happiness is an inside job

the good: we had some good teachers this week. a woman named Franchesca from london taught our class on friday night. it was just what we all needed, since we were completely exhausted from the week. she had so much energy, it was amazing.

also, we finished posture clinic this week! finally! I never thought the time would come. it's weird to look at my dialogue and realize that i know it all now. well, at least the majority of it - i still need to brush up on the additional stuff, and both breathing exercises. but once i learn those, that means i know enough to teach a class! holy shit! i've been debating whether or not to take up an offer i got to teach my first class in chicago when i go the week after graduation. we'll see. i'll definitely practice there.
delivering the final posture was very strange. i went first for my group, just after erika from corvallis did hers. i didn't feel ready, but i couldn't wait any longer. i got the posture verbatim and put all the emphasis in the right places and what not, but when it was all over i just burst into tears. and i don't know why. i was happy, sad, exhausted, thrilled, weirded out... everything! wow. what a nice release though. then after me, my friend primo went. primo is from the islands and is a very chill surfer kinda guy. at the end of his posture delivery, he said "Twist, and twist, and twist, last chance - lick it up, roll it up, burn it up and smoke it, TWIST! Change." it was pretty hilarious.

also, the talent show was this week as well. lots of people had interesting talents to share. the japanese and australian groups did these cute dances, lots of singers/guitar players, one guy played the jaw harp, some people did some funny skits. my favorite was the drum solo by jeremy, who was also a great MC. he's from seattle and he and i have become buddies over the last few weeks. here's a picture from my birthday...



...jeremy really sold the show when he parodied two of our teachers - frank the french guy and craig. for craig, he used words like "manifest, delineate, congruence" etc along with a few notable catch phrases and totally nailed it. even craig was laughing.

and tonight i went out to dinner with the oregon crew, or Team O as i call us.



from left to right: me, charles (soon to be a portlander), carol (corvallis), ron, erika (corvallis), scott (eugene) and shannon. tomorrow is erika's birthday so we celebrated that too.

the bad: we didn't have running water in our room for almost 24 hours. awesome. also, the fire alarm went off during the middle of the day - at least it wasn't at night like the other half dozen times. and my ham strings and hips are SO tight now that i almost can't touch my head to the floor in standing separate leg stretching. i remember the day when i could reach my head to the floor while still standing on my towel. so, i don't think i'll get a number from bikram for touching my head to my toes, because now i can barely touch my head to my knees.

my acceptance of the group dynamic is diminishing. on friday, everyone was running around the studio and dancing and taking all these group pictures, and i was just sitting there just feeling, for lack of a better word, 'over' it all. we still have another week, but with posture clinic being done, it's hard not to get into the mindset. plus, i started to feel strange about my group as we neared the end of posture clinics. since i've done really well since the start, when i got up to do the last few postures, everyone just said things like "oh yeah she always does it perfectly" and even the repeat posture clinic judges i had, they all called me "that girl who we never have feedback for." i guess i should be happy that i'm not "weird girl" (but that name is already taken), or "that girl who sucks" or "what girl who eats mustard packets" or something like that. the way my group was acting just, to me, felt like all my hard work was being invalidated.


so this week, bikram will lecture us on...guess what.... YOGA! FINALLY!!! holy crap, he will actually talk about the 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises we have all dedicated our lives to for the last 8 weeks. ffff.


Quotes:
The word 'hate' belongs no where in our vocabularies, except in reference to yoga postures. - Craig

In camel, you'll find that as soon as you say "ch" people will desperately fling forward. - Craig

never take your finger off the pulse of the class. - Craig

When you teach, teach like you're talking to only one person. And that person is your friend. And you want your friend to come back over and over and over. - Jason Wynn

What are you doing, touching his balls or something?! - Bikram

Do you know how all american companies make money? cheating! - Bikram

every job is a kind of prostitute. - Bikram

Everything i do in my life I never use my brain, and i am the smartest person in the world. - Bikram

women need the tight grip to keep the man - one on the throat and one on the balls. then you squeeze balls, throat, throat balls. - Bikram

Who is from Chile? Colombia... same drug deal. - Bikram

The short bus will be around back to escort you to posture clinic. - Craig (to the group who had the most people left to finish the last posture)

I was laying down one day and wondering what that awaful smell was... then i realized it was my mat. - Shannon

- why does he get away with that shit?
- because he is a douche bag...?
Erika; Shannon, re: a particular student who pours water all over himself and makes a lake on his mat by the 5th posture.

the 8th week

the good: we had some good teachers this week. a woman named Franchesca from london taught our class on friday night. it was just what we all needed, since we were completely exhausted from

a haiku about the ilikai hotel

one more week with you,
fire alarms in the night
no running water.

only 2 more weeks

Week 7 wasn't markedly different from week 6. craig kept telling us that week 7 is when we find our strength. maybe it will happen in week 8? we'll see.

we had an influx of notable people in the bikram world this week. E-sock (yeah, i dont know how to spell his name) and Jason Winn both arrived this week and each lead a class. Jason kept talking about focus and determination, and i had a really focused class, even though i felt sore and exhausted. the most notable quote from his class was when he said "my friend in the blue shorts, touch your forehead to your knee... okay, imagine we're friends and now will you touch your forehead to your knee?" it was pretty funny. We also had a class from Darius, who owns 2 of the funky door studios in san francisco (and the two he owns i found to be the snootiest places i've ever practiced). And the notable quote from his no-frills class was "grab your god damn heels already!" very sweet, that one.

there was also this strange day when craig came around to all the posture clinic groups and called out a few names of people who needed to stand in front of the podium for bikram's class that afternoon. i wasn't called into the Penalty Box, as Ron termed it, but my dear friend charles set up our mats just behind the penalty box. when bikram arrived and saw empty space in front of him, we were dragged a few rows up and just in front of the podium! so i got a full ration of bikram's shit and had a shitty class because i couldn't focus past feeling watched. so charles owes me huge for that one.

