WipedOut

I feel like i've done so much from the last time i posted. It feels like i've been here so long, but it's gone by so fast... does that really even make sense? So today is tuesday, our last first practice of the week. I really dont want it to go away. i must challenge myself to stay in the present moment and not think about tomorrow or what is to come after this is all over. Now, to reflect on the past week. All i remember from the past week is being tired of the food and in need of a pick-me-up, so a group of us would walk to the closest 7/11 almost everyday. snacks. ice cream. really anything... Remember my first cute post that said the food was beautiful, great, tasty, delicious, all of these adjectives describing something positive? well they've somehow disappeared, but thats okay because we always have fun running back to our resort with our popsicle sticks getting dumped on by an unexpected and unavoidable rain. Im going to miss those 7/11 trips. Oh, especially the one time when their power was out, so they used tiny candles to follow us to the aisle of food where we wanted to go. Somehow when the lights are out and there is a singular flame   held by a short thai man  breathing down your neck shining on the food you become indecisive, almost nervous about your junk food choice. Such good times. Last week, we definitely advanced our practice and teachings with many variations and teaching more and more series of poses, even an entire sequence. If you think i was only sore after the first few practices, think again! Bry and Dice have a way of challenging us and always mixing it up. So Emily and i were especially sore and in need of a thai massage. Yes, we've already had like five since we've been here but it had been like almost a a week since our last! We went into Chaweng to try a traditional two hour thai massage at My Friend. Well, the 300 pound lady that thought it was a good idea to stand on my tiny bird legs was not my friend. No, im kidding, but she was pretty aggressive. Definitely a deep massage, sometimes she pushed so hard on my upper chest it closed my throat and i choked! But its fine, we both just laughed and she kept digging deeper. It was definitely good, but i plan on sticking with a one hour thai massage or maybe just a smaller masseuse. Fast forward to saturday night, in the search for internet we stumbled upon some yogis and joined in on their game of taboo. You know, the game where you have to describe a word without saying a certain descriptive words. Well, we all know its hard in english.. so try playing with two other teammates whose first language is definitely not english. We still won in my book.  Now sunday rolled by quickly with a morning practice and a quick 30 minute teaching practicum and then Bry and Dice surprised us with the rest of the day off! With plans to leave for Ko Phangan, Bruce, Emily, Catherine, Aisa and i were off to the island by 1:30 in the afternoon. Hopped on a 30 minute ferry ride to the intimate island and arrived at our paradise for the next day. We settled in our resort and private villa with a private beach side view. From the hour we had arrived, we knew this place was different. Bruce and I picked up a scooter for the day, much cheaper than any cab or truck ride we could find and this allowed us to explore the island while we the other girls were getting tatted up. That night, we explored the main stretch on Thong Sala side of the island. Better markets. Cleaner. Everything was simple, and just what it was supposed to be. So much less commercial than Samui. It was a nice break from the business of our island. We all met up for dinner at Milky Bay which served incredible dinner, drinks, and dessert. Bellies full and happy hearts we went back to our villa and had a special guest appearance by the world-renowned violinist Rashed Juma who too was in residence in of the four villas. He gave us an incredible performance with songs we knew and with a few of his own. It was perfect. We were all sitting inside the newly built yoga studio which had perfect acoustics so that the sound from the strings on the violin vibrated all over the room. Afterwards we all went our way and had a good night's rest. We woke up got on our motorbike, and met up for some German breakfast at Sweet Cafe. We shopped around a little bit more, but Bruce and I were over it so we left the girls and went driving around the island. No map. No plan of where we were headed, but we couldnt get too lost because we were on an island, right? Well we ended up in a rainforest, staring at a waterfall and apparently Ko Phangan National park? sweet! We kept riding, passing many signs, all in Thai of course, so we were further and further away from touristy areas, if there were any.. We wanted to drive along the coast so we kept going left assuming eventually we'd see water. Well what we found was better. One word. WIPEOUT. We almost wipedout stopping to check this place out. To all you who watch tv, remember when that show called wipeout aired? well that was Bruce and i for the next 3 hours. For 500 baht, we had the day to jump around on massively inflated obstacles like red balls, rings, and iceburgs. It was like my own jungle gym. Two English men cheerily greeted us explaining the rules blah blah but we didnt really know what they were saying, we just wanted to play. We signed some sort of waiver, yadda yadda and then we played! In retrospect, i guess i could have been severely injured, but Bruce ended up with a bruised shin and I a bruised knee so we're golden!  I got to trapeze and back flip into the water, climb floating monkey bars, jump onto wobbly logs, climb mountains, back flip off that,  jump frog over the red balls (that i never successfully got across) and then the blob! It was so much fun!! Bruce and i laughed so hard, and he was a total wussy which brought even more entertainment. I had to go first on every obstacle. The english men tried to convince me to time myself to see if i could beat the best time. Regretfully, i chose not to, because at the time i knew my competitive ego would've probably ruined the fun that i had already been having. But now, i know i could've totally smashed the time. Looks like i have to go back? Anyways, it was already 3 in the afternoon and we found ourselves back at that tattoo parlor, which was more like a zoo and everyone was finishing up with their tats. We ate a late lunch at A's coffee shop serving thai iced tea (all i ever need in life) and a cheese burger. We finished up with an ice cream and hopped back on the ferry for ko samui. None of us wanted to leave, and i think we all individually debated in our heads what would happen if we just stayed. But we returned, ready to do some yoga and teach. As soon as i got back, i couldn't help but go to the studio do a flow for myself and practice press handstands. I also had to give a private lesson teaching Surya A warm-up, Surya A, Surya B warm-up, Surya B, externals, external flow, neutrals, core, inversion clinic, backbends, supine twists, and finally the most beloved pose savasana. Definitely a challenge, and definitely a lot of nerves i had to get through. But your students are forgiving and understanding that this is the first time you may be speaking for an hour about asanas. It's incredible what we've learned.

