The past few weeks since returning to Raleigh have been as exciting as can be expected for an unemployed non-student living with her parents. I would be much busier and efficient if there was internet at home so I would have more time to search for jobs and prepare for the move. Instead, I go to the public library for only a few hours once a day, where I now have a weirdo stalker to deal with, amongst other things.
I have been keeping up with my running, which is sometimes tough to do because the pavement is jolting and the streets are unexciting, but I have also been splurging on a few other excursions. For starters, I have met my old friend, Meghan, a few times at an archery range where she takes lessons on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She started archery a few months ago and the range is just 5 minutes' drive from my house. Where was this place when I wanted to take lessons three years ago? I guess it was good for me to learn how to shoot more or less on my own—her teacher says I do well for having too thin of arrow shafts, having the wrong type of riser on my bow, and not using a sight. Regardless, it is great to meet with an old friend once or twice a week for two constructive activities: 1) arching, and 2) quietly making fun of the suburban southerners chit chat about their deluxe compound hunting bows (I'd like to see them shoot that picture of the deer from 60feet using a bow as bare as mine!).
Right next to the archery range is a Bikram hot yoga studio. I have never wanted to try hot yoga for fear of the heat—hot yoga is essentially like normal yoga except they crank up the temperature to somewhere around 105–110 degrees F and use humidifiers to get everyone extra sweaty. It feels like being in a sauna (which I have little tolerance for) and is supposed to have similar health benefits, such as being cleansing and detoxifying. The heat also has the added benefit of relaxing the muscles and increasing flexibility. The reason I have kept away from this type of yoga is that extreme heat makes me feel dizzy and nauseous, which is to be expected the first few visits, according to the yoga instructor. But the reason why I wanted to go and try it out was because they offer a good deal for new people, and because I know of no other yoga studio around and I am desperate.
During the first class I felt dizzy at several points and near the end of the 90min class my head got fuzzy and I didn’t think I could finish. I was so wet with streams of sweat that my bath towel, which I laid over my mat, was totally wet. It was intense. However, I must admit it was not as intense as running mid-day and exposed during the solstice in Hue, Vietnam. That was just all around bad.
When I stepped out of the class I immediately dried up and felt really great. Not only was my skin really nice feeling, but my muscles, which constantly ache from running on the road, felt nice and loose. I have never really experienced anything like that before.
I gave myself two days before trying it again. This second time was much better and I didn’t feel dizzy at all, though I did sweat just as much! I even noticed that Bikram Yoga is like visiting a popular beach: the lights are unusually intense and feel like the piercing sun, you quickly become soaking wet like you just got smacked by a wave, there are lots of people hanging out on beach towels, and you typically wear as little clothing as possible.
I will try a few more classes before my special deal expires, but I have a hard time getting the motivation to go, not because of the temperature, but because they do the same asanas (poses) each lesson. This gets boring, even if my brain does manage to run off because it is afraid of the heat.
Last week I took an afternoon to visit some people in Chapel Hill. I wanted first to see Dr. Wiley, the bird enthusiast and naturalist who gave me Naomi’s name. He wasn’t in his office, so I went to see Dr. Pfennig, my undergraduate research supervisor. It was really nice to see him and he filled me in on all the goings-on in the lab. He even gave me George’s two recent publications. George was my mentor and used the data I collected from measuring snakes (which took me a year and a half), and I always felt he should have included me as an author in any paper he would publish that used that work. Well, he didn’t. He did, however, thank me in the acknowledgments, which I suppose is fair enough. One paper is published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B (Mimicry on the edge: why do mimics vary in resemblance to their model in different parts of their geographical range?) and the other, most impressively, is in Nature (Selection overrides gene flow to break down maladaptive mimicry). I won’t be able to include these publications in a CV, but at least I can brag about it a little.
While in Chapel Hill I met briefly with Christina, a good friend I first met in Dr. Pfennig’s lab, for a yoga class with Scott. Scott is by far my favourite yoga instructor and is also a great person, if not eccentric and a bit wild. I hope to take another class with him before moving, but it would be a bit out of the way :o(
Not much else has been going on. I have been working on emailing biologists in the Boston area, emailing with Warren back in Canberra because he is kindly helping me print and bind my thesis, searching for computers to replace this wicked beast of burden, and trying to read and be productive. As long as I can get out of the house I am safe.
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