Tuesday, September 30

Tuesday

Yesterday went pretty well. Morning class was tough as usual after the weekend. Evening class seemed to go quickly, not real problems. We started posture clinic last night. It was actually pretty fun. It's nice to have a change in the routine. We did Backward Bending & Hands to Feet pose. There are still a loot of people that have not gone yet but I already did. I thought after doing half Moon on stage it would be so much easier to talk in front of just 40 people, but I was wrong.  I was still really nervous but I'm sure after a few postures I will get over that. At least I hope I do! 

This morning's class went pretty good but it got hard for me to breath once we got to the floor series. I think it's because I used ice in my water today which I never do but I always hear everyone else's ice slushing around & it sounds so good so I tried it. And of course the teacher today said you know when you're drinking ice water it actually makes your body hotter, which I totally could feel that. So from now on no ice. Plain water works fine for me. We have anatomy class then posture clinic here in a minute then evening class then more posture clinic. I think Bikram gets back today so we may have lecture after 11. 


Monday, September 29

Just Let It Go & Breathe

This statement is starting to have a whole new meaning to me as this training progresses. We have so many opportunities while we are here to go deeper into a posture or have a better class than the one before. There is no reason to beat yourself up or feel bad about not being able to do what you are used to doing or what others around you are doing. There will be so many things hurting, stiff, sore, cramping, etc. that everyday and every class IS going to be completely different than the previous one so there is no reason to have any expectations about your practice. This is something I am coming to terms with. I have always been one to push myself and try to do everything as perfectly as possible, and while I still am doing the best I can, my best is not so good some days. And this is okay. I no longer care what someone beside me may be thinking when I have to sit down or if I need to come out of a posture early; I am doing what I can at that moment and that is good enough for me. Instead of over analyzing anything I simply let it go, breath, and move onto the next task. I have about 100 chances (classes) to do better...or worse... than before. 

Saturday, September 27

Escape

Lindsay & I at 100% Natural. 


I spoke with a very intelligent woman today whose name I can’t mention, but she's very good friends with Bikram and has been for some time. I was telling her how I was so overwhelmed and she brought to my attention that this training is cramming a 4 year “degree” into a 9 week course, so of course I’m overwhelmed! There is constant information being thrown at us so it’s impossible to retain it all and very easy to get overwhelmed. So she said I needed to get out of here (the hotel), so I happily took her advice and it was WONDERFUL! Lindsay & I ventured into Acapulco for the day. We got an awesome taxi driver who knew exactly where to take us, which turned out to be his mom’s little shop in an authentic Mexican flea market. There was a nice man we met at the market, which was the drivers friend, who was like our personal guide through the market. He told us that he was there for  us, to watch out for us & take us to the best shops; what a nice guy! So I ending up spending a little money J I mean I may never be in Acapulco again, right?  So we shopped for a couple hours then ate at 100% Natural. OMG! It was so wonderful to eat different food, I’ve been eating the same buffet for 2 weeks now and it’s not very good food. So we both got 2 meals, 1 to bring back to the hotel to eat for dinner tomorrow. The drive into Acapulco was absolutely gorgeous!   I think I will be going into Acapulco every weekend from now on, it was a much needed escape and will help to clear my mind every weekend. 

Oh & we did have class this morning, it was okay. I'm finding now that I can go into some postures deeper than I've ever been able to, but at the same time there are some that I'm worse at than I was when I first started practicing.  I'm stiff in so many places! But some good news is that the shoulder problem I've had for quite a while (as some of you may know) is getting better I think. I've been taping it for every class but on Thursday night I forgot to tape it & it didn't pop out once! I'm going to try taping it every other class for a while to make sure it can heal completely. 

Tomorrow I plan to lay by the pool, read a book & study dialogue a bit.  We start posture clinic Monday which means we will start reciting Backward Bending & Hands to Feet pose. Thankfully I already know them! Oh, we also have an anatomy test Monday which I haven't started studying for. And we have to make our weekly trip to Wal-Mart....yay. 

Beautiful hand painted (with horsetail) wood plates. I actually bought the brown & black one that's kind of in the center of the picture. 


Love this pottery, bought a great coffee mug like this. 




