OK, it has been a terribly long time since my last blog post. I'm still in Manila, in fact back for another 6-month stint after a monthlong vacation in the US. In mid-August I moved to Quezon City, the town that has the other Bikram Yoga Manila location. Here are pictures of my new apartment - a two-bedroom, but barely a square meter larger than my previous studio apartment. Having the space broken up into two tiny bedrooms and a kitchen/living area is pretty nice, and there's tons of storage space. I've posted some pictures on Picasa.
In other news, the Philippine Yoga Asana Championship (sponsored by Pru Life UK and Bikram Yoga Manila) is this weekend, 2pm at the RCBC Plaza's Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium. After teaching the 6pm and 8pm classes in Makati, I'm going to hightail it over to the 99.5RT radio to join Don Puno and Robi Joseph on their radio show to talk up the competition. You can listen online - I'll be on from about 10pm to midnight Manila time (which, until the @$#*%& Daylight Savings Time switch on the first Sunday in November, is a convenient 12 hours different from East Coast time).
Life is great - I'll share more soon!
Warmly,
Carol
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Monday, June 8, 2009
Yoganomics: How do yoga teachers make money?
A friend just emailed me a link to an interesting question posted by Emily Bazelon on the "double X" blog addressing the question of how yoga teachers make money. After five years of teaching yoga I do have some experience in how, as a yoga teacher, to make money - and how not to make money!
#1: Teaching classes. For a Bikram yoga teacher, the pay for teaching a class probably ranges (all prices in US dollars) from $30 to $75 for about two-and-a-half hours work (though at Bikram Yoga Headquarters no teachers are paid - teaching is offered as a service to the guru and the organization). Classes are taught on a freelance basis with benefits like health care being the exception if they exist anywhere at all. At the very best - teaching a loaded schedule of 15 classes a week at a $75 per class rate - a freelance instructor can break $50,000 in annual earnings. A more typical rate would be $50 per class, and in the current economic climate where some studios are having to cut back on classes, 5 -6 classes a week puts a teacher at poverty level where it's feasible that, like the teacher Emily mentions in her blog post, a yoga teacher would find the need to go on food stamps. The US is expensive to live in - one of the reasons why, wanting to focus on and develop my teaching, I moved to Manila, Philippines, where I make about $40 a class/10 classes a week with housing paid for. I'm doing pretty well and have a high standard of living here. Long term, however, my health insurance isn't sorted - one of the largest monthly expenses I have is the COBRA coverage on the health insurance I have from my previous employer, which I hang on to (to the tune of about $400 per month for NOTHING, I'd have to be sick enough to be airlifted to the US to get any benefits as they don't cover routine medical expenses outside the USA) just to avoid having a gap in coverage in the US when I return.
#2: Owning a studio: More risky, but more potential for reward. There are many studios around the world that are really thriving. It takes excellent teaching and excellent management, as well as a location with good numbers of affluent students. I purchased a studio as a new teacher in a location that was overcrowded with yoga studios and sold it for a considerable loss about a year later, that was 2005 and the studio today is still kicking and, after the oher nearby Bikram studio went out of business, profitable. Anyone wanting to know about running a thriving, profitable, and wellness-creating yoga business would be well served to contace Mike Winter and Joani Nunez of Bikram Yoga Houston. They have incredible passion for the yoga, teaching talent, and business sense - the whole package - and they are extremely generous in sharing information on running studios successfully.
#3: Supplementing yoga income: (more to follow!)
#5: Running a teacher training / teaching seminars / guru stuff: (more to follow!)
Warmly,
Carol
#1: Teaching classes. For a Bikram yoga teacher, the pay for teaching a class probably ranges (all prices in US dollars) from $30 to $75 for about two-and-a-half hours work (though at Bikram Yoga Headquarters no teachers are paid - teaching is offered as a service to the guru and the organization). Classes are taught on a freelance basis with benefits like health care being the exception if they exist anywhere at all. At the very best - teaching a loaded schedule of 15 classes a week at a $75 per class rate - a freelance instructor can break $50,000 in annual earnings. A more typical rate would be $50 per class, and in the current economic climate where some studios are having to cut back on classes, 5 -6 classes a week puts a teacher at poverty level where it's feasible that, like the teacher Emily mentions in her blog post, a yoga teacher would find the need to go on food stamps. The US is expensive to live in - one of the reasons why, wanting to focus on and develop my teaching, I moved to Manila, Philippines, where I make about $40 a class/10 classes a week with housing paid for. I'm doing pretty well and have a high standard of living here. Long term, however, my health insurance isn't sorted - one of the largest monthly expenses I have is the COBRA coverage on the health insurance I have from my previous employer, which I hang on to (to the tune of about $400 per month for NOTHING, I'd have to be sick enough to be airlifted to the US to get any benefits as they don't cover routine medical expenses outside the USA) just to avoid having a gap in coverage in the US when I return.
#2: Owning a studio: More risky, but more potential for reward. There are many studios around the world that are really thriving. It takes excellent teaching and excellent management, as well as a location with good numbers of affluent students. I purchased a studio as a new teacher in a location that was overcrowded with yoga studios and sold it for a considerable loss about a year later, that was 2005 and the studio today is still kicking and, after the oher nearby Bikram studio went out of business, profitable. Anyone wanting to know about running a thriving, profitable, and wellness-creating yoga business would be well served to contace Mike Winter and Joani Nunez of Bikram Yoga Houston. They have incredible passion for the yoga, teaching talent, and business sense - the whole package - and they are extremely generous in sharing information on running studios successfully.
#3: Supplementing yoga income: (more to follow!)
#5: Running a teacher training / teaching seminars / guru stuff: (more to follow!)
Warmly,
Carol
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Quirky sights around Manila
In taking stock of the pictures I've taken for amusement around Manila, I realize that I have a bit of a dirty mind sometimes. Not all the time, but hopefully no one will be offended by any of the things I find funny!
This one you've got to read - you can click on the image for a higher-res version. From an herbal cosmetics stand at Legaspi Sunday Market, three (or four?) reasons to have a buttocks massage.
The Daiso Japan Store at Cubao - convenience! discount! amusement! It is a fun store, I must admit. Why random plastic organizers and household goods at $2 apiece are fun I can't quite pin down, but they are.
At malls all over Manila, there are large center atria that on weekends are filled with special displays or events - an electronics showcase one weekend, a real estate investment expo another, maybe a concert the next... During the week, the large smooth polished floors are populated by these slow-moving giant stuffed-animal ride-ons, very popular with the 2- to- 5-year old set. But every time I see them I can't help but think of Furry Conventions. I think the malls of Manila are about as close as I want to get to a Furry Convention. Maybe too close.
Aji-no-moto - the original MSG! Here in Manila (I assume in other places all over Asia also), MSG is promoted as a healthful additive to enhance flavor. I'm still not sure about this, despite the good press the MSG flavor, "Umami" has recently gotten with its inclusion in the tasting pantheon as the fifth basic taste along with sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. I must admit, MSG tastes darn good. What would Doritos and Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup be without it? It may be a neurotoxin, but it gets the kids to eat! Go Umami Mommies! (However I'm glad that MY Umami Mommy raised me on Umami in the form of Stilton cheese, mushrooms, and other organic guises.)
The Bikram crowd will understand when I ask of this one, "how many megatons?"
I love the cartoon The Far Side. In his compendium The PreHistory of The Far Side, Gary Larson describes his first foray into cartooning, "Nature's Way," a one-panel strip not dissimilar to the masterpiece that followed it. This florist shop seems to have lifted their name and logo directly from that comic. What do they sell, venus flytraps, datura, and other creepy plants?
"Squidster - The Party Squid" just cracks me up. Normally it's easy for me to resist squid street food. Actually, it's pretty easy for me to resist it even when marketed as cutely and cleverly as this. Chalk it up to two summers of dissecting squid in high school.
Catch ya later...
Warmly,
Carol
This one you've got to read - you can click on the image for a higher-res version. From an herbal cosmetics stand at Legaspi Sunday Market, three (or four?) reasons to have a buttocks massage.
The Daiso Japan Store at Cubao - convenience! discount! amusement! It is a fun store, I must admit. Why random plastic organizers and household goods at $2 apiece are fun I can't quite pin down, but they are.
At malls all over Manila, there are large center atria that on weekends are filled with special displays or events - an electronics showcase one weekend, a real estate investment expo another, maybe a concert the next... During the week, the large smooth polished floors are populated by these slow-moving giant stuffed-animal ride-ons, very popular with the 2- to- 5-year old set. But every time I see them I can't help but think of Furry Conventions. I think the malls of Manila are about as close as I want to get to a Furry Convention. Maybe too close.
Aji-no-moto - the original MSG! Here in Manila (I assume in other places all over Asia also), MSG is promoted as a healthful additive to enhance flavor. I'm still not sure about this, despite the good press the MSG flavor, "Umami" has recently gotten with its inclusion in the tasting pantheon as the fifth basic taste along with sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. I must admit, MSG tastes darn good. What would Doritos and Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup be without it? It may be a neurotoxin, but it gets the kids to eat! Go Umami Mommies! (However I'm glad that MY Umami Mommy raised me on Umami in the form of Stilton cheese, mushrooms, and other organic guises.)
The Bikram crowd will understand when I ask of this one, "how many megatons?"
I love the cartoon The Far Side. In his compendium The PreHistory of The Far Side, Gary Larson describes his first foray into cartooning, "Nature's Way," a one-panel strip not dissimilar to the masterpiece that followed it. This florist shop seems to have lifted their name and logo directly from that comic. What do they sell, venus flytraps, datura, and other creepy plants?
"Squidster - The Party Squid" just cracks me up. Normally it's easy for me to resist squid street food. Actually, it's pretty easy for me to resist it even when marketed as cutely and cleverly as this. Chalk it up to two summers of dissecting squid in high school.
Catch ya later...
Warmly,
Carol
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Boracay
I got so mellowed out by my trip last week to lounge on the beach in Boracay that I've been challenged to get back to this. But now it's Easter Week, which means that Manila is a ghost town - Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are the most "Everything's Closed" holidays of the year, locals tell me even more so than Christmas and New Year's Day. So I have nothing else to do ... in procrastination I've already even cleaned the lint out of the Pearl on my BlackBerry!
Last Wednesday I taught the 9am class and then was home to pack for a 1:00 pickup to head to the airport. Packing for the beach is fun - bathing suits are so smushable you can get lots into a little suitcase like my wonderful spinning, thus-far-indestructible (after 1.5 years of steady abuse) Brookston
e Dash. Traveling with my fashionabulous friends Maureen and Nina, I was pleased how nicely my new silver K.I.L.U.S. bucket bag made from inside-out recycled drink containers coordinated with the gunmetal color of the Dash ... a nice bonus, considering that I chose the bag to match my increasingly argentiferous hair.
The flight to Caticlan Airport at the northwest tip of Panay island, just across the water from Boracay, was scheduled for 4:30pm and we got to the airport at 2:30pm. The nice agent at the Cebu Pacific ticket counter was able to put us on the 3:30pm flight - which meant that, thanks to Philippine time, we actually departed at our original departure time! Who knows when the 4:30 flight ended up leaving but the 3:30pm left at 4:30pm. (The whole airport had to be shut down for a while in the afternoon so President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's plane could land.) A pickup had been arranged by the Fairways Bluewater Resort where we were staying so when we got to the resort we were conveniently shuttled in a van from the airport to the beach where we got on the resort's motor bangka (a roughly 50-foot outrigger canoe not unlike the one pictured here), rode 5 or 10 minutes across a channel between Panay and Boracay Islands, and then caught another shuttle to the resort.
Boracay is famous for its 3-plus-kilometer long, wide, perfect white-sand beach that runs along the south coast of the island. The sand is powdery white. It must be made of pulverized, bleached coral. Despite the fact that the temps were in the '90s Fahrenheit/mid-30's Celsius, the sand never burned my feet. This is amazing to me because when the temp gets up into the '80s F/30-ish C on my home beach in Cape Cod, the quartz-based sand gets scorchingly hot and burns the soles of bare feet. Maybe the difference is because the quartz sand grains on the Cape are transparent and suck up the sun's heat like little greenhouses, and the Boracay coral grains are white and reflect the heat. Whatever the reason, it's lovely. And the water, aquamarine blue and gradually deepening so you can wade out probably 50 meters before the water's over your head, is positively WARM - like in the '80s F/30 C. During the evening, the water is noticeably warmer than the air. It's just barely cool enough to be refreshing, but refreshing it definitely is. Now I am a hardcore Cape Cod swimmer. Not quite Polar Bear Club material, but on the hottest day of August, the water never gets much warmer than maybe 72 F / 22 C there. I'll swim for an hour in temps like that, and I've even swum in the ocean there in April and in December (granted both of those times was just throwing myself in to probably 55 F / 13 C water, swimming a few strokes to say I did it, and running out to take a looooong, hot shower). These '80s water temps are something I could get used to though. Heavenly.
