Thirsty!

So thirsty... All the time -____-

Week 2 comes to an end

2 down, 7 to go. Has it really been 2 weeks? Wow... Sometimes we forget what day it is, and have to double check with each other, or we think something happened earlier in the day, when really it was yesterday or the day before that even, the days are just blending together, and going really really fast! We are exhausted, very little sleep, long lectures, posture clinic and of course 2 Bikram hot yoga classes a day, that are usually longer than the regular 90 minutes, wowee! The room temperature has finally become normal, hot and humid! Some yogi trainees are not happy about the heat and humidity, but I love it, it feels like home :) I mean, this is HOT YOGA after all! I am finally sweating! The teachers here are great, everyone is a little different and very knowledgeable, I really miss my BYL teachers though. This journey has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster for me so far, but I figure I am just getting all the bumps and kinks out of the way now, in the first week I was having like 16 different things going wrong/weird with my body (not having heat in the room was a big part of it) then I got a bad cut on my finger that wouldn't heal because of doing so much yoga, then a few other minor things, but throw together 10+ minor things and you've got Nikki freaking out a little... Much better now though :) A couple late nights this week, lectures, Bollywood movies, documentaries, but we won't have Bikram until May 11th, he has gone traveling to do a number of things all around the world, the international yoga guru :) What can I tell you about this week? I started swimming lengths once or twice a day, I know it sounds crazy after all the yoga, but I am not sore! The cool water releases the lactic acid in your muscles after it builds up in class, and then I feel so nice and refreshed, plus being out in the sun makes me feel so much better, I sometimes forgot I'm in LA because we are kept in the hotel for sometimes 20+ hours a day, with little time to ourselves which is spent in our room, eating, showering, studying and sleeping. I have met so many amazing new friends and yogi's, pretty much everyone has a smile on their face and kind positive words (except at 4AM when we are kept up watching 3 hour Bollywood movies with sub-titles). Last night we had a lecture from Jim Kallet, senior teacher, owns a studio in San Diego, WOW, what a powerful man, and he is a great teacher. We talk about heat, and teaching with compassion and understanding, I am trying to be more understanding and compassionate through out this process, as well more PATIENT, living with 430+ sweaty, tired, hungry (sometimes stressed) other people is a process that takes some getting used to, as well as patience, understanding and compassion. Its kind of impossible to describe in words, nobody from the outside world can understand exactly what goes on here, except for those that are here with me, or have done it in the past, its amazing, challenging, frustrating, rewarding, tough and fun, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually this TT experience is working my whole soul, inside out, bones to skin, finger tips to toes ;) to those I love & cherish, I miss you all.

Dream come true.

This is Brandy Winfield, current world hatha yoga champion. Talented, beautiful & kind, this women was an inspiration to me before I even met her. Thank you for giving me a chance Brandy, I'll never forget it.

1 week down, 8 to go..

Ah Saturday, my new favorite day of the week. For a visual idea of my weekly schedule see a couple posts ago. 8AM yoga class today, and then we were free! So far so good, had a rough start to the week, my body was being weird, and I had a pretty bad cut on my finger that was bothering me a lot during practice, but all those things passed. 10 classes this week, first class at TT was Bikram, then we had class from Emmy (senior most Bikram teacher, the only person who can quote "kick Bikram's ass") Brandy (current woman's world champion), Jim (San Diego studio owner & senior teacher) and a number of other amazing teachers! Our teacher from this morning did 1 set of triangle in French! We are still working on getting every trainee through half moon, all 430 of us sit in the lecture hall as one by one we go up on stage and recite the posture to Bikram... My roommate was saying half moon in her sleep last night, not kidding, I had to wake her up and tell her to be quiet. My biggest highlights of the week were practicing with the world champ, Brandy, and getting some one on one time with her after class, she helped me with my back bands, she even pushed me to try an advanced posture called full standing bow! I'm looking forward to spending more time with her, she is so kind and her mom is in my TT too! Another highlight, we were on a short break from lecture and the line up for the bathroom was HUGE, Bikram walked by and said "line is so long, you all pee so much, want to use my suite, I have 3 bathroom" eagerly 5 of us took the opportunity to go with him! I used his bathroom, his little yoga speedo's were hanging in the tub, it was too funny! I took the opportunity to sit beside him twice this week, I got the opportunity to thank him for helping my dad save his life through this yoga, Bikram kissed my cheek and said "cute like a baby" and then later introduced me to his best friend Iqbal, a doctor from Vancouver area, Bikram had me tell my dads story again, Iqbal then asked if I would speak to other doctors about the wonders this yoga did for my dads body, can you believe it?! Since Bikram now personally knows my name, he called me out in class, in triangle -___- the hardest and worst posture for me, he killed me! He says "hips, hips not in line, what is wrong with her hips, I have to fix her hips", he says I can fix my postures in 9 weeks time, I believe him. It is my dream to share this yoga with the world as a teacher, and one day further my own practice enough to represent my country as an international hatha yoga champion, hopefully I can keep practicing with Brandy and learning from Bikram :) Funny stories from the week: 7 hour lecture/posture clinic/bollywood movie night, Sam and I are sitting together curled up with a blanket, I thought I saw him bring a pillow down, I say "Sam where's the pillow" he says "What pillow, I didn't bring one" a few minutes later I ask again, he doesn't answer, a third time I'm like "Sam, seriously where did the pillow go I want something to lean on" he says "Just use your back fat" I sit up to beat his ass and I notice the pillow is propped up under his back the whole time, I knew it! Another, Bikram says he can hold & bounce in 3rd part awkward longer than anyone, he gets on the stage, arms up parallel to the floor, sits down all the way and literally bounces up and down like 40 times, even up and down the little steps on the stage! Also, he called out someone with a big ass in class, mean, but funny at the same time because he said he wants to work them harder to make their ass smaller... Oh Bikram.