posture clinics are still going quite well. actually, the night that jason arrived, he and another staff member walked into our posture clinic to judge us. he didn't really introduce himself and we jumped right into it. he gave harsh feedback so i felt somewhat nervous, but i completely nailed bow pose. when i looked over at jason and rowena for feedback, they looked at eachother, looked at the grade book, looked at me and then eachother again, and said they had nothing to say because it was perfect. not bad i suppose! i'm glad i didn't know it was the infamous yogi jason winn. whew. but later he and i talked about how vannah white is his student and i admitted she was my hero when i was little. he found that pretty funny. the next day we had e-sock and a woman from new mexico judging us. i did fixed firm for them and e-sock told me it sounded like poetry when i said it. it's been fun to see all the yoginis swooning over him and his lucious locks.

also bikram returned this week and so did the late-night lectures. i just couldn't follow most of what he was talking about, so i took to studying dialogue and trying to follow as best i could. funny enough, he talked about an indian scientist named Bose who did work with Einstein. Well, Ron checking up on this story and found that bikram had creatively blended 2 indian scientists into one and exaggerated Bose's scientific contributions to the world. so i guess we have to take what bikram says with a grain of salt. i just can't wait until he starts talking about yoga, which hasn't happened yet.

We only have 5 postures left, holy crap! and 22 more classes. maybe if we finish the postures by friday, i will actually be able to see other parts of honolulu that aren't the hotel, the grocery store, or the sushi place across the street!


Quotes:
Bikram
- Yoga teachers are mst exception people in the world.
- There are lots of weird and full of shit people in the world. they are easy for you to find and sell yoga to for satisfaction.
- Go to Bikram Yoga every day, bust your ass and balls for a longer life.
- Anger is the number one enemy in your life.
- My mind is always jumping like a little shrimp. i have to grab it and say "ass hole, slow down!"
- You know what is biggest bullshit of American woman? What you call ATT CBS CNN NBC ABC.... Oh, PMS! I forget
- How do yu sleep with glasses on? do you make love with an interpreter?
- The stupidest shit I ever hear - one person pay another $40 in 1970 and ask "what should i eat?" what the fuck is that shit!
- In india, women don't go to the bathroom, ever!
- The pope doesn't know much about christianity anyways...
- I will be here for the rest of training so you can talk to me, hug me, rape me, etc"
- I come back in the morning. I see you, i kill you.


- This lecture is like Seinfeld; it's about nothing! - Shannon
- There's nothing like spinning upside down with a nut sack in your hand - Luke
- You never know what could happen when you are 360 degree angle backward bending for gravitation. I envision astronauts doing camel pose in space. - Ron

The Lotus Flower Blooms in the Shit

(thanks Marina via Vince for the title idea)

So this was another hard week. the room was really hot and humid, with the air circulation not getting any better. but i feel like i'm getting sort of used to the heat. i also feel like my practice is absolute shit, because my ham strings are about 2" long now. i can feel that i have the strength to straighten both legs in standing bow, but my ham strings won't let me come down low enough. ugh.

this week was full on posture clinic. well, except for when John Burras came and told us about Facia. Facia is the interconnective tissue that holds all the biz in your body in place. he believes it is the most important thing in the universe, which was illustrated by him using the word easily over 200 times in his lecture. he had a lot of good things to say and used a lot of props to demonstrate metaphores, but he said some controversial things too - like that ALL disease is caused by cognitive dissonance. hmh, okay. Ron had some very funny things to say about him today as we studied. anyway, posture clinic. now, people don't jump up to go any more - we are all fighting each other to go last because we feel unprepared. we had to do tree pose and toe stand together, which is a big effing deal since we've only ever done one at a time. i did mine in front of Martha (owner of the Twin Cities' Studio) and Mike (owner of the downtown Chicago studio). i got it pretty okay, but all i got from them was "great." i felt cheated! i asked for more and they had no suggestions, but i know there was SOMETHING i could have done better. i'm not tooting my own horn here, but they just seemed bored and like they wanted to get out of there. oh well. and the following day, our posture clinic was lead by jakob, the director of a studio in san francisco, and a girl who is one of his teachers. they were extremely catty, gossippy and picked on quite a few people in what seemed like a mean spirited way. jakob was nice enough to end our posture clinic by saying "it doesn't matter, all of your first classes are going to be shit anyway" and then he dolled out make up classes to the people who were more than 30 seconds late coming back from the break.

Bikram returned this week as well. he arrived during the friday evening class, and i thoroughly enjoyed his lecture that night. but my lecture was slightly tainted by my roommate.

My roommate and i also got into a disagreement this week, and instead of talking to me about it she took the issue to the administration. awesome. so i got to have a nice, awkward conversation with the staff members and my roommate, where i was accused of doing things i haven't. but my roommate made up her mind otherwise, said what she said, some ground rules were set and now we're not talking. oh well.

But bikram said in his lecture that when we lose our temper, we lose our descency and begin to exaggerate. so hopefully she heard those things and took them to heart, because she exposed a not-so-good side of herself that evening. But the lotus flower grows in the shit, and i am learning a lot about myself and forgiveness from this shitty experience! shit!



so enough with the negative! i'm still smiling and loving every moment of training, because the fun parts are so awesome and the hard parts teach me so much about myself and others. and michael is here from portland! hooray! it's so nice to see a friendly face. he looked so stoked to be here, which in turn made me stoked. it's so easy to forget i'm in hawaii since i see the outside 1 day a week. also, when Bob (owner of the Beaverton studio) left last week, he insisted i be put on the schedule for july! yay! i can't believe that i'll be able to teach this stuff in just a few weeks. wtf?!

also, my tattoo healed in about 4 days from practicing. sorry mom & dad, it's staying forever :-)

Quotes:
training is like throwing seeds in the garden of your soul. it's up to you how you'll nurture it. - Craig

when we're done with training, everything is fun, even walking on hot coals and eating glass is great! - Craig

shannon: i keep waiting for my transformation to happen.
me: what do you want to transform into?
Shannon: a transformer!