Along the main long beach are scores of restaurants, shops, places where you can get a massage, bars, resorts, vendors hawking sunglasses and snacks, SCUBA diving outfits (Boracay is also famous for its exquisite dive sites), etc.. The Fairways Bluewater Resort, however, is northwest of the main beach, on a huge chunk of land, probably occupying 10%
of the acreage of the entire island including a nice stretch of beach on the north side. For golfers it's a sweet spot (Mom and Dad, you might be interested in this course, unlike the bland, flat courses you see in places like Florida and southern California, this course looks hilly and convoluted like the Woods Hole Golf Club).
We were staying in the gorgeous three-bedroom timeshare of one member of our big group, most of whom are Fulbright Scholars who are on fellowships in Manila and one of whom happens to be Maureen's cousin. A pretty cool group of people and for the awesome amount of brainpower they brought with them they were impressively fun and laid-back - yes, there's nothing like a tropical paradise to help even the biggest eggheads wind down! (Just kidding, they'd be a witty, fun, and hip group in any setting.)
The trip was three evenings of delicious beachside dinners and and two days of lazing on the beach sipping margaritas and daiquiris, with a little beach yoga and high diving thrown in. The first night, Maureen, Nina, and I had Mexican food and mango margaritas at Manana restaurant. The next day was devoted to beach-lounging and beach yoga. In the middle of the day we found a semi-shaded spot beneath some palm trees and went through the Bikram series together, during which Maureen and Nina got to learn that "warm yoga", while still feeling wonderful, isn't nearly the amazing workout as a real hot Bikram class. No one believes this until they try it - it took me the experience of taking class in a studio where the heater was on the fritz to fully appreciate the heat myself. We had lunch at Paraiso Grill, a restaurant owned by Georgie, a Bikram Yoga Manila student. Paraiso Grill has fresh-caught seafood on display, you select the fish you want and they take it away and cook it for you. I was told independently by four people that I had to try the grilled lobster tail with garlic butter, so of course I had that and it was phenomenal. At lunch I realized that I'd forgotten to put sunscreen on my face - while my tropical lobster was bluish-black in color, alas my face was on its way to the classic New England lobster-red. Whoops. I slathered on some SPF 36 and fortunately, a week later, it seems that I avoided getting a really deep sunburn on my face.
That first day I was wearing a bathing suit with a bizarre configuration - a one-piece with a criss-cross configuration that made it more like a bikini. According to Murphy's Law (which is one of the few constants in my life), that means goofy tan lines ... as you can see from the picture of me and Nina on Beach Day 2, I got some nice criss-cross stripes across my
stomach from the geometrically interesting suit choice I made on Beach Day 1. In the left background of the picture of me and Nina is Willy's Rock, a coral outcropping that stands about 15 feet out of the water. I was swimming near it when I saw a couple of kids jump off of it - so of course I jumped off of it too. The coral was wicked sharp climbing up there, but there was a good, deep pool under the tallest part of the rock so it was a safe jumping place. Maureen and Nina were horrified when they learned that I'd jumped off the rock, so I'm glad I didn't have the chance to tell them in advance that I was going to do it - they might have talked me out of it!
In one other aborted adventure, I saw a sign at one of the dive shops advertising kitesurfing, so on the morning of Beach Day 2 I decided to go for a lesson - an introductory lesson was about $75. Alas, when I got to the north, windward side of the island where the kitesurfing was happening, it turned out that the introductory lesson consisted of standing in waist-deep water flying a miniature kitesurfing kite for an hour and a half. Not, I decided, the way I wanted to spend almost as much money as my plane ticket to the island and my last morning on the beach, but I did get to see some people kitesurfing around and it looks insanely fun. I'll have to investigate this kitesurfing thing in some more detail.
We pigged out like crazy for our Thursday and Friday night dinners! Both dinners were free as we were doing reviews of the restaurants - Aria and Zuzuni, two of the finest restaurants on Boracay - for Maureen's employer Philippine Tatler. I'm paying for it now, but it was worth the calories - we feasted.
Our few days in Boracay were just at the very beginning of the Holy Week crush - as I write this, the island is probably wall-to-wall people, more like Daytona Beach at spring break than the mellow but amenity-rich beach we experienced. The Saturday we left was the first of the two-day Women's Health Philippines magazine launch, and my last activity before leaving for the airport was to participate in a Vinyasa yoga class on the beach as part of the magazine launch festivities. It was a terrific way to round out the weekend - a little exercise pick-me-up after all that rich food and before the plane ride home.
There you have it - an awesome few days out of the congested, polluted, but exciting Manila - a tropical paradise escape. Next time, however, I'd like to find a virtually secluded beach, but still with perfect cool white sand, margaritas, and daiquiris! Given the vast number of Philippine islands and the beauty of the coastlines here, I know they're out there. It'll be lots of fun finding them!
Warmly,
Carol
Last Wednesday I taught the 9am class and then was home to pack for a 1:00 pickup to head to the airport. Packing for the beach is fun - bathing suits are so smushable you can get lots into a little suitcase like my wonderful spinning, thus-far-indestructible (after 1.5 years of steady abuse) Brookston
e Dash. Traveling with my fashionabulous friends Maureen and Nina, I was pleased how nicely my new silver K.I.L.U.S. bucket bag made from inside-out recycled drink containers coordinated with the gunmetal color of the Dash ... a nice bonus, considering that I chose the bag to match my increasingly argentiferous hair.The flight to Caticlan Airport at the northwest tip of Panay island, just across the water from Boracay, was scheduled for 4:30pm and we got to the airport at 2:30pm. The nice agent at the Cebu Pacific ticket counter was able to put us on the 3:30pm flight - which meant that, thanks to Philippine time, we actually departed at our original departure time! Who knows when the 4:30 flight ended up leaving but the 3:30pm left at 4:30pm. (The whole airport had to be shut down for a while in the afternoon so President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's plane could land.) A pickup had been arranged by the Fairways Bluewater Resort where we were staying so when we got to the resort we were conveniently shuttled in a van from the airport to the beach where we got on the resort's motor bangka (a roughly 50-foot outrigger canoe not unlike the one pictured here), rode 5 or 10 minutes across a channel between Panay and Boracay Islands, and then caught another shuttle to the resort.
Boracay is famous for its 3-plus-kilometer long, wide, perfect white-sand beach that runs along the south coast of the island. The sand is powdery white. It must be made of pulverized, bleached coral. Despite the fact that the temps were in the '90s Fahrenheit/mid-30's Celsius, the sand never burned my feet. This is amazing to me because when the temp gets up into the '80s F/30-ish C on my home beach in Cape Cod, the quartz-based sand gets scorchingly hot and burns the soles of bare feet. Maybe the difference is because the quartz sand grains on the Cape are transparent and suck up the sun's heat like little greenhouses, and the Boracay coral grains are white and reflect the heat. Whatever the reason, it's lovely. And the water, aquamarine blue and gradually deepening so you can wade out probably 50 meters before the water's over your head, is positively WARM - like in the '80s F/30 C. During the evening, the water is noticeably warmer than the air. It's just barely cool enough to be refreshing, but refreshing it definitely is. Now I am a hardcore Cape Cod swimmer. Not quite Polar Bear Club material, but on the hottest day of August, the water never gets much warmer than maybe 72 F / 22 C there. I'll swim for an hour in temps like that, and I've even swum in the ocean there in April and in December (granted both of those times was just throwing myself in to probably 55 F / 13 C water, swimming a few strokes to say I did it, and running out to take a looooong, hot shower). These '80s water temps are something I could get used to though. Heavenly.
Along the main long beach are scores of restaurants, shops, places where you can get a massage, bars, resorts, vendors hawking sunglasses and snacks, SCUBA diving outfits (Boracay is also famous for its exquisite dive sites), etc.. The Fairways Bluewater Resort, however, is northwest of the main beach, on a huge chunk of land, probably occupying 10%
of the acreage of the entire island including a nice stretch of beach on the north side. For golfers it's a sweet spot (Mom and Dad, you might be interested in this course, unlike the bland, flat courses you see in places like Florida and southern California, this course looks hilly and convoluted like the Woods Hole Golf Club).We were staying in the gorgeous three-bedroom timeshare of one member of our big group, most of whom are Fulbright Scholars who are on fellowships in Manila and one of whom happens to be Maureen's cousin. A pretty cool group of people and for the awesome amount of brainpower they brought with them they were impressively fun and laid-back - yes, there's nothing like a tropical paradise to help even the biggest eggheads wind down! (Just kidding, they'd be a witty, fun, and hip group in any setting.)
The trip was three evenings of delicious beachside dinners and and two days of lazing on the beach sipping margaritas and daiquiris, with a little beach yoga and high diving thrown in. The first night, Maureen, Nina, and I had Mexican food and mango margaritas at Manana restaurant. The next day was devoted to beach-lounging and beach yoga. In the middle of the day we found a semi-shaded spot beneath some palm trees and went through the Bikram series together, during which Maureen and Nina got to learn that "warm yoga", while still feeling wonderful, isn't nearly the amazing workout as a real hot Bikram class. No one believes this until they try it - it took me the experience of taking class in a studio where the heater was on the fritz to fully appreciate the heat myself. We had lunch at Paraiso Grill, a restaurant owned by Georgie, a Bikram Yoga Manila student. Paraiso Grill has fresh-caught seafood on display, you select the fish you want and they take it away and cook it for you. I was told independently by four people that I had to try the grilled lobster tail with garlic butter, so of course I had that and it was phenomenal. At lunch I realized that I'd forgotten to put sunscreen on my face - while my tropical lobster was bluish-black in color, alas my face was on its way to the classic New England lobster-red. Whoops. I slathered on some SPF 36 and fortunately, a week later, it seems that I avoided getting a really deep sunburn on my face.
That first day I was wearing a bathing suit with a bizarre configuration - a one-piece with a criss-cross configuration that made it more like a bikini. According to Murphy's Law (which is one of the few constants in my life), that means goofy tan lines ... as you can see from the picture of me and Nina on Beach Day 2, I got some nice criss-cross stripes across my
stomach from the geometrically interesting suit choice I made on Beach Day 1. In the left background of the picture of me and Nina is Willy's Rock, a coral outcropping that stands about 15 feet out of the water. I was swimming near it when I saw a couple of kids jump off of it - so of course I jumped off of it too. The coral was wicked sharp climbing up there, but there was a good, deep pool under the tallest part of the rock so it was a safe jumping place. Maureen and Nina were horrified when they learned that I'd jumped off the rock, so I'm glad I didn't have the chance to tell them in advance that I was going to do it - they might have talked me out of it!In one other aborted adventure, I saw a sign at one of the dive shops advertising kitesurfing, so on the morning of Beach Day 2 I decided to go for a lesson - an introductory lesson was about $75. Alas, when I got to the north, windward side of the island where the kitesurfing was happening, it turned out that the introductory lesson consisted of standing in waist-deep water flying a miniature kitesurfing kite for an hour and a half. Not, I decided, the way I wanted to spend almost as much money as my plane ticket to the island and my last morning on the beach, but I did get to see some people kitesurfing around and it looks insanely fun. I'll have to investigate this kitesurfing thing in some more detail.
We pigged out like crazy for our Thursday and Friday night dinners! Both dinners were free as we were doing reviews of the restaurants - Aria and Zuzuni, two of the finest restaurants on Boracay - for Maureen's employer Philippine Tatler. I'm paying for it now, but it was worth the calories - we feasted.
Our few days in Boracay were just at the very beginning of the Holy Week crush - as I write this, the island is probably wall-to-wall people, more like Daytona Beach at spring break than the mellow but amenity-rich beach we experienced. The Saturday we left was the first of the two-day Women's Health Philippines magazine launch, and my last activity before leaving for the airport was to participate in a Vinyasa yoga class on the beach as part of the magazine launch festivities. It was a terrific way to round out the weekend - a little exercise pick-me-up after all that rich food and before the plane ride home.
There you have it - an awesome few days out of the congested, polluted, but exciting Manila - a tropical paradise escape. Next time, however, I'd like to find a virtually secluded beach, but still with perfect cool white sand, margaritas, and daiquiris! Given the vast number of Philippine islands and the beauty of the coastlines here, I know they're out there. It'll be lots of fun finding them!
Warmly,
Carol
Monday, March 30, 2009
Static Interference - Wellness Wednesday
I had a fun time visiting on the 99.5 RT 6pm to 9pm "Static Interference" show with Don Puno, Tina Ryan, and Robi Joseph last Wednesday. They're a great team - got some catchy banter going on between them. The interview bits went smoothly, though I was challenged by the first question they gave me:"what is yoga"? Such a broad question! Whenever someone asks me that I'm always a little overwhelmed by the enormity of it but I think I gave a good overview. I liked my answer to the ever-popular "what's the best style of yoga?" ... Bikram is notorious for saying that Bikram yoga is the only real yoga, everything else is just "pissing in the wind" but as much as I enjoy Bikram and think it's the best yoga foundation for me, I think (and answered) that the best style of yoga is "the one that you do consistently." I've met so many people who get great benefits from their Vinyasa practice, their Kripalu practice, their Kundalini practice, and so on - it's important to find the practice that fits for you. To even imagine that Bikram's Beginning Yoga Class is the be-all and end-all, ultimate, perfect exercise routine for everyone is sad - it's a wonderful practice, I wouldn't change a thing, but there is always room for improvement. Although I don't believe that I or anyone else - even Bikram, and he'll be the first to tell you that - could improve it at the moment, I look forward to the day when we have something so much more amazing that the Bikram series is like "pissing in the wind" by comparison.
