9 weeks OVER!

OMG this past final week went by extremely fast. Bikram went through all the postures with us during lectures. He actually didn't make up stay up too late except for the last movie night. Yesterday was the day that everyone was waiting for. We had Rajashree taught us in the morning and of course Boss taught the FINAL class. The class was packed with visitors (family and friends), visiting teachers and staff. When Boss finished signing 1000 books, he walked in at 6pm. Everyone cheered and few beach balls were being tossed around. The 90 min went by quick. Everyone was pumping up for the final breathing. Once the Boss said "That's Enough" for the breathing. Everyone CHEER and Stood up, clapping and hugging each other. Then Boss played Disco music. Everyone started to find their friends and hugging and cheering that "We DID IT!" Total Emotional Release! We are finally becoming Bikram Yoga Certified Teachers!

Looking back this 9 weeks in LA. I became more independent and took care of myself. However, I have to give a big thanks to my new friends that I met here. They were all extremely supportive and especially when I was sick, they took care of me. Besides studying and lectures, I had fun, seriously, I did. I was able to visit places that I have never been before (Hollywood, Santa Monica, Venice Beach, Manhattan Beach...etc) Very thankful that my family and friends back home supported me because without their financial and emotional support I would not be here BYTT Spring 2012. You'll never know what will happen in the future but live in the moment and enjoy 100% of it.

1 more week!

Finally week 8 is over! This was a long week for us because we did not have last weekend off. Although, we had an awesome week 8! First, demo team were picked, and many of my friends made into the team! I did not try out because I know what level I am. We had a pizza party yesterday night followed by full night of dancing with the Boss. Yogis DO know how to party!!! We were all sweating and our shirts were drenched. We danced to recent pop music as well as Michael Jackson, ABBA, and of course BOLLYWOOD musics! It was awesome, the lecture room was turned into a dance club. One thing is in stead of alcohol, we had pops! LOL. No Alcohol during TT! Today is Friday and we had the NIGHT OFF after the 5pm class because the hotel needs both Yoga room and the lecture room to setup for this weekend's World Yoga Championship. Tomorrow I will do my last weekend shopping in LA then sunday will watch the Finalist! Week 9 here we GO!

No Break until next weekend

Because the heater problem, we had to make up the few missed classes over the week 7 weekend. And the classes were HOT, lots of people had to sit out (including me). I feel sorry for those people who already made plans for the weekends such as attending a wedding, flying home, tours..etc. They either have to cancel or push it forward to next week. I planned a Group dinner with my group mates (my work habit finally come into play). We had a wonderful dinner (I hope everyone think so) at Ayara, a Thai restaurant near by. It is best to make reservation on the weekends as that place tends to be very busy.

I believe Bikram will start his lectures about each postures and Rajashree will go into more depth about her lectures as well. Also next week, there will be Yoga Championship at the hotel! 2 more weeks left!

Classes going off schedule

It is week 7 now! Starting to see the finish line! However, this week started off with classes going off schedule! First we had 1/2 Monday off because it was Memorial Day. We had awesome pool party! Today's morning class was not hot at all. When we were about to sign in for the 5pm class, we were notified the class was cancelled. At night, Bikram told us that the next day morning class will be cancelled too. And the reason was, a trainee reported to the fire department about us suffering in the hot room. The fire department came to inspect and all the taped doors were off taped and the exit signs in the hot room were put it back on. Boss was not at all happy about this situation and he kicked the trainee out of the training. WOW. I wonder how the person got the gut to do such a thing.

Hot Hot Hot

BY teacher Re certification started today. OMG  ‎420 trainees + 120 recert. teachers + some visiting teachers / staff + 1 Bikram = the hottest class yet so far at TT. Heard it was 120 degree F / 48 degrees C! It was HELL~ Also the posture clinics' pace is getting faster! Need to review my dialogue over the weekend. But wait I have to enjoy my Saturday because... going to watch Cirque du Soleil Iris at Kodak theater. Actually it will be my first time ever visit Hollywood area in LA!

Bikram & Rajashree are back

Yesterday was the first day we had Rajashree (Bikram's lovely wife) as our yoga instructor. She had been traveling around the world to host seminars. Her voice was so soothing and her jokes were very funny. I enjoyed her class very much! She is one of those teachers that could kill you with her lovely voice in the 90 min class. Talking about voice, yesterday my posture clinic feedback was I know how to smile and kill people at the same time in a 90 min class. Awesome! LOL The instructor was telling me to help people and share my smiling skill to those who are struggling with having fun and delivering the dialogue at the same time. ^_^

Also last night was Boss' first lecture night after his trip. He was so nice he let us off early at 11:30ish. It is week 5 and it is the half way point today! just 4.5 more weeks to go! WOOHOO! I believe Hell's Week starts next week? LOL

Week 5 coming up!