Ask yourself how and when you learned to doubt yourself. - Craig

New students don't hear. New teachers don't see. - Joni

Our crutches become the crosses on which we crucify ourselves - Craig

There were 3 showers for for 160 women with the pressure of a guy with a prostate problem. - Craig

Hold a strong vision of others until they are able to hold it for themselves. - Craig

Bikram:
The smell isn't as bad as i thought. i was expecting old cat shit, now is like half calcutta, half paris.

before you can start your journey, you must know your destination.

guess what i did on the plane today? I read my own book! Believe it or not, i enjoyed it! i forgot what shit i wrote 5 years ago.

my way is to cut your balls off, make you eat them in public while i watch you digest it.

I got a new watch with Lord Krishna on it. I cannot see him through all the diamonds!

you can only enjoy 5% f your life if you are rich.

lonliness is the #1 pubishment in your life.

you lose your temper and you lose your descency.

faith in yourself means faith in God. If you believe God lives in sky with a grey beard and a hat like the pope, then you are a dumb fuck.

all your life you have to travel 6" - from your heart to your mind.

The lotus flower blooms in the shit

Now that my house is burnt down, I can see the moon

(thanks Michael Harris for the title idea).

So this was the hard week. the week where everyone cries during class, where EMTs were called because people passed out, where multiple people found their breaking point, the week where they turned the fucking heat UP. ugh. So they now have this new heater system where there are about 18 heaters hanging from the ceiling. they turned the one by the door in such a way that it blasts you with burning heat each time you enter the room. i call it the Spirit Crusher, because you always feel good just before you walk in the room, then the Crusher is there to knock you down a few pegs. my biggest struggle this week was my jaw. At the beginning of the week, i couldn't even open my mouth at all. when i practiced, i had to jam my tongue between my teeth to make sure i wasn't cleching my jaw. i got so sick of drinking smoothies. but now it's better, largely due to Justin from NE Fremont generously bestowing his massage therapist skills upon my jowels. he gave me a 15 minute massage before class yesterday morning and afterwards was the first time i could open my mouth all the way in nearly 2 weeks, so yay!

Poor John Salvatore (an AMAZING teacher from NY) got the worst of it. his afternoon class on wednesday, i think, was the worst. people were dropping like flies, then people started yelling out "open the door" and craig got really mad. then someome yelled "close the door" and i thought craig was gonna scream. and he sorta did. everyone was trying to leave the room, and everyone else was cramping up so bad they couldn't move. luckily, my row assignment was right in front of the doors so i was happy as a clam each time the door opened up. but i got to watch other people going through the worst of it.

Another sad part of this week was that michael harris left us to return to his studio in Bend. It was very sad. he said that our group had affected him more than any other group since his own training in 1998. we cried, he cried, he took a group picture of all of us and said goodbye. his posture clinics were the best, because he chose people at random, and then at the end of each session he lead thoughtful discussions about anything really. sometimes they got really heavy, and sometimes they were funny. hopefully he will return for graduation. Here's a picture from a few days ago of mike and me:



i also had a hard time with a realization that a fellow yogi wasn't the nice, mature person i thought he might be. aren't canadians supposed to be nice? craig said earlier that forgiveness is a selfish act as it releases the chains from your own heart, but i don't think he even deserves the effort on my part to forgive him. in fact, he doesn't even deserve me writing about him in my blog, so i'm going to stop.

But as Bikram said, everything comes in ebbs and flows, and in the place of a shallow and one-sided friendship came two real ones.



~*~*~*~Warning Parental Units: Proceed With Caution!~*~*~*~




So, mom and dad, i am warning you right now that you're not going to like what you're about to read. are you sitting down? okay, good. I got a tattoo. now, i know what you're thinking and yes, it is something i've been thoughtfully considering for at least 3 years, i went to a professional, clean and reputable tattoo artist, i'm not planning on getting any more, and you wouldn't ever know that i had it if you weren't reading about it now. it's on my back, right in the middle, so it won't show, even when i wear tank tops, open-back dresses or shorter shirts. I've done extensive research regarding tattoos and bikram yoga, and the sweat and the heat help tattoos heal faster and more evenly. Mom, you're probably crying and i'm sorry. Dad, all i can tell you is that i'm not the only one of the 5 kids who has a tattoo. also, maybe now my ear piercings wont bother you so much?




So here it is:






Note: it's still somewhat irritated since it was only a few hours old in this photo, but the pedals are colored in white (with pink in the center), which will start showing in a couple days.
The word 'Creideamh' is the Gaelic translation for Faith. Faith has always been a powerful word to me, but has become even more so during this training process. the only thing that gets me through it all is Faith - not in the religioius sense, but having ultimate faith in myself. John Salvatore said it best last week in an acronym "FAITH: Finally Allowing It To Happen".
And the flower. It's a magnolia flower, just like the ones in the tree outside of Goma and Gompa's house.

I really love it, and don't regret it, even a little bit. I know that I got it for me, and what better time to commemorate than this teacher training program where i am being pushed to the limit mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually with the end result of learning to how to love myself? My friends Margery and Charles went with me and held my hands. it didn't hurt like i thought it would, but it was definitely uncomfortable. about 30 seconds from the end i just couldn't handle it any more and cried, but then he said he was finished. Now, it just sorta feels like i have a bad sun burn.

I feel like i've written too much but i know there is so much i am missing. it's crazy how much happens each day, but it is all going by to quickly. I'm really excited for this new week. It's amazing how we only have Sundays off, but they always seem to wash everything away and start us all anew.