Signing out to go do some more,
I cant get enough! Cant wait to share with you all.

midway point

Well, its the start of week three. Cannot believe we have been here two weeks. I still cannot get enough of these people. They are all so incredible, so strong, and so passionate about what they do. In addition to the people, my practice has deepened to a level i had never reached before. Sunday, in the evening, a bunch of us hopped on the shuttle to Chaweng for dinner and some shopping. We ate at "Will Wait" restaurant and bar with yummy food and delicious dessert, in particular Mango with sticky rice, a thai classic! Then we shopped a bit, and found another dessert to eat at a food truck serving a banana, coconut, Nutella pancake. These are also a speciality in Thailand. So incredibly good. Some of us braved a foot scrub and pedicure, and now my feet are literally as soft as a baby's bottom. Such funny memories inside of that massage parlor... Yesterday, was our second of the three mondays we had a full day off and it was well spent at the small and intimate Choeng Mon beach. We needed a day of relaxation and the beach was the perfect remedy for all the stress and tension we had created from the last week. This time we were a bigger group: Aisa, Rachel, Catherine, Emily, Eliann, and our lone boy Nick. It was perfect. We woke up for breakfast (our favorite meal) and caught a quick cab to the beach. We found some folding chairs and stayed there for hours, taking an occasional dip in the water to cool off, and just talked and refreshed ourselves the entire day. I had the most delicious coconut, full to the brim with water and then a spoon for all the coconut meat left over inside. I finally got a little tan, so i am very grateful for that. Around three we decided to return back to the resort, but not without getting the most delicious thai iced coffee you could ever have and only for 20 baht. When we got back, Aisa and i couldnt stay away from the water so we popped back in the pool for one last dip before we showered off. Our plans were to go head out again for big buddha pier and eat and enjoy the view but as well all know its monsoon season here in Thailand. So we couldnt even get out of our room! Instead, we stayed in, ate here and watched EuroTrip up in the studio. A happy alternative for sure.  A much needed day of rest, for a much needed day of practice this morning. So rewarding, physically, mentally and spiritually. Next week, we hope to take the ferry sunday night to Ko Phangan, stay the night there and explore the little island the entire day. From other yogi's, i've heard it gives off a completely different vibe, mellow, relaxed, and not as commercial.


Enjoy your day today, and remember to find love in everything that you do.

Playing with Ellies

Time for another post. On monday we had our first day off, one of the only three, and i would definitely say i have spent it well. Waking not much later than normal practice time, my roommate, catherine and i all got up to meet our "tuk-tuk" (open ended truck) and we were off to ride some elephants. It was early and not too many people were at the safari yet, so we quickly found an ellie and hopped on top! At first i thought i would possibly be riding the elephant bareback, but we quickly saw the set up and they had put chairs on top for us to sit on. The poor elephant had to carry all three of us on top at once! Such a large and powerful animal, but also playful too.  Asian elephants are very much different than the African elephants we saw in Tanzania, being much smaller in the ears. Anyways, we rummaged through the rainforest and had the chance to feed him some bananas along the way. Our elephant could reach over its back using its trunk to catch the bananas we threw at him . He enjoyed this a lot and we quickly ran out of bananas. Then we returned to the park and watched them in an elephant show. These elephants are smart and hilarious!  As always there were volunteers in need so Emily and Catherine one-by-one got up and became helpers in the show. Each of them were put face down on the ground and the elephant gave them each a "massage" by lifting their massive foot and lightly pressing down on their butts and backs. Emily described it like a tickle that she couldn't help but squirm to. After the elephant show, we watched a monkey show followed by a thai boxing show. Not sure how the latter is related to animals? Nonetheless, a little bit of thai culture for you. We were quickly shuttled back on the "tuk-tuk" and off to see the Secret Buddha Garden hidden way back in a think jungle. It was beautiful with lush green plants and flowers surrounding everything, a waterfall, and a number of Buddha folklore statues. We all took pictures of ourselves doing cool yoga poses, we just couldn't help ourselves. Yoga nerds. But this quickly ended when it began pouring raining, as this is not unusual for Thailand. Super strong rain, out of nowhere, surely to get you soaking wet in a matter of a minute. But we were happy, and off we went again in our tuk-tuk for the Na Muang waterfalls and lunch. It was a quick hike up to see these were beautiful falls,  very soft, calm and relaxing. Followed by a traditional Thai food meal. Afterwards, we started our trek back to the hotel. By this time we were clear across the island so it took us an hour and a half to get home. Something about smelling the exhaust from our tuk-tuk was not ideal. We finally arrived changed out of our smelly clothes and into our bikinis and were ready for stand-up-paddleboarding(SUP) yoga! Not far from the Big Buddha, myself and a few other girls got our boards out and started paddling for our sunset SUP yoga. The wind was a bit strong, and we could barely finish a sun salutation before we had to pick up our paddle and head back the other direction. Still very fun and a bit of challenge! Then we had play time, so i first tried a headstand, and some other asanas, and braved the handstand. Although i didn't get much hang time, it was awesome! Yoga and SUP together is a beautiful thing. After an hour of this we were exhausted, so we treated ourselves to a Thai massage. You can get a really good one hour massage for 10$ here. incredibly, really. So we walked across the street, got a massage, and followed this with an american meal at the café "The Friendship." I split a cheeseburger and lasagna with Catherine. This was such a nice change from thai food for every meal. After this, we hailed a taxi and returned to the resort. I was absolutely exhausted but perfectly satisfied with everything i had done! I cannot wait to explore more. Until next time, ill be doing yoga 24/7.

