3rd Quarter, even though it's over

For the 3rd quarter of massage school, we started straight into 2 classes - Anatomy in Clay and Shiatsu. Anatomy in Clay lasted for 4 hours every morning and was awesome. On day 1, we were all given a plastic model of half a skeleton. We were then instructed that our assignment for the next 2 weeks was to build 130 muscles out of clay and put them onto this model, to scale (of course). Sound daunting? It was. The whole goal of the class was to give us, the students, a 3D understanding of the muscles we were working on, rather than just having us learn what they look like from pictures in our books. Let me tell you, the human body is incredible. No way would I have guessed that there are abuot 10 layers of muscle just along the spine, or that 2 of the hamstring muscles actually fit inside one another - it's amazing. And it was really fun to wake up in the morning and then go paly with clay for 4 hours. On the last day of the class, all of us were given 2 stickers and were told to go around and palce stickers on the bases of the models that were the most accurate. My model and Rachel L's model tied with 7 stickers each, so we both got to put our muscle men into the Clinic on display until February! It was really nice to not have to take everything apart like the rest of the students, after we'd worked so hard on perfecting our muscle groups. So yeah, our models are in the Clinic for the public to see, and also for the next class to take a look at, which is really cool.
 The other class we had during those 2 weeks was Shiatsu. We had a woman come down from Portland, OR that's been exclusively studying Shiatsu for the last 11 years. Her name is Susan, and she was wonderful. It was her first time teaching at CRSMT, so we were all a little nervous for her, but it was absolutely fantastic. For soem reason I really clicked with the work, and I think that it's definitely something that I'm going to have to get further education in. Shiatsu is a form of bodywork that deals with balancing the life energy that is stored in your body. It uses theories from Traditional Chinese Medicine about energy lines, or meridians, that run throughout the body and are connected to different organs. There are also specific points on the body that can control energy and do things like help with decongestion or even induce labor in a pregnant woman. It's powerful stuff. And I am fascinated by it. It's one of the first kinds of energy work that we were introduced to, and I love it. I felt the energy immediately and seemed to have latched on to the modality more than any of the other students.

 At the same time that I was taking these two classes, I had visitors. Mom, Dad, and Karen all came down to Samara to see me for 12 days!!! It was AWESOME! They were able to stay in an extra house on campus, so I could rnn and see them any time I needed (assuming they were home), and that was really nice. I got lots of hugs =) 
 While they were here, I had a 4 day weekend from school, so we rented a car and decided to see a little more of Costa Rica than the tiny town of Samara. We ended up driving up to a town called Fortuna, which is up beside the Arenal Volcano. It was beautiful! The weather was a little on the sucky side for the most part, but we did actually get to see the volcano, which was neat. We were eating lunch at the hotel and looked up and could see steam coming out of the top! Another awesome thing was that the hotel had on-site hot springs that were lovely.
 While we were vacationing, the 4 of us decided to take a tour, and found a 'hanging bridges canopy tour' that sounded interesing. Essentially there were a bunch of suspension bridges and a 2 mile hike through the jungle. Awesome. Book it. We grabbed the camera (Mom let me take pictures on her amazing Nikon!) and headed out. Not only was the walk absolutely beautiful, but we learned a TON about the jungle and saw all kinds of plant and wild life. We saw howler monkeys, macaws, a sloth, and some really cool birds. There was one little white, black, and yellow bird that made a sound liek fingers snapping whenever it flitted around. Cool stuff. We also found coffee plants, leaf-cutter ants, and these 'walking trees' that will actually grow new root systems and literally walk to different parts of the jungle in search of sunlight!
 Of course, we also explored the town of Fortuna. I was on the hunt for a pink and white dress for graduation, so we stopped in to every store we saw that had dressed. Dad found the PERFECT dress, but unfortunately it wouldn't have fit anyone larger than a twig, so that was out. I'm still looking, by the way - no success yet.
 Anyway, we were hungry and tired of shopping, so we headed back to the hotel and found a steakhouse on the way, so we stopped to check out the menu. Smelled good, looked clean, had decent prices, so we had a seat. Best decision we ever made. The steak was mouthwatering-ly astounding. The place was called the Red Rock Steakhouse, and if any of you guys are ever in Fortuna, Costa Rica, you HAVE to eat there!!! Absoutely amazing food. Amazing!
 We made it back to Samara for all the Halloween parties, and then they all left a couple of days later. I wasn't happy to see them go (at all!), but I'm really glad that they were able to come see this amazing plae I've been living in. They also got to see some places I hang out and meet a bunch of my friends here, so that was really awesome.

 After the 4 day weekend, we started in on some new classes. Over the next 2 weeks, we had Myofascial Release, Trigger Point Therapy, Structural Kinesiology, and CranioSacral Therapy. That's alot. Let's talk about them in order.
  Myofascial Release is a technique designed to basically un-stick the skin from the underlying muscles. What happens is the Therapist gently picks up the slack in the skin and stretches it. For example, assuming you're wearing shorts like me, place one hand on the front of your ankle and one hand on your kneecap, making sure that your whole hand is making as much contact as possible. Gently spread your hands apart until you feel a slight pulling sensation. Congratulations! That's myofascial release. The hardest part about the technique is that you have to hold each position for between 90seconds and 2 minutes in order for the full effect to take place. The results are amazing though - not only is it super relaxing, but it allows the muscles to start freeing-up from the patterns of tighness they've been holding on to. And once the skin is no longer stuck to the muscles, the therapist can have an easier time working the knots out of those muscles, and also have longer-lasting results. Nice right? Also, the class was taught by the 3rd and final founder of CRSMT, Bev, who was amazing.
 Trigger Point Therapy is interesting (Bev taught this too). The goal is to induce a pain response. Doesn't sound too pleasant, but it does a world of difference to tight muscles. As the therapist, what we look for is a tigh band of tissue within a muscle, and then within that tight band, we search for what are essentially painful knots. We ask the client to tell us when we've found a tender or painful spot, and then we hold it. The idea is that by holding the pain, we force the body to investigate what's going on, and thus force it to realize that it's adhesed (knotted). In order to get you out of pain, your body will relax those muscle fibers. So we hold the pain until it goes away, and then we dig in deeper and find more pain, hold it until it goes away, etc. This can continue for 3-5 layers of depth, or until there is no more pain to be found in that area. Then you move on the the next tender point. It sounds pretty bad, but it's really not. It hurts, don't get me wrong - it's defined as "Exquisite Pain", and no truer words have been spoken. But even though it's painful, the relaxaton afterward is unequalled, and the effects it can have on the body are amazing.
 Structural Kinesiology was a class taught by a woman named Natalie, who was a spitfire. She actually reminded me alot of Chelsea, which was weird and cool at the same time. Anyway, the class focused on posture and how people move. We learned that there are 7 core muscles that keep us upright and standing straight, and that the average person doesn't use all of them. In order to sustain our bodies as massage therapists, we need to learn how to engage and use these muscles so that we don't overtax ourselves, and also so that we can teach our clients things that might help get them out of pain. The whole class was really ebout experimenting with each of the 7 muscles and learning how to put them all together. There was also a huge project in this class that realyl got us thinking about how a person's profession can define how they move. I was assigned the occupation of a Seamstress, and I had to come up with a list of possible pain patterns my imaginary client would have, as well as postural deciations or anomalies that they might be living with. I also had to think of what muscles were affected by their posture, what exercises I could assign them, and what my treatment plan for them would be. It was a really interesting project in that it took us away from "here give this guy a 1 hour massage" to "hey this lady is in serious pain, what are you gonna do about it?"
 Also, Natalie gave me the best compliment that I've recieved since being here, and it might even be one of the best compliments I've ever gotten. While taking to her about my project during Office Hours, we started chatting about what I want to do with my degree in Massage Therapy and what modalities I think I'll pursue, etc, when she told me a couple things. She said that as an instructor, she always teaches to the students who are most interested or who are the 'brightest lights', and she told me that she had a hard time teaching to the rest of the class because she was so drawn to me. I was the brightest light in the class, and she was attracted to my eagerness to learn and to succeed. Here's the best compliment - Natalie said that I have a natural healing ability inside me that's growing exponentially by being here and that not only does she expect great things from me in the future, but that once I graduate from CRSMT, she would be happy to call me her colleague. ...not just a student she taught once, or a girl in her class, but a COLLEAGUE!!! It was incredible you guys. Absolutely incredible. For her to say that to me.....geez. She's a professional who's been doing bodywork for over 10 year and who am I? A student who has no clue where she'll be living 2 months from now, where she'll be practicing, or what she'll be doing....and she's going to call me a colleague. Whoa.