 
 




This past week, we continued our anatomy and posture clinics when Bikram is away. He is coming back this week! Hell's week coming up. Just before that started, my friend and I found a way to relax. Headed to Santa Monica Beach! The #3 bus at the LAX bus station took us all the way there! No transfer! We had brunch at the pier's mexican restaurant, then walked around the Pier e is an amusement park (actually for kids). It was a bit windy and cloudy today when we were at the beach. We studied Anatomy and our dialogue for a bit. We headed back up the main streets and found ourselves at the Promanade shopping district! By then the sun came out and it was shopping time. I got a couple of socks and a couple of shirts. Very good deal! Now in preparation for Week 5!

Week 3 Down!

We had an extremely hot Saturday morning class this week. There were always people leaving the hot room, sometimes 5-6 people at a time! I had trouble doing some of the postures as well, but I tried my best and remain in the room even if I am just lying down. At the end of class, the instructor told us to remain in the room; however, a lot of people ignored her and left anyway. This left me think about the respect and discipline we are here to learn during TT.

I know many of us struggled but can we not remain in savasana for another 2 min when we have already gone through 90 min? Some people say that we cannot make people stay in the room. I agreed but what about the discipline as teachers soon-to-be should have? How can we set the examples for our future students? We cannot the room before Bikram does, then should we not at least give similar respect to the visiting teachers?

As for today, my friend and I went to Venice Beach in the morning for brunch till afternoon. We took the #3 Big Blue Bus from the LAX Bus Center to Venice Blvd+Lincoln Street and transfer to #33 Metro Bus. Please be sure you purchase a transfer fare when you board the #3 Blue Bus. So you don't have to pay the regular fare when you get on #33. There were so many people at Venice Beach, lots of merchants and booths. We stayed at the beach to do some postures and enjoying the sunshine. Some people rather stayed in the hotel to study. I would suggest, GO OUT & STUDY! It's so much more enjoyable! We are already stuck inside the hotel Mon-Fri! We need fresh air! Weekend is the moment we enjoy the real LA!

 
 

 

Anatomy & Posture Clinic

Today we started the anatomy lecture with Dr. P. OMG He was so funny and his lecture is very interesting. Especially when the way he emphasizes what materials are being tested.
Just before we were signing for the night lecture, we found out there was a change of plan and instead we had posture clinics. While waiting for the room to open, I found Dr. P giving out correction on spine. I went to give it a try. He cracked my back! haha it felt awesome afterwards and felt loosen up a bit.

Our first posture clinic was backward bending & hands to feet pose. We were divided into groups, each group consists of 20 people. Two groups will be assigned to a room each posture clinic. I was about 15th person to go up. I would recommend those to head up as soon as possible as when you sitting down listening to other people. You might hear mistakes and words that are not in the dialogue that other people said. This confuses me and made me worry. SO just go and don't think too much. My 6 months + practice dialogue paid off. The feedback was "Have you been teaching already?". I was surprised and happy that I got such an awesome feedback. Now more pressure is on! I have to keep it up with the rest of the dialogue.
 

Sunny 2nd weekend

Woohoo another week had gone by, that means Team Sunday for breakfast again!
This time we again chose a restaurant Manhattan Beach called Uncle Bill's Pancake house.
I had a big huge pancake breakfast which lasted me until late afternoon. After breakfast, we went down to the beach and studied a bit of the dialogue and most important of all, enjoy the sunshine!
OMG so nice and different from Vancouver's beaches.

Almost done week 2

We watched a movie about Bikram's Guru Bishnu Gosh last night. It's all TV show clips on Yoga shows around Japan and the US during the 1960s and 70s. It's very interesting to see all these yoga moves and stunts. We also got a glimpse of Boss's look when he was younger. Boss let us off earlier last night at around 12:30pm. However, when I woke up this morning, I was so dead tired and sleepy that in Emmy's class I sat out a few of the postures. I felt like I went back to week 1 day 1 again! I was much better in the afternoon class.  