Goodnight everyone.

yummy

Day Three (happy 4th):

I have finally settled in and am adjusting to my schedule. It consists something like this: Wake up around 6, do my reading, practice at 7:30 until 9:45, eat breakfast, go back up to the studio for anatomy and alignment of three poses we focus on each day, eat lunch about mid day, dialogue, teacher practicum, philosophy, pranayama and meditation, dinner, and some nights, a yoga film. In total, my days will stay pretty busy for a full 12 hours. By the time it is 8 o'clock, I'm exhausted, and all i really want to do is shower and rest. So that is what i do. I sleep for ten hours every night (so far). This is everyday, all day with the exception of mondays. Monday is our one and only day for rest and exploration of the island. Sometimes if we have 15 minutes to spare between meals, a few of us will go jump into the beautiful infinity pool and stare at the ocean and talk about life... or yoga, or both. All of us really cant get enough. It sounds like a long and exhausting day, and it is, but we all enjoy it. Everyone is engaged in our class and always have really good questions.

Today we focused on tadasana, uttanasana, and ardha uttanasana. For you non-sanskrit yogis that is mountain, forward fold, and halfway lift (flat back). We are learning the ins and outs of each asana. The alignment, like how you feet should be, what your hips are doing, what is engaged, what is relaxed and how to express all of these adjustments physically on a student and/or verbally through the dialogue. There is so much that goes into one specific pose and we have the opportunity to see the quality of each pose by using each other and practicing. Like many others, during our alignment class, we always have the opportunity of not just doing alignment corrections but also "yummy" adjustments. These are the adjustments that you know may hurt a little, push you to your limits, and once you reach them, there is a sweet release! These are my favorite because as you may know i like being pushed to my limits, especially in yoga. They may look a little funny if your watching two people adjust each other, but it is totally worth it!! ( See Instagram)  On another note, the food is incredible. Breakfast is definitely my favorite meal:: homemade yogurt, dried fruits, gluten-free bread, hot tea, juice, homemade granola. And every meal we have is definitely influenced by the culture around us. There is curry at lunch, delicious fish, fresh fruit, and always a spice if you're looking for one.  What i love about the food is that it is so fresh, there is never a question about that. Which makes eating a lot easier for me, because i dont have to worry about whether or not my stomach is going to hurt.


Anyways, enough for now. Thanks for reading. Can't wait to explore, and have more stories. Back to class. Namaste

Yogis in Paradise

I have finally arrived. After 32+ hours of traveling, i have finally made it to my little and perfect island, Ko Samui. We landed in what seemed to be an open area with a few big bungalows off to the side. I was here. I was exhausted, but i was incredibly excited that my journey had begun. A few other yogis and i were quickly swept up into a van and in no time we had arrived at our Absolute Sanctuary. We were greeted with cool mint-smelling towels and a chilled tea that tasted like nothing i had ever had before. We were quickly showed to our rooms because dinner started an hour later followed by our orientation and meeting with Briohny and Dice. At dinner i got to meet just a few of the people that i would be spending a month with. Everyone was beautiful. Hair. Eyes. Skin. Stories. There are people with origins and residences all over the world: Morocco, Dubai, France, Sweden, Hong Kong, Germany, Philippines, Ireland, Madagascar, of course Thailand, along with many others than i cannot even recall.  I get to spend a month learning all about who they are, where they have been, and why they are the way that they are.  I am overwhelmed by how beautiful everyone is and cannot wait to get to know everyone even better.  I am soaking in every moment i get because i know my time here will be gone in a blink and i never want to forget this place. Goodbye for now, time for morning practice.