 The last class of the quarter was CranioSacral Therapy, and man was it weird. CranioSacral is based in science, but is actually energy work. Basically, it operates under the principle of a 3rd pulse. you have your cardiac pulse (blood pressure), your respiratory pulse (how fast you breath), and your CranioSacral pulse. In order to understand the CS pulse, you have to understand the Central Nervous System. Ok. Anatomy lesson - the brain and spinal cord are surrounded by several layers of protection. One of those layers is a fluid that nourishes and acts as a shock absorber for both. This fluid is called the CerebroSpinal Fluid. CranioSacral Therapy operates under the assumption that it is fluid, therefore it moves. The CS pulse is incredibly slow - 6-10 cycles per minutes, and it's barely tangible, so the concept is hard to grasp. It can be felt anywhere in the body, and by resisting the movement of the Cerebrospinal fluid, one can essentially reset the client's nervous system. As I said - it's weird.
 The whole session basically involves the therapist balancing their hands on the clients body (for example on the forehead) and feeling for change. To the client, it just feels like the therapist is resting their hands on you. It's really relaxing, but that's about all I felt while in class. Of course, I did get a session with Leesa (the instructor) becuase I'm being objective and experiencing all types of bodywork that I can. I was dubious about going in and wasn't really sure what to expect. For the first 10-15 minutes of the session, all she did was stand with her hands on my ankles, which was odd. Then she told me I was holding tension between my eyebrows and behind my eyes and she helped me to release it - at least, she helped my left eye let go. My right eye was stuck. The wierdest part was that all she did was lay her hands over my eyes and I could feel the releases. She also did some strange neck work and apparectly tried to place her hand on my sternum, but my body rejected her touch immediately and retaliated - I subconsciously didn't want to be touched there. So she put my hand on my chest and then her hand on top of it, and all of a sudden I started having these flashes of traumatic memory, but instead of being back in the scenes, I was just an observer watching what felt like a slideshow of rapid images of things I had previously been pushing out of my head to aviod the pain of dealing with them. The oddest part was that I was consciously okay with the whole process - as if I was ready to let go and she ws just facilitating it. I dno. After that, I don't remember anything until she took her hands off of my head and went and sat in a chair in the corner. I registered that she was no longer touching me, and I remember thinking if was stange that she was sitting so far away, and then all of a sudden I felt my body begin to swell, like I was the blueberry girl from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory - I was growing bigger and bigger and I couldn't exhale, and I felt like I was too big for tha table. And right as I reached the point of freaking out, the whole thing reversed itself, and I was collapsing inward, unable to inhale, and shrinking rapidly. Again, as I reached the point of panic, it stopped, and I was returned to normal. Talking with Leesa afterward helped me realize that I had experienced the CranioSacral Pulse in my entire body at once, and consciously. It was trippy as hell, I'll tell you what. But it makes me curious to try this modality on someone who's not a student - it's tough to try and get the full effects of the modalities when you're trying to follow certain protocols and make sure you've got the techniques correct, all the while listening to the dogs barking, the monkeys howling, the lawns being mowed, the chickens getting slaughtered...yeah. It's crazy here. So I'm still not sure how I feel about CranioSacral Therapy - It's super relaxing, but I'll have to play with it more to convince myself about the positive effects. Cuz after my session, I was relaxed, but I was also weirded out.

 There you have it folks, a novel about my 3rd quarter of massage school. Enjoy!

A blog about Nicaragua

Hey guys. This blog is about 3 weeks late, but late is better than never right?

So for the break between 2nd and 3rd quarters here at CRSMT, the whole class got to go to Nicaragua. Not only was this a cool way to take a 4 day break from massage life, but it also got us out of Costa Rica for 72 hours, which is required in order to renew our 90 day tourist visas.
 We stayed in the city of Granada, which is the oldest city in Nicaragua and has lots of old Spanish architecture. The city itself reminded me alot of Guatemala City, Guatemala. Every building had high cement walls around it, barred windows, and armed guards. We stayed at the Hotel Dario, which is apparently one of the nicest hotels in the city. Luckily, the price for the hotel was included in our tuition, so we didn't have to pay more money to stay there. There were 3 people per room, and everyone got their own bed, which was awesome. We had left the school at 8am and didn't get to Granada until about 2:30 or so, so by the time we checked in, we were so hungry we could barely sit still. And of course we wanted to go explore before the sun went down. Rachel A, Erica, and I found a really cute European cafe for lunch and coffee. While we were finishing up our meals, a guy walked over to our table and asked us to go on a tour with him and his friend. As scetchy as this sounds, we heard him out. Granada is situated on the banks of Lake Nicaragua and has a ton of tiny private islands called the Isletas, and for $15, you can get a boat and a captain to take you out and tour you around a little. The boat holds 11 people, and these guys were only 2, and they were looking for more passengers so that the cost of the boat would be lower per person. As luck would have it, Rachel, Erica, and I were already planning on taking that very tour the following day, so we looked at each other and figured "what the heck". We were together, so we were relatively safe, and we were feeling adventurous. So we paid for our food and met up with Antony (from Belgium) and Gunnar (from Germany) and walked down to see if we could find ourselves a boat. On the way, we accumulated Chris (a fellow CRSMT student), 2 local girls, and 2 more guys from Germany. This brought our total number up to 10, which is made the tour less than $2 per person. The timing ended up working out so that we were on the water as the sun was setting, and it was incredible.
  On the second morning in Nicaragua, Larissa and Rachel woke me up at 6:42am because they were so excited about shopping. Larissa and Christina had gone out exploring the previous night while Rachel, Erica, and I were on our tour, and they'd found some amazing shops that they wanted to take us to. After showers and a breakfast of bagels and coffee, we went out. What we found was pretty impressive. There was an entire street lined with shops and vendors that stretched literally as far as the eye could see. Only one street, but it was HUGE. Everything in Nicaragua is super cheap, so we were pretty excited to see what we could find. And boy did we find. There were people selling everything from clothing to foods to stolen cell phones and iPods to furniture. It was crazy. Larissa, Rachel, and I literally spent the entire day on that street. When we finally got tired of lugging our purchases around, we decided to go back to the hotel and dump our stuff. On the way there, we had to pass through a large plaza that's in the middle of the city, and in the plaza are a bunch of vendors selling hot dogs. We decided that it would be an experience, and they were only 10 Cordobas each (the equivalent of 50cents), so we each bought one. We have no idea what the lady put on them, but she just started squirting things from random bottles onto the hot dogs and then handed them over. The three of us found a bench and started eating. They were fantastic!
  But here's where things get interesting. Granada, Nicaragua has a huge problem with children dropping out of school, sniffing glue, and begging. Sometimes the parents will even force their kids into begging because they've learned that the children can make more money in a day begging on the street than the adults can at their jobs. These were things we were told and that we'd read, but that until this point, we had not witnessed. While the 3 of us were enjoying our lunches, a boy of about 8 came over to us and started miming stealing our hot dogs and eating them. He even made 'mock' grabs at our purses and held out his hands asking for some kind of offering from us. At great length we managed to shoo him away, and we watched as he walked about 100 feet away to his mother, and shrugged at her as he showed his empty hands. The mother knelt down and hugged him, then pulled away and slapped the boy in the face. She then angrily looked at a younger boy and pointed at us. By this point, Larissa, Rachel, and I have stopped eating and are sitting there appalled watching everything take place. Then this little 5 year old boy walks over to us and asks for our water or for some money. He was more easily disuaded than his older brother had been, but seemed reluctant to go back to Mom. When he did, she did the same thing as before: hugged him and then slapped him. Then she stooped lower still and pulled a toddler out of a chair, handed him a box of gum, and ushered him over to us. The kid coudln't have been more than 2, and here he was being forced into begging. He was rediculously cute, and we were half-tempted to give him some money so he wouldn't get hit too, but if you pull out your purse for one kid, all the kids in the vacinity come running over. By this point we had finished our meals and were sitting there looking into the smiling face of a tottering boy with huge brown eyes and we were all feeling sick to our stomaches about everything we'd just witnessed. We waved at the toddler and turned him around so he was pointed back toward Mom and then we got up and left. The whole thing was horrifying.
 That night most of the classmates decided to go to a more fancy restaurant for dinner, so we dressed up and walked a couple blocks over. There, I had an absolutely amazing steak kabob with a dijion sauce. Unfortunately the glass of wine I ordered was nasty, but the food was delicious. We were all planning to go out for drinks after dinner, but a couple people wanted to go back to the hotel and change really quickly first, so we walked back. On the way back, I was walking slightly ahead of the group, and we had to go around a corner on the sidewalk. There were men probably about my age sitting against the wall of the building at the corner and also sitting along the curb. So in order to get back to the hotel, I had to walk through the middle of them. I took a deep breath and strode through to the usual cat calls of "guapa" and "leche", and I was expecting them so it was okay. What I wasn't prepared for though, was the guy that grabbed my ankle, the guy that grabbed my arm, and the guy that grabbed my dress. I reacted so fast that no one from my group even knew what had happened, but I ended up kicking the guy on my foot and twisting out of the grasps of the other two, all while spinning around and shooting them a look of death until they backed off. I managed to keep calm until I was out of their sight, but it really freaked me out. I'm jsut glad I wasn't alone or things could have gone very wrong very fast. If they were willing to grab me with my whole group right behind me, there's no telling what they would have done if I was by myself. Needless to say, I was furious and wanted nothing to do with anyone for the rest of the night. Everyone else went out without me, and I spent the evening listening to music and reading in the hotel room, which was perfectly fine with me.
   On our third and final day in Nicaragua, Rachel, Larissa, and I decided that we needed to go ziplining at the base of a volcano. As we were walking out of the hotel, we were greeted by Steve and Elisa, who had just made a new friend Ricardo, who was a tourism manager in Granada. We expressed our ziplining wishes to him and he made up a plan to get us deals on the tour, include transportation in a private van, and also make a stop at the well-known Massiah Market, which is an artisan market that's about 2 blocks big. All for $38. Deal. 20 minutes later the 6 of us (Larissa, Rachel, Elisa, Steve, Ricardo, and I) we were sitting in a van on our way to the Mumbacho Volcano to go Ziplining. It was AWESOME! Hands down the best ziplining tour I've ever done. There were 3 guides, and the zips were super long and went straight through the canopy. There were a few zips where the guides asked if anyone wanted to go upsidedown or 'Superman', and then 3 of us would jump at the chance to do something awesome. The guides actually went with us on the 'stunt' rides, so we didn't have to worry about controlling anything, which was nice. After ziplining, we got back in the van and Ricardo took us to "the most beautiful place in Nicaragua" which ended up being an overlook spot where we could see the Mumbacho Volcano, Lake Mumbacho, and then beyond that, Lake Nicaragua. It was a spectacular view. After hanging out for a few minutes and taking some pictures, we piled back in the van and went to the market. Rachel, Larissa, and I took off and went exploring and found some really amazing stuff. All three of us ended up buying hammock chairs that are amazingly comfortable and were only $12. When we were finished shopping, we returned once more to the van and were brought home. Elisa and Steve went to a spa with Ricardo, and we went back to the room. We ended up going shopping again and grabbing a late lunch. That night a bunch of people were going out for dinner and drinks again, but I wasn't really feeling super social, so I just hung out in the room and read some more.
 The next morning we ate breakfast and then left to come back to Samara. It was a nice change of pace to be out of Costa Rica and off the beach, but I was mighty glad to be back where I knew people and where the kids weren't begging and the guys weren't grabbing me. Cities have never really been my 'thing', and that trip just reaffirmed that knowledge.