Lindsay, me, Jill & Kacy

Friday, September 26

Friday

Oh boy. Today was my toughest day so far. I've felt very weak all day. Morning class was not very good but evening class was a little better. I guess after having a good day yesterday I had to come down again. Bikram says if something good happens don't get too excited because something bad is about to happen, but if something bad happens smile because something good will happen soon. I'm definitely finding this to be true; these past 2 weeks have been a roller-coaster of emotions and physical feelings. To be quite honest today I am not so happy to be here. I mean, yes, I am happy I'm here & able to do this but I'm home sick, which was something I knew would happen when I signed up for this so it's just something that I'll have to get through.  On one hand it's crazy that I've already been here 2 weeks, but at the same time it seems like I've been here a lot longer. Let me just say that the weekend could not have come at a more perfect time. We just have tonight's posture clinic with Emmy & tomorrow mornings class then we are free for a while. Granted, we have an anatomy test to study for & the dialogue but at least I can get some sun. I look like a ghost and I'm in Acapulco...that's not right! 

Thursday, September 25

Classes 17 & 18- It's almost Friday!!

 Today was pretty good. Morning class with Emmy was WAY better than previous classes, it seemed to move a little quicker. Evening class was with Jim. It was a very intense class but fast pace so it was easier mentally. Last night Bikram lectured until about midnight only- thank the Lord! Within the first 15 minutes people started dropping like flies, it was SO hard to stay awake. Actually it was more like story time than lecture, it was an absolutely ridiculous story (to me anyways) about how the earth was made by a bunch of gods & goddesses. It was nuts. He also told us that he believes that food is bad for your body- no matter what kind- because it robs your energy. He also believes that sleep is like putting your body into a coma- paralyzing it. I will never ever ever give up sleep of food! However I have begun to realize that I can do a lot more than I thought with little sleep.  

About to got to lecture so I will talk to y'all tomorrow!

Wednesday, September 24

Pain


"What may be painful for the body may be profitable for the soul." -Unknown
Thanks mom!
This just has to be true...right?! Hah...I have to keep telling myself this because let me 
tell you I am feeling pain. 
I'm not even going to waste my time telling you where I hurt because I'm sure by the end
 of this my whole body will have hurt at one point.
And just to vent- the fact that we have to sit in chairs , uncomfortable chairs, for a good 7 
hours a day does NOT help at all. Talk about sore stiff muscles!
Anyways, just wanted to post that quote, it's a good one. 

Classes 15 & 16

Sunday evening at the Beach Club restaurant with the crew.


We ended up having to watch a movie last night but it got out at 1 which is always better than 2
I actually felt pretty rested with only 5 hours of sleep. Morning class was with Emmy. Oh boy....I hate to say it but that lady absolutely sucks the energy right out of you! I know some of you know what I'm talking about. Not to mention that she adds way too much commentary! I mean she has some really good things to say & she is an amazing lady but she just doesn't know when to sop talking  lol. She forgets what posture we're on all the time & rarely ever tells us to come out of a posture. So of course her class was about 1 hr. 45 min. which most of us wouldn't really mind if she weren't so draining & boring. One older man actually lost it after 90 minutes! He was like that's it the class is over! He got up and started to walk out of the room & of course some of the staff tried to make him sit back down so the man started cursing everyone and almost fought one of the staff. It was pretty intense! He was like this is against the rules, it says 90 minutes on the contract we signed! So really he said what everyone else was thinking, but the rest of us chose to deal with it as silently as possible, which was HARD. But of course, that's part of the training; learning to have patience and "trust the process".  

Evening class with Bikram was pretty good, it was almost 2 hours as well. We found out that the guy I told you about that flipped out during class left training. Bikram talked to him & tried to get him to stay put apparently he doesn’t like women; he thinks he should not have to learn or listen to a woman tell him what to do.. Bikram said good luck & told him to leave then. Pretty crazy.

So now that I am settled and used to the routine of training, it’s not so bad. I was talking to a friend named Jennifer tonight & she said take it 2 hours at a time, you probably won’t feel the same way by then. She ‘s right; before class I was kind of bummed & just home sick I guess but now I’m a little better. I guess this will ultimately be the thing I have to learn to deal with- knowing that I’m ok & that I can do this, there’s only 7 ½ weeks left. Wow, did I just say 7 & ½ weeks?! Time really is going quickly. Once we start posture clinic, other than half moon, and get broken up into our groups things will probably start moving even quicker. I’m sooooo glad I studied as much as I did before I got here because there really is not time to study except the weekends. And personally I need a little down time, like more than the hour after lunch or dinner that we get. So I’m so relieved to know I can relax and enjoy the weekend a bit & do some studying. There are so many people here that didn’t even know Half Moon when they got here. I can’t imagine the stress they must be feeling trying to find time to study with everything else that’s going on. The only thing that really gets to me here is that I never really get any time to myself. I’m sure everyone is feeling the same way, but really it’s tough because everyone needs time to just be...alone! I find that doing this blog is a good escape for me. That’s why I typically write a lot.