On the show, we had fun taking questions from the listeners. No one uses the phone in Manila - it was all texts and emails. This is kind of to the chagrin of Tina, Robi, and Don, as live callers are lots of fun on the radio. Today on their show is "bitch-ass Tuesday" ... the whole show is devoted to bitching about whatever ... maybe I'll call in and bitch about how it's been almost a week and I still haven't seen any of them at yoga! (Robi was going to come at 6:30 the next morning but ended up being out til 2:30am judging a bikini competition at club Alchemy in Pasig City, poor baby.) Of course there was the obligatory "are there hot babes there?" - yes guys, there are plenty of beautiful girls in tight and/or scanty clothing at yoga - but you're going to have to work to be in their presence, as the rare guy who does try to slump through class checking out the babes while hardly working will find his ass ridden into the middle of next week by the teacher.
Towards the end of the slot, Robi and Don each tried a posture on-air with me doing the instruction/play-by-play. That was a trip. I was amazed that each of them was pretty much a natural at the posture I had them do! Robi did an amazing Triangle for no warmup and never having done the posture, and Don did Half Moon, in the backbend going back far enough that he actually touched his fingertips to the wall a step behind him - very rare for a first timer, and making for good radio as I got to both congratulate him and chide him for cheating, "ladies and gentlemen, Don has reached the wall in the backbend - and now he's leaning on it - that's cheating, Don!"
All in all, a great few hours ... we talked about doing it again, and I hope I do get to join them on the air again soon!
Warmly,
Carol
On the show, we had fun taking questions from the listeners. No one uses the phone in Manila - it was all texts and emails. This is kind of to the chagrin of Tina, Robi, and Don, as live callers are lots of fun on the radio. Today on their show is "bitch-ass Tuesday" ... the whole show is devoted to bitching about whatever ... maybe I'll call in and bitch about how it's been almost a week and I still haven't seen any of them at yoga! (Robi was going to come at 6:30 the next morning but ended up being out til 2:30am judging a bikini competition at club Alchemy in Pasig City, poor baby.) Of course there was the obligatory "are there hot babes there?" - yes guys, there are plenty of beautiful girls in tight and/or scanty clothing at yoga - but you're going to have to work to be in their presence, as the rare guy who does try to slump through class checking out the babes while hardly working will find his ass ridden into the middle of next week by the teacher.
Towards the end of the slot, Robi and Don each tried a posture on-air with me doing the instruction/play-by-play. That was a trip. I was amazed that each of them was pretty much a natural at the posture I had them do! Robi did an amazing Triangle for no warmup and never having done the posture, and Don did Half Moon, in the backbend going back far enough that he actually touched his fingertips to the wall a step behind him - very rare for a first timer, and making for good radio as I got to both congratulate him and chide him for cheating, "ladies and gentlemen, Don has reached the wall in the backbend - and now he's leaning on it - that's cheating, Don!"
All in all, a great few hours ... we talked about doing it again, and I hope I do get to join them on the air again soon!
Warmly,
Carol
Monday, March 23, 2009
I'm going to be a guest on the radio!
Out on the town last Thursday night at the nightclub Ascend, I was introduced by my friend Henry to Don Puno, one of the DJs on local pop station 99.5 RT ("The Rhythm of the City"). He and a couple of other DJs, Robi Joseph and Tina Ryan, have a show every weeknight from 6pm to 9pm, and on Wednesdays their theme is wellness - "Wellness Wednesday". So Don invited me to come hang with him, Robi, and Tina in the studio and talk yoga and wellness tomorrow! I'm really looking forward to it - I've never been in a radio studio before, Rob's a cool guy in person and the whole group of them seem like a lot of fun from hearing them on the air. They play plenty of music - it won't be a three-hour yoga discussion, but talk of yoga interspersed with music. (And, of course, ads ... someone's got to pay the power bill, and the Philippines has some of the most expensive electricity in the world!)
99.5 RT streams live on their website: http://www.dwrt995.fm/home.html ... I hope you'll check out the show, it's from 6pm to 9pm Manila time, which, O friends in the USA, is 6am to 9am Eastern time. (On second thought, you might want to tape it with Freecorder or something.)
Another interesting thing about that night out: Before Ascend, we stopped in at a chocolate tasting on "chocolate row" at Fort Bonifacio - a cupcake place, a patisserie, and my favorite haunt Xocolat are all lined up together on Serendra street. There we met Rina Puno Avecilla, the owner and creator of the Xocolat cafes and the cousin of Don Puno. (There are some huge extended families in the Philippines. Sometimes it seems like everyone's related. It's a small world.) Rina is a woman after my own heart - her avocation is chocolate and she practices Bikram Yoga. That's a formula for happiness, as in my experience, chocolate and yoga make a great combination!
Warmly,
Carol
99.5 RT streams live on their website: http://www.dwrt995.fm/home.html ... I hope you'll check out the show, it's from 6pm to 9pm Manila time, which, O friends in the USA, is 6am to 9am Eastern time. (On second thought, you might want to tape it with Freecorder or something.)
Another interesting thing about that night out: Before Ascend, we stopped in at a chocolate tasting on "chocolate row" at Fort Bonifacio - a cupcake place, a patisserie, and my favorite haunt Xocolat are all lined up together on Serendra street. There we met Rina Puno Avecilla, the owner and creator of the Xocolat cafes and the cousin of Don Puno. (There are some huge extended families in the Philippines. Sometimes it seems like everyone's related. It's a small world.) Rina is a woman after my own heart - her avocation is chocolate and she practices Bikram Yoga. That's a formula for happiness, as in my experience, chocolate and yoga make a great combination!
Warmly,
Carol
Saturday, March 21, 2009
sexy, yoga, spa
sexy
"Sexy" is an interesting word as used in Filipino English. A much more innocent word than when used in the USA. When I first got here and Rochelle took me to the US Embassy to register, on the ride there she shared with me some experiences and peculiarities of living here. "People will say you're sexy all the time, but it just means you look nice, attractive, cute. There's no sexual undertone." And sure enough, when I was in Lavandera Mo for the first time and the ladies there were commenting on my fitness, what they said was, "you're so sexy - what do you do to keep in shape?" Then when I was having my ultrasound kidney check, the technician who was doing the ultrasound while rubbing the ultrasound sensor on my back goes, "you're so sexy!" - I've never had a medical professional say that to me, but I did not feel in the slightest that she was hitting on me, it was just the thing to say I guess. I'll be walking down the street and hear, "you're so sexy, ma'am" ("ma'am" is another common thing I hear, but as best as I can tell it's used as a translation of "po" in Tagalog, the automatic word of respect you use when addressing someone you don't know, like "kha" or "khap" in Thai). Of course, with my short hair, sometimes people mistake me for a guy and say, "Hey Joe!" or "Hello, sir!" but the "sexy" thing happens more often than the gender mixup, I'm glad to say. Trippy.
yoga
In the past week the yoga is really gelling for me. I've been teaching 10 classes a week for over a month now, practicing 3-4x a week, and really getting into the swing of it. Monday evening to Tuesday morning I found myself in a little yoga marathon - 6 classes in 24 hours, took one then taught two classes on Monday evening then taught two classes and took advanced class (for the first time since October and just the second time in over two years) Tuesday morning. It feels great to be doing so much yoga! I wasn't even that sore after advanced - and when I took another beginner's class on Wednesday evening all the soreness went away. When I teach, I'm still tending to go a couple of minutes over the 90 minutes, but gaining on time, and it's really nice to be familiar with the names of a decent number of students in my classes now. Memorizing more dialogue every day, and memorization is SO much easier when you have the opportunity to practice saying it in class day in and day out. As hung up on names as I am, I finally started making a little "seating chart" for each class, taking a few minutes in the room before each class writing down the names of the students. So if someone needs a correction I never have to worry "do I have her/his name right?" or resort to the "my friend in the yellow top" trick - which especially doesn't feel comfortable if I recognize the student but can't remember the name - I just look on my cheat sheet. All these little things add up to me being able to push the students harder and help them get deeper into their practice, which is rewarding and fun. A nice way to celebrate the 5th reunion of my teacher training class's graduation, which was the third week of March, 2004!
spa
I love spas. I am sort of a spa newbie - the first time I went to one was the Hershey's chocolate spa in Hershey, PA. My friend Amanda and wrote in my yearbook at our high school graduation that we'd stay close and do things like go to spas together, and about eight years ago when she saw that they'd opened a spa doing chocolate-themed spa treatments at the Hotel Hershey she got me to go with her (since I am a total chocoholic) for our first "spa date". It was wonderful, but I wasn't passionate enough about spa-going (especially if being slathered in chocolate wasn't part of the deal) to shell out hundreds of dollars on a regular basis for spa pampering. In fact, I didn't go to a spa again until about a year ago in the spring of 2008 when I found myself driving from Oklahoma City to Memphis and saw a town called "Hot Springs" not too far off my route in Arkansas. Being a big fan of hot tubs, I investigated and was soon enjoying my first visit to Hot Springs' Buckstaff Baths on the grounds of the very first US National Park. Being bathed in hot mineral water and having a massage there is blissful in a quirky, anachronistic way - they've been administering baths and massages there for almost 100 years. (Hot Springs is also notable for being the boyhood home of Bill Clinton - why is this not surprising to me?) I visited Buckstaff Baths again on my cross-country drive from Woods Hole, MA to Los Angeles, CA before departing for Manila, and it was just as wonderful if not more so on the second visit. (One of the several currently vacant vintage bathhouses on Bathhouse Row would make a stupendous Bikram Yoga retreat site, will someone please do this ASAP?) I've really gotten on a roll with spa-going, continuing my explorations in the US with a trip to the Olympic Spa in LA's Koreatown for the Goddess treatment. Yeah, it's all that - I truly felt like a goddess after the four-hour bathing, sauna, body scrub, and massage-fest that is the Goddess treatment! I love the combination of the cold plunge pool and the super-hot herbal pool, and it's a steal by American price standards. But Manila's spa scene is the best! There's our student Vicki Aldaba's serene, luxurious Spa 6750 at the Greenbelt mall complex, where I enjoyed a complimentary signature massage as a welcome gift, I have since experienced my first-ever hot stone massage and I intend to sample many more treatments - though at $50 - $60 for a 90-minute session it is one of the more expensive spas in town. I'm looking forward to trying the 24-hour Wensha spa ... even though I'm having trouble finding it, the round-the-clock schedule, affordable rates, and the cold plunge pool are very appealing. I've enjoyed the hot tub and a Thai massage at one of the six branches of The Spa - the one at The Fort by Market! Market! - and if there weren't such an amazing variety of spas around I'd be tempted to become a member of The Spa. Just this week, on Tuesday after practicing Advanced class, I had a hot basalt "bath" at Ganban Bedrock Spa & Oxygen Bar, a concept imported from Japan where you lie on heated volcanic basalt for 15 minutes at a time, interspersed with 15 minutes in an amazing Japanese massage lounger and then 15 minutes breathing oxygen (a nice change from the less-than-pristine Manila air). Lying on the basalt is unbelievably HOT, but then, I'm a Bikram yogi, I can handle the heat! Spas are the best. I think I'm rapidly outgrowing my "newbie-spagoer" status, and for the opportunity to do that I'm truly grateful!