Part 2 and Revelations

To continue on with things that have happened over the last couple of weeks...

In my Bodywork classes, we did a lot of exercises with blindfolds. "What the heck would you use blondfolds for at massage school" you ask? To build trust and understanding of course! The first thing we did, was we paired off and did a blindfolded Trust Walk. We had to get our blindfolded parter to the beach, switch places, and then come back to campus. So Steve blindfolded me and took me to the beach. It was really scary for the first few minutes because of course you have no idea what's in front of you, but you also don't know where the final destination is (other than "the beach") and you don't know how you're getting there. And then of course you have to walk past cars and construction and dogs and whatnot, and you can't see the puddles you're stepping in or the rocks you're tripping on... all in all though, it was a really cool experience. Once I allowed myself to completely trust in Steve and his guidance, I was able to realize things that I didn't know before. For example, I became hypersensitive to shadows, sounds, and the texture of the ground under my feet. Even though my eyes were closed and I was blindfolded, I could sense even the slightest differentiation in the quality of light. I could hear everything around me - the people, the trees, doors opening...at one point, I knew I was by a pole or trunk of some kind, and I just stuck my hand out and touched it - sounds anti-climactic, but it was so cool to really KNOW where the pole was before I touched it. The texture of the ground was probably the coolest thing though. Even through my shoes, I could feel what kind of ground I was walking on - pavement, tile, beach, gravel...it seems simple writing it all out, but it was so incredible to actually experience it!
 We also used the blindfolds during bodywork classes, which was a trip all in itself. The first thing we did was 6 of us got on the table and blindfolded ourselves, and then there were 5 people acting as therapists who could see. No talking was allowed, and they had 3 minutes to complete a massage on a designated part of the body (example, 3 minutes for a leg). After the 3 minutes, the therapists went to the front of the room and the people on the table had to write down who they thought had just touched them. This exercise was mainly used to help us as therapists - if we can't portray who we are through our touch, then we have work to do. And if a bunch of people think that Christina massaged them when it was actually me, then I need to get a session from her ASAP, because that's the closest I'll ever get to feeling what my touch feels like. Does any of that make sense?
 The second thing we did with the blindfolds in Bodywork was the most amazing thing I've experienced here at CRSMT. We've gone through weeks of feeling what's going on in the body and we've been steadily building up what we can feel with our fingers and elbows, but you never realize how much you know or don't know until one of your senses is removed. For this exercise, we had our clients lying facedown, and we (the therapists) were blindfolded and had to give a full back-of-the-body massage complete with advanced techniques and draping. It was so scary to not be able to see how our client was reacting to our touch, or to not know quite where the drape was falling, or to not be able to find our jar of cream! But again, after you let the fear go, amazing things start to happen. Suddenly I was massaging and I could feel Larissa's individual muscle fibers. I could feel the muscles in her legs squeezing the blood back up to her heart. I could feel the perfect outline of her ribs under all the layers of muscle on her back. I learned more about the body in 30 minutes than I have in 2 months of study, and it was incredible. And because I couldn't use my sight, I had to be completely in tune with her body to pick up any responses that she would give me. God it was amazing. And afterward, she said that she'd really enjoyed the session and had felt really connected with me - so that's really cool too. When I was on the table and she was blindfolded, I could feel her exploring my muscles and it was just really really cool. Awesome experience.
 Another cool thing that happened recently is that a bunch of us girls decided that it would be fun to go on a 5 hour horseback riding tour into the mountains. It was $70, which is a little steep, but we needed a break and we love horses, so what the heck. So the 6 of us got to the meeting place, mounted our horses, and meandered down the beach and up a mountain. We had 1 guide who rode last the whole time, and her horse had a new foal that followed the entire way. It was cute, but seemed a little inhumane. Anyway, so we rode up and down and up and down hills and the horses weren't exactlly comfortable to ride, so by about an hour in to the trip, we were cursing this decision. We rode for about 2 hours, and then the guide came up front and started plowing off the road through the 6foot tall grasses into the woods. Of course we followed, and when the group came to a small stream, she made everyone dismount. We were all completely confused by what was going on, and then all of a sudden the guide motioned for us to follow her and she starts walking a barely discernable trail straight down the side of the mountain. Straight. Down. And the trail was muddy. So after numerous falls and bruises and bad words, we found ourselves at a river. We walked upriver a little ways and came around a bend and were met by the most beautiful waterfall I've ever seen (check out the Facebook pictures). It was a huge waterfall that cascaded out of the trees over rocks and everything was green and gorgeous... so of course we stripped down to our skivvies and went swimming! It was wonderful. And it made the whole hellish trip up there totally worth it. We would have stayed all afternoon if blood hadn't been drawn numerous times. Shaylee slipped on some rocks and slid about 8 feet down the waterfall and ran into a boulder that was really sharp and she cut her foot open really badly. Erica and I also both gashed our hands pretty good. Luckily, there were 3 people (Erica, Rachel, and myself) who were able to bandage things up. Mine and Erica's hand injuries were solved with bandaids, but Shaylee's foot had a really deep cut that needed more attention than we could give it. If we had had Superglue with us, it wouldn't have been a problem, but we didn't. We ended up putting bandaids on her foot, wrapping it with Rachel's belt to try and keep compression on to stop the bleeding, then we put 2 socks on it to hold everything in place. Of course she still had to climb up the mountain back to the horses, but it was done without incident. She did have to get 4 stitches when we got back, but she's fine, so don't worry. And she has a great story to tell.
 So the waterfall was AWESOME, and then on the way back down, we were trying to go faster so we could get Shaylee to the doctor, so naturally we galloped most of the way. Swimming in the msot beautiful waterfall ever and then galloping down the mountainside and across the beach makes for a pretty damn good day. Even though we were sore beyond belief for the next 3 days... totally worth it.
 