Weekend & Week 2

Last weekend was our first weekend off. A group of us gathered together on FB for Sunday breakfast. We took the $5 Ocean Express Trolley down to Manhattan Beach. Although the weather wasn't extremely pleasant, it was still a nice gateaway from the hotel. After breakfast we walked around for a bit and some of us had ice-cream for dessert! I strongly recommend those future trainees to go out with friends on weekends as much as possible. Take the opportunities to gather and meet new friends! This is once in a life time experience and chance to meet people from all over the world!

Week 2 started yesterday. Monday morning classes, I believe are always the worse. Body was stiff, cannot do much bending. The way I see this training is to pace ourselves. Yes, Bikram told us to take it easy on the 1st week. However, I believe it is a marathon, one should not push too hard through out training right away.

Week 1 down!

Today after the 8:00am morning, we have the rest of the weekend off. Boss's shuttles will start this weekend to let us go to various places to buy stuff from 10:00am-6:00pm. North Shuttle goes to trader joes and Ralph area. South shuttle goes to Target and Whole Food area. I did my laundry today at the hotel. TT setup a laundry service every Friday and Monday for us to drop off and pick up the laundry. However, its laundry by lb, min. $10. I rather do the laundry at the hotel. My room is directly across the laundry room, which is very convenient. It's $2 to wash and $2 to dry, which is reasonable.
Tomorrow maybe Beach & rest time! WOOHOO

Bollywood Movie & TT

We watched our first Bollywood movie in TT last night after the 5pm class. But before that, we had a mini lecture with the training nurse. She stressed to us the importance of maintaining a good balance diet with balanced hydration. Don't over drink and don't do not drink. She said the first couple of weeks might feel cramps in our body, but that is absolutely normal because our body is not used to do doubles everyday. So do not think we are lacking electrolytes. We also have to be careful of supplements we take because for example, Magnesium in Emergen C are laxative and might cause diarrhea.

The movie started shortly after Boss came and it's called Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai. Everyone brought snacks during the movie because the staff permitted it. However, no sleeping during the movie. Bikram wanted us to learn Indian culture from the movies. The movie went to 1:30am. Lacking sleep!

Hot Yoga + Half Moon

The first class with Bikram was brutal, actually up until now still is LOL. I find that i did much better in the morning class than the evening classes. Every inche of my body muscles are screaming in pain! I drank Vega Recovery Accelerator after each class to help my body to recover faster. So far its not working yet, but I will keep drinking, maybe I will see the effect after a couple more days. Before the morning classes, because I cannot eat much, I drank Miso soup, an advice I got from my yoga buddy back in Richmond. I think maybe that's why I did better in morning's. I got the instant Miso from Ralph's, but I asked my new friend who is from the local area to help me get some miso paste. My advice to those who are reading this blog and who is planning to come for future trainings, DO make new friends because seriously helping eachother is very important to make the 9 weeks journey much easier! Don't worry if you don't remember everyone's names. There are 400 of us, just try your best.

After morning class, we have a lunch break. Eve though it said its 2 hours long, usually is less because either the class run over time or after prep cooking and eating, we had to sign-in for the lectures at 12:00pm. Yesterday, we started delivering Half-Moon in front of the Boss. Everyone was super supportive and helpful. The Boss was very nice and his feedbacks are very useful! I delivered mine during the night lecture. The Boss said my problem was lacking personality when delivering the dialogue. He said I am like an auto pilot which the dialogue was excellent but the personality part will take time to develop.

Registration & Orientation

 
Today is the day of Registration & Orientation, but before that, a group of us took the $5 Ocean Express Trolley ride to Whole Foods for some grocery shopping. As I know that the store is quite pricey therefore, I did not get tooo much stuff there. On our way to the store, we passed by Manhattan Beach, gotta visit that place when I have time! 

Registration started at 1pm and lots and lots of us started to line up by alphabetical order of our last names. We double checked if our names and address are correct, if so, then we were given the course materials. During registration, I also purchased the laminated version of the dialogue. There were 2 sizes, one is pocket size one is half of A4. I picked the half of A4 because the pocket size is just too small! The Bikram Yoga Boutique was also setup during registration for buying water bottles, mats, clothes, CDs...etc. I bought a Black water bottle cuz I have forgotten my big blue Klean Kanteen at home. >_< Meanwhile waiting for the 3pm orientation, I took a sneak peak at our yoga room. Quite big!

 

The orientation lasted about 1.5 hours. Basically talked about what to expect and the policies and rules during the whole TT. Bikram's daughter gave the welcoming speech, but unfornately Bikram is not here, he will be doing his welcoming speech tomorrow in his lecture! It is confirmed that we have 424 trainees for this training!!! After orientation, we had a free buffet dinner at the hotel great food! Then my roommate and I went to Ralphs to get the rest of our week's supplies of groceries. Maybe we will hit Trader Joe's next time. 

