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