is just sort of strange in itself. We’ve all spent the last seven weeks of our lives with him, but he’s still sort of a celebrity to us.
Nobody can believe that there are only two weeks left. Bikram is having a party for us at his house on Sunday. Apparently he promises this every year, but it’s actually coming to fruition this time. I’m definitely excited to see the house behind the man. It will be my first Beverly Hills soirée. I have to go shopping for an outfit; all I brought were yoga shorts and track pants.
Today, in class, our instructor brought in a fart machine. I kid you not. None of us had any idea that it was artificial. We were all cracking up as he would trigger it at opportune moments during the class. I was laughing so hysterically that I thought I was in third grade. It’s funny how your emotions can get away from you when you are immersed in a severe environment such as this.

No Options; No Big Deal; I Feel Fine

Sun, 21 May 2006 00:42:49 -0400

Tomorrow is the start of week number seven. It’s always so difficult to determine whether time is going by quickly or not (if that makes any sense at all.) During the physical and mental (and sometimes, emotional) struggles of the week, it seems as though every clock in the universe just lost power. But when looking back, it sort of feels like we just started.
Anyway, things went pretty well this past week. Monday morning’s class was hell. Absolute hell. Something about the humidity in the air and the lack of ventilation, made it feel as though we were all suffocating. It took every ounce of my effort to stay in the room for the last 17 postures (which is about the last hour of class!) I just kept repeating "No options; no big deal; I feel fine." About twenty people left the room, but I’m glad that I stayed because afterward, we all got lectured about endurance and mind control.
The next five classes were pretty great, partially because the vents on the roof were opened in order to allow us to breathe. Bikram said that our Wednesday evening class was the best ever. I also delivered my “best ever” posture on Wednesday. Tuesday’s delivery was the worst, but then I worked diligently and discovered the meaning of pay-off. Several peers approached me afterward to tell me how awesome it was. It’s funny because I was extra nervous due to the fact that one of the instructors from my home studio in the Lower East Side (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s son) was one of the evaluators. But everything aside, it made me feel great. Hopefully that will be a turning point for me. We only have eight more postures to memorize.
Another instructor from New York was visiting this past week. Troy, from the Brooklyn Heights studio, led a really incredible class. I started to get a little bit bored in yoga classes during the latter part of the week, but I’ll hopefully be able to remedy that with some motivational thoughts. Does anyone have any advice for me?
Last week was also a great week because we found out that our Saturday 7:30am classes have been canceled indefinitely (…or until Bikram changes his mind again.) That’s right. It turns out that we were too sweaty and leaving the carpet too wet for his beloved 10am class. So now we have two full days off and we are all loving it. (We’ll see how my achy, tight body feels about that tomorrow morning at 9:30!)
I can’t wait to come home in three short weeks! I’m missing everyone so much.

Puddles

Fri, 19 May 2006 00:38:12 -0400

The worst thing about the training so far is accidentally sitting in someone else’s sweat puddle. See, we have a yoga class in the morning; we all sweat buckets. Most of the sweat is absorbed by the combination of two towels and a yoga mat. However, for those who sweat a bit more than usual (LIKE ME,) it is the job of the carpet to absorb all of those toxins. We get out of class at 11:15am, then have to be back at 12:15. This means that the room has only one hour to dry the puddles of 225 people. After lunch, we are back in the same room, sitting on the floor for a lecture or a posture clinic. The same thing happens with our evening class: 5pm class, 6:45 dinner, 8pm posture clinic.
So, we all enter the room, scoping out a dry place to set up camp, but the carpet can be a bit deceiving. Sometimes you can’t see the wet spots all that clearly and you’ll plop right down in someone’s puddle. Other times, you’ll be able to escape to your island of dryness only to find that you’ll adjust after an hour of class and roll right into a warm pool of someone else’s perspiration. Once you notice, your pants (and usually underwear) are already soaked and it’s too late. Then you have to finish the day with a moist bottom.
It’s the ultimate struggle to stay awake in class. If one ever surrenders, it’s immediately a battle to dodge complete submersion and absorption.