So it’s pouring outside right now; when we came out of class it was freezing! Ok maybe not freezing but cold…to me. It was very refreshing though. I just ate dinner & am about to go to lecture. Bikram told us today that one if lectures will take until 4 in the morning; I just he doesn’t do that lecture tonight J

Tuesday, September 23

Classes 13 & 14

Well thank God today was better than yesterday. I felt much better today & classes went well. Both classes went over 90 minutes but were not quite 2 hrs, that's always a plus! Not much to say, just very busy today as usual. We're still trying to finish Half Moon, should finish tonight. I think there's  a movie tonight also. So hopefully it gets over before 2.  Gotta go- write again soon.

Monday, September 22

Monday...

Well today was kind of hard for me. Morning class with Emmy Cleaves was hard. Haven't felt good all day, just a little sick to my stomach. I drank almost 2 liters of water for her class, never done that before. This evenings class was taught by Bikram. Still was not so good, felt sick still. I'm hoping it's just because  my body is getting back into the swing of things after the weekend. Hope tomorrow goes better. I'm starting to get real annoyed with some of these people too! They clap after EVERYTHING that anybody says no matter whether it's important, stupid, mean or funny...they clap. Even when we're supposed to be in Savasana, there's clapping going on! Shut up! It's Savasana!! Sorry I just had to complain a little bit, today was a struggle. 
To comment on my weekend, it was not nearly long enough! It was kind of tough because it gave me more time to think. Thinking is not good when you're here, lol. Constant distractions, i.e. classes & lectures, keep me from thinking how much I'd rather be at home with my family & boyfriend & my dogs! However it was still nice to catch up on some sleep.
Well I'm about to go to lecture. I don't know if there will be a movie tonight or not, hopefully not. But I'm prepared if so; I have my blanket, socks & pillow! Talk to y'all soon. 

Saturday, September 20

No class til' Monday!! & Pictures, finally.


Haha...pure joy after our Saturday morning class! We are free for the weekend!!
You have no idea how great it is to have almost 2 full days off! Sleep! That's all I can say :)
I just found out that 7 people have already left training! That's crazy. Spend all that money just to leave. As much as I may  hate being here sometimes, I could never do that. Just knowing that all of  y'all are supporting me helps tremendously! 
Lindsay & I are about to head to the beach & do some studying. It was raining this morning but it's cleared up a but, still kind of overcast though. Sun or no sun, being outside relaxing will be great.

 Here are some pictures from the past few days:

Allison, Kara, me & Lindsay

Lindsay &  I at posture clinic.

Me, Lindsay, Straud, Allison & Kara waiting in line to do Half Moon dialogue.

A glimpse of the lecture room.

Me delivering dialogue while others demonstrate it.


View from the Veranda (restaurant). Gorgeous!




TGIF!!

Wow. This week has gone by so quickly, thank God! I did my dialogue today. I’m so glad to have that over with. I did good, he said “Wow, perfect.” Then he tried to say I had a southern accent, lol. Lindsay went right after me & he asked her if  she thought I had an accent….which she said no….then he was like can you demonstrate a southern accent for me? It was pretty funny.  Guess you had to be there J

So we got luck today. Instead of watching a movie again Bikram decided to give us the night off! That was the best thing I’ve heard all week. So what did we do with our free time? Wal-Mart of course! Hah, yeah we went again & tried to stock up for next week. This way we won’t have to go this weekend, we can just relax on the beach! Ahh, it will be so wonderful! It’s so hard walking past the beach every single day and not being able to enjoy it!

Well I’m going to get some rest for tomorrow mornings class (at 8). Then I will be free until Monday! Yay!

I’m going to try to get some pictures uploaded this weekend. Talk to y’all soon!