Quotes:
- It's like a party in my mouth! -Shannon re: Dandayamana Bibhaktapada Paschimotinasana
- I come back to training to feel what it's like to be the Krispy Kreme in the oven again. - John Salvatore
- Your foot should be coming out of the top of your head in the mirror. - Maria Jose [should have said "Your foot is coming up over the top of your hear in the mirror"]
- Start to finish there is only one thing that matters and that's your students. - Julia
- I give you this blessing: may your first class have no beginners. - Craig
- You won't have a tear unless you go close to your heart and soul. - Rajashree
- We are so wrried about the future or past that we forget about the present. - Rajashree
- Talk and teach positive. - Rajashree
- Desire, emotion and gravity all pull us in the same way. - Rajashree
- An Angel is a demon that stands between you and your enemy. - Craig
- Yeah, there is a little gambling there. - Frank re: Vegas
- You know what I do? I come into your house, blindfold you, rearrange your furniture then ask you to find your way around. - Michael Harris
- If you're teaching in a dialect that's not your own, work that shit! - John Salvatore
- We don't treat the symptom, we treat the system. - Rajashree
- Yoga's value is trying to take care of your own life. - Rajashree
- You work your whole fucking life, 10 hours a day in a dance studio to play a fucking FORK?! - John Salvatore re: being in Beauty and the Beast on Broadway
- It's like switching seats on the titanic - it don't matter, that shit's goin' down! - John Salvatore
- Keep your heart open and open the hearts of others. another open heart in the world is another open heart in the world. - Mike harris
- My heart is my guru. - Rajashree
- Everyone has something to give if you know how to accept it. - Rajashree
- Sure it's short, but i'm sure it's irritating. - Ron re: learning Tree Pose

turning 23 at training

the 4th week has come and gone. i'm still feeling pretty great, but this week had more fluxuations than the last. i started out the week somewhat tired, but following the advice of craig, i stood front and center for as many classes as i could manage. being up there is sorta scary, but it really forces me to work harder, especially in his classes. i can hold the second part of awkward pose for 45 seconds! i really surprised myself. it felt great! my thighs are sore all the time though, but in a good way. also, my back doesn't hurt any more! hooray!!

so i turned 23 on thursday. it was the best birthday i've ever had. i woke up to room service delivering a nice fruit basket to my door. My friend Margery gave me a really cute little gift and card, then sang a dirty birthday song to me in front of everyone. i had a super strong class in the morning and saw my feet for the first time in floor bow! i didn't think it would ever happen. then was posture clinic. i've been killing posture clinic - people are calling me 'that girl who always does perfect in posture clinic.' not a bad title, and hopefully i can fulfill all the expectations for the rest of training. anyway, so mike harris (owner of the Bend, Oregon studio) is at training, and i REALLY wanted to do well in front of him for posture clinic, but he kept on coming in the room after i was already done. so on my birthday he was there, i asked if i could make an announcement, and i told everyone i'd baked cookies and Mike got really excited. he ate a few of them, and kept asking me to go get more during posture clinic. so they were passed around and eaten, then mike chatted with us for a while, then pointed at me and said "you go first." so i got up there and NAILED standing head to knee. i mean, it was the best i'd ever done, and mike even said "wow" when i was done! yay! then later he spotted my lewis & clark water bottle and we chatted about portland for a while.

I had another strong evening class. then i brought down the cookies i had baked for everyone in training (probably around 500 or so) and it was so amazing to see how happy it made everyone. everyone was standing in the lobby in front of the studio and were chatting and laughing, which made me feel even happier! so then we started the evening lecture before posture clinic and craig said "where is the keebler elf, you need to get up here so we can sing to you." before i got up there, my roommate charm grabbed the mic and told everyone how long it had taken me to make all the cookies - it was so sweet. then everyone sang to me and it was so amazing that my hands and face went completely numb. i came to when craig gave me a hug and said happy birthday and then the tears came. i cried and cried and cried and cried. it felt SO good. i couldn't tell you why i was crying because i dont really know, but i think i'm starting to figure it out. i probably got about 250 hugs and thank yous, it was amazing.

so later in the evening i ran into mike harris and he gave me a big hug and said "promise me you will come teach in Bend" and i said "i'll try" and he said "No, promise me right now you will come and teach in Bend." So i promised. yay!

Friday evening's class was really hard for everyone. we were all tired and sore, and after class craig announced that we had the evening off and everyone cheered and yelled for a good 5 minutes. it was so funny.

and tonight, a group of us went out to dinner for my birthday. there were about 10 people, and we went to a burger place up the street. it was SO good, holy crap. just what i needed. and Ron from john's landing got me a cake and they sang to me again and gave me a plumeria lay. it was so sweet.

Bikram was gone this week in tokyo, so i dont have quite as many quotes. interestingly enough, bikram told us this is the most time he has spent at teacher training in almost a decade. usually students get 3 weeks of him and we're going to get close to 7. lucky us!

Quotes:
Pain is mapping the terrain for yourself; it's liberating. then only can you help others on the journey. - Craig

If you deny them their pain, you deny them their healing. - Diane from Mass.

If you change your mind, you can change the posture. - Cynthia

The mirror enables us to know ourselves. - Diane from Mass.

It's not selling pain, it's selling confidence. - Craig

It's amazing to see what happens when you let people heal themselves. - Diane from Mass.

Let go of the handle bars and peddle as fast as you can. - Craig

This is like 5th grade band class. You know what i mean. - Mike Harris

i'm so happy, i could puke a rainbow.

