day 31 - getting into it

I did not go to class on Wednesday, May 2, so today was day 31 rather than 32. Well, I feel like I'm starting to adopt the practice of going to yoga regularly as a routine. A hard thing for me to adjust is that I am still teaching myself how to eat before yoga. After yoga, I'm not sure what the rules are yet. Today I ate cookies for breakfast, some canteloupe and coffee. I didn't eat any protein on purpose because I haven't been eating protein until after class so I don't get nauseous. I planned on getting some things done today, because it's a day off from work, and then going to yoga at night. For that reason, I didn't eat after my cookie and canteloupe breakfast. But, just before yoga I had some cookie dough - and didn't feel too good in class :). I'm like a monkey child... but I'm learning. I had one of my favourite teachers, T. T. is a compassionate teacher that greeted me right away each time that I've come into the studio and he's at the desk. The welcome helps me so much, because I'm shy to talk without assurance that someone is welcoming. A few weeks ago, when he was my teacher for the first time, Todd got down right on the floor and explained postures to me. I appreciate his knowledge and interest in teaching. Today, one of the things I had to do as part of my day off was to visit tourist sites around Vancouver. I visited the Sun Yat Sen Garden and it was beautiful today. It was a lightly rainy day with grey sky, the usual weather for Vancouver. The grey brought out the jade colour of the ponds in the garden and the rain dripped from the trees and formed rings on the water. I think it helped me enjoy the garden more that I've gotten more calm from yoga and it's also good that I was alone to think about things. I also visited the Vancouver Art Gallery as part of my duty to visit tourist sites. I also really got into the works from the First Nations exhibition that is set up now. They have some low rider bicycles that were decorated to represent the four directions, created by four different artists from representative First Nations communities. I loved it. I asked a security guard for permission to photograph and he said officially we're not allowed to, but go ahead. I didn't take pictures of the bikes, but I just had to take pictures of the masks created out of Nike Air Jordans (from Michael Jordan's private collection) by Brian Jungen. I loved these things because these types of artifacts are familiar to me growing up in Vancouver, we were taken around BC by my parents and visited a lot of museums, etc., and because I took some classes in University and College that talked about local First Nations culture. So.... I saw Air Jordan "frog" and "orca" and "eagle," and it was really cool to see them as art instead of something made for ceremony that then became co-opted and produced for sale.