It's a dry heat

Well, everywhere, but in the hot room, of course!

So, I made it - both to Palm Desert and through the first week of training!! The hotel is lovely and all of the trainees are so friendly! The hotel put up a hard-walled tent for us to practice and have lectures in.

The yoga room is huge, and we have a separate room for lectures (as opposed to sitting on the sweaty yoga room floor for lectures - woo hoo!)

(This is the yoga room. The lecture room is through the doors in the middle of the second picture.)

(The heating system for the hot room!!)

There are 320 trainees from all over the world! This week we have been reciting Half Moon in front of Bikram. It is a long process to get through all of us; we're only about halfway done. I don't think there is anyway I will ever be able to forget any of the words in this posture after having heard it 319 times! I haven't been able to recite it yet, but I am hoping to get a good spot in line tomorrow!

Our days are so full! Just looking at the schedule didn't do it for me - experiencing the daily routine has really driven home how intense this is. We have a class in the morning that lasts between 90 minutes and 2 hours. Then we have an hour to an hour and a half to pick up lunch, shower, change, eat, and make it to the tent for our lecture/posture clinic. That has been lasting about 3 1/2 hours. After that we have an hour to change and make it back to the hot room for another class. After class we get an hour and a half dinner break, again to shower, change, eat, and get preped for the evening lecture that begins at 9pm. This past week the lectures have gone til about 11pm, and then Bikram has played (mandatory) Bollywood films til the early morning (2:30 one night, and 3:30 the next). The alarm rings at 7am for the next day's class :) . So yeah, it's intense, but it's all part of the training! Now you might ask what Bollywood til 3am has to do with yoga training. How is sleep deprivation going to help you succeed?? But, the point is, how well can you control your mind in the moment to focus on your yoga practice when you've only had 3-4 hours sleep? It is a struggle, but it definitely makes you stronger (and sleepy :) )!

We are very lucky to have a grocery store right across the street; I've been able to do a good amount of shopping and stock up on a ton of good food. My roommate is very nice and we get along well. Our room is off the main part of the hotel, and is very quiet (which we are both very thankful for!) Here's the view from our room:

This is a nice, low key little pool area. There is another pool in the middle of the hotel that is maybe 4 times this size - it seems to be the place to be if you just want to people watch. There are swans (black and white), ducks, geese and flamingos galore at the hotel. Here's one that came to visit right outside our balcony:

So, one week down and eight to go! I will get more pics of the grounds and some interesting things in posture clinics and class to share with you. Thank you so much for your support, it really helps me so much!! Right now it looks like I will be able to update about every week. Lots of love!!