The Good:
So this week was really fucking great, I’m not going to lie. First of all, I have regained nearly full range of motion in my back! It is still sore, but not injury sore, more like muscle soreness, which is good. I’ve been able to get my upper leg SO closed to locked in standing bow, ee!
We started posture clinics in the small groups this week. It’s much less intimidating. When I went up to deliver back bend and pada hastasana I was a little nervous but I nailed it. The teachers critiquing us just said “wow. Why did you wait so long if you knew it that well? You’re going to be a good teacher.” it was pretty sweet. Now I am not nearly as nervous to deliver the rest.
I feel like I am making real friends.
I stopped biting my nails. Bikram yelled at someone in lecture for it so I’ve since quit.
Practicing so much has given me so much energy! I would constantly be smiling if other people wouldn’t think I was a weirdo. And even though I still don’t get much sleep, I’ve been using that time to my advantage – like I study or write emails, or go to the beach and watch crabs burry themselves in the sand.
Today, to study dialogue a bunch of us enjoyed the delicious cooking of a fellow trainee and we all demonstrated/delivered at the beach, with intermittent bouts of swimming.
After class on Wednesday, a guy I hardly know came up to me and said I have a “kick ass and inspiring practice.” I couldn’t believe it! Especially since I feel like a loaf compared to so many other trainees.
I would have gotten a full score on my anatomy test had I only remembered the word ‘valve.’ Oh well. I thought ‘trap door’ was just as good, but apparently not :)
When John, a former lawyer and current Chicago studio owner was asking us about the good and bad connotations of Coke, someone said "anal seepage," which i think will become our training's inside joke. i laughed for like 10 minutes straight.
The next day during posture clinic, i was demonostrating for this charming, hilarious british guy who slaughtered the dialogue out of nervousness but was really funny about it. when the teachers asked him what he felt during his dialogue, he said "anal seepage." i laughed just as hard that time as well.
Today, Craig made the Saturday morning class better by quoting some of my favorite movies.
I bought fixins to make everyone cookies on my birthday next week. I think that will go over well.

The Bad:
Not much that I can think of… oh, besides that one day when they finally had enough power to get all the heaters going. It was SO FUCKING HOT! And SO humid! I thought it was going to rain in there. But not nice, refreshing rain. It would have been hot rain of sweat and suffocation and sadness. A lot of people ran out of the room and yacked. At the end, I got a cramp from my lower abs all the way up to my neck. That was strange.
Also, bikram bashed San Francisco a bit. But that’s okay. I’d be bitter if I lived in LA.

The Weird:
I still don’t have an appetite. Yesterday, I couldn’t even finish a bowl of cereal after morning class, then I had half a granola bar in the afternoon, and I couldn’t finish the small salad and sliced pair I made in the evening. Eating just seems so laborious and completely unfulfilling all of a suddenly. Hopefully I’ll get over this soon.
So, the entire handful of…weird… people are in my posture clinic group. I’ll assume they’re there to test my patience. There is one woman who was trying to make a pillow for herself out of a towel in class yesterday and she was covering my feet entirely! She was all up in my business, so I politely kicked her swass towel off and she kept talking to me about it and tapping my feet for the rest of class. And also, there is a woman who will never learn the dialogue. Not because she can’t, but because she has to many excuses and other issues in the way. She is too much of an anomaly for me to adequately explain. And guess who else is in my group! Don’t make me say it, you know who it is… my FAVORITE person! Yes.


Quotes (my quote cup runneth over this week, but they are all good)
Bikram:
- Whatever you do, you’re going to do it better with a pure heart and a clean spirit.
- If you are 99% right, then you are 100% wrong. Yes, life that big BITCH
- You’re smart, how come you’re so short and have no hair?
- You cannot see your face without a mirror. Your family is that mirror.
- Kids these days don’t even know how to wipe their own ass! I serious!
- You can watch 3 Japanese fighting movies for $1. Also dirty shows. Japanese love dirty shows
- If you are a realized man, this place is heaven for you. It is only hell to those who cannot see any better than that.
- I don’t care what you think about me. You paid and I ate your money so I don’t give a shit.
- Money is the beginning of your life, the journey of your life, and the end of your life.
- Spiritualism is to understand your own soul – atma – your god, your spirit.
- Your body is not life, your mind is. Use your body to improve your mind.
- Sanjay, have you been to school? Then why the fuck you sleeping?!
- I was so proud of myself when I live in tokyo. Ask me why. Because I was the tallest man!
- If you don’t fulfill your karma yoga, you will be born a cockroach in Milan living in a bathroom looking up at a big ass every morning!
- When you go to church or temple for your guilty conscience, you are just bribing God.
- You are not yours. Your body is the home for your spirit – you have no right to damage it.
- Look at our bodies – we went to bikram, he kicked our ass, now we no longer bitch and ass hole.
- Good is endless.
- i kill 7 dogs and 4 cats. Yes. They hire me.
- In this room, I have 310 Gods and Goddesses. Why go all the way to church to worship just one damn God? And that’s just a fucking statue!
- Love yourself, like yourself, take care of yourself, karma yoga.
- Today’s young generation always wants to be alone like they mental retard. They need a psychopath! I mean, psychiatrist!
- You never have a psychological problem until you meet a psychologist.
- Your mind can make you mother Theresa or a hooker, jesus Christ, or Hitler. Ooh, Hitler hooker, hooker Hitler. I like that. Do you follow me?
- My mantra is: sex, Bentley, car, money, Bentley, money, sex, lexus, nice ass, Bentley. I cant help it, I’m American!
- Learn how to live without expectation.
- You’re born to give, not to get, and at the end of the day you are the winner.
- Will you take that toothpick out of your mouth? Maybe put it in your ass? It might feel nice.
- You born the wrong place, you grow up the wrong way, you learn the wrong things, you eat your own shit and cannot digest it!
- You write your destiny with your own hand
- What the fuck is the name of that American yoga posture? Fucking the dog? that shit is not yoga!
- What the fuck are all these American yoga props? Blocks, straps, balls, hooks, whips, masks, big rubber dicks?
- You always underestimate yourself. What you need is self-realization.
- You give me some clay and I make it into…I don’t know… a monkey’s ass. I’m not a sculptor!
- Man is a combination of street dog, shitty pig and a smelling fucking goat.

Lillian Glass:
- A pat on the back is only a few vertebrae removed from a kick in the ass
- I met Bill Clinton a few years ago. No I didn’t sleep with that man… but I thought about it!
- You could be retarded and have a British accent and sound like a genius.

