Sunday, April 15, 2007

the second day...

So this is the beginning of my second full day in Hawaii. Yesterday, I walked up and down Waikiki Beach. I lathered myself in SPF 60 sunblock, and still got burned! But my burns are in the oddest places – the tops of my fingers, the front of my neck, and my wrist where my hair-ties live. I chatted and swam for a while with a girl I met named Marie who is visiting here from Birmingham, England.
Afterwards, I wandered over to the Ilikai to check things out. I was poking around the studio they just finished building for us – it smells so new! And they had the heaters going, so now I know I won’t have to be worried about getting chilled during my practice, thank goodness. I’ll post some photos here. So as I was looking around, I met a handful of people who are from all over, along with a guy who owns a studio here in Honolulu and one in Chicago – he’s going to be one of our teachers too. I also met Ron, the Portlander from the John’s Landing studio. We met another student from Milwaukee, Wisconsin named Carrie. There are no bikram studios where she lives, so she has been practicing off the Bikram CD for over a year now. We had a drink at the bar, then took a walk to the closest shopping center to get some necessities. Our experience there really opened my eyes to the different backgrounds everyone coming to training will have. There was Ron, a 50 year old type A engineer who was carefully calculating out all his expenses, and Carrie, a 30 year old doctor’s wife who spent $350 on a pair of sunglasses, and then there was me. It’s very cool that people can be so different and still have the yoga in common.
Carrie got bumped into a suite with a beachside view, so she invited me to stay in her room for the night instead of my hostel. I said goodbye to my beloved loud Australian girls and headed for the Ilikai. It was the best nights sleep I’d had in 4 nights, but I keep waking up at 7am because I’m not quite used to the time difference.
Check-in is only a few hours from now, and I’m excited! I’ve heard that they have been putting 4 people in the rooms instead of the promised 2, and there aren’t kitchens in all the rooms. Hopefully I’ll have a kitchen, and a bed, and maybe some closet space and the rest will work itself out.
All the pictures I’ve taken so far are on my flickr page.

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