Hey all – It’s a quiet Saturday afternoon here. Nia’s just finished a sleepover with her bestie and Nick’s in the U.S. of A. at a conference for all the Public Affairs Officers (one from each of the 173 embassies and 88 consulates around the world). We’re missing him but trying to get used to his absence, since he’s been recruited to fill a staffing gap in Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana, and will be heading up there for at least a week each month from now through mid-June. He’ll be managing twice the number of Public Affairs sections and employees (Almaty and Astana), so I’m mentally preparing myself not to see him much until summer.
We do have at least eight days of quality time with him though, as we’ve planned our first family trip in a year and a half over Nia’s upcoming spring break (mid-March). Our destination? Why, London, of course—yet another place on Nia’s must-see list. We’re all pretty excited. Nia has never been obviously and it’s been more than 20 years for Nick and I. We’re most looking forward to taking in a show at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, seeing an old friend from Malawi, and doing the Warner Brother Studios Tour where Harry Potter was filmed! I’m also hoping that by the time we get back in late March that we’ll be into full-on spring in Almaty. That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy my first winter in ten years, but I’m also ready for a change of pace and I’ve heard that Almaty is delightful in the spring.
In other news, I tried my third Iyengar Yoga Class yesterday. Iyengar is a style of yoga that focuses on the structural alignment of the body. It’s different from the more common hatha yoga in that it focuses heavily on bodily alignment, builds up to a final asana through a series of simpler asanas, and uses an abundance of props like chairs, straps, blocks and bolsters to minimize strain and achieve better alignment. What I like most about this style is that we hold asanas for a longer duration, but are also more supported in the asanas thanks to the use of props.
The last time I did this style of yoga was in Peru in 2014. Oddly enough, I’ve never done this style of yoga in English. In Peru, the class was in Spanish, and here, it’s offered in Russian. I was REALLY nervous to take the class in Russian because it requires a whole set of new verbs I didn’t know (elongate, bend, stretch, twist, straighten) and obscure body parts (wrist, torso, crown, rib cage, palm, etc).
I created flashcard sets on Quizlet and practiced various phrases and commands with my private teacher for four lessons before I felt ready to give it a shot. Even then, I still bailed the first four times I scheduled it because I was so worried about how it’d go. Finally, on a Friday in mid-January, I got up the nerve to go for it.
I found the studio and paid for the class without any trouble. I’d come early and had plenty of time to locate all the requisite props and get set up. I was comforted by the demographics of the group—all women, mostly in their 50’s and 60’s, with varying body sizes. These were not hyper-fit yogis and I thought to myself, This bodes well for me—surely I can keep up with this crowd!
I knew the teacher had walked in when everyone sat up an inch straighter and went silent. This woman was formidable-looking with a strong, stocky build and an obvious no-nonsense attitude. I was intimidated but needed to go introduce myself to let her know that I was just a beginning Russian speaker. She acknowledged my comments with a perfunctory nod and followed me back to my mat.
Everyone was sitting on their bolster, so I did the same. Before I even had time to get settled, I felt the teacher’s hands wrenching my shoulders back and down. I had to stifle my laugh as I thought about how different this was from American-style yoga classes where they ask if they can touch you in a sing-song voice before gently make corrections. It threw me off a bit, so much so that when she went and whacked my 50-something mat neighbor on the back to straighten her spine, I made the mistake of gasping and then got side-eye from a few ladies around me.
She was back to me within minutes and I deeply regretted calling attention to myself through the introduction. The warm-up continued much the same, with her speaking instructions to the group, all while forcefully moving my limbs into the corresponding positions as if I was her puppet. She spoke fast too, and I only understood about 30% of what was being said, though I could pick out the verbs and body parts I studied. Preparation for the win! That and the teacher knew some English too, so she’d occasionally supplement with that.
After warm-up, we transitioned to our first sequence and she FINALLY left my side. We were doing backbends that day, and everyone was instructed to get a chair from the closet. We then proceeded to layer on blankets and a bolster atop the chair and sit on it backwards with our legs going through the part where your back would usually rest. It looked a little something like this…
I rocked that one and was feeling good until we set the chair aside and set up for the second backbend. Now we were going to do a full bridge but use the wall for support. I was super impressed as a few of the women around me got their butts up into the air. I gave my best effort and barely got a few inches up. Before I knew it, the teacher was back at my side again. I knew it was going to be bad when she called another student to come and hold my feet while she hoisted my back up in the air. I was not expecting that and emitted a serious of grunts and groans as I went up and down. Definitely hadn’t done that before! It looked a little something like this, but with lots of hands on me! :)
By this point we were nearing the 50-minute mark. I was beyond exhausted and counting down the minutes to shavasana. And that’s when I learned that it was a 90-minute class and we still had 1/3 to go. How was I possibly going to go another 40 minutes??
The next bit got lost in translation and I was greatly confused as everyone moved into various asanas. I’m pretty sure my jaw dropped when the grandma next to me flipped upside down using the ropes. I’m all for pictures, so here’s what it looked like:
I must have looked confused because the nice English-speaking friend who’d held my feet earlier translated for me, saying that it was independent inversion time. I said a quick prayer that I wouldn’t have to go upside down on the wall like granny! And wouldn’t you know it, before I could even figure out what to do next, the teacher was back and setting me up for an assisted plow pose using the chair. Basically, I got set up like the photo below, then was supposed to bring my legs down horizontal with the floor. Challenging but doable. Definitely better than upside-down wall pose!
It was finally cooldown time after 80-minutes and I was sooo ready for it. But even shavasana was strenuous! She came around and arranged me into a chest-opening post with my legs in reclined butterfly. But then here’s the weirdest part—she braided my toes together! Have you ever heard of such a thing? It felt soooooo bizarre but I didn’t dare move.
After class she came to ask if I was okay and gave me a hug (that shocked me—super uncommon here from someone you just met). Then the English-speaking, feet-holding yogi came over and invited me to tea, which made me soooo happy. I love making new friends. We didn’t go that day, but we did after my second and third class.
Despite it being a very Soviet-esque style of class, I found myself really enjoying it. Iyengar is by far my favorite yoga style and I am always sore in a good way afterwards. It has really pushed me out of my comfort zone and I’m grateful that everyone made me feel so welcome. These are the kind of experiences that I joined the Foreign Service for, the ones that stay with me long after I leave the country. I love seeing how different things are from place to place!
