So I got a little gym crazy this week. Maybe it was because friends kept going to the gym and I didn't want to be the lazy one sitting at home instead, or maybe it was the deep seeded fear that I would come home for winter break with some extra lbs and give Jiro the satisfaction of being able to say "It was only a matter of time." Either way, I have been taking a page from the Norwegian's book and have been particularly active.
The newest developments in my workout regimen have been..ahem ragga jam dance class and swimming. I'll start with ragga jam. So, I really wanted to take Zumba, which my Estonian friend Liiri told me about...but she told me the classes fill up really fast and that you have to sign up for the Monday class between 8:00 and 8:15 on Saturday morning in order to get a spot. Ug, seriously? Well, I did it anyway...I ever so enthusiastically woke myself up bright and early on Saturday morning so I could sign on to my student housing page and then have them tell me that my password for booking sports doesn't work. Shocking. God forbid a password I type down in this country actually be correct. So later that day, I went to the gym with a friend and asked the receptionist why I can't sign up for group classes online. She scanned my card and said, "Well, you have to be a member to sign up for classes." I looked at her with my ah..kind eyes and told her, "I am a member." She then told me that I had not paid for the gym this semester and I told her, "Yes I have." And after 5 minutes of arguing with her, she discovered that I had paid but that they forgot to put my email into the system. Since Zumba was full now, my only option was to drop in to a ragga jam class. Fine. A couple days later, Liiri and I went to the ragga jam class. Before class, I was thinking..I did Zumba back home...I can shake it..I'm from California, home to hip hop and latin influences...I've seen the Norwegians dancing at the bars...maybe I should tone it down a bit so as not to scare them. Ha, well..little did I know that Norway is home to fifteen Shakiras all of which happen to take ragga jam class at the gym. After about 15 minutes of stumbling around like an idiot, I couldn't help but chuckle at the irony. Fun fact: ragga jam is much more technical than Zumba. My favorite was a series of 4 choreographed arm and leg moves that we repeated 8 times and not once did I manage to get the whole thing right. I actually thought the teacher was trying to repeat it until I got it right, but gave up. Nevertheless, humbling as it was..it was a lot of fun. What wasn't so fun was when I woke up at 8 am again to try and sign up for the next Zumba class only to find that the receptionist did not actually fix my online account.
Now for swimming. So for those that know me well, you know that I swam in high school and did junior life guards and what not..so I'm a good swimmer. Well, I was talking to a friend in my hall and said I would like to start swimming laps over here instead of running. He said, "oh me too, let's swim together..how about tomorrow?" Happily, I said yes..it's always better to work out with someone. Then he proceeded to tell me how was on his college's swim team. "Crap. This is going to be embarrassing" I thought to myself. I am definitely not in swimming shape anymore. Then I made the mistake of mentioning to another friend later that I was going to swim laps the next day. He asked me, "are you a good swimmer?" and naturally I told him.."yeah." Well, he called my bluff. He then said "oh let's swim together sometime next week, I played water polo and swam a 3K race last spring." I thought to myself, "Oh fuck me, what are the chances?" So now after spending the last 6 days at the gym, two of which in the pool...I can hardly move. I actually woke up this morning thinking I had the flu because there was not a single muscle of my body that didn't feel like I had a knife in it. So as of today...I'm boycotting the gym until next week and I have decided that the next time someone asks me if I am good at something, no matter what it is, even knowledge of English..I should just say, "oh god, no."
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