 Alright, so in my last post, I told you guys that I'd made some personal discoveries, so here they are.
About a week and a half ago I was walking down the beach and i suddenly realized that I cannot follow the path I thought I was destined for. When I originally decided to attend Massage school, I was determined to learn how to help people so that I could pass on that knowledge. I wanted to help victims of domestic abuse learn how to trust in 'good touch' again. I was going to help Katie open a clinic and I was going to teach victims that touch didn't have to be painful and that it could heal. That was my plan. So while walking on the beach, it was a huge shock to realize that I was unable to follow that path. I don't necessarily mean that I will never work with victims of domestic abuse, but right now - where I'm at in my life at this present moment - I cannot do that work. There are a couple of different reasons for this. Firstly, I'm still healing from my personal experiences with domestic abuse, and don't feel that I'm ready to deal with the emotions of other victims on a daily basis. Secondly, I am afraid of being drawn into their low energy vibrations and experiencing flashbacks or emotions that would unground me or even hurt me. But thirdly and most importantly, I have not healed myself enough to be able to heal other people in that aspect. I have not found enough compassion and forgiveness in my heart for Blake and for Jahongir and until I find that compassion and until I am able to truly forgive them, I will never be able to completely heal myself. If I tried to go into that path of healing the hurts of other abused women, I wouldn't be in it to heal them - the truth of the matter is that I would be attempting to heal myself through them, and that's not fair to anybody. So until I can really and truly heal myself, I will be unable to follow that path that I had been so readily set upon. Perhaps in a few years I can re-evaluate where I am on my journey, but right now, I'm just not there yet.
 So I don't know what I'm going to be headed into (other than Massage Therapy), but I know that I'll be doing good and that I'll be helping people - just not necessarily the people I'd originally thought I would be helping. Yeah.

Oh and for anyone who hasn't heard yet, I was officially offered a job at Carnahan Chiropractic in Pullman, WA! So after school here and after the holiday season I'll be headed back to Washington to build my business and my clientel and learn what massage in the real world is all about! It's official! Yay!

That's all for now - part 2 and personal revleations. A lot to think about, but all for the better.

Ok folks...

K so I haven't written in ages and I have a ton to write about and there's no way I can do that all in one blog and still keep ya'll interested, so i'm going to have to break it down into a couple in order to keep all of us sane.
 As usual, alot has happened since the last time I wrote. I really need to get better at blogging, but I feel like there just aren't enough hours in the day!
 Ok so the Second Quarter of CRSMT is over. I'm pretty confident that my grades will be similar to what they were last quarter, but I won't know until monday, so I'll have to keep you updated. I just finished finals at about 3:00 this afternoon, and I think they went pretty well. Today I had a final in Hydrotherapy and in Bodywork Experiential. The one for Hydrotherapy was just a basic written test - the class was only 2 days long, so it was pretty easy. Bodywork was a totally different story. Just like with my Swedish Massage class last term, I had to give a massage to my instructor as my final exam. This time, we had 20 minutes to complete abdominal massage, flip our client over, do an advanced Shiatsu hip stretch, and bilaterally perform a deep elbow stroke. It was terrifying. I didn't stop shaking until about halfway through my massage. I chose to do my deep work on Hillari's back, so luckily she didn't have to see me freaking out. After my 20 minutes was over, she gave me some feedback. It wasn't quite as good as Jill's feedback last time, but it was alright. She told me to speak a little louder and slow down my abdominal strokes a little. The worst part was that she said she felt a fingernail for a split second - that one thing can fail me. I don't think it did, but it was still horrifying to have her tell me that. She said that my connection and my quality of touch was awesome and that my depth has increased exponentially since the beginning of term, so that was good. Overall I think it went well, but again, we'll see on Monday.
  In other news, a really cool thing happened in Clinic last week. That one guy didn't come back to me, which is totally cool. But I was assigned 3 women who were all fantastic. The first woman had NEVER had a massage before. This simple fact puts an INCREDIBLE amount of stress on the therapist because what the client thinks of their first massage is what they'll think about massage for the rest of their lives. No pressure. So this woman came in terrified and clutching her purse like it was a lifeline. I got her on the table and she was so tense that her head wasn't even on the table and she was holding her arms for me, etc. I put a ton of positive healing intentions into my hands while I worked, and by the time I got to the front of her legs, she was finally relaxing her body, but she was blinking nonstop, so I knew she wasn't quite there yet. As I kept working I watched her eyes slowly slow down, and by the time I was working on her back, she was snoring. It was so AMAZING to be able to be a part of this woman's transition from terrified and tense beyond belief to asleep on my table! I relaxed her THAT much! It was so cool. I talked to Hillari after the massage and she said that the woman totally loved the massage and would definitely be coming back to me. So that's awesome as well.
 My 2nd lady is an accepted student at CRSMT for the January term, so she asked all kinds of questions, and it was really cool to have her on the table and be like "want to feel something cool" (crazy stretch or awesome elbow work) "you'll be able to do that in 4 months!" and we just talked about school and classes and "is it really as hard as they say" and stuff like that. It was fun.
 My 3rd client didn't speak a single word of English, but luckily she's had tons of massage before, so she knew what to do, which made things easier. But it was tough to figure out if my depth was what she wanted or to ask if she wanted water before she flipped... all in all, an interesting night. But the first client was by far the best experience in Clinic I've had so far.
  I have lots more to say, but I'm going to have to sign off and let it wait. I've had a lot of recent personal discoveries that will take some time to scribe, but unfortunately I'm going out with the gang for a celebratory "we're done with 2nd Quarter" dinner, and then tomorrow morning we leave for Nicaragua! So in my next entry I'll tell you the rest of things and I'll also update you guys on Nicaragua, which I'm sure will be amazing!

I love you guys!

Just another day...

So I know you guys have been clamoring for another blog post, but I've been SUPER busy, so I apologize for the tardiness, but here you go.
 The last time I wrote, i had jsut finished my final exams for first quarter. I'm pleased to inform those of you that don't already know, that I ended up with a 4.0 GPA - I got A's in all 7 of my classes!