Warmly,
Carol
"Sexy" is an interesting word as used in Filipino English. A much more innocent word than when used in the USA. When I first got here and Rochelle took me to the US Embassy to register, on the ride there she shared with me some experiences and peculiarities of living here. "People will say you're sexy all the time, but it just means you look nice, attractive, cute. There's no sexual undertone." And sure enough, when I was in Lavandera Mo for the first time and the ladies there were commenting on my fitness, what they said was, "you're so sexy - what do you do to keep in shape?" Then when I was having my ultrasound kidney check, the technician who was doing the ultrasound while rubbing the ultrasound sensor on my back goes, "you're so sexy!" - I've never had a medical professional say that to me, but I did not feel in the slightest that she was hitting on me, it was just the thing to say I guess. I'll be walking down the street and hear, "you're so sexy, ma'am" ("ma'am" is another common thing I hear, but as best as I can tell it's used as a translation of "po" in Tagalog, the automatic word of respect you use when addressing someone you don't know, like "kha" or "khap" in Thai). Of course, with my short hair, sometimes people mistake me for a guy and say, "Hey Joe!" or "Hello, sir!" but the "sexy" thing happens more often than the gender mixup, I'm glad to say. Trippy.
yoga
In the past week the yoga is really gelling for me. I've been teaching 10 classes a week for over a month now, practicing 3-4x a week, and really getting into the swing of it. Monday evening to Tuesday morning I found myself in a little yoga marathon - 6 classes in 24 hours, took one then taught two classes on Monday evening then taught two classes and took advanced class (for the first time since October and just the second time in over two years) Tuesday morning. It feels great to be doing so much yoga! I wasn't even that sore after advanced - and when I took another beginner's class on Wednesday evening all the soreness went away. When I teach, I'm still tending to go a couple of minutes over the 90 minutes, but gaining on time, and it's really nice to be familiar with the names of a decent number of students in my classes now. Memorizing more dialogue every day, and memorization is SO much easier when you have the opportunity to practice saying it in class day in and day out. As hung up on names as I am, I finally started making a little "seating chart" for each class, taking a few minutes in the room before each class writing down the names of the students. So if someone needs a correction I never have to worry "do I have her/his name right?" or resort to the "my friend in the yellow top" trick - which especially doesn't feel comfortable if I recognize the student but can't remember the name - I just look on my cheat sheet. All these little things add up to me being able to push the students harder and help them get deeper into their practice, which is rewarding and fun. A nice way to celebrate the 5th reunion of my teacher training class's graduation, which was the third week of March, 2004!
spa
I love spas. I am sort of a spa newbie - the first time I went to one was the Hershey's chocolate spa in Hershey, PA. My friend Amanda and wrote in my yearbook at our high school graduation that we'd stay close and do things like go to spas together, and about eight years ago when she saw that they'd opened a spa doing chocolate-themed spa treatments at the Hotel Hershey she got me to go with her (since I am a total chocoholic) for our first "spa date". It was wonderful, but I wasn't passionate enough about spa-going (especially if being slathered in chocolate wasn't part of the deal) to shell out hundreds of dollars on a regular basis for spa pampering. In fact, I didn't go to a spa again until about a year ago in the spring of 2008 when I found myself driving from Oklahoma City to Memphis and saw a town called "Hot Springs" not too far off my route in Arkansas. Being a big fan of hot tubs, I investigated and was soon enjoying my first visit to Hot Springs' Buckstaff Baths on the grounds of the very first US National Park. Being bathed in hot mineral water and having a massage there is blissful in a quirky, anachronistic way - they've been administering baths and massages there for almost 100 years. (Hot Springs is also notable for being the boyhood home of Bill Clinton - why is this not surprising to me?) I visited Buckstaff Baths again on my cross-country drive from Woods Hole, MA to Los Angeles, CA before departing for Manila, and it was just as wonderful if not more so on the second visit. (One of the several currently vacant vintage bathhouses on Bathhouse Row would make a stupendous Bikram Yoga retreat site, will someone please do this ASAP?) I've really gotten on a roll with spa-going, continuing my explorations in the US with a trip to the Olympic Spa in LA's Koreatown for the Goddess treatment. Yeah, it's all that - I truly felt like a goddess after the four-hour bathing, sauna, body scrub, and massage-fest that is the Goddess treatment! I love the combination of the cold plunge pool and the super-hot herbal pool, and it's a steal by American price standards. But Manila's spa scene is the best! There's our student Vicki Aldaba's serene, luxurious Spa 6750 at the Greenbelt mall complex, where I enjoyed a complimentary signature massage as a welcome gift, I have since experienced my first-ever hot stone massage and I intend to sample many more treatments - though at $50 - $60 for a 90-minute session it is one of the more expensive spas in town. I'm looking forward to trying the 24-hour Wensha spa ... even though I'm having trouble finding it, the round-the-clock schedule, affordable rates, and the cold plunge pool are very appealing. I've enjoyed the hot tub and a Thai massage at one of the six branches of The Spa - the one at The Fort by Market! Market! - and if there weren't such an amazing variety of spas around I'd be tempted to become a member of The Spa. Just this week, on Tuesday after practicing Advanced class, I had a hot basalt "bath" at Ganban Bedrock Spa & Oxygen Bar, a concept imported from Japan where you lie on heated volcanic basalt for 15 minutes at a time, interspersed with 15 minutes in an amazing Japanese massage lounger and then 15 minutes breathing oxygen (a nice change from the less-than-pristine Manila air). Lying on the basalt is unbelievably HOT, but then, I'm a Bikram yogi, I can handle the heat! Spas are the best. I think I'm rapidly outgrowing my "newbie-spagoer" status, and for the opportunity to do that I'm truly grateful!
Warmly,
Carol
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
The Woman Who Had Two Brains
I finished reading The Woman Who Had Two Navels this week, and really enjoyed it. I've read and learned a little about Filipino history ... about how Spain controlled the Philippines for centuries until 1898, until the Spanish-American War when America brought the Philippines "Independence" from the Spanish and then proceeded to occupy it until World War II. The American presence was initially not at all welcome and the Spanish-American War was followed by the Philippine-American war from 1899 to 1902 officially with resistance continuing until 1913. After 1913, many survivors of the defeated resistance went into exile, and the Filipino people settled into an acceptance of American presence whereby the American influence on the country grew very strong, English replaced Spanish as the dominant Western language and the language of business and the arts, and Americans were generally more appreciated than resented. America failed to protect the Philippines from takeover and brutal occupation by the Japanese during World War II, but after the defeat of the Japanese when American soldiers returned to a shattered Manila they were celebrated as liberators. The Woman Who Had Two Navels takes place against this backdrop of history, as Filipinos of multiple generations, some exiles, some born in exile in Hong Kong, and some visiting Hong Kong from Manila, interact in a tangled web of present (1950s) events, flashbacks to the Manilas of "Independence" through the 50's, love, denial, shattered dreams, and transformation. Joaquin's writing is beautiful and complex, so that it's the kind of novel where you have to mark every word and pay careful attention to each strand of plot, and you're rewarded when the whole thing comes into focus as the strands converge at the end.
While I was reading The Woman Who Had Two Navels, my Balikbayan Box finally arrived from the US! In it I had packed a book I got for Christmas and knew I wouldn't have time to read before I got to Manila, My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D. I do want to continue my Filipino literary explorations by reading Philippine National Hero José Rizal's Noli me Tangere, but I knew I had to read My Stroke of Insight first when, a couple of days before my box arrived, my friend Charlie was raving about it. In all the excitement of the past couple of months, I'd forgotten that I actually owned the book and that it was on its way to me in the long-awaited box, so I was totally delighted to find it the first thing looking up at me from the top of the pile when I finally got to open the box. I've had Filipino friends tell me the only way they got through Noli Me Tangere was by using the local equivalent of Cliff's Notes, so I was grateful to find My Stroke of Insight to be a much easier read than the book I read before it. I'm a biologist by education and this was a book presenting a lot of brain science to the average non-scientist. So reading about a familiar subject that was so carefully and clearly presented as to be accessible to someone with no scientific background was a lovely breeze after the challenging (and thrilling) work of deciphering the mysteries of The Woman Who Had Two Navels. And what wonderful experiences and ideas conveyed so clearly! Jill Taylor is a brain scientist who had a massive stroke that wiped out most of the function of her left brain, and who recovered fully over the course of eight years. What happened to her when she had the stroke is that she lost her ability to (among other things) speak or understand (or even think in) verbal language, read, walk, and conceptualize the future and past. All that remained was her right-brain consciousness, the in-the-moment sensory stream for which, without judgment, categorization, or prioritization, we are literally one with the universe. Over the course of her recovery, she was able to observe as the logical, analytical, ego-based structures of her left brain regenerated. I often wonder why I simultaneously feel "one with the universe" and "self-interested and totally separate." Instinctively I've been accepting of this in myself, but I was a lot more confused by it until I read Jill's book. The idea that seems so much simpler and clearer thanks to the experience she's shared is that the ego lives in the left brain. It's what makes us, as humans, able to do all the amazing, analytical, logical, historiographical and strategic stuff we do - but it's just a construct. Why let it convince us that its reality is the only reality, or that we're not good enough, or not lovable, or that we need to kill that person who's going to take our dinner or who doesn't agree with us, etc., etc.? Jill's story and her message are beautiful, inspiring, and hopeful. I'm so glad I read this book - it's such an important issue in my life, finding a balance between individuality and universality, and My Stroke of Insight fills in huge swaths of the roadmap to finding that balance. To see Jill talk about her experience, check out the link to her talk at the 2008 TED conference on her website, http://www.mystrokeofinsight.com/. Her speaking schedule and lots of other cool stuff I'll be checking out soon are on that site, too.
Warmly,
Carol
While I was reading The Woman Who Had Two Navels, my Balikbayan Box finally arrived from the US! In it I had packed a book I got for Christmas and knew I wouldn't have time to read before I got to Manila, My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D. I do want to continue my Filipino literary explorations by reading Philippine National Hero José Rizal's Noli me Tangere, but I knew I had to read My Stroke of Insight first when, a couple of days before my box arrived, my friend Charlie was raving about it. In all the excitement of the past couple of months, I'd forgotten that I actually owned the book and that it was on its way to me in the long-awaited box, so I was totally delighted to find it the first thing looking up at me from the top of the pile when I finally got to open the box. I've had Filipino friends tell me the only way they got through Noli Me Tangere was by using the local equivalent of Cliff's Notes, so I was grateful to find My Stroke of Insight to be a much easier read than the book I read before it. I'm a biologist by education and this was a book presenting a lot of brain science to the average non-scientist. So reading about a familiar subject that was so carefully and clearly presented as to be accessible to someone with no scientific background was a lovely breeze after the challenging (and thrilling) work of deciphering the mysteries of The Woman Who Had Two Navels. And what wonderful experiences and ideas conveyed so clearly! Jill Taylor is a brain scientist who had a massive stroke that wiped out most of the function of her left brain, and who recovered fully over the course of eight years. What happened to her when she had the stroke is that she lost her ability to (among other things) speak or understand (or even think in) verbal language, read, walk, and conceptualize the future and past. All that remained was her right-brain consciousness, the in-the-moment sensory stream for which, without judgment, categorization, or prioritization, we are literally one with the universe. Over the course of her recovery, she was able to observe as the logical, analytical, ego-based structures of her left brain regenerated. I often wonder why I simultaneously feel "one with the universe" and "self-interested and totally separate." Instinctively I've been accepting of this in myself, but I was a lot more confused by it until I read Jill's book. The idea that seems so much simpler and clearer thanks to the experience she's shared is that the ego lives in the left brain. It's what makes us, as humans, able to do all the amazing, analytical, logical, historiographical and strategic stuff we do - but it's just a construct. Why let it convince us that its reality is the only reality, or that we're not good enough, or not lovable, or that we need to kill that person who's going to take our dinner or who doesn't agree with us, etc., etc.? Jill's story and her message are beautiful, inspiring, and hopeful. I'm so glad I read this book - it's such an important issue in my life, finding a balance between individuality and universality, and My Stroke of Insight fills in huge swaths of the roadmap to finding that balance. To see Jill talk about her experience, check out the link to her talk at the 2008 TED conference on her website, http://www.mystrokeofinsight.com/. Her speaking schedule and lots of other cool stuff I'll be checking out soon are on that site, too.
Warmly,
Carol
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
knowing when - and when not - to listen to ourselves
I was teaching this morning and when we got to the 2-minute Savasana after the standing series, a student left to go to the bathroom. Didn't I see the same student leaving just a class or two ago? As she left I said, "are you in the habit of leaving the room during class?" "No!" she assured me, so as she went out the door I said, "good, well, don't get into it!" In the moment I told the class after she left, "if you absolutely have to leave, we're not going to stop you from going outside the room. But remember that even though your mind is telling you that the best thing for you is to get out of the room, that's the same mind that would also like to convince you that shooting heroin is a good idea." If you tried it, I meant - from what I hear about heroin, it's love at first hit - which is why I don't intend to try it. I think they got that. Anyway, the exchange got me thinking about all the self-defeating crap our minds try to get us to do, mine in particular (it being the only one I know from the inside). Not that it's worth beating myself up for this, such behavior is how we're taught to survive in the stressful society around us. Tendencies toward allowing ourselves to be governed by fear of scarcity and violent ends are probably also adaptive to evolving in a world of meager resources and abundant predators - the "nasty, brutish, and short" life of ages past (though sometimes I wonder if life isn't nastier and more brutish if not shorter in the common era than before). Interesting though that fear can be such an illusion ... I've left the room a few times when I thought I was going to die if I didn't, but even after years of practice I can still get to that "get me the heck out of here now" panicky place (one of the great things about Bikram Yoga is that that edge is always accessible if you work for it) and more times than not I've hung tough in the room. Guess what? I'm not dead. I always feel kind of silly after bailing, but hey, practice not perfection. And the next time I'm freaked out by something else that in the moment seems cataclysmic - that I got cut off in traffic, that I'll never amount to anything, that the economy is going to grind to a screeching halt, whatever it is - I'll practice hanging tough, taking a deep breath, and until maybe once someday when I'm wrong, it's not gonna kill me.
