A few weeks ago, I was at dinner with my host mom and got talking about yoga and the Yoga Park. She said I could take classes at the same place she does if I wanted and she'd help me register the next day. For $130 pesos(about $30US)I got a month of yoga classes twice a week and anyone who knows the average price of a single group yoga class in the states knows that this is crazy cheap. I've been going for the last two weeks and so far, I've been the only person in class. Which means I'm basically getting private yoga lessons.
The instructor can't say my name properly so in yoga class, I'm Victoria (my middle name). She's a very calm middle-aged woman named Adriana who has been wonderfully patient with me. The instructions are always in Spanish and I'm able to understand almost everything Adriana says. It's been a fun way to learn some new Spanish vocab-a lot of body part names and motions. It helps that she demonstrates a lot of the exercises but there are times when I won't change a position because I didn't understand what she's said and she'll calmly correct me or say it a different way.
The class practices a form of yoga called Ashtanga which is very calm and low-key, focusing on breathing, posture and flexibility. It's a different cup of tea than the much more dynamic Hatha yoga I was introduced to at the Yoga Park. Although I think I prefer Hatha between the two simply because as a runner, I am used to very dynamic and physical exercise, practicing Ashtanga is helping me to slow down and think about different aspects of my mind and body that I don't when I'm running. Realizing how my breathing changes when I am carrying more stress is something I would probably never notice otherwise. Happy happy, namaste namaste.
Flash forward to today's class. I showed up a few minutes late meaning I was right on time. In Argentina, show up on time and people will look at you funny. Once again I was the only person in my class. Adriana asked me if I needed to borrow a pair of socks (she had a few clean pairs in her bag) but I thanked her and said I was fine. We began our session with the guided relaxation and I could feel the subconscious stress in my body start to shake out and burn off like some kind of early-morning stress fog. A few minutes later, we were doing an exercise where you lay on your back, pull your legs into your chest and grabbing the tops of your knees, you slowly rotate your legs in a circle. You would think this is an easy thing to do; lay down, move legs in a circle. But apparently there are a number of ways one can do this wrong. Almost every time I do this exercise, Adriana makes a small correction. Either my legs need to be a little wider apart or my torso shouldn't be moving, today it was my lower back coming too far off the mat. Even though I understand most everything she says, it can be tricky to get it quite right. The motions and positions are so subtle and specific that even in English I think it'd take me a few times to get the correct form down. It's always a humbling moment when I don't understand something simple and have to be told again.
Towards the end of the session, Adriana offered me a light blanket in case I was cold. Why the multiple offerings of blankets and socks? Because in the last few days, the weather here has turned a lot colder, from mid-80s to mid-60s and while I'm kind of enjoying the change,for porteños, it might as well be Siberia. I politely declined the blanket, explaining that this weather wasn't cold for me and that where I'm from, it snows most of the winter. I've discovered, when trying to convey the difference in Michigan weather/temperature to an Argentine, telling them you get lots of snow in the winter usually does the trick.
I left the class feeling calmer, stretchier and happy that finally, my high tolerance for cold weather is at least somewhat useful.
Patagonia on Friday-shoooop
-j
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