Yoga Class

About three weeks ago, Xingxing mentioned she was going to take a yoga class this semester. She didn't really seem to be inviting me, but I could use the exercise and figured it would be a fun experience. Our college, in a surprising move away from its archaic education and social models, offers a few elective classes each semester, such as piano, yoga, and calligraphy. They of course charge extra for the classes (because if there's one thing the Chinese are good at, it's capitalism-I'm serious). After an hour meeting/conversation to decide when to have the class, and to tell us that we ought not eat before the class, we were ready to go. This meeting took an hour because the students have maybe 25 hours of class a week, and were busy almost every other waking hour with 'self-study' (see my library post for explanation).

Very early on in the first class it became apparent that this class would consist of just as much Chinese practice as yoga. For me, that is a great thing, despite my desire to learn and improve my Chinese, I don't often throw myself into exclusively Chinese situations. Moreover, due to the eagerness of the students to learn English, these situations don't arise too often.
Luckily I had studied body parts vocabulary with some of my tutors. Unluckily, my yoga teacher does not repeat words slowly and clearly for me, so even if she says a word I know, I usually don't pick it up. Phrases like 'slowly arch your back as you take in a deep breath' are way, way, way more advanced than anything I have learned yet. So, most of the time I am about ten seconds behind the rest of the class, as I just wait to see what the teacher does or the students near me. Of course, much of yoga is done with the eyes closed, in order to (supposedly) enrich the spiritual experience. I don't close my eyes in class, because of my aforementioned method; but I'm not really worried about the spiritual side of the class. I also know that my breathing is never aligned with the class, because even though I have learned inhale and exhale, I always seem to confuse them under the yoga class pressure.

I am the only non-Han (race) Chinese in the class. I am the only non-native Chinese speaker in the class. I am the only male in the class. I am the only non-college student in the class. So, I am a bit of a novelty or annoyance to the class, depending on the other students opinions. I have provided a bit of humor to the class, which I see as a major contribution, and the teacher hasn't seemed to mind. During a one leg balancing position, our focus was on the ceiling to get a good stretch. I maintained my focus and was balancing pretty well. My peripheral vision was essentially eliminated due to staring at the ceiling (as instructed). For some reason I didn't really notice the sound as everyone else relaxed (remember the teacher's instructions are completely lost on me unless they correspond to a physical demonstration). So the entire class chuckled as I continued to balance intensely as they all relaxed. This situation has repeated itself more than a few times. I am now occasionally sacrificing my concentrated stares to make sure I am still on the same page as the rest of the class. Overall I have enjoyed the class, it's good to be forced to exercise, and it adds to my rather open weekly schedule. Last class there were a few times when I successfully understood the teacher, albeit 'raise your arm' is pretty easy to pick up after 27 repeats (when learning the most difficult language for a native English speaker, I celebrate anything). I also tend to think my attendance probably has sparked more than a couple of conversations about the 'strange and different foreigner' back at the dorms after class.