Yoga fii Dimashq, pt. 2

Tuesday I had my first official yoga class. The one with the Indian teacher was just a one-time event but I found out that the studio offered regular classes on Sundays and Tuesdays every week in the afternoons. The first time I went, the teacher wasn’t there so there was no class and Tuesday when I returned to the studio, 20 minutes before the class started at 3, the teacher met me at the door and told me we could start as soon as I was changed. Really? How does that work?

I changed in the locker room/spa (jacuzzi and sauna and massage tables and showers!) and joined her in the studio. She sat cross-legged on her mat with just one mat beside her. Where is everbody else? What is going on?

For the next forty minutes or so, Sandy led me in the stretches and exercises. She doesn't speak very much English so it is a little more difficult to fully understand the stretches but we get by with hand gestures and vocal signals and a few key vocab words. She is a little older than me and clearly a dancer which made me feel a little silly next to her, as she is about 100 times more flexible and graceful than I am and it was just the two of us in front of the mirror. The class turned out to be Hatha Yoga, which is much slower than the classes I’ve taken before, and by the time we finished the basic relaxation and stretching exercises that usually make up a warm-up session for any other class, the class was over! I changed back to my normal clothes and went to pay at the desk (it costs 2000 lira or about $40 for 8 1 ½ hour sessions) but the woman there told me this time was free and I can pay next time. Ok that’s great but how did they know I was coming and what if there were other people in the class and why was it so short?

So I returned the following week (aka yesterday) for my first full session. Again it was just me and Sandy, though after an hour and a half I began to feel the benefits of the exercises a lot more. We stretched everything from our fingertips to our facial muscles, and for only $5 for an hour and a half private lesson, I really can’t complain. After the class was over I asked if I was her only pupil and she explained that the morning class has 2-3 students but I am the only afternoon one. The classes did just begin this month but what happens when I travel in a few weeks—class is cancelled? As I paid for my 8 sessions I asked if it was okay that I skip a few weeks and come back to finish the sessions in April and was told that was no problem. I should probably offer to put up flyers for them or something at the university, I think a lot of other students would be interested in the classes, though at the same time I'm not ready to give up my private lessons.