my kind of exercise

“What yoga teachers do and what chefs do is not so different,” [yoga teacher David Romanelli] said. “We take everyday actions like moving and eating, and slow you down so you can appreciate them.” Achieving stillness and peace amid the distractions of life, he said, has always been the higher goal of yoga.

Back at the Exhale studio, wandering among the supple bodies of his acolytes, Mr. Romanelli talked about his recent embrace of the Slow Food movement and his dreams of returning American yogis to what he describes as the happy, prelapsarian state of 1995. “Remember before you had your first e-mail address or your first cellphone,” he said. “Don’t you think that your food tasted better back then?”

- "When Chocolate and Chakras Collide" (NYTimes)

In Thailand, there were all these advertisements for "purification" retreats in the mountains, where essentially you go up a mountain, live in total seclusion in this Camp of Peace, and do nothing but yoga and eat organic, fresh food.

Though Duke's campus is pretty mountain-less, I enrolled this semester in a yoga course (which I immediately go from to an African Tech Dance class -- a surprisingly exhausting Tues/Thurs schedule). My new goal is to build up enough strength and endurance so that I don't completely embarrass myself when I go to one of these "Yoga for Foodies" classes. Because I am so going to one at some point in my life.

i blame all the hanoian air pollution

You know that thing everyone has that makes them super self-conscious? Some people don't like their teeth, so they smile with their mouth closed. Some don't like their toes, so they never wear flip flops.

I don't like wearing glasses.

Not only do I feel like supernerd when I wear glasses, but more so it drives me absolutely crazy how my black frames constantly slip down my nose, especially in hot, sweaty weather, causing me to feel like the only way I can see the world clearly is by literally tilting my nose up in the air continuously (it's fashion over function, seriously).

Unfortunately for me, I went to the SOS clinic nearby to get my wonky left eye checked out and, turns out, I have acute conjunctivitis, which, believe me, sounds so much worse than it actually is. What it means though is that I have to put in eye drops 3 times a day for four days -- and during those four days, I cannot wear contacts.

Guess where I'm going tomorrow morning?
BANGKOK, THAILAND.

Guess who's going to be supernerd in Bangkok, Thailand?
You're looking at her.

nurture versus nature

Shit, I think I'm slightly, slightly lactose intolerant.