Karma

Today I've acknowledged the existence of two universal laws:
1. The world is a small place! Besides me, there is another foreigner visiting the same research group at SNU. I heard quite a lot about him since I arrived, but i only met him this morning cause he was away for the past few days. Well, the surprise was that we know each other! Couldn't believe it! What were the odds??!!

2. There is such thing as karma! Before telling this story, I should give some background on yoga in Korea. I'm referring to yoga taught by local instructors, for the locals. I attended one such class two days ago and thought I'll die of frustration. They do not have any of the traditional poses that I'm used to. None! Really, the only resemblance to the yoga classes i've attended til now is the yoga mat. I got so frustrated during my first class here, it's like they are trying to reinvent the wheel. I don't understand why they don't go for the traditional poses whose benefits have been studied for a long time instead of inventing new ones. It's absurd!! After coming back from the class, I wrote a post screaming all my irritation, but decided not to post it cause it was way too aggressive...

However, coming back to today's story, I decided that this so called yoga is actually the best thing i'll find while in South Korea, so I should just take it as another form of exercising. After all, it's better than nothing. Hence, this evening I joined one of the fitness clubs on campus, which is also offering yoga classes. Joining the club wasn't without adventures as the guy there didn't speak english and I had to fill in a form which was in korean. Eventually, i kinda guessed what some of the fields were about so i did my best to provide all the information. Apparently, one of the mistakes I did (as pointed out by a more english knowledgeable guy who was peeking over my shoulder at the form) was a less fortunate choice of gender.. Anyways, I managed to register.. male or female.. who cares?! :D

I went to the yoga studio half an hour before class and started warming up. The other students were also in the studio, setting up the mats. And next thing i know the little devil on my shoulder started acting up and, when asked by another person there how is yoga in singapore, I kinda showed off all the inversions and arm balancings I know. And actually, i never managed to hold the handstand for this long, or to bend this much in scorpion, or to link together the arm balancing poses like this.. See, all i need is the right motivation. Definitely, I changed people's view on yoga.. these guys are never going to try it in singapore :)).

But, as what goes up must come down, after the class i got totally lost in the campus, out of any cab's reach and without knowing any contact number of a cab agency. And of course that exactly when i needed directions, nobody could speak english.. it took me 1 hour to exit the campus! Peace to u all!