itm school

I think it's high time that I share a bit about ITM, the Thai Massage school that I've been attending every day. It is just up the street from where I'm staying. Most of the students are foreign, from Europe and America. We start the morning with a mantra and then about an hour of yoga like exercises meant to prepare the body for giving massage. I must admit that I'm not a big fan of this and have done my own exercises instead on several occasions. On Friday mornings we meet at a park and do Chi Gong, Tai Chi, and Thai dance movements with specific breathing techniques for more than an hour. This I enjoy more, although by the time we are done it's getting pretty hot in the sun. These photos are from a Friday at the park, the veggie restaurant, and a group photo after "graduation" for those who finished their courses. I've connected with a few interesting people at school and it's never lonely here.

The school schedule is really pretty lax, and you can do as much as you wish. I had to take it easy for a few days because my shoulder had a small crisis and would barely allow my arm to lift past horizontal. After popping tons of advil, arnica, and traumeel; icing 4x a day, receiving acupuncture and massage, I'm happy to say it went away as quickly as it came. So after the morning exercises we usually have a lesson until lunch and then get an hour to eat. There is a great and really cheap vegetarian restaurant around the corner. I'll have to try to remember to try to take a picture of the food because every time I eat there (which is almost every week day) I think of all of you healthy eaters. It's very good. After lunch we usually practice for the rest of the afternoon. The teachers are available for questions and happy to clarify things in their broken English. For now, I'm just trying to soak in all the information and become comfortable with the movements . Soon I will need to figure out how to incorporate what I've learned into the Thai massage that I already do.