And now we're halfway into Second Quarter, and things are a little trickier. Just like last quarter, I have 3 classes per day, each of them being 2 hours long every day. Even though we're only 2 weeks in to this quarter, I've already completed 2 classes. So far I am taking (or I have taken) Musculoskeletal Anatomy, Personal and Professional Inventory, Professional Communications, Professional Ethics, and Bodywork Experiential. Don't worry, I'll go over them each.
 Musculoskeletal Anatomy (MSA) is a horrible class. That's not entirely true - it's a hard class with TONS of information and a bad teacher. Our instructor's name is Andrea and she's from San Diego and has never taught this course before. She is completely new to Costa Rica School of Massage Therapy and has never taught 16 weeks worth of material in 15 days before. So it's challenging for all of us. Luckily, we have an absolutely fantastic textbook that comes with wonderful flashcards, so we're able to teach ourselves the information because she doesn't seem to be doing it. In the 2 hours of class every morning, she spends about an hour 'teaching'. I put quotes around 'teaching' because all she does is read from our fabulous textbook - and if we ask a question that's more in depth, she either says she doesn't know, blatantly ignores us, repeats whatever she originalyl said, or changes the subject. So it's really hard. Hardly no one pays attention in class because we're all busy teaching ourselves the material that she's left out. She also doesn't write the tests (Jill does) and because it's her first time here, her PowerPoint presentations were given to her by Jill as well. And she never reads ahead and prepares for class, so she has a limited clue of what we need to know to pass the tests. The first test we took last week, practically everyone did horribly. There were 3 people who had A's, and all 3 of them pointedly admitted that they guessed on several of the questions and just got them correct by pure luck. There were also a couple questions on the test that covered information that we weren't taught, or that Andrea has said specifically that we didn't need to know. I recieved a 79.48% and when I questioned some of the answers I had been confident about, I was informed that I was studying wrong. And when I opened the book and pointed to where I found my information, she told me the book was wrong. But she doesn't tell us it's wrong BEFORE the test, only after. Anyway, so we had another test today, and yesterday for the review, she literally had today's test in hand and was looking at the questions and telling us what muscles we need to know, etc. Which was helpful, because there were 54 muscles that we learned in 4 days along with several bones, and not only do we have to know the location and the action of each muscle, but we also have to know the Insertion, Origin, and the Striation, as well as all the bony landmarks on every bone. So it's a virtual ton of information, and we were saturated from studying to the point where we were resolved to failing this class. Luckily, we managed to convince her that 54 muscles was too much to learn in 4 days and that she needed to be mroe quiz-specific. I'm fairly confident that I got better than a C on this test. But we'll find out tomorrow.
 Personal and Professional Inventory was a really interesting class. Russ Bennet was our instructor, and he's also one of the founders of CRSMT. Really nice guy. I went in to this class thinking that it was going to be about what we need to start our business or something, but I was totally wrong. It was an evaluation of what's inside each of us and what we carry with us wherever we go. On the first day of class, Russ told us to dress in swimsuits and put on lots of sunscreen, and then he led us down to the beach. Of course we were completely confused until we walked up to a bunch of kayaks and were informed that our assignment was to kayak (in pairs) out to the Island. So we paired up and went sea-kayaking for about 40 minutes and then landed on this tiny island and the guides gave us water and fresh pineapple and we hung out for about half an hour, when Russ gathered us all together and we sat in the sand to do a guided meditation. He asked us to see ourselves as we were right then, and then to, in our minds, zoom back to where we were and what we were doing 3 months ago. Then after some time spent revisiting the past, we zoomed ahead to 3 months from now, when we were all at CRSMT Graduation. It was a really cool, really emotional journey. This class involved a lot of really deep personal discussions, such as what traumatic experiences we've had in the past, what led us to choose massage therapy and why we're here, what we hope to change about ourselves as we journey through these 4 months in Costa Rica...it was really intense. And then on the last day of class, we met up at 4:45am and because it was raining, we went into the Director's house for our sunrise ceremony. We each had to present and declare a change that we were serious about making for the next few months in order to better ourselves. It took some thinking and some courage, but it was a really cool thing to do - we were up before the birds vowing to enact change in ourselves. Some people said they were going to try and be more emotionall open, some said they were going to try and stop lying to themselves...it was really emotional. My declaration was that I am going to do things that make ME happy because I want to do them. I've been trying to please everyone else for so long, that I've kindof forgotten how to do that. So whether it's wearing a fun dress, or singing while I'm making dinner, I want to do things that make me happy and try not to think so much about what other people will think of me for them. Yeah. =)
  My Communications class is taught by an amazing woman named Vickie Torrey, who hails from Charlotte, NC. It was all about learning how to effectively communicate with other human beings, be they clients, friends, or medical professionals. We looked into eye contact, body language, external distractions, and things like that. The whole class was only 3 days, and the final was yesterday and was rediculously easy. Another 100% feels really good after that bad MSA score.
 Professional Ethics is also taught by Vickie, and we jsut started it today, so it hasn't all been laid out for us yet. Obviously we're going to be talking about ethical situations in our massage practice and we're going to debate ethical dilemmas and things of that nature. Today in class, we had to write out our own personal code of ethics. I challenge any of you to do this - it's insanely hard. Rewarding, but difficult. Vickie also teaches our Pathology course, but that's not till next week.
  BodyWork Experiential is my afternoon class that's taught by Hillari, who was my nutrition instructor last quarter. I think I love her more and more every day. The whole class is basically about "Ok, you know how to give a relaxing Swedish Massage, but here's how to actually do work on people". So we're learning how to go deeper into the tissues. It's SSSOOOO cool! Exhausting, but awesome. We're learning how to use our elbows and how to get up on the table with our clients and work on them, and it's so much fun. Pretty soon, we're also going to learn how to do pregnancy massage, infant massage, jeriatrics massage, and things that require special training like that. It's so amazing to be working on someone and to actually feel the knots in their muscles, know what muscles are knotted in what way, know how to work on those knots, and then actually feel them release under your fingers. It's amazing.
 This quarter we also have started working in the Clinic giving massages to the public. The first week, all of our clients were either students or instructors, so they were all people we knew. Even if you know the person, giving 3 hour long massages in a night is nervewracking and tiring. This week was our first week in the Clinic with people from the community. Because it was the first week for the public, not alot of people knew we were open, so we still did alot of massages on people we knew. I massaged an instructor, an administrator, and then one local guy. It was really scary to massage a guy! It was my first full-body massage on a male client and it was terrifying. Luckily, he spoke pretty good English. But before the massage, Hillari came in and sat me down and was like "ok Rika, we need to talk about your next client". I guess he comes in all the time for massages and only gets massaged by the tall blonde haired, blue eyed American girls. If he likes you as a bodyworker, he'll reschedule only with you until you leave Samara. The thing she wanted to talk to me about was that he always asks the girls out and can sometimes be seen as overly friendly, so she just wanted to make sure I was ok with it. I said it was fine, so he came in and I did the massage and he talked the whole time, which was hard when I was trying to focus, but it made me relax into the session more, so that's good. It was actually the most fun massage I've given. And somehow the timing ended up being perfect!! I'm still totally stoked about it! And he left me my first tip!!!!! 2,000 Colones, which is about $4, but that's still so cool! And I'm pretty sure he's scheduled another session with me next week, so I might have a regular!

Okay, I think I've given you guys enough to read for tonight. And I need to eat dinner and do some readings for class.

Pura Vida!

One Quarter Done!

I'm done with my first quarter of Massage Therapy School!!!

This last week was totally crazy getting ready for finals. We had a new teacher come down Sunday and started teaching Hollistic Studies on Monday. Her name is Hillari, and she's a firecracker. She brought her 8 year old son Kaia, who's awesome. Hillari is going to be our teacher for Bodywork Experiential this next quarter. Don't ask what that title means - I have no idea what to expect from that class.
 With the new quarter comes a new wave of teachers, which is cool and sad at the same time. Maura, my Anatomy and Phisiology teacher is leaving early tomorrow morning, and Jill is leaving for a couple weeks sometime this weekend. Jill will be back, but Maura is going back to Portland to stay :(

Speaking of Maura the Magnificent, I paid to have a massage with her this week. I think I mentioned earlier that we get one massage from an instructor per quarter for free (included in tuition) but if we want to experience the work of other teachers or if we want additional sessions, we have to set them up. A couple weeks ago when I had my massage with Jill, she told me that I have great potential in this field and that I need to experience as much bodywork as possible. It's expensive, but if it helps me learn and gets me to move into the path I'm destined to follow, I'm up for it. Plus, why would I turn down more bodywork?
 So I managed to snag a session with Maura last night. Which was good, because Finals were today, and I needed a break from studying. She had asked me to wear yoga clothes, so I went in to the massage completely baffled. In my past experiences with massage, you always undress and get on the table - but Maura does her work with her clients totally clothed, which is cool. So we went in to the massage room and talked about what I wanted her to work on, and then she had me stand against a wall so she could to a postural assessment. It was really cool because she talked me through her entire thought process and actually told me everything that was going on in the entire massage. Anyway, what she noticed was that my head was tilted a little to the right, my right arm was rotated in, my hips were out of alignment, my feet turned way out, and my feet had very small arches. So that's what she went to work on. I also asked her to work on my rib that keeps popping out of place.
 I layed down on the table and she went to work on my feet. It was really interesting, because she didn't do anything even remotely close to a 'typical' massage. There was no oil or cream, there were no fluid relaxing strokes...no. Maura WORKS on you. And it hurts. She literally picked some of my muscles up off the bones completely, she went totally underneath my pec muscles (in the chest), she used her elbows, her fingertips, her palms, her forearms...it was crazy. There were a couple things that hurt really bad, but it was always a 'good' pain and felt great after the session was over. I think I might like to explore more of her style of bodywork - deep tissue restructuring. Anyway, after the session was over, she gave me a big hug and told me that I have to come to Portland and take some of her classes, which was cool. She also said that she sees great focus in me and good attention to detail, and also an eagerness to learn and to achieve, and she said that she also expects me to go far in this career path, so I'm really stoked about that. And then when I gave her a hug today after the final (which I got a 97% on, by the way) she said that she wouldn't say goodbye to me, because she had a feeling that she'd be seeing me in Portland for a class within the next 6 months. =)

