Yoga is really more of an anger issue than a relaxation technique

I officially hate yoga. I realize that people do yoga to relax, clear their heads, feel better and more positive about life…but it just makes me angry. Maybe it would have been okay if my instructor was an English speaker who told me nice things like “focus on your core…breathe slowly…really concentrate on clearing out your center…” or whatever it is my instructor is saying, but in Korean. The only words I understand are ‘left’ ‘right’ and ‘switch’. I also somehow caught onto whenever he was telling us to put one of our limbs down. Not sure how that happened…but my brain got it. This week the anger came to a head and last night at my last class EVER of yoga I sat there during my least favorite poses and refused to do them. I realize this proves that I have regressed significantly when it comes to maturity and constructive communication, but I just couldn’t pretend anymore. My body naturally bends in ways it really shouldn’t, so this man though I liked yoga and had done it back in the states. I feel that I proved to him my hate for yoga when I just looked at him and instead of forcing me to “Ashley, again” he just let me give him a dirty look. What a kind man. He really is a kind man though, he gave me a neti pot! Nevertheless, I am going back to running.
I bought a plane ticket to Taiwan today. Craziness. I’m pretty stoked though…it should be warm enough to make me feel like it’s not New Years. Then again, for China, it WON’T be New Years. That should be a good adventure…find New Year’s in a country that runs on a lunar calendar. I have no doubts in my skills though, I will find the scene or create one myself.
Let’s see, what are some life highlights…. One of my most fluent and youngest English speakers drew me a picture that said, “This is for you, Teacher. I love you.” And I nearly cried. It was so sweet. There is a REASON her class is one of my favorites and I look forward to it everyday. Also, a little girl who I have had MAJOR issues with teaching (I.e. when we began, she could BARELY read and had SOMEHOW passed all her phonics classes?!?!?!) gave me a gift today. Lately, she has been getting WAY better, actually being able to read words and is speaking more which makes me very, very happy. She gave me two pens that said ‘Korea’ on them and had handmade Korean dolls on them. It sounds weird, but they are really cool pens.
I am feeling like I am progressing in personal growth. Finally. I started writing about some goals I have for myself and why I decided to come to Korea, which helped a lot with making me feel grounded and confident in my decisions. I’ve been getting a little irritated with Korean lately. It doesn’t help that I think it is an ugly language and don’t have any personal draw to it…I’m not way into learning a language for things like survival. I can survive with English. I am trying to force myself to learn anyways and know that eventually I’ll become intrigued by Korean. Hopefully that time comes sooner rather than later.