Thursday, September 18

Classes 6 & 7

Wow, it's crazy how quick the past couple of days have gone by. It's hard to believe we've already done 7 classes in 4 days. This mornings class was my hardest class so far. I was just really struggling trying to stay calm. I was really thirsty so I was drinking a lot more water than usual. I was starting to run out towards the middle of class, that was kind of making me freak out a bit. But I kept telling myself, you're okay, you don't need that much water & I ended up making it through the class, although I sat out a few times. This evenings class was WAY better. Bikram taught & although he's tough I can handle his classes (so far). He cracks a lot of jokes so it makes the class less stressful. So with only 4 hours of sleep last night the day was not as bad as I expected. And they keep telling us "no expectations" but obviously I still have mine. I've got to get over that & stop worrying and thinking so much! Anyways, I got tired during posture clinic but after the yoga class I'm feeling re-energized. Once i sit back down though for posture clinic (at 9) I bet It'll be hard to stay awake...it gets sooo boring hearing the same thing over & over & over! 
Thank you everyone for supporting me and encouraging me to do this! Whenever my mind starts wandering & i think "this sucks! I don't want to be here", I think of all of y'all. It's really the only thing that keeps my attitude positive in those times. Because it really does get tough here. Everyday there are ups & downs for me, I'll be ok one minute then I want to cry the next. But I think it'll get better....lol, positive thinking, positive thinking. Anyways thanks & i miss everyone!
Time to get ready for posture clinic. Hopefully there's no Bollywood tonight! I can only imagine how good it will feel to sleep more than 4 hours tonight.  Ahh... can't wait!

By the way, I have been taken pictures but I'm having trouble with uploading them! I'm having to use dial up most of the time which is SLOW. Sometimes I can get Wi-Fi in the lobby but not always. So I will post more whenever I can! 


Wednesday, September 17

Who needs sleep?

So this mornings class was a little harder for me than yesterdays, but today's evening class was my best class yet. Rajashree taught am & Jim taught pm. We're still doing Half Moon dialogue today. Once again this afternoon too many people were in line so Lindsay & I are going to get to the 9:00 lecture early to get in line first. We just want to get it over with! Today was Rajashree's last day until the 6th week. We're all kind of sad she's leaving; she is so nice & easy during class! And whenever she gets up to talk to us all she's so motherly, she just really cares about us all so we wish she would be here with us. But oh well, she will be back.  

And to comment about the food here, yes I am having to eat a lot of things I normally wouldn't but there really is a pretty good variety of things. And they have a delicious beet salad! I was happy to see that, I never thought they would serve us beets. :) Lol. Anyways, it's not as bad as I was expecting. It seems most everything is turning out to be better than I expected, good thing I prepared myself for the worst!

Ok, that last comment was BEFORE we had to watch the Bollywood movie! We were all up until 2am watching a ridiculous movie that was really loud. I used ear plugs & tried to sleep but it was still too loud & freezing in the room. I'm about to go to class, I don't know how today will go with only 4 hours of sleep! Supposedly Bikram doesn't sleep, but I NEED MY SLEEP!!!
So yeah, everything was turning out better than expected until last night. I just hope we don't have to watch another movie any time soon!


Tuesday, September 16

First day of doubles!

To my surprise today went pretty well. Rajashree taught the morning class, she was very easy on us, it was a nice class. PM class was with Bikram. It was a little tougher than yesterdays but still not too bad. There were quite a few people that got real bad cramps and had to leave the room, or be carried out I should say. So far 2 people have had to get an i.v. It's kind of scary seeing people cramp up so bad.  
So, I think Lindsay & I have a pretty good schedule figured out. Last night we drank about 1 liter of water before bed, which of course had us getting up in the middle of the night, but oh well. We woke up at 6am, drank our protein drinks, chugged a good amount of water then laid back down until 7:30. We have to be in the yoga room at least 5 minutes before class time (8:30 am & 5 pm) so we left our room about 8. We were in row 5 for both classes today which is a good a row, you can actually feel some air there. So that's going to be our daily schedule, it worked pretty good. Those of you who do yoga know you can't eat right before a class...that's why we woke up at 6 to eat! 

We started reciting Half Moon today but I didn't go. I wanted to but there were so many other people that wanted to also, the line was long. I will do it tomorrow. Isaac was the first one, he did great. Bikram told him it was perfect. Allison also went today & did awesome,  he said she did perfect also. Bikram told us during the pm class, "You make me very happy today, you know why?" & it's because he's never had a training where people knew the dialogue so well. So we are off to a good start! He was not mean to people who recited Half Moon today like all the stories I have heard. He even said that usually he's yelling and screaming at everyone but not this time. So that's kind of cool. 

