Today we went to the King Estate Winery in the mountains of Eugene. The nearly off afternoon afforded us enough time to have a nice lunch. The Scholz's drove us with Tim through the beautiful country edges of Eugene and up into some of the nearby buttes and hills. There were new colorful batches of calves in the hilly fields, pretty houses tucked away, and the most beautiful weather we've had yet.
We drove up through rows of very young grapes with many hawks flying overhead (employed to be natural pest killers). Lavender and cypress trees started appearing as we edged up the drive, and it was like driving into a French country club. Paul and I started a $5.00 wine tasting and had their famous Pinot Gris, a Riesling, Rose, two Pinot Noirs, and a rich Syrah. We walked around outside a bit before having a wonderful lunch with wonderful and new friends.
Before that I went to a Bikram Yoga class, which I thought I was familiar with until we started. OY!!!!!
I went with my soprano friend Jane from Australia who has been to Bikram classes all over the world and they are always the same 26 poses in the same order with the same pieces of rest and dialogue. She told me that it costs some $15,000 to get certified to teach this type of yoga. You have to check into this San Deigo hotel for about 2 months and learn from the franchise in a certain way. I'd say brand name yoga is kind of an oxymoron.
-carpeted studio (SICK)
-known as the original hot yoga
-totally scripted class; the teacher stood on a mirrored box and said things like "Push more, push further, push hard, push now" (push replaced with kick, lock, go, etc) "put your total head on your completely knee," and "Complete relax." The ESL syntax of the yoga class was kind of distracting and I wasn't sure if the teacher had trouble putting a sentence together or not.
-The teacher would call out to you by name what you needed to fix or do better; non of this loving flow yoga crap, apparently. Jane and I got called out quite a bit. Jane was in a class where a student threw a water bottle at a teacher (who responded, "I know, right?"
-To fit in you have to wear Speedo-like shorts, and a sports bra.
It was completely different than any yoga class I've ever been to, but I also felt much better afterward than any, too- in Jane's words "I feel like I could eat the whole world for breakfast" (cute accent not included). It was $20.00 for an unlimited 10-day pass, which was very worth it. I think I'll be back- while I'm in Eugene at least.
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