Gym!

Note: This was written many days ago. I'll just post it as is.

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For the past two weeks, I've been going to the gym with my phone friend and another TaLK scholar. It's come to the point where I feel like an old person when I get up in the morning. Even though I stretched and took a long shower, my muscles tighten up again while I sleep, and I wake up slightly sore. I regret doing those sit-ups and leg-raises two nights before. My stomach still protests when I go to lay down from a sitting position.

There's certain kinds of exercise pain I readily accept, and others I readily despise. For instance, I really don't mind my legs hurting after a bike ride because I enjoyed the bike ride. I do mind my arms being sore to the point of being almost unusable because I decided to do a few reps on the machine. Ugh~!

The people at the gym have been interesting. The owner was a body builder. His wall-size posters are displayed on the walls of the gym room. He looks much smaller than the muscly image of his past, yet still very fit. Personally, I never want to have that many muscles. A few is fine. On the entrance door, and on the way to the girls locker room is a picture of a totally ripped female body builder. She's sporting a high-cut one-piece and wearing high heels. I can't help but snicker every time I look at it.

The female employee... I keep looking at her to see if maybe she's the one in the poster. I don't think so. Acutally, when I first met her, I was a little wary of her. I couldn't tell exactly what kind of smile she was giving me. My stupid defenses went up. Over time, I've come to know her as friendly and helpful. She keeps an eye on my only long enough to make sure I'm using the machines properly. There's a third person. He's an assistant (?). I don't know what his relation is to the other two, but he's just as friendly and knowledgeable about every client's exercising needs. He must have found it amusing that two foreigners were coming to exercise with their Korean friend; that he had to give instructions to us through our friend; that our friend spoke English so well. Turns out, he knows a bit of English as well (words associated with the gym). He's also becoming a regular friend to us. He learned our names, said mine was hard to pronounce (well, sheesh, all my students can say it just fine!).
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That's all I wrote on that day. I'll write more about the gym later.
'Til next time,
Shirby