Well I haver to go shower and eat dinner, we have lecture at 9, it was supposed to be at 8 but the class was a little over 2 hours so they gave us more time. 

Talk to y'all later!

Monday, September 15

WHOA.






So we just got out of our 1st class. I can't even begin to tell you how hot it was in there. All I know is that the room stays around 70% humidity, crazy huh? I have NEVER sweated so much in a yoga class, or in my entire life! I have never been in a class that long either. It lasted 2 hours. Luckily Bikram told us all "take it easy honey". He said this first week to take it slow and listen to your body while we are all acclimating to the heat. Umm, excuse me but are you serious?! I don't think my body will EVER get accustomed to that kind of heat. I did as much as I could but I happily took his advise and took it easy, I sat down quite a few times and didn't do all the postures to my full ability. So other than the fact that is was extremely hot and hard, it was a good class. The begining breathing exercise was a pretty amazing sound. It sounded like a huge swarm of bees, it was like a low, deep humming noise. It was very powerful. At the end of class Bikram played one of his songs. Yes you heard right, Bikram sings, he has his own CD. I was like OMG when he told us this but it was actually kind of pleasant. Perfect for after class to wind down & relax...and cry. Uh yeah, I cried for a million reasons. But what's great is that you're so sweaty that no one can ever tell :) Not that I would really care anyways. It is what it is, right? 

I am SOOO glad to have the first class out of the way, such a relief. But now that I know just how intense the classes are I am like whoa, that! for 9 weeks! 2x a day! I can't even imagine it at this point. 

Tomorrow after morning class we start reciting Half Moon for Bikram and the other 300 some students, that will be a whole different kind of nervousness. I have never spoken in front of that many people before.  Oh, and a quick comment on Bikram himself; he's not at all what I expected. He was actually a lot nicer that I had heard he was, so that's a relief.  Now, that may change next week but for this week he's cool. ;) Well now I'm going to take a shower, boy do I need one, and then make another trip to Wal-Mart...so much fun. 

Pics: 1-2) The roomy & I (she's very cool by the way & turns out we weren't actually supposed to be room mates but we ended up that way...& I'm glad :) We have quite a bit in common & we are both tiny, lol. 
3-4)Beach this am...beautiful weather today.




Sunday, September 14

Orientation with Rajashree

So we finally had orientation this evening. There are 310 trainees here, 25 of which will not be coming until Friday due to the hurricane. It's really awesome, everyone here (at least those I have met so far) is really nice. Just goes to show yogi's & yogini's are more often than not good people. 
Rajashree spoke to us at orientation and just told us a little about what to expect which basically was expect nothing, leave all expectations behind. We meet again tomorrow at 10am, Bikram will come at 11 to talk to us. Oh, and guess what?! We found out that Bikram will be here the entire 9 weeks! He usually comes and goes so we are going to have a pretty cool opportunity. It's exciting and a little daunting  all at the same time. Our first class is tomorrow at 5pm! After tomorrow we will have classes at 8:30 am & 5 pm. I'm so ready for this to get started, the anticipation is hard to deal with! I'm going to go get some sleep- didn't sleep too well last night. Think it may have been the coffee and ice cream :) Sorry no pictures today- was pretty bust with Wal-Mart and other things. It was overcast today & rainy some of the time so no laying out either :( Guess I'll have to wait til next weekend! 

Coconuts & Sunburns



So yesterday Kara and I laid out on the beach and studied dialogue for a while. Then we went to the saltwater pool and did the same. We ordered fresh coconuts and wow was that disgusting! We had planned on doing a class with Allison, Isaac, Julie & Straud but we decided we'd rather relax and study so we skipped the class :) So needless to say, after laying out all day I'm extremely burnt, but only on my front side lol. Didn't get to turn over before it started raining. We went to dinner at the Veranda (I think it's called). It was kind of our last night of freedom so we treated ourselves. We met a few of the teachers today and found out we will be meeting today (Sunday) at 5:30 for orientation. And my room mate finally made it here- her name is Lindsay. She got in about 11:30 last night. 

Well today we are going to Wal-Mart again to stock up on food (since you can't eat dinner around here for much less than $25) and water. Then I plan to lay out and tan my back side :) and study until orientation. I miss everyone and hope everyone is doing ok without power.