Warmly,
Carol
Warmly,
Carol
Monday, March 9, 2009
teaching over a thousand drummers
This afternoon I taught at the Quezon City studio, which is on the top floor of a 5-story mall complex. Right as class began, a torrential downpour began. The kind of rain where if you look at the street, what's usually black asphalt looks white with all the spray of the rain pelting down on it. Whatever the roof of this building is, it has drum-like properties. So I started teaching the class yelling over the kind of racket you would imagine hearing if Neil Peart and John Bonham were soloing and trying to drown each other out. Great fun! Got to use my projection abilities to their fullest. Thank goodness it stopped after about half an hour - Ryan, who's been teaching there for over a year and was in class, tells me that sometimes during the rainy season it's like that through the entire class. Yikes. I was recording the class on my iPod to listen to it later, but I think I'll let that one go. I recorded my class on Sunday morning and took it Sunday afternoon before teaching the late afternoon class. I'd never taken my own class before. Not bad, but I mix up my rights and lefts far more than I thought - I'll have to be more careful about that.
Tomorrow I teach at 6:30am, so it's time for bed!
Warmly,
Carol
Tomorrow I teach at 6:30am, so it's time for bed!
Warmly,
Carol
Friday, March 6, 2009
The Woman Who Had Two Kidneys
I'm so glad I struck up a conversation on the metro (MRT) with a woman who was reading the novel I'm now reading. I was on the MRT EDSA line going from Makati to Quezon City to teach my weekly pair of classes at the studio there, it was crowded as usual and I was standing holding the rail. I noticed that the woman sitting in front of me was absolutely rapt with attention reading this novel, which I could see from the title heading at the top of the pages was called The Woman Who Had Two Navels. Intriguing title - what's that about, I thought? Books that allow people to escape into them from the hustle and bustle of the subway I often find are worth reading. I greatly enjoyed the Harry Potter books and Memoirs of a Geisha after seeing people wrapped up in them on the T in Boston, and the Twilight series is on my "to read" list for the same reason. So when the woman looked up to readjust when the person next to her got off the train, I asked her about it. She informed me that not only was it a terrific read but the author was Nick Joaquin, one of the great Philippine national authors and I wrote that down so I could pick it up at the bookstore. What a great book ... love stories intertwining against a backdrop of Manila from the early 1900s through the post-WWII era, from the anti-US resistance in the early 1900s through the exile of some in Hong Kong and the general warming of most to US occupation pre-WWII and the post-WWII rebuilding. I wish Lola were here so I could talk with her about it - she was born in Cebu just a few years after the plot began.
So I've been reading this book for a few days ... reading before I go to sleep, carrying it in my purse, I'll stop in a coffee shop and read some, I brought it in with me to read while soaking in the hot tub when I treated myself to a Thai massage at The Spa on Bonifacio High St. (the Santa Monica-like promenade near Market! Market!), and I'm about halfway through.
Yesterday after teaching the 6:30am and 9:00am classes I decided to act on the realization that's been becoming clear to me over the past week that I've lately been doing too much yoga and not enough other physical activity for my body. For some people, the more yoga the better, but for me, I need a balance. Bikram says that yoga is like flushing the toilet, the rest of the things you do in your life fill your body with waste and yoga flushes it out. I find that if I do too much yoga without mixing it up with running, cycling, rollerblading, hiking, swimming, vinyasa (which I enjoy but which feels more like a straight workout to me than the healing workout of Bikram), etc. it can feel a little like I'm a toilet that's stuck on, continuously flushing, wasting energy like a stuck toilet wasting water. So I decided to go for a long walk. At the awesome bookstore on High St., Fully Booked, where I picked up The Woman Who Had Two Navels, I had also picked up Silvia's Book: An Expat's Guide to Living in Manila, which a student told me about when I asked her how she heard about Bikram Yoga Manila (we're featured in the book). One of the tips in there is that at the top of the Shangri-La Mall, there's an aromatherapy/essential oil kiosk that sells this stuff called Citrimint, which is great for repelling ants and other bugs. I've noticed a growing population of little tiny ants in my apartment over the couple of weeks I've been here, and when I'd gotten home from teaching in the morning my bathroom sink had a half-dozen little ants wandering around in it, crawling in and out of the drain.
So I decided to make the trek to the mall. I put on my hiking boots and some sunscreen, grabbed my sunbrella and headed out on a six-kilometer walk up Makati Ave, over the bridge to Mandaluyong City, through Barangka Ibaba (the southeast corner of Mandaluyong City), over to EDSA and up to the mall. It reminded me of walking around Lahug, Lola's neighborhood in Cebu - in Makati there are foreigners everywhere, but Barangka Ibaba is a much quieter, middle-class (is my guess, though there was a range of housing types from quite extravagant to quite modest) neighborhood that is pretty much exclusively Filipino.
When I got to the mall area, by the Shaw Boulevard station of the MRT, I was looking at my map and, having noted where the mall was a week or so prior, I'd forgotten that it was the Shangri-La mall I was looking for, I thought it was the SM Megamall. I'm still getting used to the crazy abundance of malls here, though I hear I have to check out Hong Kong, where the whole city is like one enormous interconnected mall where you can end up not going outside for weeks at a time. So I went up to the top of SM Megamall and there weren't any kiosks there. Then I double-checked the note I'd written myself about it the previous week and, oops, I was supposed to be looking in Shangri-La Mall. Duh. I was standing in front of an ultrasound clinic. It occurred to me that in the Philippines, it probably wouldn't cost hundreds of dollars to have an ultrasound done to see if I have both of my kidneys. I have wondered about this for a long time because my mother only has one. Riding a motorcycle, fun as it is, is risky I know, and if you only have one kidney it's pretty darn stupid. (So is riding a motorcycle in Manila, don't worry, I'm not that crazy. Motorcycling in the USA where right-of-way is determined by traffic laws, not intimidation, is enough for me!) So I've been meaning to find out about the kidney thing. I went in to the clinic and they told me that they only do prenatal ultrasounds, but the SM Megaclinic a few doors down would do a kidney ultrasound, probably for about P1000. And sure enough, I was able to have one done for P1089 ($22.50)! So now I know that I have two healthy-looking kidneys with no stones or cysts.
I did get the Citrimint at Shangri-La Mall (P200 for the oil and P180 for an oil diffuser candle lamp set), and today as I write this after diffusing some Citrimint yesterday evening before heading out to dinner with some yoga friends, there is not an ant to be seen in my apartment.
Warmly,
Carol
So I've been reading this book for a few days ... reading before I go to sleep, carrying it in my purse, I'll stop in a coffee shop and read some, I brought it in with me to read while soaking in the hot tub when I treated myself to a Thai massage at The Spa on Bonifacio High St. (the Santa Monica-like promenade near Market! Market!), and I'm about halfway through.
Yesterday after teaching the 6:30am and 9:00am classes I decided to act on the realization that's been becoming clear to me over the past week that I've lately been doing too much yoga and not enough other physical activity for my body. For some people, the more yoga the better, but for me, I need a balance. Bikram says that yoga is like flushing the toilet, the rest of the things you do in your life fill your body with waste and yoga flushes it out. I find that if I do too much yoga without mixing it up with running, cycling, rollerblading, hiking, swimming, vinyasa (which I enjoy but which feels more like a straight workout to me than the healing workout of Bikram), etc. it can feel a little like I'm a toilet that's stuck on, continuously flushing, wasting energy like a stuck toilet wasting water. So I decided to go for a long walk. At the awesome bookstore on High St., Fully Booked, where I picked up The Woman Who Had Two Navels, I had also picked up Silvia's Book: An Expat's Guide to Living in Manila, which a student told me about when I asked her how she heard about Bikram Yoga Manila (we're featured in the book). One of the tips in there is that at the top of the Shangri-La Mall, there's an aromatherapy/essential oil kiosk that sells this stuff called Citrimint, which is great for repelling ants and other bugs. I've noticed a growing population of little tiny ants in my apartment over the couple of weeks I've been here, and when I'd gotten home from teaching in the morning my bathroom sink had a half-dozen little ants wandering around in it, crawling in and out of the drain.
So I decided to make the trek to the mall. I put on my hiking boots and some sunscreen, grabbed my sunbrella and headed out on a six-kilometer walk up Makati Ave, over the bridge to Mandaluyong City, through Barangka Ibaba (the southeast corner of Mandaluyong City), over to EDSA and up to the mall. It reminded me of walking around Lahug, Lola's neighborhood in Cebu - in Makati there are foreigners everywhere, but Barangka Ibaba is a much quieter, middle-class (is my guess, though there was a range of housing types from quite extravagant to quite modest) neighborhood that is pretty much exclusively Filipino.
When I got to the mall area, by the Shaw Boulevard station of the MRT, I was looking at my map and, having noted where the mall was a week or so prior, I'd forgotten that it was the Shangri-La mall I was looking for, I thought it was the SM Megamall. I'm still getting used to the crazy abundance of malls here, though I hear I have to check out Hong Kong, where the whole city is like one enormous interconnected mall where you can end up not going outside for weeks at a time. So I went up to the top of SM Megamall and there weren't any kiosks there. Then I double-checked the note I'd written myself about it the previous week and, oops, I was supposed to be looking in Shangri-La Mall. Duh. I was standing in front of an ultrasound clinic. It occurred to me that in the Philippines, it probably wouldn't cost hundreds of dollars to have an ultrasound done to see if I have both of my kidneys. I have wondered about this for a long time because my mother only has one. Riding a motorcycle, fun as it is, is risky I know, and if you only have one kidney it's pretty darn stupid. (So is riding a motorcycle in Manila, don't worry, I'm not that crazy. Motorcycling in the USA where right-of-way is determined by traffic laws, not intimidation, is enough for me!) So I've been meaning to find out about the kidney thing. I went in to the clinic and they told me that they only do prenatal ultrasounds, but the SM Megaclinic a few doors down would do a kidney ultrasound, probably for about P1000. And sure enough, I was able to have one done for P1089 ($22.50)! So now I know that I have two healthy-looking kidneys with no stones or cysts.
I did get the Citrimint at Shangri-La Mall (P200 for the oil and P180 for an oil diffuser candle lamp set), and today as I write this after diffusing some Citrimint yesterday evening before heading out to dinner with some yoga friends, there is not an ant to be seen in my apartment.
Warmly,
Carol
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
teaching
I've been here three weeks and one day, and I've taught roughly 28 classes so far. 10 classes a week, mostly back-to-back doubles, and I'm getting the hang of teaching once again. I've got a ways to go before I know the dialogue cold (which will be a first) and before I'm fully comfortable with timing, but it feels like things are coming together. Part of being comfortable with teaching (as with just about everything else) is accepting the inability to control everything. So many factors go into the fabric of a class, all we can do is teachers is guide the flow. We are vital to the class yet our role is nothing away from the students, the postures, the heat, the infinite multitude of air currents, car horns, even the puddles of sweat collecting on the floor.
Something I keep learning again and again is the importance of letting go of a minute detail for the sake of the overall flow of the class - even though I am doing everything I can to help the students focus and understand as many details as possible. The relatively new student today who was sitting out of fixed firm pose in first set - the student didn't seem to know how to get into the posture without major prodding and special correction from me, but I hung on to the idea of making the corrections (without actually biting the bullet and making them) to my distraction from teaching the full posture to the rest of the class. When I realized what was happening I realized it was time to end the posture anyway. So I explained to the sitting-out student how to get into the setup during savasana between sets, and then was able to focus on teaching the posture with my full attention in the second set. In the next posture, half tortoise, when the same thing happened, I was able to let go of the student getting in at all in the first set, and teach both sets with my attention more broadly distributed among all the students. It can be satisfying as a teacher to have all the students doing every posture, moving together, flowing together, but to be attached to that ideal as a measure of our success is to deny the individuality of our students and the intensity of a yoga series that is designed to push students to edges where they come up against their limits - sometimes knocking their wind out or preventing them from riding the wave of the group's motion.
As for the dialogue, I keep rereading and rememorizing postures. Our students who are going to training in two months are an inspiration - the better dialogue I use, the more they will have the dialogue burned into their brains. So I am trying especially hard with the first few postures in the series so that they'll have as strong as possible a grip on those early postures. I find myself reading the dialogue like a series of prose poems. To really get it emblazoned in my mind, I have to do more than just understanding each posture's basic structure and trajectory, looking for the internal rhymes, finding the rhythm of the phrases. Sometimes the lines are obviously poetic and roll gracefully out of my brain, "nice and loose, comfortable, easy, flexible." The poetry is there throughout, however, and the more I can find it and understand how it applies to the posture, the more I will feel ownership of the dialogue.
OK, bedtime. Don't forget to drink lots of water!!
Warmly, Carol
Something I keep learning again and again is the importance of letting go of a minute detail for the sake of the overall flow of the class - even though I am doing everything I can to help the students focus and understand as many details as possible. The relatively new student today who was sitting out of fixed firm pose in first set - the student didn't seem to know how to get into the posture without major prodding and special correction from me, but I hung on to the idea of making the corrections (without actually biting the bullet and making them) to my distraction from teaching the full posture to the rest of the class. When I realized what was happening I realized it was time to end the posture anyway. So I explained to the sitting-out student how to get into the setup during savasana between sets, and then was able to focus on teaching the posture with my full attention in the second set. In the next posture, half tortoise, when the same thing happened, I was able to let go of the student getting in at all in the first set, and teach both sets with my attention more broadly distributed among all the students. It can be satisfying as a teacher to have all the students doing every posture, moving together, flowing together, but to be attached to that ideal as a measure of our success is to deny the individuality of our students and the intensity of a yoga series that is designed to push students to edges where they come up against their limits - sometimes knocking their wind out or preventing them from riding the wave of the group's motion.