John from Chicago:
- when you leave this bubble, it’s like benign post-dramatic stress disorder.
- Grab your toes, hippies!
- Intellectual property is like the prom queen – everybody wants some.
- San Francisco courts are scary – even the judges are pro-hippie
- Bikram yoga is a visa to the world.
- Big corporations’ marketing teams are just trying to hi-jack your shit


- I cook naked. – Primo

- don’t ever cook bacon without a shirt on. – Mike

- People come to us for a nice ass or tight stomach, and they leave with a beautiful mind. - Julia

- When one has attained success in asana, then praniyama is perfected. By praniyama, the veil which hides illumination is removed and the mind becomes fit for concentration. Then the senses are under full control.
- He labored dispassionately without attachment to results, and so results came to him. - Jim

-If you find your weak point, make it your strength! - Rageshri

-The drama you give to me will be reflected back onto you 1000x worse from your students. - Craig

the 3rd week already...

...FINALLY i got sleep. like real, honest to god sleep where i had dreams and everything. it was the first time i'd had a dream since arriving in hawaii. i dont even remember what it was about, but i'm sure it was weird.
they still haven't quite ironed out all the kinks yet. in hawaii, no one has ever really needed a powerful heater, and the contractors didn't really understand 120 degrees. so the first week wasn't hot at all, and last week they wired an elaborate system of 50 little space heaters with extension cords, then the contractors finally installed 18 heaters in the ceiling, but we only have enough power to use 4 at a time. it takes a while to get your biz sent to hawaii. they had the 4 running today and it wasn't that hot, but there is NO air circculation, so the bottom quarter of the mirrors are foggy and it's impossible to breathe while on the floor. it's amazing how just sitting up brings so much fresh air.
things are defintely coming in ebbs and flows. last week was pretty weak sauce, and this week is off to a strong start. my back still hurts all the time, but i was able to grab my feet in camel pose for the first time this morning. and i didn't fall out of a few postures that i usually fall out of. lately we've been having a lot of emmy and Jim from San Diego (i really like him), and bikram has had some potential investors in the back of class for the last week so he's been all chummy and funny while he teaches. i feel like they are just waiting to unleash craig on us to break our fragile selves.
i am still really liking it here. i am even coming to love Mr. Las Vegas, because he is just so ridiculously lame. i will have to snag a picture of him to load on here, because i could never fully capture the full skeezy letcherousness that he embodies with words.

the 2nd week in review

This is the current view from my balcony.


low points:
- i didn't sleep at all between monday and thursday afternoon when i got a nap before the book signing. i would lay in bed each night and just stare at the ceiling with my mind just reeling from practice or lecture of whatever. i think i was awake for about 85 hours, and took class 7 times. i felt run down, but not nearly as tired as i thought i should have been.
- in emmy's class, she kept telling us how lazy and bad we all were and looked at me in camel pose. she asked wtf i was doing, i told her i was injured, and she said "people are not defined by their injuries" so i went further back in the second set and she said "good." in the afternoon class, my back hurt so bad i couldn't even raise my arms over my head without getting shooting pains down my legs.
- shorly thereafter, i decided i don't care for the way she teaches us (but she seems nice outside of class)
- bikram told us we're the fattest group of trainees, ever.
- i cried in every class, twice for the entire duration

high points:
- when in posture clinic, bikram interrupted someone delivering the posture to pull up the sagging pants of a demonstrator
- when bikram demonstrated the difference between standing normal and standing with a flexed butt, by yanking his speedo up his butt and flexing. then he shook his ass and showed us how good he is at disco.
- after a big dinner, bikram lectured us until 1:30am, but before he started, he unbuttoned his pants since he was bloated from food.
- at the grocery store yesterday, my friend margerie made a joke about a penguin stuffed animal and we both laughed so hard we had to sit down, and it wasn't even that funny.
- when jim from san diego taught our class and he was so positive and nice and funny.

quotes:
bikram
- maybe you have diarrhea? constipation? your period?? [to a guy who was nervous]
- you think you look so handsome, but you look like a monkey! a monkey's ass!!
- you can blow all other yoga teachers away with just a fart!
- it's like you're sitting on the toilet and pusing and pushing and nothing comes out! BORING!
- your dialogue is still like blaahhhlaalallalllaaa diarrhea! you cant control it without immodium
- hey jesus, can you move my guru 4' to the left? i need to see myself in the mirror
- now i understand you are from korea because you dont understand english!
- raindrops keep falling on my bald head
- why everyone feel pee during my psture clinic? i dont give a fuck if you pee all evening, just not now!
- i have largest and longest mouth in the whole world. i can stop thunder just by talking
- i make the whole world nervous with my mouth
- do you know how to make burritos? [to a mexican girl]
- you know how i got my schools and house and bentleys? my charm! duh!
- what the fuck kind of hair style is that? i thought i had the worst hair!
- excellent dialogue, excellent hair, just dont go in the dark, you will scare babies.
- i want to count how many more of this shit we have left! hold your shitty arms out so i can count! SHIT!
- that's called shitsasana. we'll get to that when you all have digestive issues
- i cant wait to talk for reals once we finish the dialogue shit.
- you never cross the horse in the grass or he kick you in the ass
- i forget the dialogue all the time, but nobody catch me because i do so much other things, i dont even remember where the shit i am and who the fuck all these people are
- just finish this fucking shit some how!
- there is no more fucking flower left to bloom, they are all dead!
- just fucking say you are from vancouver! island, main land, super land... why you talk so much once the dialogue is over?
- after training, if i hear you fight with your boyfriend or girlfriend, guess what? i kill you, then i hang you.
- cut the shit and give me the fucking diallgue! shit!
- i didn't come here in a container like an oriental or on a boat like a cuban!
- you dont go to east LA, you cant even walk they take your pants!
- smile! what the fuck is wrong with you?!
- the biggest criminials in this earth are lawyers! get them the fuck ut of here!
- i love being rich! now i dont have to steal to see jail house rock 22 times!
- use the past as an example to make the future better
- nothing avert my eyes, i saw your arms and boobs at the same time
- [what if the heating fails in class?] what the fuck is with all these negative shit questions? i dont know, what if you have to fart? what if you have to eat shit and die!
- it took me to 28 to lose my virginity. imagine how sad i was!
- last 3 days i only read 7 pages of my book - i fall asleep!

