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!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Thursday, September 16, 2010
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~
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~
Friday, September 10, 2010
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!
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!
Saturday, September 4, 2010
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!
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!
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