Week 9

Party week my b..t this week sucked! There was only one reason to feel like this was party week and that was that it was our last week here. Bikram was here the whole week and determined to make this week count.

Honestly it was sheer hell. No more posture clinics but we had lectures till Friday afternoon and Indian movies till the bitter end. It was a bit sad. Monday night was 2am, Tuesday 5.45am, Wednesday 2.30am, Thursday 3am! On Thursday night Bikram lectured about the breathing exercise till about 1am and then told us he wanted us to see an episode we’ve seen before once more…. This turned in to us watching three episodes again with him and us returning to our rooms again at 3am. It almost felt like we were kids that he just put in front of the TV because it’s easy.

Friday was supposed to be a lot of fun because it was our ‘talent show’ that night. Unfortunately everybody was so wiped out that it was really hard to look forward to it. The day was just a normal day like any other. At this point we look like absolute zombies, the bags under our eyes are turning weird shades of grey.

The talent show was fun, this group is loaded with musical talent. Who would ever know! It was a blast and I really enjoyed it. Plus this was really the evening all of us knew that by tomorrow that time we’d all be official certified Bikram Yoga teachers.

Something was going on with Bikram on Friday night not sure what it was. He left the talent show after 20 minutes leaving his big orange chair empty in the front row. It made me feel so bad for the people performing because I know they wanted him to see their performance. I was sitting third row and could clearly see that the senior staff was not too sure how to handle his absence.

Graduation was long……
There were a ton of family members to support us. We all had to tell the staff how many guests we were expecting so they would have a clear headcount for the dinner that evening.
After the 4 hours ceremony everyone was kind of standing around waiting to hear where to go for food. Then one of the senior staff members took the stage and told all of us Bikram had a falling out with the hotel over the food and that we were all on our own.
Okay!?!!
As one of my group mates put it very nicely, ‘this is just the icing on the cake’. It was pretty sad.

Chris, my roommate and I were already sitting at the hotel bar when all this happened. It was a funny feeling to get buzzed from one beer! Chris and I were on our way out after that and had our own dinner plans already. It was so good to see him.

As I said, this week was hell. We did not receive any love and were treated like s..t. I have no idea what set all of this off and we’ll probably never find out but it was anticlimactic to say the least. I would be very surprised if the next training will take place in Palm Springs again. Bikram mentioned Vegas, he loves the nightlife. Hopefully it will take place there so he can go out at night and the next Teacher Trainees can get some sleep at night.

I have successfully completed TT Spring ’09 and feel pretty darn good about it. Like Bikram told us, ‘you are now; bullet proof, fire proof, stress proof all proof’ Yes I am I can feel it, nothing can get me down and I am determined to become a killer Bikram Yoga teacher and help my fellow teachers spread this yoga around the globe.
I am so excited!

Chris and I are in Santa Barbara right now and are enjoying long walks, endless dinners and beautiful sunsets together. It’s so awesome to have some time together and reconnect before I jump back into my place in the family. Tomorrow we’ll fly back to Germany and I’ll be reunited with the boys again, I can’t wait.

Do I miss TT? No I don’t and I am not sure I will. I’ve met some wonderful people whom I will stay in touch with. Of course I’ll miss the doubles in a big hot room with 321 people. That amount of energy is intoxicating and addicting. But ‘the process’ I won’t miss. This was everything but a vacation, this was really hard and because of that at the end incredibly rewarding.

Bikram Yoga is what this is all about. And if you love the yoga and want to become a Bikram Yoga Teacher this training is the only way. As long as you are determined to teach and become part of the Bikram family, go for it! When in doubt, makes sure you know for sure that this is what you want to do before you sign up. If the love and passion to teach are not strong enough you won’t last, I’ve seen it in the people that left the training and experienced first hand what kept me going.

To all my family, friends, followers of this blog I’d like to say thank you. Thank you for following my journey and thank you for sending me your love, support and happy thoughts, I got them all and used them all up.

Be happy!
Martyntje Kyle