- it's not enough to suffer, you have to watch yourself suffer -Jim
- i can't ever find you in a crowd, all you white people look alike! -Charm

stretch forward, touch the mirror, hold up the mirror. nearing the end of the second week

today, instead of going to the evening class, we had (and by had, i mean it was mandatory and they took attendance) to go to barnes & nobel for the release / book signing for bikram's new book. we got there all early like they said, and then were at the beginning of the line to get our free signed book (and i had him make it out to ErinCakes, by the way) and get home, but apparently someone had been wondering around handing out number tickets. so we were booted out of line, only to be given tickets #310 and #311 (out of 315). i was SO frustrated. we're already sleep deprived. oh well.
last night was the second night of bikram's lectures until past 1am. they are pretty interesting, but sometimes i just have no idea what he's talking about. the end of the story included a woman giving birth through her ear, and then she gave birth to a meat ball. shannon (from NE) and i were joking about this a lot today, which was nice. i kept on egging shannon on to have bikram sign her boobs, but she decided it wasn't the best idea.
so far, i still really like training. even though i hate class and hate bikram sometimes during class, it's okay. actually part of the reason we didn't have class tonight was so they could install the REAL heater in the room, so tomorrow is going to be the first really hot day (we have been heating the room with an elaborate system of about 50 teensy ceramic space heaters all plugged in w/ extension cords around the room), so that should be interesting.
i am still really struggling with other people now more than ever. last night we got the karma yoga lecture, which was basically about how karma yoga is our destiny; we are all put on this earth to accomplish something and make it better. well, i've decided that one guy's karma yoga is to be a giant douche bag (and by douche bag, i mean turd sandwich). this guy (i call him Las Vegas) is in his mid 40s and prances around with no shirt or an unbottoned shirt constantly. he makes LAME jokes at every opprotunity and was even fighting with our amazing anatomy teacher today over what we're going to be tested on. E V E R Y lecture, he sets up his chair and pillows to immediately fall asleep, and he leaves the room for 25 minutes to walk around because he's bored. last night, he started snoring 4 times during the lecture. anyway, after class i bolted for the elevator and was holding it because i was the first one there. then last vegas showed up and was like "go go go get us out of here" and i said no, we should wait for others because the elevators take SO long. so he kept saying "go go go" over and over while i waited for others and then he made some snyde remark about my karma yoga. i nearly lost it! he was fucking ASLEEP during the whole lecture, and the breif moments he was awake he was mocking bikram. UGH! i guess i should be glad he is in my life, because now no one else gets to me but him. so at least my anger is concentrated :-)

Emy's first class

I just got out of our first class with emy. she is as amazing as everyone has said, except her class made more people cry than ever before. actually my roommate cried for about 30 minutes after class, but she has been through a lot in the last year. i'm sure it had something to do with the fact that posture clinic went until 1am last night. right when we thought we were all done and we applauded, bikram double checked to make sure we were all done and 30 more people raised their hands. *sigh* bikram said it best when counting the raised hands "raise your shitty arms out so we can see how many fuckin people need to get through this shit." ha. so we will probably continue with that tonight. this afternoon is the second day of our anatomy and nutrition lectures, which i really like. it seems like it's going to be pretty easy though, since its all very basic.
interestingly enough, emy came from latvia and during WWII she was placed in an internment camp and then brought to the US to work on a farm in michigan, which is nearly identical to josh's mother's story. i will have to learn how to swear in latvian, or at least say "touch your damn heels to your ass already" to impress her. or at least learn how to say "touch it.... touch it" in the same raspy voice that she does.

hi-lights and quotes from week 1

- when bikram caught craig picking at the skin on his toe during head to knee, and gloated for 10 minutes about catching him.

- when bikram played a song called Bikram Love from his CD during final savasana. imagine bikram singing country with such trite lyrics all you can do is laugh out of embarrassment and horror.

- when bikram sang "Jesus Christ, Super Star" to a guy who looks like Jesus during posture clinic.

- when craig teased a guy in class who looks like Justin Timberlake.

- when in Rageshri's class she mentioned that wind removing pose helps digestion, and we will all suffer digestion problems at one time or another during training, only to have the burliest, most musclar german guy bolt towards the bathroom once the posture was over.

- when a guy from nevada got up for posture clinic, introduced himself to his demonstrators and said "i dont sell cheesecake, welcome to the torture chamber to kill yourself for the next 90 minutes, no money/no honey [insert every other one-liner bikram has used since training has started]" only to then deliver a perfect posture and bikram said "what the fuck is with this smart ass??"

--Quotes--
bikram:
- my shit is biggest shit in the world!
- life is more practical than emotional.
- you can mess with god, you can mess with the world, but you cant mess with your wife. in the middle of the night they cut ff your balls and play ping pong.
- the government, and immigration, they all piece of shit.
- every dog thinks they are a tiger in their own locality.
- where is the chicken's home? in my stomach!
- i invented disco, did you know that?
- you should make them piss their pants. if you piss your pants, how you make money?
- who is that on your shirt, is that me? no, it's david bowie. oh, i was close.
- yoga class is like losing your virginity over and over and over. i wouldn't know, i still a virgin.
- you mess with bikram and you get...beas.... or whatever.
- 1st you were like a rabbit, then a little deer, then you got a little naughty like a fox, at the end not quite a bengal tinger, more like a half dead tiger.
- you were mumbling like you were gargling with someones' pee! maybe you saw porno movie "deep throat"
- it's like you are secretly talking to someone while on the toilet and you dont want them to know.
- each ball should be 1 ton. use 2 ton balls to protect the women.
- your students will make you so angry because they are fucking stupid! they will make you yell and use language!
- oh my god, i sang for you for that shit? Jesus Christ! [to the guy who looks like jesus]
- you are so sweet, you will make people feel so comfortable, especially the old fat ladies.
- humans are the slaves of bad habits.
- when i correct you, why you come up here giving me that same shit?
- 'no air gap?' now what the fuck is that?!
- bend your arms, bend your ass!!
- get Lasik so you dont have that shit on your face
- there are all kinds of holes. we'll talk about those later.
- you will all be so good i will have to give you sleeping pills to shut up
- this dialolgue is the best creation in history

