This morning for breakfast was a wide selection of fish and meat, including a whole fish cut into chunks, pork knuckle, crab and carrot stew, a pile of fried ham, sausages and frankfurters, plus ham sandwiches. I had my usual melon and bread rolls, patted the bronze baby in the foyer on my way out and trotted off to the station this sunny Sunday morning.
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| Bronze Baby |
One of the students is very small in stature, perhaps only four feet, and wears huge wedge shoes. She's energetic and has a good knowledge of muscles. Whilst waiting to get in, we showed each other photos of our children. Taking photos is pretty hot here. The students especially like it when I demonstrate or explain something theoretical, so as soon as Victoria announces that there is going to be a demonstration there is a quick flurry and I turn round to find everyone sitting cross legged at my feet like children excited to hear a story. They stand so close when I’m demonstrating that I keep stepping on them when I step back to perform a technique, but they don't seem to mind and crowd around enthusiastically, then play back their videos and copy the techniques there and then. Quick learners, they call out "teecha! teecha!" when in need of help.
Today we were learning about stretching and the students are themselves very flexible, with at least half the group being hypermobile. So I had to modify a lot of the techniques so they did not hurt themselves when they were applying these to clients, or when receiving the stretches themselves. At least half the class have an extra 10 degrees elbow extension so I’m pretty amazed none of them have shoulder pain. Although I suspect they do, they’re just not telling me yet. There was much distress this afternoon at the death of Witney Houston so for distraction I brought out packets of stretchy toys and made a target on the flip chart. This caused much amusement and they stopped stressing about Whitney and threw small yellow men at a bulls eye.
At break time they gave me a drink made by dissolving honey into luke warm water which tastes like orange juice. And a small pastry that looked like an egg custard. They still wanted me to visit the night market with them but I'm stalling until August because I know this is going to be a long week and whilst they’re not tired now, they still have 5 more days to get through and the hours are much longer than they're used to. I don't want to offend them but need to help them pace themselves. A sign on the escalator said ‘stand firm’ so I kept that sentiment in my mind when I made my way home.
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| Passive Back Stretches |
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| Finding the addcutors |
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| Labeling Muscles |