Alright, let's talk about Finals. We had 3 finals, one in Anatomy, one in Hollistic Studies, and one in Swedish Massage. For Anatomy, we had a multiple choice, 70 question test that covered every thing we've learned in the last 15 days. For Hollistic Studies, we made a feast, and for Swedish, we had 15 minutes to massage Jill Berkana.
 The Anatomy test was pretty easy. I got a 97% and should have gotten a 100, but I didn't read the answer all the way on the one that I circled, and then the other question I got wrong, I simply blanked. Still, I only missed 2 questions, which is pretty damn good.
 Hollistic Studies has been basically about nutrition this week, so for our final, each house was assigned 2 dishes to prepare and were given money with which to purchase ingredients. There were a bunch of dishes - Vegan, Vegetable, Fruit, Grain, Fish, and Animal Protein. My house got both of the meat dishes, so we split it up by room - Larissa and I were in charge of Fish, and the boys (Chris and Steve) did the meat dish. It was a definite challenge, trying to cook for 16 people in a tiny kitchen with very limited resources, but the ingredients were super fresh, so it ended up working out really well. Larissa and I made Tequila Fish with a Salsa Trio for our dish, and it was really well recieved! We're not allowed to have alcohol on campus, so it wasn't realyl Tequila fish, but it was baked with salt and lime, so you get the picture.. For the salsas, we had a black bean and corn salsa, an avocado salsa, and a watermelon pineapple salsa. We had really mild catfish, so we had lots of flavors in the salsa to compliment it. The black bean salsa was pretty good, though we made WAY too much and will probably be eating it for the next few days at least. The avocado salsa was basically just chunky guacamole, but "tequila fish with a salsa duo and guacamole" doesn't sound as good, so we were creative. It was actually a really good recipe - avocado, tomato, chile, garlic, onion, lime..basic guac ingredients - but it turned out really well. The star of our show though, was by far the watermelon pineapple salsa. Holy cow it was GOOD! Watermelon, pineapple, cucumber, onion, chile, lime...oh my god it was wonderful! After it was made, Larissa and I just sat at the counter eating it by the spoonful. It's a new favorite recipe.
 Other people made chicken enchiladas, roasted root veggies, fruit salad, tabouli, a really good beet/cabbage/ginger slaw, banana potato latkes, veggie jumbalaya...it was an awesome feast! And don't worry, part of our assignment was to write up all the recipes and Hillari is going to make us all feast cookbooks! So I'll be able to share info with anyone who wants it!
 
Okay, onto the Swedish Massage final. We all drew numbers out of a hat that determined the order in which we were to perform our massage. We were allotted 15 minutes to demonstrate at least 6 techniques. We had to have hands off at the 15 minute mark, and then Jill graded us immediately. Let me remind you that Jill Berkana is the Academic Dean and one of the founders of this school. So guess how nervewracking this whole experience was?!
 Anyway, so I got to the clinic 10 minutes early, as instructed, to set up my table and make the room look nice. Jill went in after she was done grading the student before me. (There were 2 massage rooms set up, so nothing overlapped. Just saying) I went in at my assigned time and started. We could massage whatever body part we wanted, except face and abdomen, and we had to do everything bilaterally, which means on both sides. No one likes a lopsided massage. During the 15 minutes we also had to flip her over, which takes precious time.
 Ok, so I went in and started. I made sure she was comfortable and connected with her, and then I flipped her over because I had decided to do my whole remaining 14 minutes on the backs of her legs. This is a scary thing to do, because it also involves massaging the hip, which means you have to drape the client perfectly in order to not expose them and to keep them secure and comfortable. So i figured that no one else would do it, and I just took a deep breath and went for it. I checked in on pressure, to make sure I wasn't going to deep or too light, and when I asked, she just grunted at me, which can either be a great or horrible sign. I kept watching the clock and was freaking myself out, so I finally had to just look away and trust that my hands would do the right thing. So I did both of her legs and then I still had 2 minutes left! So I flipped her back over so she was face up and proceeded to do a closing like we would in a normal hour-long massage, where you rock specific parts of their body, hold their head to connect with them, move back down to their feet, hold their ankles, and thank them. As soon as I let go of her feet, she sat straight up! the first words she said were, and I quote, "wow Rika, you just slayed that thing."
  AAHHHHH!!! THAT'S AWESOME!!!!! She told me to have a seat, and then looked at her clipboard for a second and threw it onto the table and said "I have no feedback for you", which is crazy! Jill Berkana had nothing to say about my massage?!?! She has something to say about EVERYTHING! And THEN!!! Get this - she picked up her clipboard again and said "I'm giving you a hundred. That was amazing. Keep doing what you're doing." And the whole time I was sitting on the edge of the chair smiling so big you could see it from Space asking if she was serious. And then she said "I'm so proud of you. And I'm so excited for your future." And she gave me a hug! (One of Jill's cardinal rules is not to initiate hugs). I JUST GOT A HUNDRED PERCENT ON MY FINAL WITH JILL BERKANA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I told her I was trying to make Valedictorian, and she said "Yes you are" with this huge smile.
   I'm totally freaking out about this!!!!!!!!!!

On a totally different note, we have a 3 day weekend starting tomorrow, and I have another surf lesson at noon =)  I took my first lesson this past Sunday, and totally loved it. It took a while to get the hang of it, and I definitely ended up with some bruises, but it's so cool. I had an hour long lesson, and I caught 8 waves and rode 3 of them all of the way in. The very last wave I caught, I was riding it in, and it was curling beautifully under me, and I accidentally dropped perfectly in to the wave and kept my balance! Rachel and Christina were watching from shore and they said it looked awesome. It felt awesome! Larissa and I are going back out tomorrow to hopefully catch some more. I think we might try learning how to surf on a short board. We used long boards with soft tops last time because they're good learner boards, but apparently if you learn only using a long board, it's really hard to get yourself to be able to use a short board. They're supposed to be harder, but I think we can do it.

Anyway, I've written a complete novel for you guys to read, so I'll sign off and call it good for now.

(I just aced 2 out of 3 classes - how cool is that?!?!?!?)
~Erika~

Another day of Massage...

Not alot happened this week other than classes. I think I've left campus 3 times this week because I've been working so hard. We had 2 tests on Monday and then another one yesterday and another 2 on Monday, so there's a lot of studying to be done.
 I officially know how to give a full body massage now, which is really cool. Jill even taught us some more advanced techniques today! Including one on the back where we get to use our elbows! It's really awkward, as most things are when you first learn them. I'm not sure how I feel about it just yet, but I'll be sure to keep everyone updated. We have to give a full body massage on Monday, and then on the following Monday, we start getting real paying clients! So it's coming up fast and we're all really nervous. We have to be in the clinic giving massages one night per week, but we'll be doing 3 1hour massages per night, so it's pretty much going to exhaust us.
  Cool thing happened today - I put my client to sleep. I was practicing the back and the back of the legs on Shaylee during Swedish class and she literally fell asleep on the table. I wasn't sure how to handle it, and then Jill said that it was pretty much the best compliment I could get!

Also, I got my massage from Jill this past Tuesday. It was AMAZING! Every quarter, one of the instructors gives us a professional massage and its awesome. Jill did some Swedish, some Shiatsu, a little bit of Myofascial Release, and just a tiny bit of Trigger Point Therapy, and it was so so so so so so awesome. She did some stuff where she was actualyl up on the table with me bending me into stretches and doing Shiatsu work on my hips and oh my god it was phenomenal. And the whole time I was just laughing thinking about how by Christmas, I'll be able to do all that stuff! I have SO much to learn.
   But the best part was after the massage, she came in to talk it over with me and told me that she'd been watching me work in class, and I had done some work on her legs and she'd said it was great stuff, so I was all syked about the compliment. Anyway, she said she'd been watching me work and she thanked me for my committment to the work I was doing, and said that she could see how much I connected with the client and how much care I put into my hands, and then she told me that I "have the potential to become a PHENOMENAL (she stressed that word) Body Worker" and that I "have a natural gift" and that she's really excited to cultivate it!!!!!  This all came from the FOUNDER of this school!!!!!!!!!!!!! And today she thanked me for my attention to detail in class and that she "notices things". I'm super stoked. Jill said that about me!!!! YAY!

So yeah. That's pretty freaking awesome. And I'm getting body work done by my Anatomy professor Maura on Monday, so I'll be experiencing something totally different and I'm really excited about that too!