As for the dialogue, I keep rereading and rememorizing postures. Our students who are going to training in two months are an inspiration - the better dialogue I use, the more they will have the dialogue burned into their brains. So I am trying especially hard with the first few postures in the series so that they'll have as strong as possible a grip on those early postures. I find myself reading the dialogue like a series of prose poems. To really get it emblazoned in my mind, I have to do more than just understanding each posture's basic structure and trajectory, looking for the internal rhymes, finding the rhythm of the phrases. Sometimes the lines are obviously poetic and roll gracefully out of my brain, "nice and loose, comfortable, easy, flexible." The poetry is there throughout, however, and the more I can find it and understand how it applies to the posture, the more I will feel ownership of the dialogue.
OK, bedtime. Don't forget to drink lots of water!!
Warmly, Carol
Monday, March 2, 2009
A fun night out in a hip new bar in a super swank part of town
Well, I should probably be sleeping, but as I am jazzed from a fun time my first night out on the town in Manila, why not share the experience with you instead? I'm not teaching until 6pm tomorrow, so the night is young!
So my friend Maureen, who practices at BYM, is a creative director at Philippine Tatler magazine, and her boss is a partner in a sweet new bar called Establishment. Tonight was the "soft opening," and it was a blast. I'm glad I decked myself out in the sexy new purple dress I got last week and my big clunky yellow patent leather platform sandals, as I felt barely dressy enough as it was amidst the fun-and-well-heeled crowd. Between Maureen's boss and his partners, they seem to know all of Manila's see-and-be-seen crowd who showed up to christen the place till the wee hours of Tuesday morning. Not that I recognized any of these folks, but Maureen, her friends, and folks I met there pointed out CEOs, politicians, fashion models, etc. etc.. What was particularly nice was the combination of swankiness and friendliness ... an A-list crowd that was friendly and mingly (maybe all such crowds are like that, in my limited experience I wouldn't know, but I suspect it has a lot to do with the friendly, mingly Filipino culture), yummy cocktails, and gorgeous design. Upon walking in, the entry bar was decorated with a velvety/damasky black wallpaper accented by elegant white flowers. The main bar/dining area with its triple-height ceiling had big, comfy chairs, some arrayed around low coffee-table like tables and others around more traditional dining tables and a dramatic black geometric, tree branch-inspired pattern against light walls. Overall, the light was not-too-dark, not-too-bright in the restaurant and the bathroom was more generously lit and mirror-lined so as to afford us fabulous babes the necessary light to tweak our lip gloss and such. I had a great time hanging with Maureen and her friends, some from work, many from around town, and I really hope her co-workers are able to hook me up with a gig writing a column about exploring Filipino food!
Establishment is located at The Fort, a hyperdeveloped area just outside Makati City in Taguig City. Apparently it used to be US Military land, and was turned back over to the Philippines within the last decade or two. Since then the area has been the site of major, no-expense-spared development, 21st-century style. Enormous glass-curtain-walled luxury condo towers, an impeccably-landscaped, designer boutique-lined pedestrian mall, and a fun mall with interesting bazaar sections called "Market! Market!". I am not a stranger to Market! Market! ... after learning from an American friend that you can actually buy tampons there (tampons are not very popular in the Philippines - fortunately I remembered their scarcity from my visits to Cebu in 1998 and 2000 and came equipped with a six-month supply) I decided to head over and check it out last week. Locals don't seem to like to walk much here, but I love walking and the walk to The Fort area being an extremely safe-looking walk I decided to hoof it for the roughly 3-miles from my neighborhood, Salcedo Village. So I schlepped down there and after a long walk down the parkway-like McKinley Road the whole dazzling development shimmered before me like an oasis in the desert. Very incongruous - it was a bit like encountering Las Vegas for the first time, though without the neon, just lots of clean, shiny, new buildings and carefully planned public spaces. It was a little disappointing actually when I got my first glimpse of The Fort development. I had somehow been expecting a rowdy, farmer's market kind of atmosphere and this was too hypermodern, almost too clean and shiny, and yet every here and there undeveloped parking lots were covered in a depressing gravel like miniature scree. I got into the pedestrian mall and matters initially seemed worse - had I traveled all the way around the world to visit a replica of the Santa Monica 3rd Street Promenade, complete with a Lush, a cupcake bakery, and a Starbucks every few hundred meters? My mood was brightened when I found Xocolat, a chocolate cafe
next door to the cupcake place that serves Burdick-like hot chocolate as well as churros con chocolat (pictured). I remembered that I actually LIKE the Santa Monica 3rd Street Promenade, touristy though it may be, and hey, this version has killer chocolate! Then at the end of it, I found my bazaar -Market! Market! is indeed a blast. Maybe a little like Pike Place Market in Seattle. It has a permanent farmer's market featuring fresh produce, carts selling local specialties from all the major regions of the Philippines, and kiosks selling local delights like bibingka, schwarma, balut (no I haven't tried it yet), empanadas, and more. It also has a five-story mall with not just the usual stores but three warrens of bargain booths named the Gift Market!, the Fashion Market! and the Furniture Market!. I couldn't resist picking up the the abovementioned purple dress, the cutest boatneck purple shirt with a 1" border silver sequins at the neck for P350 (haggled down from P380, I'm sure I'll get better at that...) and ribbon-belted plaid shorts in navy and pink for P200/pair. Then in the mall, I found a white elephant I've been looking for for ever, and with the best twist. I have wanted a polo shirt dress for the longest time but have never quite found the right combination of of sleeve dimensions, length, tailoring etc that did it for me. But I found my dress at a boutique in Market! Market!, and instead of a horse, sheep, alligator or some other overplayed emblem (sorry polo-wearing friends) on the chest it had a huge embroidered map of the Philippines! Such fun!
Home from the party tonight at 1:45pm I took a cab with one of Maureen's friends (ok, my friend now too) who lives in my building... but the first time I came home from Market! Market! I took a Jeepney.
Warmly,
Carol
So my friend Maureen, who practices at BYM, is a creative director at Philippine Tatler magazine, and her boss is a partner in a sweet new bar called Establishment. Tonight was the "soft opening," and it was a blast. I'm glad I decked myself out in the sexy new purple dress I got last week and my big clunky yellow patent leather platform sandals, as I felt barely dressy enough as it was amidst the fun-and-well-heeled crowd. Between Maureen's boss and his partners, they seem to know all of Manila's see-and-be-seen crowd who showed up to christen the place till the wee hours of Tuesday morning. Not that I recognized any of these folks, but Maureen, her friends, and folks I met there pointed out CEOs, politicians, fashion models, etc. etc.. What was particularly nice was the combination of swankiness and friendliness ... an A-list crowd that was friendly and mingly (maybe all such crowds are like that, in my limited experience I wouldn't know, but I suspect it has a lot to do with the friendly, mingly Filipino culture), yummy cocktails, and gorgeous design. Upon walking in, the entry bar was decorated with a velvety/damasky black wallpaper accented by elegant white flowers. The main bar/dining area with its triple-height ceiling had big, comfy chairs, some arrayed around low coffee-table like tables and others around more traditional dining tables and a dramatic black geometric, tree branch-inspired pattern against light walls. Overall, the light was not-too-dark, not-too-bright in the restaurant and the bathroom was more generously lit and mirror-lined so as to afford us fabulous babes the necessary light to tweak our lip gloss and such. I had a great time hanging with Maureen and her friends, some from work, many from around town, and I really hope her co-workers are able to hook me up with a gig writing a column about exploring Filipino food!
Establishment is located at The Fort, a hyperdeveloped area just outside Makati City in Taguig City. Apparently it used to be US Military land, and was turned back over to the Philippines within the last decade or two. Since then the area has been the site of major, no-expense-spared development, 21st-century style. Enormous glass-curtain-walled luxury condo towers, an impeccably-landscaped, designer boutique-lined pedestrian mall, and a fun mall with interesting bazaar sections called "Market! Market!". I am not a stranger to Market! Market! ... after learning from an American friend that you can actually buy tampons there (tampons are not very popular in the Philippines - fortunately I remembered their scarcity from my visits to Cebu in 1998 and 2000 and came equipped with a six-month supply) I decided to head over and check it out last week. Locals don't seem to like to walk much here, but I love walking and the walk to The Fort area being an extremely safe-looking walk I decided to hoof it for the roughly 3-miles from my neighborhood, Salcedo Village. So I schlepped down there and after a long walk down the parkway-like McKinley Road the whole dazzling development shimmered before me like an oasis in the desert. Very incongruous - it was a bit like encountering Las Vegas for the first time, though without the neon, just lots of clean, shiny, new buildings and carefully planned public spaces. It was a little disappointing actually when I got my first glimpse of The Fort development. I had somehow been expecting a rowdy, farmer's market kind of atmosphere and this was too hypermodern, almost too clean and shiny, and yet every here and there undeveloped parking lots were covered in a depressing gravel like miniature scree. I got into the pedestrian mall and matters initially seemed worse - had I traveled all the way around the world to visit a replica of the Santa Monica 3rd Street Promenade, complete with a Lush, a cupcake bakery, and a Starbucks every few hundred meters? My mood was brightened when I found Xocolat, a chocolate cafe
next door to the cupcake place that serves Burdick-like hot chocolate as well as churros con chocolat (pictured). I remembered that I actually LIKE the Santa Monica 3rd Street Promenade, touristy though it may be, and hey, this version has killer chocolate! Then at the end of it, I found my bazaar -Market! Market! is indeed a blast. Maybe a little like Pike Place Market in Seattle. It has a permanent farmer's market featuring fresh produce, carts selling local specialties from all the major regions of the Philippines, and kiosks selling local delights like bibingka, schwarma, balut (no I haven't tried it yet), empanadas, and more. It also has a five-story mall with not just the usual stores but three warrens of bargain booths named the Gift Market!, the Fashion Market! and the Furniture Market!. I couldn't resist picking up the the abovementioned purple dress, the cutest boatneck purple shirt with a 1" border silver sequins at the neck for P350 (haggled down from P380, I'm sure I'll get better at that...) and ribbon-belted plaid shorts in navy and pink for P200/pair. Then in the mall, I found a white elephant I've been looking for for ever, and with the best twist. I have wanted a polo shirt dress for the longest time but have never quite found the right combination of of sleeve dimensions, length, tailoring etc that did it for me. But I found my dress at a boutique in Market! Market!, and instead of a horse, sheep, alligator or some other overplayed emblem (sorry polo-wearing friends) on the chest it had a huge embroidered map of the Philippines! Such fun!Home from the party tonight at 1:45pm I took a cab with one of Maureen's friends (ok, my friend now too) who lives in my building... but the first time I came home from Market! Market! I took a Jeepney.
Warmly,
Carol
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Customer Experiences
Happy REI Visa Customer - I just had the nicest experience with my credit card company. Since stuff like this doesn't happen all the time, I thought I'd share it here. So in the hustle and bustle of getting to Manila and then the lack of internet access for my first two weeks here, I missed my credit card payment by 2 days. But I called REI Visa customer service (for free on Skype - love Skype!) and the nice customer service rep was able to reverse not just the late fee but also the finance charge. The interest rate on this card is not the most competitive, but they are pretty fair with the P/$ exchange rates (with about a 3% transaction fee), and if you pay off your balance every month, the benefits are nice - you get 1% of the amount of your purchases - and 15% of the amount of purchases made at REI - back in your REI member dividend at the end of the year. You can either spend the dividend at REI, or get it in cash. So here's to a credit card that has done right by me and I recommend it - http://www.reivisa.com/cgi_w/cfm/credit/rei/intro.cfm?ics_src=50361&redirect=61rei
Challenges at the Laundry - Oh, woe is me, the trials and tribulations of having your laundry done for you for fifty cents a pound! Here in Manila, no one seems to do their own laundry. I haven't seen a laundromat, but wash/dry/fold services abound. My first experience with having my laundry done, I used a place near the hotel I stayed in the first week I was here, which was in the "red light" district of Makati City (believe me, this is no Bangkok, it's a very mellow red light district). The place was aptly named "Let's Talk Dirty" and they did a great job for P45/kilo (though they made a little extra since I only had 2 kilos and they have a 3-kilo minimum). Then I moved into my apartment at the Paseo Parkview and tried the Kuff'n'Kollar across the street for P40.50/kilo. Here is where I realized, when dropping off there for the second time, that you can request that they not use fabric softener. Hooray - no more walking around smelling like a chemical factory! Alas, two visits was all for this laundromat because they kept finishing my laundry late - and seemed to have almost lost it the second time. I don't mind if they're backed up and are going to take three days to do my laundry - especially for the lowest price I've found so far in my well-heeled (ok, designer-flipflop) neighborhood - but be honest about it! After checking in morning and evening for two days before finally getting my second load of laundry back from them, I decided to give "Lavandera Mo" a try. They advertise as "the safest place for your laundry" and give you an itemized receipt listing the brand name and description of all your clothes. For P60.50/kilo and the 3-kilo minimum it's the equivalent of $4 to even walk in the door, but they've got a loyal customer in me. It didn't hurt that the first time I walked in there, as I was filling out the order slip a couple of ladies who were folding got my attention to ask how I kept in such great shape ... I'm a sucker for a little flattery, I guess. I did bow pose for them and when I picked up the laundry the next day the bag didn't have my last name on it like everyone else's, it had "YOGA" and my slip number. Personal touches are the best ... if you're in Salcedo Village, they're a solid bet.
