I am taking a regular yoga class again at the <a href="http://www.yogabg.com/read.php?name=02&amp;lang=en" target="_blank">Bulgarian Yoga Association</a>.  I started practicing yoga about four years.  It's one of those things that was pretty regular in Washington DC and then I moved to Sofia with the best intentions of being dedicated to my yoga practice.

Ha, ha.  Somehow, there was always something else to do and I did that instead.  Well one of my Bulgarian friends signed up for a 12 week class and talked me into joining her.  Truthfully it wasn't too hard.

One of my favorite things is that yoga looks like this in Bulgarian: Йога

What's been hard is the fact that I don't understand very much of what's happening in class.  The first day I expected that the instructor would give the names of the poses in Hindi and then in Bulgarian as the studios I've practiced in the states do.   This isn't the case.

So I spent the first class in the front row... of course... not knowing what's going and not being able to see easily or discreetly what others are doing.  And for the record, I ended up in the front row by accident.  When I entered the room the mats were all down on the floor with one which seemed clear to me was the mat that the instructor would teach from.  Well, she decided to teach from the other side of the room.  This decision turned the back of the room into the front of the room.  Sweet.  I just hope that no one decided to try to follow me during that first class!  <!--more-->Luckily my Bulgarian friend asked me how much I understood at the end of the first class.  I told her not much.  I knew a few body parts but it wasn't nearly enough.  She sat down with me and told me lots of new body parts and many of the instructions that the teacher was saying.  I studied this a lot for the next class.

Last week, for my second class, I thought that I was much better prepared and I found a better location in the room.  This class was better.  However I left frustrated.  The instructor talks in such a nice soothing, flowing and rhythmic voice that it's impossible for me to hear where she is placing the emphasis in her sentences.  I was more familiar with the routine we were doing so I didn't feel as lost as last time.

I just expected to know more this time and I didn't necessarily feel like I knew more.  I felt about as inept as I had during the first class.  I left feeling a little bit stressed.  This isn't really the way you're supposed to feel after yoga.  It makes the whole thing seem pretty  counter intuitive.

Yesterday in class, however, I realized I am paying for the exercise and for the Bulgarian language practice.  I don't get to relax in the same way the other people do in my class do.  I have to stay more alert and practice listening to this woman.  When it was no longer about the exercise and relaxing as it is for me in the states, the practice was so much better.

I've got a lot more to learn but I am on my way.  The funniest thing yesterday day was that we were doing some poses on our stomachs with our arms above our heads and our faces on the mat.  This position makes it nearly impossible to tell what the people next to you are doing and I didn't know what the teacher was saying so I decided to practice breathing into my back and filling up the back of my body with air.  Anyhow after a few minutes of this, the teacher comes around and has to completely change my position; it must have been really clear to her how little I understand because she has to move my hands from over my head to under my hips and then she has to change my legs so that my feet and ankles are touching.

The thing is I wasn't embarrassed by it as I might have been at another point in my life.  I just thought--well at least I am here <em>and</em> I am making her life a lot less boring.  Hopefully after nine more classes, I'll be stronger physically and my Bulgarian will be stronger!