Tomorrow is the big DAY!

Finally Touch Down in LAX

Today is the day! After months of anticipation, I finally face the day! The day of coming down to LA for 9 weeks of intensive TT. I booked my flight with WestJet at 8:00am. It was my first time using Nexus to fly, I didn't know how early ahead of time I should check-in at the airport. Therefore, its better to be early than sorry, I got there almost 4 hours early at 4:45am. Just sat there to wait for the check-in counter to open 2 hours before flight time. Although, there are quite a number of flights heading down to the states, because I had the Nexus, I skipped the long line ups at the security checks (I still had to get checked but skipped to the front of the line). I was worried about what to say at the border, as many stories have been told that people got turned away. When I saw the agent, he was having a good mood morning, he just asked me "Are you going to LA for business or pleasure?" I answered "Pleasure", then he let me go. PHEW! That took care of a couple of nights of worries.

At 10:20am TOUCH DOWN LAX. I had to go to the info desk to ask for where the hotel shuttle would be and he was very helpful and helped me dial the number to the hotel. Waited for the shuttle for about a good 20 min. While the shuttle went to different terminals to pick up guests, I met several trainees heading to the hotel as well. Once we arrived, we met more and more trainees who came down either earlier or the same morning. It's time to start bonding and making friends! Then I went to meet my roommate whom we met on the TT Fb group. Since our room was not ready, we took a short trip to the near by strip malls. The stores are about 15 -20min walking distance from the hotel. It's quite windy today at LA so I had to wear scarf and light jacket. We went for our first meal in LA, which was In-N-Out Burgers. I never had them before and was surprised by the flock of customers and LONG Drive Drive line up with such small selection of burgers. But it was all good as we both were very hungry.

After lunch, I went to AT&T to get a local phone for 2 months as I can text back home. We stopped at Bed Bath Beyond for laundry drying rack, soaps, and my can opener. Carrying all those stuff back to hotel was a drag. I didn't sleep much as my yogi friends had farewell dinner with me the night before by the time I gone home and finish my packing was almost 1am. I tried to nap on the plane, but couldn't really. Therefore, it was exhausting, what made it worse was that our room was not ready until 4:30pm!

Once we got our room on the 4th floor near the elevator was awesome. The ice machine is on the other side of the elevator which is a great place because it won't be as noisy when trainees fight for the ice.
I layed out my stuff on the desk as my roomie doesn't really use the desk. and here it is:

I brought Emergen C, Vega Electrolyte Hydrator, Vega Recovery Accelerator, All Greens Powder, Sea Salt, Maple Syrup, a Multi-pot, a 40oz Hydro Flask (blue) and 2 Klean Kanteen bottles, a Thermocafe mug, a Britta water filter jug, Multi Vitamins, Omega 3 pills, cutting boards, can openers and of course my laptop + many more!!!

Pre-TT Meet & Greet

I had an awesome day today! Thanks to Marty (Trainee from Langley Studio) setup a Pre-TT  Meet & Greet for as many Vancouverite trainees as possible (5 of us showed up) to gather at the Burnaby Studio (Thanks to Esther, the owner for letting us meet-up and taking her class). It was nice to finally meet someone whom you started just chatting and exchange ideas over fb. We received much advices and support from Esther. She told us about the "Operational Command" method for helping us on nailing the dialogue. This method is to pick out key points in each posture and many corrections we do are based on repetition of the key points. Learned something new and useful today! As for us the trainees, we chatted before and after class about thinking what its gonna be like in TT. What didn't know what questions to ask Esther because we didn't know what is there to expect. Well we'll know in a month!

Sponsorship

I am super happy today! I took a 6:15pm class after work and after class, I received a present for TT. 2 Grey Alpha shorts! Light Active Wear is a yoga wear brand based in Vancouver created by the Lei sisters! The Lei sisters are so generous that they sponsor teachers who are heading down to TT a pair of free yoga clothes. I would have to say that their product is amazing, its the most comfortable and stretching clothes I've worn so far! I love the fabric texture, but would like to see more designs on guy shorts~ LOL. Spice it up!

