My New Yoga Studio

It's not really new anymore, actually. I've been going there almost three months, but I've been writing about other things since I started there. I figure if any readers out there are interested in yoga for when they get here, they might want to read.

The first yoga studio I went to was a little disappointing compared to what I had in LA, as I mentioned in a previous entry. Each day of the week had its own routine, and it was hardly yoga at all. It was actually a yoga/pilates/etc. mix that the instructor created because she feels that yoga harms some people. My opinion on that: if it doesn't help you, try something else. So although I liked the teacher fine, I didn't feel like her classes were doing me much good.

My boss found another place about the same distance from my house that was a more traditional yoga studio. This one is called Ashram Yoga College, and it's more like a gym than my first studio, and cheaper. They have a locker room with showers; a multipurpose studio for yoga, dance, tae-boxing, and other classes; and a personal training room in addition to a nice lobby where you can have a cup of tea before and/or after class. One time they gave us all a bowl of watermelon before class because it was hot out. You have to bring your own mat to this place, which I like. At the first place, she kept the mats lain out on the floor with blankets on top of them, and I really have no idea how often she washed either the mats or the blankets. It was a little disconcerting. This place also give you a coupon for each month's membership you purchase. You can use the coupons to buy a yoga mat or yoga clothes there at the studio.

AYC has helped me with my Korean, since this teacher knows much less English than my last. She only sometimes counts in English (why bother?) and will occasionally throw in an English word, but I actually think those are cognates 95% of the time, so it's not for me. I feel bad sometimes when I go there, because the people try to talk to me, but I don't know enough to converse with them. They see me understanding everything the teacher says in class, but once anyone's not talking about body parts, directions, breathing, or exercise movements, I'm a little lost.

There is still a lot of routine involved. That's partly just the culture rearing its head. Every class after the little meditation, stretching, and warm-up we do a couple extended sun salutations, which takes about twenty minutes, then we do actual yogic stretching and balancing poses, which vary somewhat daily. Only this last week did the instructor change the sun salutations portion--now we're doing a salutation closer to what I would do back home, and she made the routine harder, so that's good. Then after balancing and stretching, we do one more of the usual sun salutation before winding down. I'm not sure if she's just changing it for a little while as a break, or if she's advancing the class.

The only downfalls of going to this new studio are that the classes are shorter and the timing is a little awkward. I was going to classes that lasted about an hour and fifteen minutes, but now my classes are only 50 minutes. In LA, I would go to 90 minute classes, so it's kind of a big change. I'm not sure I could do 90 minutes of the same thing three times a week, though. This class also starts at 10:30, which puts me back home at 11:30, giving me only an hour to eat breakfast, shower, eat lunch, and get to work. It's going to get worse when I move to a new apartment and when my work moves to a new building shortly after that, since I'll have farther to walk both to and from yoga and to work. I might have to switch to the 9:30 class, booooo-urns.

One more thing I didn't like about either studio, which seems to be the prevailing tendency among yoga studios here, is that you can't just go to one class to check it out, or once you decide to go there, you can't go sporadically, unless you're okay with wasting your money. It's a membership thing, and you have to purchase at least a month at a time. You even have to tell them which time and days you come, though I was told it's okay to come any day if I'm in the 10:30 class. I find the whole idea pretty limiting.

Downfalls aside, my point is, it's possible to get real yoga in Korea, as long as you don't mind repetition and commitment.