Taxi Trickery - I've taken a taxi five times since I've gotten here. Once when I came in from the airport, twice when schlepping my luggage from the hotel to Salcedo Village, once home from Market! Market!, and once home from the grocery store with 12L of bottled water. Cabs here are plentiful and cheap - the meter drops at P30 and the half-hour ride I had from the airport was only about P300 (~$6) for a ride that would probably have cost $30 in NYC and $50 in Boston. The little rides around the Salcedo Village area are P50 or P60. So it's quite annoying when you get into a cab, tell the driver the few-blocks-away destination, and he (are even 1% of cab drivers globally female?) doesn't turn on the meter and says, "100 pesos, OK?" The ride will cost P50 or less and I know it. Once you tell them to turn on the meter they do it, but they're clearly trying to prey on me as an ignorant tourist. Oh, well. For the average tourist, $2 to take a cab a few blocks is no biggie - the meter drops higher than that most places - but knowing that the market rate is $1, I'm not going to be the easy mark. If they're honest with me (and 60% of them have been honest, to be fair), then they get a tip.
Challenges at the Laundry - Oh, woe is me, the trials and tribulations of having your laundry done for you for fifty cents a pound! Here in Manila, no one seems to do their own laundry. I haven't seen a laundromat, but wash/dry/fold services abound. My first experience with having my laundry done, I used a place near the hotel I stayed in the first week I was here, which was in the "red light" district of Makati City (believe me, this is no Bangkok, it's a very mellow red light district). The place was aptly named "Let's Talk Dirty" and they did a great job for P45/kilo (though they made a little extra since I only had 2 kilos and they have a 3-kilo minimum). Then I moved into my apartment at the Paseo Parkview and tried the Kuff'n'Kollar across the street for P40.50/kilo. Here is where I realized, when dropping off there for the second time, that you can request that they not use fabric softener. Hooray - no more walking around smelling like a chemical factory! Alas, two visits was all for this laundromat because they kept finishing my laundry late - and seemed to have almost lost it the second time. I don't mind if they're backed up and are going to take three days to do my laundry - especially for the lowest price I've found so far in my well-heeled (ok, designer-flipflop) neighborhood - but be honest about it! After checking in morning and evening for two days before finally getting my second load of laundry back from them, I decided to give "Lavandera Mo" a try. They advertise as "the safest place for your laundry" and give you an itemized receipt listing the brand name and description of all your clothes. For P60.50/kilo and the 3-kilo minimum it's the equivalent of $4 to even walk in the door, but they've got a loyal customer in me. It didn't hurt that the first time I walked in there, as I was filling out the order slip a couple of ladies who were folding got my attention to ask how I kept in such great shape ... I'm a sucker for a little flattery, I guess. I did bow pose for them and when I picked up the laundry the next day the bag didn't have my last name on it like everyone else's, it had "YOGA" and my slip number. Personal touches are the best ... if you're in Salcedo Village, they're a solid bet.
Taxi Trickery - I've taken a taxi five times since I've gotten here. Once when I came in from the airport, twice when schlepping my luggage from the hotel to Salcedo Village, once home from Market! Market!, and once home from the grocery store with 12L of bottled water. Cabs here are plentiful and cheap - the meter drops at P30 and the half-hour ride I had from the airport was only about P300 (~$6) for a ride that would probably have cost $30 in NYC and $50 in Boston. The little rides around the Salcedo Village area are P50 or P60. So it's quite annoying when you get into a cab, tell the driver the few-blocks-away destination, and he (are even 1% of cab drivers globally female?) doesn't turn on the meter and says, "100 pesos, OK?" The ride will cost P50 or less and I know it. Once you tell them to turn on the meter they do it, but they're clearly trying to prey on me as an ignorant tourist. Oh, well. For the average tourist, $2 to take a cab a few blocks is no biggie - the meter drops higher than that most places - but knowing that the market rate is $1, I'm not going to be the easy mark. If they're honest with me (and 60% of them have been honest, to be fair), then they get a tip.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Some notes from my first 12 days in Manila...
Day 1 - Tues 2/10: Amazingly, my flight arrived at 6:30pm last Tuesday and baggage claim, customs, and traffic were a breeze, so I made the 8pm class at the Makati studio. I got to take class from Christina, one of the departing teachers. She's terrific - it would be great to work with her, so I'm sorry she won't be here for the six months I'm here. I enjoyed class though I was a train wreck after being up and on a plane for almost 24 hours straight. Lulu, the studio manager, drove me to the Oxford Suites hotel where I checked in to a dazzling room. The owner of the hotel, a woman named Vicki, is one of our yoga students and she hooked me up with a 17th-floor room with 180-degree floor-to-ceiling panoramic views. Most importantly, a comfy bed!
Day 2 - Wed 2/11: Slept in and got a ride courtesy of Vicki to the studio at 1pm. Lulu started going over studio orientation stuff with me over lunch at a Philippine restaurant in the Greenbelt mall - mmmm, lumpia, mangoes, sticky rice! When we got back to the studio, I filled out many forms for tax ID number, work visa, etc. Got a map of Manila at the Staples-like store in Paseo Place mall across the street from the studio and walked back to my hotel - faster than a taxi because even in the evening the streets were full of traffic. There were plenty of people out on the sidewalks as well.
Day 3 Thurs 2/12: Apartment search day. Was up way early (still jet-lagging) and took a long roundabout walk to the studio. Took the 9am class with the other departing teacher Marc, who happens to be Christina's husband. (What an amazing pair those two are - killer dialogue, great energy, fun teachers. They're incredibly nice and a hot-looking couple, too! I hope they spend a lot of time at teacher training this spring - they have a lot to offer. If only we'd had more teachers who used the dialogue that consistently in my teacher training, it might have landed in my head right then and there like something I should expect to be using in my teaching five years out! As it is, it took me years to get my head around that idea.) After class, Lulu and I set out to look at about a dozen apartments with two different brokers, all studios or small one-bedrooms renting for about 20,000 pesos ($450) per month. I had initially wanted a bathtub, but bathtubs are about as common as radiators here - I saw a couple of units in a building where all the bathrooms had tubs, but the building was a little old and out-of-the-way. Ultimately I decided that a balcony would be better than a bathtub. Even if it's a freaking oven outside, I like the idea of having my own outside space. Somewhere to relax in the evening, check out what the weather's like, hang yoga clothes, put my umbrella in the rainy season, etc. Between brokers, Lulu and I got some pho at a Vietnamese restaurant in the Paseo Place mall and I had my first mango juice since arriving. Wow - I love mango juice. The food is definitely one of the reasons I came here! At the end of the day we went to the Glorietta mall by the Ayala metro station to find a place that would unlock my Blackberry. Apparently the Blackberry phones are the among the most challenging to unlock, but we found a place that would do it for P2000 ($45) ... and a place next to the SM supermarket (SM stands for ShoeMart ...) that sells bibingka, one of my favorite snack treats I remember from visiting Cebu.
Day 4 - Fri 2/13: I woke up and realized I seemed to be getting sick, a bummer because I was scheduled to go with Lyra (another studio manager) to Quezon City in the afternoon, and then to a farewell party for Marc and Christina in the evening. In the morning, Lulu and I were going to check out a couple more apartments, but overnight I realized that we'd already seen the right one. It's in a building right across the corner from the yoga studio, a 15th-floor studio with tile floors, a balcony, and a nice view. Lulu got in touch with the broker, we had another viewing, and I decided to go with it. It being Friday, we scheduled the move-in day for the following Monday. By the time we got back to the studio I was feeling pretty crappy - sore and feverish, in fact I took my temperature and it was 101. So Lulu took me to get some hot soup at a Chinese restaurant at Paseo Place, and I went home to crash. I was hoping to make the party - I'd actually come to Manila deliberately to be there in time for it - but I was just too much of a mess and didn't want to expose anyone else to my bug, so I stayed in.
Day 5 - Sat 2/14: Valentine's Day - Spent most of the day in bed, the sore throat kicked in, great! I did venture out to check out the weekly farmers market down the street from the yoga studio - I actually have a view of it from my apartment. It's a nice little market, fresh organic produce, fresh breads, local specialties, etc. When I'm not sick it will be a great place to shop - I only went this time to give it a quick look-over and to give the hotel staff time to make up my room.
Day 6 - Sun 2/15: My first teaching day - on the schedule for the 3pm, I figured I'd better take the 9am class - if I survived that, chances were I'd survive teaching the 3pm! Still had a 100-degree temp, and every muscle and joint in my body hurt. Miserable as it was, and despite several postures I had to sit out of, it was a great class to take. I thought I could empathize with students who say "everything hurts" before, but it's one thing to imagine it, to feel it in your body is a world of difference! I felt it in that class. After class I called home ... I'll have to find a more economical way to call, as I spent P400 (about $9) on my prepaid cell phone talking for about 25 minutes, but it was nice to talk to my sister and parents. Taught the 3pm class. I have never taught in such a humid climate - the room felt cold to me, but the students were dying! It reminds me of how if you're jogging on a drizzly 60-degree day, when you get hot and start sweating you get really hot because there's no evaporation. The person you jog by could be standing there shivering and freezing but you're overheated. Now try that at 100 degrees ... swelter city. Then it was back to the hotel to crash as soon as possible to get up to teach the 6:30am and 9:00am on Monday.
Day 7 - Mon 2/16: My last morning in the hotel was a brief one, up at 4:30am I packed my bags and headed over to the studio to teach the two morning classes. Living across the street from the studio will certainly be nice for the ass-crack-of-dawn classes! After class, I went over to my new building to meet the the rental brokers and sign the lease, then poked around with Lyra and Lulu at the studio learning more of the ropes. At 2pm I got to move in - yay! Went back to the Vietnamese place at Paseo Place Mall for a late lunch/early dinner, then spent the evening puttering around, unpacking, rearranging furniture.
Day 8 - Tue 2/17: Had to get up at 5:30am to let Lorrie, another teacher, in as she needed the key to the newly-repaired lock at the studio. Checked some emails at Paseo Place Mall, then headed back home to veg for a while until the 11:45 teacher meeting. Met two other teachers - Ryan (a guy from the London area), and Jean (Jean and Lorrie are Filipinas from Manila). We had a big lunch meeting at the Chinese restaurant at Paseo Place, then headed back to the studio to do dialogue, which was a wake-up call! All the other teachers pretty much knew the postures we picked out of the hat verbatim - Standing Head to Knee and Locust. I didn't ... well, now I know them as I've gone back to rememorize them, but I sucked. Good for me to finally face that - I want to know the dialogue completely verbatim, and I don't. I've got my work cut out for me the next few months, when I leave here I want to own those words! Taught the 6:00pm - 8:00pm double in the evening.
Day 9 - Wed 2/18: Took the 9:00am class ... starting to feel like myself again! In the afternoon, Lyra and I took the metro to the Quezon City studio and I taught the 4:30pm and 6:30pm classes there. On the way to the metro, we walked right by the bibingka stand at the SM Supermarket, so I grabbed one for lunch. A nice studio - the back of the room is a curved wall of windows all the way around presenting a lovely view for the instructor. It's a little over an hour commute when you factor in getting from one studio to the metro, the 20-25-minute metro ride, and getting to the other studio. The students got a kick out of my having bibingka for lunch, I guess it's considered sort of an indulgent treat though it seems pretty sensible to me - a baked batter of coconut milk and glutinous rice baked with salted egg in it. Whenever I talk about liking the local specialties someone mentions balut - apparently this is a cooked duck egg in which the egg has been fertilized and allowed to develop for about two weeks into an embryo. I will have to get some locals to show me where to find and how to eat this. I'll give it a shot if the locals are so into it ... hopefully it's better than eating chicken feet at dimsum, which are all skin and gristle.
Day 10 - Thu 2/19: A day off! I slept in and got a mango drink from the juice bar at Paseo Place and headed towards the conglomeration of malls near the metro station. Vicki, the hotel owner, also owns a swank spa (Spa 6750) there and had given me a gift certificate for a massage. I went in to make an appointment and they had an opening right then, so I got a wonderful 90-minute massage! I'll be back to try the hot stone massage. Blissed out from my massage, I wandered around a bit and picked up some groceries. The last two times I was at the SM supermarket I had bibingka, but this time I was craving protein so I tried the Shwarma sandwich window. Yum! I couldn't go home without getting another Shwarma sandwich - one small one (P40) was not enough of such deliciousness!
