I picked “Lovely Henna” because of my identifying chinese character 麗 which basically means “lovely” and gives lovely connotations to compounds like “流麗 elegant” “綺麗 pristine, clean, pretty” and whatnot. 麗 is pronounced re (spanish r, long e like “ay”) and keeps ending up in the midst of people’s renditions of my name into Japanese sounds: e-rei-ku-tora being my favorite. 絵麗久虎
(Sorry, no contact info for you!)
Still hit hard by jetlag. I’m up at 5:09AM writing this, because I couldn’t sleep. Seriously. I woke up at noon on Friday and am still awake… I suppose it’s 17 hours later… which isn’t an unreasonable block of hours to be conscious…
But considering the particular quality of the hours! I mean, I was tossing and turning from midnight until 3, and then I just went upstairs (to let Roy sleep… lucky…) with my computer to get a “mid-night” snack and check teh Intarnetz.
Things look especially bad for our hero (that would be me) because I tracked down the nearby Bikram Yoga studio, and they have an Unlimited Classes in One Month beginner special for ONLY $30! I mean, that’s just a little bit more than ONE CLASS in Sapporo! (At the highest discount, one class cost the equivalent of $22.50.) OMG I wanna do this! What a fantastic way to spend my first month back in Portland: kickin’ my ass (and the rest of me) into gear before med-school!
But I know from experience that if I try to do Bikram Yoga w/o enough sleep, I don’t feel very good during that session.
Bother!
whineBut I don’ wanna wait a whole ‘nother day so’z I can sleep right!/whine
*pout*
Postscript
So, I had a thought. Maybe if I take enough Emergen-C…
I get an A+ in blood!
I finally got to find out what my blood type is. Seriously, I’m 29 but I didn’t know until now.
…. My left index finger kinda hurts. I had to prick it three times to get enough blood out.
I just did algebra!
I’m so pleased that I remembered how to do that!
two things that bother me about the Japanese language’s use of foreign words. (1) turning it into katakana-go and then shortening it, but the resulting shortened word IS ALREADY another word in that language. examples:
ice cream →アイスクリーム → アイス = ice
“I want some vanilla ice please.”
software → ソフトウェア →ソフト = soft
“what soft do you like?”
(2) I dislike of their using English words as slogans when they mix nouns and adjectives and verbs as if they’re the same. examples.
fresh and bargain
natural and relax
delicious and cooking
grrrr!
So, back in March I started going to Bikram Yoga classes about once or twice a week. It’s a pretty intense experience, and you must take at least 1L of water with you into class. I drink more like 1.5 – 2L through class, and I usually try to drink 1L before class too.
By the end of the first breathing exercise (maybe 4-5 minutes into the 90min lesson) my skin is already entirely covered in sweat, and my clothes are starting to change color.
When one is doing challenging athletic things in a closed room adjusted to 40.5°C (105°F) and to 40% humidity, one notices one’s body and general state very quickly and clearly. I notice things like how deeply and continuously I am breathing, and whether I drank a caffeinated beverage earlier, whether I got enough sleep, and whether I took in enough water and electrolytes prior to class. Outside of class, I also have become much more aware of my thirst, temperature and comfort, level of caffeine, and many other things.
I wonder if perhaps, along with the explicitly claimed benefits of the yoga poses and breathing exercises, the constant clear sense of thirst and quenching of thirst, the self-awareness created by the extreme conditions, and the sense of dire consequences if the body’s warning aren’t heeded is also a benefit. Not just a peripheral benefit, either, but a tangible improvement to my everyday lifestyle.
Honestly, though, throughout the years I’ve come to really love exercises and activities that kick my ass, and this type of yoga definitely does that. I kind of wish that I had a little more discretionary money so that I could take classes more often.
Plus… the yoga instructors are totally hot. (^_^)v I wanna be like them! Good motivation.
One thing I don’t like is that my body has decided that sweating profusely at the sign of any temperature-related stress is totally fine. My wardrobe and sense of decency do not agree.
So, last summer I volunteered to read a story for Escape Pod, one of the short-fiction podcasts that I listen to allllll the time.
It finally went live on December 31, 2010. I heard myself via a well-known and well-loved internet phenomenon. That was so cool. I was too terrified of the dark side of the internet, trolls, to go to the site’s forums and see what the general public thought, so I just let it be that I had been “published.” Whee!
Today I was telling a Japanese friend of mine about it, and finally got up the nerve to go and read the Forum entries for that episode. In short, the only comment about my reading was that it was good, and all the other mentions of the story were about the story. So basically, I was able to be a really good vehicle for the story.
成功した！
OK, so it’s technically 300¥, but the idea is the same.
Do simple green salads like these cost $3 back home? I can’t remember. It seems exorbitant…
So, did Bikram Yoga for the first time Monday evening. Then tonight (Tuesday evening) I taught a belly dance class and then did Pilates. By the way, Pilates and belly dance definitely use the same muscles that yoga uses. Definitely.
Then I went to the 銭湯 and sat under a waterfall, sat in a steam room (45°C!) and sat in a few different pools – a bubbly one with jets, a very cold one, and one with the fragrance of jasmin (or so it claimed… I couldn’t smell anything much).
Nevertheless, I can’t really lift my right leg, so climbing the three floors to our apartment was pretty harsh (and no, there’s not really an elevator option: the elevator only stops at the 6th {and 10th} floor, so it’s 3 floors either way).
But, I have finally exercised after quite a long time! That is nice.
