"Guided" Meditation

So I (stubbornly) went back to yoga last night.  The teacher was there, again.  She began class as usual with the meditation marathon.  However, as soon as I closed my eyes the strangest thing happened.

I was suddenly able to understand Korean!

What the WHAT?

Oh, no.  It turns out that the yoga teacher caught on to my linguistic issue.  Because she has put a tape player right in front of me, that is now blaring some sort of new-agey meditation soundtrack.  Think:

Layered on top of that are the soothing sounds of the militaristic voice of the teacher calling out the poses.

Hilarious? Yes.  Distracting? Yes.  Endearing? yesyesYES.


I'm still not allowed to open my eyes.  But at least now, I know when the whole meditation bit is over: she turns off the tape player.




PS:  My shoulder seems to be fixed.  Apparently, all her yanking IS good for something!

Bend it like Bikram?

So, the last few weeks at yoga, there's been a new teacher.  She doesn't teach every day, but it seems like she's been given a regular spot in the schedule.  This change has really thrown me out of my Savasana comfort zone.  First of all, the new teacher apparently did not get the memo about my inability to speak Korean.  She starts the class off with a long series of meditation poses, but she wants us to do the whole thing with our eyes closed.  I obviously don't understand the verbal cues, so have to keep opening my eyes to check what everyone else is doing.  She does NOT like this!  Every time she catches me peeking, she rushes over to show me how to close my eyes.  Like, she physically puts her fingers on my eyelids to close them.

Secondly, this new teacher seems to take my inflexibility as a personal affront. As if it's seriously offensive that I can't do the splits (I'll be honest, I'm not even CLOSE).  She spends most of the class time "adjusting" my body in the poses.  Like using her entire body weight to push my limbs into incredibly uncomfortable positions.  Or kneeling me in the neck while yanking my shoulders back.  Or, (personal favorite) grabbing hold of both butt cheeks and pushing on my hips.  There is just no shyness about it!  And it's borderline violent!  I leave her class in pain, annnnnnd super duper stretched out.  But, maybe too stretched out.  Because this morning at work, responding to Aiden's "Can I get a lift, please?" (What?  So I'm teaching them to be good hitch hikers travelers!)  I picked him up and felt my left shoulder pop.  Almost dropped the kid, and now haven't been able to lift that arm above 90 degree.  Definitely not a good thing!

At least tonight, the class is "Healing Yoga".

If only she were this gentle. 

At least THIS isn't happening to me!

Ask, and Ye Shall Receive!

It's hard to believe that just a few weeks ago, I was complaining about how there was nothing to do here, and how bored I was.  Boy has that changed!  It seems like I hit the two month mark and suddenly life is going full speed ahead again!  I've been meeting new friends to hang out with, going to tons of yoga, and am teaching a full schedule of classes (finally!).  While suddenly having a full schedule makes for a very happy Julia, it leaves very little 'blog writing time'.  Sorry, sorry to my ardent readers.  After receiving an email with the subject line "Blog Begging"(guess who that was from!), I got the message (literally) that you're jones-ing for an update :)

So, it's a bit disjointed, but here ya go!

I'm teaching kindergarten!
Okay, when I was getting ready to start this job, the kindergarten aspect was the most daunting to me.  I don't know anything about teaching little kids!  What am I supposed to do with them? How do I get them to pay attention? Or follow directions?  Or stop picking their noses?

Well, I don't know the answers to those questions.  But I do know that I LOVE my kinders.  Right now there are only three kids in the Badger class (guess who got to choose the class mascot!): Aiden, Angel, and James.

Meet Aiden:

Aiden?  Why are you on the ground?

1-2-3 BADGER CHECK!

My little ball of fire.  Aiden is constantly hungry.  The kids get a snack every forty minutes, but somehow that is not enough to keep his little engine going.  Everytime we're wrapping up an activity, or transitioning between classes he hopefully asks "Lunch-uh?" "Lunch-uh?"
Nope.  Not yet.  Except when it is....  Because then you need to watch out! He will mow you over if you're in between him and his lunch box!

Then there's Angel.

1-2-3 Student Check!

1-2-3 Badger Check!

 


Sweet sleepy sleepy shy Angel.  I adore Angel.  Angel, who's quickest with the answer but will barely speak above a whisper-unless a pink sticker is involved.  Then it's "DESK! D! Duh! Duh! Duh! DESSSSSSSK!!!!"

And James.

Do we sit still?  Not when a camera's in sight!

 

James who couldn't be coaxed to open his mouth for three whole days, but now competes with Aiden for the loudest answer award.  James who loves when he's the line leader, and shows it with the biggest, cling-iest hug while we line up.  Lining up is not a long process, with only three kids, but I drag it out when James is the leader :)

Did I mention that I love my kids? Yep. I do.

In other news!
*******UPDATE on the Cleaning Lady:
She's forgiven me (I think!)  She's also (thankfully) stopped with the overly deep bows toward me.  I saw her when I was out running yesterday and I slowed to bow and say 'anyeong haseyo!'.  And she did a really enthusiastic double-handed waves and said 'hello!'  Oh how the roles have changes!

*****UPDATE on Mr Lee:
It turns out that I'm not the only one who's suddenly busy.  I ran into Mr Lee after school some day last week.  "Ah! Long time no see! Long time no see!  Sorry no time for you last weekend!  So busy!  And this weekend, I have a guest to take care of !  Maybe we take the lunch on Sunday?  call me, we meet at Zoo Coffee and take the lunch together!"  The next day, Anca ran into Mr Lee, and he unfortunately had to cancel the plans.  He's just too busy for us right now.  I think that's a really good thing (for him, at least).


There's more (there's always more!) but it's getting late, so this is....


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