Week 6 ~ In The Past!

It's really hard to believe we are starting week 7! It still seems like we have another lifetime to go, but 3 weeks sounds OK to me.
This week can only be characterized by the arrival of Rajashree (Bikram's wife). She floated into our world like Glenda the good witch of the north (from the Wizard of Oz) in a giant pink bubble, waved her magic wand and all was well. We were all stressed to the max after last week's excessive number of posture clinics. Her classes are soothing and calming. Not easy, mind you, but not aggro. Just really perfect. We had lectures and posture discussions all week. I actually only performed 3 postures last week ~ a far cry from the week before. We spent two afternoon sessions going over each posture. The trainees would come up to the stage and she would discuss the posture and give her assessment and corrections. It was extremely educational and we got invaluable information for use in teaching. For some reason, however, it seemed that everyone was extremely tired. Even though it was a much easier week overall than the past few weeks. We got to bed by 11:30 every night. Seven and 1/2 hours sleep is a major luxury here! I think the tiredness was a result of the cumulative effect of the whole training. We all made it through though with 11 more classes under our belts. We have now had 65 classes! Wow! I told John this morning, on the phone, that it seems like doing two classes a day has become a part of life. Get up, brush your teeth, go to class, etc. Of course, when I get home, I might sleep for two days, I don't know!
I think things will heat up again next week because Bikram is coming back into town and Rajashree left yesterday. That means those 2:00 AM bedtimes. Sandra, you asked me what he talks about until 2:00 in the morning. "You have no idea" (said with thick Indian accent) is the only way I can describe it. He says that all the time. He was right when he said that to us in the beginning of training. We definitely had NO IDEA! He talks about life in general, yoga philosophy, etc., all peppered with those outrageous stories of his. I have never heard anyone that can tell a story like him. Half the time you are laughing so hard you can't breathe! Also, you wanted to know how you stay awake. Believe me, plenty of people don't. They have to keep rousting people from sleep because Bikram considers it very rude when people fall asleep when he's lecturing (I suppose that's a reasonable assessment), so the teacher assistants go around waking them up. Also, I've never known anyone who can talk for four solid hours and seem to be just getting warmed up. He is an amazing human being. His genius is only exceeded by his wackiness!
Oh, and your other comment, San, was that I need to eat to keep up my health. Well, I am doing that but believe me, it's not easy. I am never hungry. I only eat because I have to eat for energy and strength. It's not just me though. Everyone says the same thing. Doing so much yoga just does that to you. I am eating when I need to eat and that's about it. I am also craving strange stuff that I haven't eaten in 30 years, like Cokes and potato chips. I just eat them when I crave them and I don't worry about it. Basically, I'm feeding my body what it craves. I also crave fish, vegetables and rice so it's not all junk food. It's a really interesting process because I got a sore throat last week and in each class I would lose tons of mucous (sorry) until finally after three days the whole thing was out of my system. I've never seen anything like it!

Michael showed a video of a news show on KOHD in Bend. It was an interview with Rajashree when she was there doing a seminar. I was sooooo homesick watching it. I got a glimpse of my wonderful teacher and friend Tricia. I almost cried! Also, it featured a lot of shots of Kathy doing some of her perfect postures. She looked so beautiful and graceful. I wanted to be there and give her a hug. I was looking for others in the crowd that I might recognize. I saw Jerry Lopez but I couldn't pick out anyone else.
I am getting ready to start memorizing Half Tortoise Pose. I have memorized 20 so far and I have 5 more to go. We aren't going to perform Final Breathing, I don't think. Rumor has it that Bikram is going to do the breathing exercises with us separately. Not in posture clinic, that is.
It's kind of scary to think what might be in store for us in the next 3 weeks, so I guess I'll just relax and take it one day at a time. Tonight the hotel is throwing a barbeque for us at 7:00 PM. I'm going to go for a short while, but as usual, I want to do my Saturday night Rip Van Winkle imitation.
I'm going to go to Mega for supplies, then come back to the room for a rest before the party tonight. So I guess I'll end for now. Hopefully, I can do a Sunday evening post tomorrow. If not, I'll be back next week. Bye for now!