5 weeks and I am still very much alive.

I don’t how to describe this training to you guys, but it is INTENSE.

Going to yoga classes at 8.30am and 5pm is the easy part.

Staying awake for the lectures in between seem to be the challenge for me. There are nights we are kept up after lectures to watch a series of Indian history till about 3 in the morning. Then we sleep 3 hours and soldier on for yoga in the morning.

I hope everybody is doing fine. I hardly have time to even practise guitar so I guess writing any new songs while I am here might not even happen. There’s the teaching dialogue that I have to learn and it’s really quite a challenge. I have to say this has to be the longest song I will be made to memorize.

We’ve had an amazing speaker Dr F Trapani who wrote the book, Our Food Dilemma, he was with us for two weeks and guided us through anatomy, I THINK I passed. This coming week there will be more medical experts coming for lectures so I’d better make sure I STAY AWAKE! As you can tell, it’s been a long time since I left school.

There have been countless visiting teachers from all over the world who are here to help us along and guide us through. I met this awesome dude who teaches in Seattle and is a DRUMMER too. I miss you, Brandon!

You’ll all have to excuse me for shitty updates, I quite admire some of them who are able to update everybody with a yoga blog. As I said, there can be no words to describe what we are going through unless you actually go ahead and DO IT. However ridiculous it might look, we are walking around looking like mad people as we go over our dialogue out loud (talking to ourselves) or grabbing other yogis or other guests in the hotel to ask if they could be our demonstrators, right there in the hallway, by the pool, or just wherever, so that we may get the hang of delivering the dialogue. Whatever it is, we have to get prepared for the real world, which is the studio, wherever we may find a job.

After two attempts at trying asian food in Palm Desert, I have given up. It’s SHIT. On the weekends, we go out to find reasonably priced places to get a decent burger, or just a foodcourt. Last night we celebrated one of the girls’ birthday at a ribs joint. It was awesome, I now have leftovers I can eat for lunch today. Heh. I miss every single SIngaporean dish you guys can name! For now I am surviving on hummus, carrots, celery, salsa, peanut butter, nutella, crackers, tuna, turkey ham, cous cous, rice, salads, yoghurt, fruits, fruits, fruits and nuts. I have recently discovered cooked chicken breasts. They sell them in packets at the supermarket, it’s pretty much tasteless but you dump it into your salads or rice just to get the meat factor during the weekdays.

The lunch they serve us at the hotel, mostly wraps and sandwiches with cold ham or tuna mayo or salmon that tastes just like tuna mayo, or rice with BEANS and some kind of vegetable stew, is getting kinda yucky. Most of the time we take it to our room and pick out what we want to eat, or we don’t eat them at all. It’s been 5 weeks, we are SO OVER THE BEANS. I think there has been a slight misunderstanding on the hotel’s side on what kind of protein they should feed us. Try some real meat sometimes, man. Not ALL yogis are vegetarian.

I can’t believe I finished a bottle of peanut butter in four weeks. I don’t even really eat that back home.

Starbucks at the hotel is not very impressive. They messed up my caramel machiatto by putting the caramel at the BOTTOM of the cup. A note to the band, please say hi to the Starbucks crew at Suntec for me.

There will be a talent show at the end of the training. There are a handful of very gifted musicians among the 320 odd teacher trainees. It’s going to be FUN.

So there. Emotionally I’ve had challenging days where I start missing the band and I would literally CRY, right there on the mat. My thought also go out to everyone who contributed to the Yogini Bear Fund. I am so grateful to be here at this training, and I would not have been able to do it without the help of you guys. Not forgetting the best brothers in the world, who have helped me a great deal getting me here. FYI, my dearest, sweetest mom paid for my air-ticket to LA. I was very lucky to have contacted one of the fellow yogis who was driving past so he picked us up from LAX and drove us TWO HOURS to Palm Desert. His name is Shawn Taylor and he’s my buddy now, his room is right above mine and he helps me shave the sides of my head.

So this is where I am, guys. Palm Desert, California. No longer in LA. It was nice a brief, I will only get to see it again when I fly back to Singapore.

4 more weeks to go.

I look forward to starting my journey as a yoga teacher. I would be honoured if anyone so wishes to come take my classes when I am back. In the meantime, I am also looking forward to getting back together with The UnXpected. I hope the shows have been fantastic, and I hope everyone will be a little patient with me when I get back. It might take a little while for me to adjust.

Be well, everyone.