I'm headed out to dinner with a couple classmates, so I guess I will add more later!

End of Week One!

Today is the end of the first full week at school. And what a crazy week it has been! Luckily I'm managing to keep up with everything that's going on, which is more than I can say for some of the other students. So far I've completed 2 classes already, one with an A, and the other, I won't know about until Monday. I also got a 92% on my first Anatomy and Phisology test (there's another one on Monday) and I got a 100% on a paper for my Body Mechanics class!
   In my Swedish Massage course, we have learned how to complete a full body supine (face up) massage and yesterday we were taught how to drape the face cradle and flip our clients over on the table. Next week we'll learn how to do the back side of the body, and then that's it! I'll know how to give a complete full body massage by the end of next week. How cool is that!?
   So I've already completed 2 classes - Self Care and Hygiene and the History and Benefits of Massage, and now I'm taking a 4 day class tited Body Mechanics, which basically is the analysis of how we move in our own body. It's really fascinating actually. Brenda filmed everyone walking a course, and then in class we reviewed the films and analyzed everyone's postural anomalies (how they hold themselves). It's really interesting to see how something like hanging your purse on one shoulder for years can change how you stand or how you move.
   We all had to write a paper analyzing our postural anomalies when we were walking, sitting, standing, and sleeping, and then we had to write a commitment to change one thing for each category. So for example, I found that when I sleep, I roll onto my stomache, lift one leg up to a 90* angle, and put an arm under my head. When I sit, I immediately slouch against the back of the chair and I cross my legs or tuck my feet under me. When I stand, I shift my weight back and forth between my legs and tend to lock the knee of the weight bearing leg. And when I walk, I look down, and my right arm has virtually no natural movement.
  Because all of these things are bad for my spine and my posture, I've made a commitment to experiment with ways to change my behaviors. So when I sleep, I've been tying a string around my ankles to force them to stay together. When sitting in class, I sit on a big medicine ball instead of the chair so that I have no back to lean against and also so that I am forced to keep both of my feet on the floor for balance. I am making a conscious effort to stand squarely with both feet on the floor, and I have discovered that by letting my purse hang on my left side, my right arm starts to move more. As the months progress, I will have to do postural assessments of my clients without them even knowing, so that I can recommend the correct stratches and stuff - so I'm going to get really good at looking at someone and noticing the way they hold themselves. I encourage you guys to give it some thought. Just notice what your body is automatically doing throughout the day. It's cool stuff. Super hard to change though - I haven't really slept for the past 2 nights :(
    A couple of students here are really interested in learning Spanish, so we got ahold of a lady named Ariceli who's been teaching for 30 years and convinced her to come down and give us lessons. Today was the first one, and the 5 of us were realyl excited. She knew that we wanted beginnning Spanish and told us not to worry about it and that we'd pick it up in no time. What we didn't know, was that she teaches immersion Spanish. So she came to campus and started explaining things in Spanish, reviewing things in Spanish...basically she lost us all in the first 3 minutes and it was a 90 minutes class. If we didn't understand something, she just repeated it over and over in Spanish, which of course, didn't help us understand at all. Luckily Shaylee and I know some basic stuff and were able to translate some, but poor Steve, Rachel, and Larissa were totally lost. We had to beg her to speak in English (which she's fluent in), and she rarely complied, so it was really hard. She did end up teaching us some basic phrases, which was ok. We've asked her to come back every Saturday for the rest of the month, so we'll see how things progress. It's $10 per hour per person, so it's not all that pricy, but if we're just going to sit there giving her lost looks the whole time, it's not worth it. But now that we know how she operates, we're hoping to be able to find a happy medium where we can all get what we want out of her lessons.
 Also, Larissa and I did laundry for the first time. We took it to a place and paid roughly $1.50 per kilo for them to do our laundry and deliver it back to the school. Hopefully everything will get returned! They're due to deliver it in about half an hour.
 Oh, and I've made a few friends (kinda). I only know one person's name. But everyone here is really nice. Meat-Stick Man sells chicken kabobs outside one of the Mini-Marts and is awesome. Empanada Man serves all the kids lunch at the school, so he doesn't always have empanadas, but when he does, they're awesome. And they're less than a dollar, which is cool. Ceviche Man is one of my favorites - he makes fresh ceviche and brings it in on a cart and it's DELICIOUS!!! And then there's Ricardo, who is the really cute fruit stand guy. He thinks my eyes are pretty and he also thinks I'm crazy for living in Alaska and for loving the rain here. He gives me discounts on fruit.
  Speaking of rain, Mom - go into the driver's side door of my car and get the umbrella and bring it down when you come. It's been raining nonstop for the last few days, and it's due to keep raining. And the "Rainy Season" isn't supposed to start till October...  It's been so overcast that it hasn't gotten all that hot, which is awesome, but no heat means no thunderstorms, which is sad, because I'd already gotten used to them and now I msis them. It's a chilly 84* right now.
  Larissa and I might try surfing today!! I'll let you guys know how it goes. ...if it goes.... wish me luck!

Whoa

A lot has happened in 3 days or however long it's been since my last entry.
 First off, my computer is dead, so I'm occasionally borrowing my roommates' laptop to write, which means I'll only be doing occasional updates. Second, fire ant bites REALLY hurt. i was walking down the street and all of a sudden my right leg was in pain. I got all the ants off and the bites are ok and didnt swell that much and have stopped hurting and all that, but I really really dont recommend getting bitten by those guys.

Ok. So school has started and I am on my first weekend! It's only day 2 and I've already finished and passed one class already. That's how fast things move here.
 Let me start from the beginning.

Wednesday was Orientation. We all met up and met our first instructors and went over the school handbook and learned basically what the plan was for the next 4 months. We also were formally introduced to each other and learned a little bit about our classmates. There are 12 students enrolled in the class. That's it! After orientation I went with Elisa (a fellow student) to the store and bought my first groceries. I thought there were going to be open-air markets and stuff, but there aren't. Maybe in the next town over, but not here. It's all little Mini Marts, which actually have a lot of great stuff. And of course there's the road-side fruit stands. I got rice, beans, peanut butter, eggs, avacados, bananas, tomatoes, onions, and tortillas that have all so far been delicious. I'm determined to get myself to like tomatoes on this trip. They're much sweeter here, which is nice, and I've even taken bites out of tomato slices and not made faces! We'll see how this works over time.

Yesterday was Day 1 of classes. Super intense! I started out the day with 2 hours of Anatomy and Physiology, in which we covered a TON of stuff. Then we took a 20 minute break and had another 2 hour class called Self Care and Hygeine, in which we basically talked about how to maintain professionalism, respect, and health while giving tons of energy to someone. We also talked extensively about appreciating the client. Every time someone gets on your table, they are giving you an incredible gift of vulnerability and trust. It's amazing. They are coming in to a complete stranger, getting naked, laying on a table, and letting us touch them for an hour. It's so completely awesome that people are going to be giving us this gift every day! After that class was a lunch break, in which Rachel, Chris, and I walked to the bakery next door and bought empanadas, which were ok, but not as good as the ones in Mexico. Then back to school for 2 hours of Swedish Massage class. Jill Berkana, one of the founders of the school and the Academic Dean, is our professor. How amazing is that!!!! She's incredible. Anyway, we learned some terminology and then learned how to set up and take down massage tables and how to lay our linens and perform a simple drape. Then we dove straight in by learning how to do a Swedish hand massage. It was cool. Our homework was some coloring, some reading, and also to give another hand massage. Sweet homework if you ask me.

Today was Day 2, and all my classes were the same. We talked about cells and cell structure in A&P, which is a LOT of information to take in in 2 hours. Then in Self Care, we talked about keeping our offices clean and circumstances in which we should not give treatment or cancel sessions. And then we passed that class. It was only 4 hours - that's it. So we all officially have our first A! Yay! In Swedish, we learned how to massage the whole arm and how to incorporate that with the nad massage from yesterday. Much more complex. Requires alot more movement and thinking. The way Jill works is she shows us how a technique is done, repeats it a couple times, and then sends us on our way to practice with the rest of class time. It's really wierd how just watching someone do something a couple times is all it takes for us to learn it! So our homework for this weekend is of course, coloring and reading, but also to give multiple arm and hand massages so that we're comfortable with them and can dive in to learning legs and feet on Monday. I can't believe how much we've learned already!

