Yoga Competition...?

Yoga and competition are not two words that I usually find in the same sentence. Somehow I've found myself standing at the corner of this exact intersection, anxiously awaiting for each to collide come January 15.

Let me explain.

Yesterday my favorite yoga instructor informed me, with much enthusiasm, about an upcoming public demonstration and performance.  A number of the teachers are assembling "teams" of students to compete for about $20,000 NT. He has one spot left on his team and needs me to join, so I can top their pyramid.

I'm a former cheerleader (don't make fun...I'm from Texas), have experience (however limited) in "acroyoga," and am under five feet tall...so I'm actually a pretty good candidate for the position of yoga pyramid topper.

However, the idea of competing in yoga goes completely against why I love it so much. My new studio is quite commercial. There are mirrors everywhere. Fit Taiwanese ladies in matchy matchy workout clothes. Shiny, posh lounges for sipping tea. Sales consultants. Two-year contracts. But I personally practice yoga for pretty crunchy, hippie reasons, as it:

1. Helps me meditate and feel centered daily.
2. Brought me the faith in possibility necessary for the life I created this past year.
3. Let's me refocus as when things aren't feeling right-side up, it helps to see things from upside down for a bit.
4. Reminds me to be always grateful for everything, everyone and everyday.

Apparently I'm a very quick sellout though as I agreed to join the team and start "training" next week.
 Oy.

Big World. Little Me. Bigger Universe.

The longer I stay away from home the more I realize there is so much world to see for such a little tourist. My dear friend Mike recently sent me this video below where the American Museum of Natural History maps out all of the known universe.

When put in this perspective, the world actually seems quite small. So maybe it's not such a lofty goal to see all of it in one lifetime. In comparison to a quasar, India, Madagascar and Vietnam seem like entirely possible destinations, right?



PS: Merry Christmas.

Employment & Bondage

So I have a job now! It barely really counts as a "job," but it'll be a pleasant change to have money going into rather than out of my bank account. I'm tutoring a very sweet, Taiwanese girl in English once a week for two hours.

Our first meeting was much like that scene from a League of Their Own when Mae (Madonna) is teaching Shirley (Ann Cusack) how to read using an erotic novel. But imagine two twenty-something Asian girls at a crowded, yet quiet, outdoor coffee shop in Taiwan instead of two professional female baseball players on the back of a bus.

I brought her the only magazines I have here (Marie Claire and National Geographic) to practice reading. The article she chose was about Gossip Girl's (one of her favorite TV shows) lead actress Blake Lively and went something like this:

"She is wearing a pair of black tuxedo shorts, a white blouse opened just enough to hint at a delicate black bra, a pair of 5-inch Christian Louboutin heels...they look like bondage Mary Janes...her blonde mane is disheveled, her skin smooth and golden."

"ummm...what is bondage?"

I wasn't sure how to answer that, but next time I will definitely be choosing our reading materials much more carefully.

In case you have no idea what I'm talking about with the A League of Their Own reference, I just found the clip! It's about 30 seconds into this:

Flickr

A Twitter handle, a blog and now this! I am so with it these days.

As insisted upon by my dear friend Lauren, I finally purchased a Flickr account. So far I only have a random mix of photos from Greece and Taiwan up. More to come soon.

In case you're interested: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thelittletourist/sets/.

Other People's Stories

I've met a lot of fantastic expats during my stay here, so I've come across some great stories too. I've recorded a few here as told to me (with a few stylistic changes on my part) this past week. I think they illustrate life in Asia well.

1. Skinny Jeans. Fat Cockroach.
My friend was wearing skinny jeans out clubbing in Taipei once. A big cockroach crawled up one of his pant legs, but he couldn't shake it out and was instead freaking out. He ran to the bathroom to take his pants off, but they were too tight.

He ended up with mashed roach on the side of his leg. Not cute.

2. Hope This Doesn't Happen To Me. Maybe a Benefit of Living the Dream in Your 20somethings.
There was this 60something year old Japanese woman in my Chinese class who was super energetic and fun. She was living her dream of finally studying abroad. Growing up she always wanted to leave the country to study Mandarin, but her family didn't have the money. She ended up becoming a lawyer and making good money and being able to retire.

Then one day in class she just keeled over and died...right in the middle of class. But she was living the dream.

*Please note that this one came from a guy I met last night who has a professional certificate in circus performance. In addition to getting a BA in history and an MA in communication studies, he went to a circus school and was a juggler for a number of years. How cool is that? The second circus man I've met on this trip!

His signature act was standing on his head and juggling atop a bed of broken glass.

3. Weird Shit Asian People Do
When you're traveling in Asia, you never stop being shocked by the crazy shit Asian people do. Everyone I've met on my travels -- no matter how long they've lived abroad-- agree that you never get used to the bizarre things you see on the street...and everyone has their own favorite story.

Mine was walking down the road in China one day and I look up to see a man sawing off the top of a street lamp. The lamp was still on. I just kept walking.

The best one I heard was from a girl who was also walking down the road in China, and she sees two men bent over with the upper halves of their bodies in a barrel and digging for something. They emerge with what appears to be success on their faces and something moving in a bag. She'd never seen such pride so had to know what their elusive prize could be.

A cat. They were going home to eat it.