5 classes in 3 days

Just finished class 5, 5 down, 92 more to go! I didn't count ps, my friend did :) Tonight's class was awesome! I practiced beside Binny and Sam, my new friends from Australia, Sam said he watched my shoulders rotate of my body in camel, whee :) So far so good, my butt is a little sore and my ham strings ( of course ). I am finally starting to sweat, the first 4 classes was towel and body were more or less dry! Bikram Yoga Langley is way hotter than this yoga room, and I miss it! See Langley, we really are the hottest yogi's ever, miss you all!

Nikki delivers half moon in front of boss... And almost 500 other people!

I did my half moon posture in front of Bikram yesterday, I was probably the 30th person to go (out of 426) I was on the side of the stage waiting to go, I guess I was mouthing the dialogue with the guy who was reciting his before me, and Bikram saw me doing that, made direct eye contact with me (about 20 feet away) gave me the biggest smile and a thumbs up, I guess he saw how nervous I was preparing to go on, I was now shaking... I got up there said 'I'm Nikki Kennedy from Vancouver British Columbia Canada' people cheered, I said the right side half moon. I don't remember how I said it, how fast, if I made any mistakes, but I was shaking. I finished he said "WOWWWWW... You see that, I made that. Should I be proud? I am proud. Beautiful. She is beautiful, that is beautiful. Why you shake. I made that, I MADE THAT" I was shaking so much. Afterward Denine told me I made ONE mistake. Near the end I mixed up one word. He said my row that went (4 people are on stage at a time) had the best dialogue all day. I am really proud of myself for this, I was shaking like crazy on the stage, and that's really all I remember, except for what he said to me, that I will never forget.

The day I met Bikram Choudhury

Today, well technically yesterday, Monday, April 18th 2011, was the day I met Bikram. All 426 of us teacher trainee's gathered in the conference hall for 10AM, senior teacher Jim Kallet, spoke with us for over an hour about rules and regulations, with kind and wise words of encouragement, just before 11:30 Bikram walked on to the stage, I was front row, 6 feet away from the man who helped save my life. He spoke with such a light to him, it was uplifting, and hilarious, his words were funny, wise, touching and right, his yoga works. At 5PM we took our first class as teacher trainee's, the room is massive, 16,000 square feet, the biggest hot yoga room in the world. Bikram taught the class, I was second row and to the right of his podium, which was at least 5 feet high. The class was challenging, but the energy was contagious, I had a really bad headache because of my contact lenses, but I pushed through it. Tomorrow will be our first day with two classes, 8:30AM & 5PM. So as most of you know, Bikram Yoga is a series of 26 postures over 90 minutes, each one done twice, always in the same order, as teacher trainee's we have to learn to say all 26 (what we call the dialogue) exactly how its written by Bikam... Anyways, to learn the postures over the next 9 weeks we are organized into "posture clinics" a group of 20-40 people, in alphabetical order, and as the weeks progress we progress through learning the postures, but the first posture (half moon pose), EVERYONE has to say in front of Bikram, so starting tomorrow, in our lecture hall, we start, all 426 of, each person gets on the stage with a mic and says the posture to Bikram and 3 people demonstrate the posture as you say it, that is going to take 2 weeks they say, I plan to say mine tomorrow, I feel ready to, and I just want to get it out of the way. Wheee - bed time :)

A day in the life of... Well me!

This is what my weekly schedule will look like for the next 2 months!

A really special yogini sister I have...

Through out my 9 week TT journey, I will be sharing this with over 400 people from around the world, one in particular has a very special place in my heart even before we go, her name is Denine Hoffman. She is the other student from Bikram Yoga Langley coming to TT this year, and I couldn't be more thrilled to share it with her! Let me tell you about Denine, she is a beautiful blond yogini with a contagious bright smile, you'll often find her front row of the hot room working really hard on her mat. We struggled together in posture clinics at our home studio in preparation for TT, but always wrapped them up with hugs and laughter... Funny note, when I would get confused in awkward posture she would end up holding it for me while I figured it out for twice the time, usually happened during second part, thanks Denine, you are amazing! xox

Registration & Orientation tomorrow..

I made it! I arrived safe & sound in LA yesterday afternoon. I am staying with family friends until tomorrow morning when I will depart for the Radisson Hotel (beside LAX) where I will live for the next 9 weeks, alongside 400+ happy smiling yogi faces. Los Angeles was 22 degrees yesterday and 31 today! Went for a 3 hour hike today, saw a big rattle snake, also have some tan lines from my back pack! I love you sunshine. Tomorrow we will register for TT and then have orientation at 3pm, I couldn't even tell you all my emotions right now, but for certain I am very very excited. To those I love & cherish, & Bikram Yoga Langley, I won't let you down!