Once again thank you Light Active Wear! If you want, please do check out their website.
http://www.lightactivewear.com/

Posture Clinic with an instructor

Yesterday I had another hot hot class. Had to sit out in a few of the postures, BUT once I got the energy again, I didn't give up for the rest of the class. After class, I delivered 3 postures to an instructor from Standing head to knee to balancing stick. I was not as nervous as before and this time, the instructor taught me how I should stand and where my arms/hands should go when I am actually teaching. I tend to stand with my feet together and arms on the back. She suggested to stand hip width apart and arms down side. This way it shows more confident in myself also a good posture for sending out the energy. Thanks for the tips!

I read on the FB group that a lot of people are not bother with the dialogue until LA. From my instructors experiences and my own theory, I think to learn the dialogue as much as possible before heading down to TT is the better option. Yes, some people are busy but I think everyone could squeeze in 30 min sometime during their day to read the dialogue. Even the head quarter suggests we learn the dialogue BEFORE we head down is better so we get more time to rest and not stress out at TT

Hot Class

Tonight's Yoga class was very hot, once I hit the floor, the floor seems to be burning! Does TT feels like this 24/7?

I've been browsing at our Spring TT FB group. Lots of comments and suggestions on how to maintain a balanced diet during TT. The information were very helpful, but I would have to be honest that I would take those as recommendation but not follow thru with it 100%. Each person is different and their diet and appetite is different. Some people say eat lots of nuts and yogurts. I would eat those as treats. Bananas are good and I would eat those lots as I do like bananas. My friend told me Miso soup is great during TT. I would follow with that as I like Miso too. Therefore, my conclusion is take bits and pieces from different suggestions and just combine and alter them that fits my own taste.

2nd Time

Tonight was my 2nd time my instructor asked me to deliver a set of dialogue in front of a big class (was it about 40-50 students?). Standing Head to Knee 1st set this time. Although I had the dialogue memorized when practicing alone, once I stepped up the podium, everything changed.

I started Okay then kinda lost what I had to say during the kicking out part. Kept telling the students to have their standing knee solid concrete lamp post no Knee, which is a key factor in the posture but I don't remember what else I said. LOL That means I gotta drill hard on my dialogue even more and more and more! I delivered the left side, but she told me after class that new teachers should just stick to what to say similar from the right side instead until I can nail it before changing up my dialogue. It was an overwhelming experience and I sweat so much even just standing up there and teaching. I dunno is it just me, I feel I kinda go short of breath when I am on there, probably just me too nervous. Even I had delivered a set of Awkward before, I still feel nervous, I think it's because I am still lacking practice in front of a big crowd. Hopefully, I will be much much better after TT.

This & That

I have resumed my 4x practices and each time until the middle of the class, I think to myself I HATE THIS YOGA, when is the class gonna end.

But each time as I reach to Half Tortoise I felt AWESOME and had the real strength to finish my class. Yes that's right, Half Tortoise is better than 8 hours of sleep!

Coming back to prep for TT, there were many things the Spring TT group had talked about and everyone was so helpful to each other.

One of the things I worry about is the drink water situation. My ex-manager + instructor told me that he got cramps after drinking a week straight of LA tap water. Then he decided to buy water from Costco. I thought about that too, but without a car, sometimes its hard to carry so much with you back to the hotel. Yes there is shuttle, but with 400 of us there, chances are have to wait long? One of the fb (facebook) group member had a really good point, if we use the ice machine there, mind as well drink tap water!? SO true LOL. Well I got a 10 cup Brita filter pitcher on sale already, mind as well bring it down and use it in my room.

One thing I borrowed from a friend who went to TT last fall was an adjustable camping floor chair. I heard that during TT posture clinics, everyone would be sitting on the floor. As for someone who gets sore back easily by sitting on floor, I think this gadget would help me a great deal! It's design is just like a L shape cardboard with adjustable straps on the side and you can fold up and carry it around. It also fits into my luggage! LOL

March 1st - 1 & 0.5 months Away

Today is March 1st 2012! Start the count down to my BY TT Spring 2012 begins on April 15, 2012.
For those who are not too familiar with abbreviations I use BY = Bikram Yoga, TT = Teacher Training.
Actually to be honest, I have been preping for TT a while ago, well mostly preparing myself mentally. I've been asking instructors and friends who went to the last TT of how to prep myself and what to expect there. Everyone was so helpful and received lots of suggestions and advices.  ^_^

Recently already gathering actual stuff for the training and believe me or not packing my luggage. I know its a bit early but that's me slowly taking my time to fill up my luggage. A lot of people told me to not bring that much down to LA as I can buy most stuff there, but when I see things are on sale, I just cannot stop myself.

I bought mostly vitamin & supplements, energy mixes, water filter jug, thermos, and insulated water bottles. I will make a more thorough checklist before I depart.