the weekend

so i've had the last 1 1/2 day off. originally, i had big plans for these days. i went grocery shopping after class, then came back to my room and took a nap with my roommate. then we decided we should do something, so we went to the outside area of the lobby and had some juice and we both fell asleep in our chairs. then we went back to our room and slept some more. then this morning, i went to the beach and fell asleep, then walked back to the hotel, wrote some post cards at the pool and fell asleep there. now i'm back in my room and i think i want to take a nap. i'm so hungry and tired all the time, it's crazy!! but i'm excited for class tomorrow morning. i saw they did some more construction on the studio. they walled-up some of the windows to the outside hall way, and hopefully installed a heater that works. i guess it makes sence, but no one has ever needed a powerful heater in honolulu before, so to generate some more heat, some small ceramic space heaters were brought in, which were cute.

we are 1/9 of the way done!

the first week went by pretty fast. i actually am really enjoying training so far. the only thing i've really struggled with so far is craig's awkward pose. yesterday, he said the word 'failure' during the posture, and it REALLY stuck with me. when i fell out of awkward, standing bow and balancing stick, all i heard was 'failure, failure, failure.' i asked him about his motive behind using that word, and he had a quip of a response, so i said "i suppose that's fair, but i know a lot of people were really affected by it.' and he said "of course its fair i'm the teacher." *sigh* but i still like him, even tough he takes on this tough, ass-hole sorta role. he is only a douche bag when people do things he has said not to do. he made a girl cry today, but that was mostly her fault because she brought a glass jar (not allowed!) into the room, dropped it and it shattered all over the floor where we practice and are constantly in bare feet. the no-glass thing has been reiterated daily! i mean, c'mon! i honestly can't wait for bikram to go off on someone wearing green, because people do every day and he asks us not to every day.
so clearly you can see that my struggle is with other people, and not bikram or really craig. bikram's teaching is growing on me, because he tells funny stories and makes me laugh a lot. he does yell at people, but that is only when he corrects them once, twice, and they keep doing it wrong while standing right in front of him. i was really affected by 2 women next to me during the introductions, who were writing notes like "im so bored kill me!!!" while a man was talking about his non-Hodgekins Lymphoma going into remission and chemo therapy and he was crying because he came SO near death. i wanted to yell at those women! people here are still so rude to each other and want to fight craig and bikram over everything, but i just need to realize they are detracting from their own experience and not let them affect mine.
at least i lucked out and have a cool roommate. her name is Charm and she is Indian but grew up in singapore. she treats bikram as a guru and explains to me things about india and indian culture, which has helped me understand bikram a lot better.
i'm not too sore yet, but my soreness is in weird places - the outsides of my calf muscles, and the muscles that cover my rib cage between my scapulae and my hip. those have even started cramping up during standing bow, fun! and my lower spine aches all the time, and i've even started developing visible bruises on my spine, which is strange. but at least a mirror hasn't fallen on me yet :-)

the beginning of posture clinic

Today we started the first of many posture clinic sessions. bikram sat in a lawn chair and watched as each person said the dialogue in the microphone to 4 demonstrators. i was about the 12th in line to go and we feeling pretty okay about it. then the first guy choked, then the second and third. i started freaking out. before i knew it, it was my turn. i introduced myself and as i turned around, i noticed craig (director of teacher training) standing there ready to demonstrate. as i began, he started making faces, held his hands and arms wrong, and exaggerated all the corrections i gave him. i tried the best i could, and then said in the microphone "if you think this is hard sir then just wait until we get to the 2nd part of awkward pose." he laughed, i laughed, i dont remember if bikram laughed, but then craig left and i continued. i got all the way through the posture, but i don't even remember what i said. bikram said "dat was okay" and then told a story but i dont remeber what it was about. something involving the goatskin carpet in his bentley.

then i demonstrated as my roommate delivered. I also demonstrated for Erika from Corvallis, and she did perfect, but bikram was mean and i could tell she REALLY took it to heart. Last was a woman who has been an ER doctor for 25 years and she was shaking the entire time. it was amazing to see a woman whose job is saving lives at critical times get so scared. her job is life and death, and bikram is just a man like any other she has saved in the hospital.

Tonight's class was okay, except the fasteneres they installed are coming out of the walls so the mirros are falling again. And also, the fire alarm went off at 2am this morning, then over the PA system they told us in every language possible, 3 times, that everything was okay.

the 3rd day

today, rageshri's morning class and lecture were cancelled because they were busy safe'ifying the mirrors (so they wouldn't fall on us any more). so we took that time to study outside in the sun. that's ron from the john's landing studio on the left, and justin from fremont leading us through it.
rageshri gave us an abridged version of her lecture, then bikram showed us some crazy shit with his stomach. more introductions too, and we're still not all the way done.
bikram's teaching style still irritates me, and the slippery carpet is the bain of my existence, but im sure i will grow to love them soon. in final savasana, bikram played a song from his CD called "i'm lonely" and everyone just started laughing. it was a nice release after class.

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!

yay hawaii!

The Ilikai, the studio and my new friend

The Ilikai, the studio and my new friend

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.

finally i'm here

after much freaking and stressing out, i finally made it to honolulu. the trip was difficult to say the least.
right now, i'm staying at a hostel right on waikiki beach. all i can tell about my roommates for these 2 nights is that they're australian, and they like to yell drunkenly from the balcony at 4am. they seem like a lot of fun though.

today i am going to explore waikiki as much as possible, and hopefully meet up with the other oregonians. i'll write more about it later tonight and post more photos on my flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/erinshawaiipix/

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