Also, today we learned about this really cool thing that's going to happen later in the semester. One of our future professors is a leading mind on massaging cancer patients, and while she's here teaching, she's going to offer a class over 2 weekends that teaches us how to do that, which is awesome, because usually, we can't massage cancer patients unless they're terminal. Which is no fun for anyone. But with this class, we'll be certified for it and we can put it on resumees and everything! So even though it's an additional $400, I'm planning on taking it. After all, I came here to learn massage, did I not?

Anyway, I'm going to go to bed and let Larissa have her laptop back. I love you all and I hope everything is going swimmingly back in the States!

Day 1

Firstly, I love Costa Rica. Secondly, it's hell getting here. Not only did it take me the better part of 22 hours to safely arrive in Samara, but the trips were hellish. Turbulence into Liberia was pretty jarring, although I did manage to look out the window and check out where we were landing. I saw a Nicaraguan volcano that was oozing smoke into the valley below it - that was really cool. The main thing I noticed while trying to keep ahold of my stomache was that there's a TON of texture here. Everything is green except for the rivers (which are muddy brown) and there are a virtual ton of different colors. The texture of everything is by far the most impressive though.
 So let's start from the beginning. I flew from Juneau to Seattle, waited around for a few hours, and then took the red-eye to Atlanta. Once I got there, I walked for EVER to get to me gate (E34). On the way I stopped for a breakfast sandwish and the place I ordered from had this machine that was making fresh squeezed orange juice. Automatically! It was amazing. The girls behind the counter weren't sure what to do with me. Anyway, I found my gate and sat down and there was 1 other girl there, so naturally I asked her if she was Rachel and once I learned that she was indeed my classmate, we sat next to each other and made friends. It was really comforting to know that she was just as terrified and unprepared as I was. So we flew down and got off the plane in Liberia and were greeted by a wall of hot and humid that literally took my breath away. Customs was quick and uneventful, and luckily all of our bags made it. We were greeted by Alex, the van driver, who loaded our bags and offered us refrescos (agua, naranja, y cerveza) and then we took off! 2 hours later we finally arrived in Samara. FYI, for anyone who's thinking about coming to visit (Mom, Karen, and Granny) DO NOT DRIVE! People are crazy here. Hire a van or even better, see if you can fly into Samara Beach somewhere. I don't know if you can, but it's worth a try. The roads are super twisty-turny, and when your driver is screaming around corners in 5th gear it's really hard to focus on anything around you. The fact that we were exhausted and starving definitely didnt' help the situation, but it sucked in general.
  Once we finally got here, Alex gave us the 30 second tour of the town and showed us to our hotels. My hotel is actually pretty far away from the massage school - about 3 blocks, but whatever. Rachel and I took a siesta and met up for a late lunch at a random restaurant that was open. My first meal in Costa Rica consisted of DELICIOUS! It was shrimp stuffed avacado and was absolutely amazing. Rach had a really good chicken in a lemon cream sauce. And then we had coconut flan with bananas and strawberries and cream for dessert, which were both fantastic. By this time, a huge storm had moved in and it was pouring, so naturally, we decided to go for a walk and explore the town. We walked around for probably about an hour and spent most of our time walking the beach. It's really shallow and SUPER warm, which is awesome. While we were letting the waves lap at our feet, the two of us turned to each other and had a momentary freak-out that this is home for the next 4 months and that we can walk to the beach every day if we want to. It's so amazing here!
 So Rachel and I went back to our respective hotels and as I was walking in the door, the front desk woman told me that I'd recieved a call from the massage school, which was weird, so I thought nothing of it and went to head to my room when a random guy turned around and asked if I was going to be attending CRSMT. Turns out, he's one of the only men (that I know of) attending the school with us. His name is Christopher and he's from Boulder, CO and he's been touring Costa Rica for the last few days. Poor guy got one of his suitcases stolen off the bus earlier, so he has almost no clothing. Luckily he still has his books and laptop and stuff like that, but 60% of his clothes, his hiking boots, his sandals, and his toiletries were all taken, so he's in a sad state. I took him over to meet Rachel and we ate pizza and had daquiris and toasted our new adventure. We're all meeting up at 11 tomorrow to go wait outside the gate of the school. Campus doesn't officially open until 12, but we have to check out by 11, so hopefully Brenda (the head of Admissions) will take pity on us and let us in early.

So that's my first day in Costa Rica! Tomorrow after moving in to a house on campus, I plan to hit the beach and maybe introduce myself to Choco, the surfing instructor. For now though, I think I'll do a little reading and then hit the sack. It's been a while since I've slept, so I should probably do that.

Night!

Airports are boring...

Sitting here in the SeaTac airport waiting for my 10pm flight to Atlanta. I know it's going to be hot when I finally get to Costa Rica tomorrow, but right now, wearing shorts for traveling is seeming like a horrible idea. There is a definite breeze coming through gate A2 right now and it's freezing cold. I suppose I could make my way over to S7, where my flight will actually leave out of in a few hours, but that's a train ride away and my backpack is way too heavy for that right now. Plus I'm sitting on a rather comfortable couch, and as far as airport seating goes, it's quite nice. Except for the breeze, that is. At this time tomorrow I'll be overlooking the beach from my hotel room and listening to the waves lap against the sand. I can't wait! I hate flying. And it's still weird to think that I'm basically moving to Costa Rica for 4 months by myself. I have SO much stuff. 2 checked bags that are just shy of being 50lbs and a backpack that weighs a bloomin ton. And of course I hardly slept last night, what with being out late, being super excited, and getting a phone call at 6:45 this morning from dearest Shawners, so everything feels heavier than it really is.
 I'm so stoked to meet my classmates. I'm flying down on the same plane with a girl named Rachel and we're both going to be in the van driving to Samara with another female classmate, so the three of us will be able to get to know each other a little bit before classes start, which is awesome. Hopefully they'll want to explore the town and will be willing to walk around with me for a while. Jeez - talk about moving outside of your comfort zone - I'm about to be thrust into a place I've never been with people I've never met and attending classes on subjects that I've never studied. It will be interesting. Scary, fun, adrenaline-filled, and awesome. Most likely, at least.
 Oh, and once I get to Samara, my hotel will have internet, so I'll be able to tell you guys all about the flight down and what my first impressions are of the town I'll be living in for the next 4 months.

Next stop, Latin America!

AH!

I'm leaving tomorrow!!!!!! At 3! In 24 hours I will be on the plane to Costa Rica!!!!

 Definitely freaking out. Super nervous. SUPER excited.
I'm almost completely packed, which is great (thanks Mom!). I feel like I'm bringing too much stuff and at the same time I feel like I'm not bringing enough. Blarg. Sleeping tonight is probably going to be a huge issue. Leaving tomorow at 3pm and then taking the red-eye from Seattle to Atlanta and an early morning flight from Atlanta to Liberia, where I will be met by a driver and 2 of my classmates for a 3 hours drive down the coast to Samara. I finally got a hotel booked, which is also good. Right on the beach, and just down the street from the school. Private bathroom and air conditioning for $60. Heck yes.
 Got all my bank and cell phone stuff figured out, and now it's pretty much down to finishing shoving things in bags and crossing my fingers. In 48 hours I'll be on the beach in Costa Rica.

 Here we go!

The countdown begins...

Blog entry #1,
 I'm leaving for Samara, Costa Rica in 17 days, and I am definitely NOT ready. I haven't purchased any school supplies or decided on what clothes I'm bringing down. I just purchased travel insurance and got my CPR certification this week, so at least the business aspect of things is almost over. I'm starting to freak out. I don't speak Spanish well enough to just up and move to Costa Rica for 4 months! I know the school is all in English, but I'm getting there a couple days before classes start and will have to spend a night in a hotel by myself, which is moderately terrifying. I also don't cook well enough to be able to survive by getting everything I'll eat from an open-air market once a week and cooking every meal from scratch. No more bagels or microwave dinners for me! I have a feeling that once I get there I'll look back and think "what the heck was I so afraid of?" but until that happens, I plan to continue freaking out.
 I got my textbooks in the mail a couple weeks ago and they're amazing! I cannot WAIT to start classes. There's going to be lots of Anatomy (obviously), but there's also units on Pathology, Shiatsu Massage, and even Nutrition and Meditation. I'm stuper stoked for it. I also can't wait to hear the Howler Monkeys swinging through the trees and listen to the waves break on the white sand beach while I'm listening to lectures. Not so excited for the crazy heat I'm about to experience, but I have a feeling I'll get used to it. I don't really have a choice do I?!
  17 days and I'll be on my way to Massage School!!!