the 2nd day

Today was the day we met bikram. he came to us wearing all white, and told us a story about something i can't remember but included how many celebrities he has helped. then he said he hadn't even begun and said hello and welcomed us. then he kept us for 2 hours longer than craig had indicated, and i got up to pee once i couldn't hold it any longer, which meant i was the first recipient of the 'cork' comment. holding your pee for that long is bad for you though!

then we started the introductions. Bikram came wearing his silver speedo and yes Chrissy, it was everything i imagined and more. there are people here from dozens of countries - japan, singapore, korea, thailand, france, england, australia, new zealand, south africa, zimbabwe, canada, it's crazy! tons of people from vancouver. a few people cried delivering their stories - one woman was addicted to crack for 3 years and kicked the habit a year ago, one girl lost her boyfriend and dad in a car accident, two people were in motorcycle accidents... i could go on and on. this one beautiful, tall, blonde skinney australian girl got up and said "i've been practicing yoga for 8 years, and this is the only kind that gave me tits and ass!" at least she was honest!

then was class. the system we have now is that we have conference rooms on the 2nd floor to change and leave our things. all the elevators except for one are under construction (and there are 25 floors of about 1000 guests so the lines are HEINOUS after class/lecture). we have to cover ourselves when walking around the hotel though - apparently someones shakti top offended some old ladies who live in the hotel. anyway, the class. ugh the class i should say. this was the first time they had mats in the room so we rearranged a few times. there were people 3" away from me on every side. the mirrors started fogging up so we couldn't see anything. the micophone broke so we couldn't hear bikram. bikram's dialogue was slow and disjointed and after EVERY posture he asked us which one was next and what set we were on. the carpets are brand new and slippery so when i bent my knee for triangle pose my foot went straight out and i fell. one of the mirrors fell off the wall. and the entire time they didn't turn on the heaters - at first i felt kinda chilled but after awkward i was drenched, had sweat dripping from my shorts and my finger tips were pruney. the humidity was ridiculous. i finished an entire nalgene before the class was over and i hardly ever have to drink water and i was parched after class. have i complained enough?? i tried to keep my peace and my meditation the entire time but when bikram was asking us questions every couple minutes and telling us to look at people i just couldn't. the class didn't feel too hard, and at least the humidity made me super duper limber, but i looked at the clock and it took us over 2 hours. i am so tired already and it's only 8pm and we just had one class today. i am so nervous for what its going to be like when we have to practice in the morning and the night, and when we get to the dialogue that i don't know yet so i'll be studying more, and have to deliver those postures, and deal with late night lectures! i am psyching myself out. also, we have class saturday mornings every week with craig.

i just need to remind myself that this is my experience and my practice and i should leave all this shit behind me, but sometimes that just seems impossible!