Swimming

Have I mentioned how sweet the pools here are? The pool I usually go to has 2 lap pools, plus the "spa" area, with hot tubs and whirlpools and saunas and a huge area with different water massagey things. Kinda pricy- to go one time is $6, but you can buy a pack of tickets and it's cheaper- a little over $4.

I finally asked about swimming lessons and the only thing you can do is buy 3 months worth of daily lessons, which seems excessive. The lady I talked to was so sweet though. Very helpful.

I went to a crappier pool that is cheaper- $4 to get in- actually just to swim it was great because the pool had more lanes and I had a lane to myself the whole time. The funny thing was I was reviewing in my mind how to ask in Chinese for swimming lessons as I left and I caught the lady at the front desk's eye and she said "You swim really well!" and I said no, not really, in fact do you have swimming coaches? And she said, for your friend or your student? And I said no, for me. She said, "Impossible! You could be a swimming teacher!" I think this was just the Chinese way of flattering you for things you're terrible at for whatever incomprehensible Chinese reason, but there was no convincing her to give me any more information about swimming coaches.

So it goes. I have been watching videos online and trying to incorporate their ideas into my own swimming. I'm also developing my own random thing where I swim the front crawl for 3 breaths (so I can spot where I'm going in open water, you know) followed by 3 breaths of backstroke, so I can breathe.

The weather has been doing its weird rainy thing- most every day there is a period of extreme heat and beating sun, punctuated by periods of intense rain. Occasionally it rains all day.

I have 3 days off from work next week. There is a public holiday coming up but it's on a Sunday so no time off work! It has been 2 months since the last holiday and I'm feeling some real teaching burnout so I took 3 midweek days off. The plan was to do a very long bike ride to a hot springs/ hiking town (I think it is about 50k? No real idea) and Jasmine will drive her car and meet me there. If it's drizzly I will still ride my bike but if it's torrential thunderstorms it'll be sit in the car for me. I hope I can bike it though. And I hope we can do some hiking. Worst case scenario, I'll still have time off work and I'll enjoy a nice hotel and some hot springs.