MorningMysore

The moon days this month are this Thursday, the 1st, two weeks from Thursday, the 15th, and Dec 30th. Easy to remember….

Cheers,

Anne

Sunday 11/27 found us at the Landmark Mandarin Oriental Hotel Spa,
taking a Mysore class from Alex Medin. The Landmark is a fancy
hotel, and the spa is gorgeous. Everything is modern, with warm wood
and bamboo. The class is expensive, around $30 US per person. For
$30, you get: a locker, as many thick, luxurious towels as you want,
showers with four (4) shower heads per stall, shampoo, conditioner,
soap, body lotion, hair dryers, bottled water, and the good, Manduka
mats to practice on.

The yoga room itself holds 15 mats comfortably. The floor is bamboo,
two walls are mirrors which are curtained off, the other two walls
are mostly windows. The spa is on the 5th floor. There are two
statues at the front of the room. The room was very serene, and warm
enough. Ken calls this studio (and spa) a “Yoga Palace.”

There were 13 of us in the Sunday practice, many of the participants
doing second or third series. Alex and one assistant, Margaritte,
gave many adjustments. Alex’s adjustments were both very strong and
very gentle, and he took us farther than we had ever gone in some
poses. He is very intuitive, and the practice flowed well.

After class, Alex gave us a 2006 yoga calendar that he had posed for,
of yoga in Hong Kong street settings. (We will give the calendar to
YIY when we return. It’s too good not to share.) He then invited us
to a ten minute talk and 40 minute demonstration of third series at
4:00 in the afternoon at an Indian restaurant, where he was unveiling
his new calendar. Of course we went. His practice is beautiful and
very controlled. It is just like his adjustments: strong and
gentle. I found myself holding my breath during some of his poses.
And the yoga community was very warm and welcoming.

We will be going back every day until we leave Hong Kong. We are
hooked on Alex’s adjustments.

So going forward from tomorrow, our sutra dicussion group will continue meeting after class on Sundays with a rolling start time. Students who have finished their practice early will head to Global Blends after class at nine-thirty, and anyone else wanting to come later is free to do so at their convenience. This way people wanting to come early can, people wanting to practice late won’t miss out either.

Cheers,

Anne

So it has come to my attention that in efforts to communicate with some of you effectively, it would be of great to have a list of student’s phone numbers. Several times recently I have been asked, or someone has ended up stranded, for want of the ability to call.

So to propose: If you are willing to pass on your phone number to myself, and Laurel as a backup, please email me at annefinstad at yahoo.com with your number, and also the following: Do you mind if other yoga students have your number, or would you always have me or Laurel ask you first? If I already have your number, please just send an email with the latter information. Also, you can write down the same info or tell me or Laurel after class.

Thanks,

Anne

From Ken and Elaine. Too bad we didn’t see Jen there…. Yoga+ is a beautiful studio in Shanghai, China. They advertise a regular Mysore practice six days a week, as well as other yoga classes. The studio is on several floors of a renovated 70-year old building in a nice part of town. It is beautifully decorated in more Japanese/Thai style than Chinese style, with wood and modern, clean lines, and sliding door panels. There are separate men’s and ladies’ locker rooms with showers, and when you register for a class, you are given a bottle of water, along with a key for your locker.

The Mysore room was two flights up, with Pergo-like floors which were heated. While it was lovely at the beginning of class, by the time we were in Shavasana, the floor was too warm. The room was small, twelve mats were laid out, six on a wall, with a towel on each, perfectly folded and laid like pillows. One wall was all mirrored, which was both nice and distressing: we found that some poses which we thought we did well didn’t look as good as they felt!

The class today (11/21/05) was only three people: Ken, myself, and one other Westerner. Perhaps it was the quality of the instructor that kept others away. The studio is a teaching studio, and our instructor was clearly a teacher in training. She arrived at least 30 minutes after the published start of class. While the adjustments that she did were perfectly acceptable, she was hesitant to make adjustments, even though there were only three of us. She was not comfortable in helping me (and the other woman) with drop backs, and suggested that we use the wall. (The wall opposite the mirror had a brick section, which was actually quite nice for backbends, as it provided a bit of a hand-hold.)

The drop-in price was about $19. While the water was nice, and towels were provided for showers, we felt that the quality of instruction did not warrant the price. Nevertheless, our bodies reaffirmed that we LOVE Ashtanga.