Day 11 - Fri 2/20: I thought I was on the schedule for the 6:30am and 9:00am classes, I got there early and started opening up and then Tristan appeared, I was teaching the evening classes, not the morninng classes. Doh! Instead of flopping back to bed I was a good yogi and stayed to take the 6:30am class. I went back to the studio after the 9:00am to meet up with Rochelle, a student who's heading to teacher training in April and whose husband works at the US Embassy. She needed to pick something up there so offered me a ride to register with the Embassy. An interesting life she leads - she's a triathlete, an Ashtanga yoga teacher, a mother of two, and the wife of a US State Department worker who's been posted in Kathmandu and now Manila. After a back injury a couple of years ago, she got into practicing Bikram and has decided to learn to teach Bikram as well. After the embassy, we headed back to Makati and had some awesome ramen at a Japanese noodle place, complete with actual Japanese chefs in the kitchen. I'd never had a proper bowl of ramen before - these noodles were amazing! A little chewy, a little soft, subtle and delicious. I absolutely stuffed my face and when I was teaching the 4:00pm and 6:30pm classes later I was definitely feeling all those noodles and soup in my stomach, but it was totally worth it.
Day 12 - Sat 2/21: Another day off. I headed over to the farmers market that's around the corner from my apartment. When healthy, it was much more fun! Right as I came in was a fruit drink stand, so I got my favorite mango shake. The Paseo Place shakes are yummier and less expensive, but it was still pretty good ... this time I went for chicken empanadas and some budbud, glutinous rice treats wrapped in coconut leaves. Why budbud aren't easier to find around Manila I don't know, as the stand was busily selling out of them quite early in the morning, but hey, at least I got some. I'll have to show up earlier next week to get the Ube ones! I took the 3pm class and then got an invitation to join a student, Pilar, at her house for a simple dinner. Also joining us were another Yoga student, Luisa, who got Pilar started practicing about a month ago, an Austrian woman Sylvia who works at the Austrian embassy, and Pilar's middle daugher. Pilar has four teenaged kids, a daughter who's 18 and going to Macalester college in St. Paul, MN next year (having never actually stepped in snow in her life - brave girl!), boy-and-girl twins who turn 16 this week, and a 13-year-old daughter. The youngest was already out when we arrived, but we saw the others and they are so delightful. Gracious hosts, they came and greeted us all, introducing themselves and and kissing us on the cheek as they headed out for their Saturday night festivities. None of the locals at this dinner liked Balut. But Luisa says she'll take me shopping at the amazing Greenhills mall in a couple of weeks and if I haven't tried it by then, I'll try it there.
Day 2 - Wed 2/11: Slept in and got a ride courtesy of Vicki to the studio at 1pm. Lulu started going over studio orientation stuff with me over lunch at a Philippine restaurant in the Greenbelt mall - mmmm, lumpia, mangoes, sticky rice! When we got back to the studio, I filled out many forms for tax ID number, work visa, etc. Got a map of Manila at the Staples-like store in Paseo Place mall across the street from the studio and walked back to my hotel - faster than a taxi because even in the evening the streets were full of traffic. There were plenty of people out on the sidewalks as well.
Day 3 Thurs 2/12: Apartment search day. Was up way early (still jet-lagging) and took a long roundabout walk to the studio. Took the 9am class with the other departing teacher Marc, who happens to be Christina's husband. (What an amazing pair those two are - killer dialogue, great energy, fun teachers. They're incredibly nice and a hot-looking couple, too! I hope they spend a lot of time at teacher training this spring - they have a lot to offer. If only we'd had more teachers who used the dialogue that consistently in my teacher training, it might have landed in my head right then and there like something I should expect to be using in my teaching five years out! As it is, it took me years to get my head around that idea.) After class, Lulu and I set out to look at about a dozen apartments with two different brokers, all studios or small one-bedrooms renting for about 20,000 pesos ($450) per month. I had initially wanted a bathtub, but bathtubs are about as common as radiators here - I saw a couple of units in a building where all the bathrooms had tubs, but the building was a little old and out-of-the-way. Ultimately I decided that a balcony would be better than a bathtub. Even if it's a freaking oven outside, I like the idea of having my own outside space. Somewhere to relax in the evening, check out what the weather's like, hang yoga clothes, put my umbrella in the rainy season, etc. Between brokers, Lulu and I got some pho at a Vietnamese restaurant in the Paseo Place mall and I had my first mango juice since arriving. Wow - I love mango juice. The food is definitely one of the reasons I came here! At the end of the day we went to the Glorietta mall by the Ayala metro station to find a place that would unlock my Blackberry. Apparently the Blackberry phones are the among the most challenging to unlock, but we found a place that would do it for P2000 ($45) ... and a place next to the SM supermarket (SM stands for ShoeMart ...) that sells bibingka, one of my favorite snack treats I remember from visiting Cebu.
Day 4 - Fri 2/13: I woke up and realized I seemed to be getting sick, a bummer because I was scheduled to go with Lyra (another studio manager) to Quezon City in the afternoon, and then to a farewell party for Marc and Christina in the evening. In the morning, Lulu and I were going to check out a couple more apartments, but overnight I realized that we'd already seen the right one. It's in a building right across the corner from the yoga studio, a 15th-floor studio with tile floors, a balcony, and a nice view. Lulu got in touch with the broker, we had another viewing, and I decided to go with it. It being Friday, we scheduled the move-in day for the following Monday. By the time we got back to the studio I was feeling pretty crappy - sore and feverish, in fact I took my temperature and it was 101. So Lulu took me to get some hot soup at a Chinese restaurant at Paseo Place, and I went home to crash. I was hoping to make the party - I'd actually come to Manila deliberately to be there in time for it - but I was just too much of a mess and didn't want to expose anyone else to my bug, so I stayed in.
Day 5 - Sat 2/14: Valentine's Day - Spent most of the day in bed, the sore throat kicked in, great! I did venture out to check out the weekly farmers market down the street from the yoga studio - I actually have a view of it from my apartment. It's a nice little market, fresh organic produce, fresh breads, local specialties, etc. When I'm not sick it will be a great place to shop - I only went this time to give it a quick look-over and to give the hotel staff time to make up my room.
Day 6 - Sun 2/15: My first teaching day - on the schedule for the 3pm, I figured I'd better take the 9am class - if I survived that, chances were I'd survive teaching the 3pm! Still had a 100-degree temp, and every muscle and joint in my body hurt. Miserable as it was, and despite several postures I had to sit out of, it was a great class to take. I thought I could empathize with students who say "everything hurts" before, but it's one thing to imagine it, to feel it in your body is a world of difference! I felt it in that class. After class I called home ... I'll have to find a more economical way to call, as I spent P400 (about $9) on my prepaid cell phone talking for about 25 minutes, but it was nice to talk to my sister and parents. Taught the 3pm class. I have never taught in such a humid climate - the room felt cold to me, but the students were dying! It reminds me of how if you're jogging on a drizzly 60-degree day, when you get hot and start sweating you get really hot because there's no evaporation. The person you jog by could be standing there shivering and freezing but you're overheated. Now try that at 100 degrees ... swelter city. Then it was back to the hotel to crash as soon as possible to get up to teach the 6:30am and 9:00am on Monday.
Day 7 - Mon 2/16: My last morning in the hotel was a brief one, up at 4:30am I packed my bags and headed over to the studio to teach the two morning classes. Living across the street from the studio will certainly be nice for the ass-crack-of-dawn classes! After class, I went over to my new building to meet the the rental brokers and sign the lease, then poked around with Lyra and Lulu at the studio learning more of the ropes. At 2pm I got to move in - yay! Went back to the Vietnamese place at Paseo Place Mall for a late lunch/early dinner, then spent the evening puttering around, unpacking, rearranging furniture.
Day 8 - Tue 2/17: Had to get up at 5:30am to let Lorrie, another teacher, in as she needed the key to the newly-repaired lock at the studio. Checked some emails at Paseo Place Mall, then headed back home to veg for a while until the 11:45 teacher meeting. Met two other teachers - Ryan (a guy from the London area), and Jean (Jean and Lorrie are Filipinas from Manila). We had a big lunch meeting at the Chinese restaurant at Paseo Place, then headed back to the studio to do dialogue, which was a wake-up call! All the other teachers pretty much knew the postures we picked out of the hat verbatim - Standing Head to Knee and Locust. I didn't ... well, now I know them as I've gone back to rememorize them, but I sucked. Good for me to finally face that - I want to know the dialogue completely verbatim, and I don't. I've got my work cut out for me the next few months, when I leave here I want to own those words! Taught the 6:00pm - 8:00pm double in the evening.
Day 9 - Wed 2/18: Took the 9:00am class ... starting to feel like myself again! In the afternoon, Lyra and I took the metro to the Quezon City studio and I taught the 4:30pm and 6:30pm classes there. On the way to the metro, we walked right by the bibingka stand at the SM Supermarket, so I grabbed one for lunch. A nice studio - the back of the room is a curved wall of windows all the way around presenting a lovely view for the instructor. It's a little over an hour commute when you factor in getting from one studio to the metro, the 20-25-minute metro ride, and getting to the other studio. The students got a kick out of my having bibingka for lunch, I guess it's considered sort of an indulgent treat though it seems pretty sensible to me - a baked batter of coconut milk and glutinous rice baked with salted egg in it. Whenever I talk about liking the local specialties someone mentions balut - apparently this is a cooked duck egg in which the egg has been fertilized and allowed to develop for about two weeks into an embryo. I will have to get some locals to show me where to find and how to eat this. I'll give it a shot if the locals are so into it ... hopefully it's better than eating chicken feet at dimsum, which are all skin and gristle.
Day 10 - Thu 2/19: A day off! I slept in and got a mango drink from the juice bar at Paseo Place and headed towards the conglomeration of malls near the metro station. Vicki, the hotel owner, also owns a swank spa (Spa 6750) there and had given me a gift certificate for a massage. I went in to make an appointment and they had an opening right then, so I got a wonderful 90-minute massage! I'll be back to try the hot stone massage. Blissed out from my massage, I wandered around a bit and picked up some groceries. The last two times I was at the SM supermarket I had bibingka, but this time I was craving protein so I tried the Shwarma sandwich window. Yum! I couldn't go home without getting another Shwarma sandwich - one small one (P40) was not enough of such deliciousness!
Day 11 - Fri 2/20: I thought I was on the schedule for the 6:30am and 9:00am classes, I got there early and started opening up and then Tristan appeared, I was teaching the evening classes, not the morninng classes. Doh! Instead of flopping back to bed I was a good yogi and stayed to take the 6:30am class. I went back to the studio after the 9:00am to meet up with Rochelle, a student who's heading to teacher training in April and whose husband works at the US Embassy. She needed to pick something up there so offered me a ride to register with the Embassy. An interesting life she leads - she's a triathlete, an Ashtanga yoga teacher, a mother of two, and the wife of a US State Department worker who's been posted in Kathmandu and now Manila. After a back injury a couple of years ago, she got into practicing Bikram and has decided to learn to teach Bikram as well. After the embassy, we headed back to Makati and had some awesome ramen at a Japanese noodle place, complete with actual Japanese chefs in the kitchen. I'd never had a proper bowl of ramen before - these noodles were amazing! A little chewy, a little soft, subtle and delicious. I absolutely stuffed my face and when I was teaching the 4:00pm and 6:30pm classes later I was definitely feeling all those noodles and soup in my stomach, but it was totally worth it.
Day 12 - Sat 2/21: Another day off. I headed over to the farmers market that's around the corner from my apartment. When healthy, it was much more fun! Right as I came in was a fruit drink stand, so I got my favorite mango shake. The Paseo Place shakes are yummier and less expensive, but it was still pretty good ... this time I went for chicken empanadas and some budbud, glutinous rice treats wrapped in coconut leaves. Why budbud aren't easier to find around Manila I don't know, as the stand was busily selling out of them quite early in the morning, but hey, at least I got some. I'll have to show up earlier next week to get the Ube ones! I took the 3pm class and then got an invitation to join a student, Pilar, at her house for a simple dinner. Also joining us were another Yoga student, Luisa, who got Pilar started practicing about a month ago, an Austrian woman Sylvia who works at the Austrian embassy, and Pilar's middle daugher. Pilar has four teenaged kids, a daughter who's 18 and going to Macalester college in St. Paul, MN next year (having never actually stepped in snow in her life - brave girl!), boy-and-girl twins who turn 16 this week, and a 13-year-old daughter. The youngest was already out when we arrived, but we saw the others and they are so delightful. Gracious hosts, they came and greeted us all, introducing themselves and and kissing us on the cheek as they headed out for their Saturday night festivities. None of the locals at this dinner liked Balut. But Luisa says she'll take me shopping at the amazing Greenhills mall in a couple of weeks and if I haven't tried it by then, I'll try it there.
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