Pics: 1-2)on the beach 3)saltwater pool




Saturday, September 13

I made it to Acapulco!

Luckily I was able to fly out Friday. I had a good flight, only 2 1/2 hours. The drive to the hotel would have been only about 15 minutes but there was a lot of construction so it took a while longer. Let me tell you how crazy the drivers are down here! I mean it's way worse than NYC. 
Pretty much, if there's a traffic light they just ignore it. It's chaos. To get to the main road to the hotel our shuttle driver ended up turning into on coming traffic, which as you might guess didn't go too well! It took a while to get through the all the cars and we had to dodge a few mad drivers. Anyways, we finally made it to the hotel & OMG! It's amazing. It's huge and beautiful and  the ocean is awesome. There is a huge open air lobby, which is great but would be even better if it weren't quite so humid here. The weather is beautiful though, don't get me wrong...it's just humid!

I met about 5 other BYTT on my flight which was nice. Turns out we are all one the same floor pretty close together. A couple of them are from Dallas, one from Philly, and can't remember the others. I don't know who my room mate is yet, I thinks she's arriving today. Can't wait to find out! So after we got to the hotel we were all starving so we went to a restaurant right in the resort & it turns out that will be the one we will be eating our buffet brunch at everyday. It was pretty good & looked like they had a good variety. After that I came back to my room and unpacked everything and got everything arranged. There's actually quite a bit of room so that's good. We each have our own fridge and there's plenty of closet and dresser room. Around 6:30 a few of us met back up and made our first trip to Wal-Mart! Lol. Boy was that interesting. I'm so glad our Wal-Mart's aren't like that. It was a mad house, not to mention the 15 women standing behind the meat counter wearing masks over their mouths begging us to buy meat. It was just creepy, you had to see it to get the full effect! So after that I cooked dinner in my room, I ate rice with salmon (canned) and avocado. It was actually very good. By then I was exhausted, and overwhelmed, so I took a shower and went to sleep. It took me a minute to fall asleep because there was a gecko crawling around the walls, yuck! It didn't get me in my sleep thankfully :^)  

So right now it's Saturday morning and I think I'm going to go to the beach and study my dialogue. How good does that sound?! I still can't believe I'm here. It's very surreal. It's a very weird feeling I have being in this beautiful resort, somewhere most go for vacation and to relax, but I know that for me it's going to be lot of work and stress. So yeah, it's really weird. We're all wondering when the Bikram people are supposed to meet because all they handed us was a piece of paper with rules for BYTT but nothing about when and where we will all convene. We all thought there would be more information given to us! Guess we'll just wait and see. Oh! we checked out the yoga room yesterday, WOW. It's HUGE! And let me tell you, it is HOT. The heat wasn't even on and the doors were open & we were all sweating just standing there. When you walk into the room it just drops down. It kind of reminds me of a dungeon. I hear that since it's built that way all the heat gets trapped down there. Great! Lol. Can't wait to take a class though, it will be awesome having so many people together. Well, time to hit the beach! Talk to y'all later!

Some photos from around the resort: 1-4) the lobby & other random pics 
5)Looking down towards the yoga room, this photo doesn't do it justice. 
6-10)View from my room (this am) 11) my room 12)New friends- Julie, Allison & Isaac
















Thursday, September 11

Ike

Thanks to Ike I don't know when I will be leaving for Acapulco. My flight was originally on Saturday, then I had to change it to Friday because of the hurricane, now I hear I  may have to wait until Monday. Getting there late would not be the worst thing that could happen though. It's kind of funny, all the preperation I've done to get our of here on time and now it's all up in the air...literally. There's nothing I can do about the weather, all I can do is wait to see what happens. I'm prepared as best as I can be, I'm packed and I have the majority of my dialogue memorized which will help immensely during training.  I may actually get some sleep :) My days will be pretty full, leaving only late night or early morning to study. For the daily schedule click on "Daily Schedule" under TT Links on the left. After all this waiting and anticipating for the past couple months I'm ready to go! I'm really not interested in postponing it any longer than I have to. That would just leave me more time to wonder and worry. But I'm doing my best to just relax & know that no matter when I get to fly out I will be fine. As for my last (hopefully) day at home, I hope to make the best of it, rest, and do some more studying. Hopefully the next time I write I will be in beautiful Acapulco!