A Day (literally) of Yoga

Today I spent a full three hours doing yoga. Not only did I have two periods at school today that were each forty minutes long, but a yoga class at our apartments started this afternoon and my host mom and I are participating together. At school the yoga contains quick movements, hard poses (depending on the age of the kids in the class the poses get more and more difficult), and of course the eye exercises....I had been told that yoga outside of school would not be so un-relaxing and forced, and the yoga class at the apartment wasn't...at least the whole time.
I got home from school around 3:00 p.m. (half an hour late) after sitting in the crowded and squished van waiting for the train to come for twenty minutes. When we reached the stop, the three of us getting off squeezed out through the legs and backpacks in the small isle and tumbled out onto the dirt road outside the apartments. When I got up to apartment D-13, my host father was sitting on the couch watching the news, and my host mother was in the kitchen cooking the lunch. A few minutes later we all sat down together to have lemon rice and curd rice. Indians will almost always end a meal with curd rice, because it is said to be helpful with digestion. My first two months that I was here I preferred not to have curd rice, but the last week or so there has been a change in my taste buds. Now, curd rice is actually starting to taste good...:)
The yoga class began at 4:30 p.m. and so my host mother and I went down to the clubhouse at the apartments around that time to meet up with two other women and the teacher for the class. The class was in the basement of the clubhouse, and was mostly quiet except for the few small feet that would run by the tiny open windows above. We started the class with Surya Namaskaram, which is a series of poses done with a certain breathing style. At school we also do this exercise, so I could follow along easily except for the chanting at the start. Surya Namaskaram poses are mostly good stretches, but some are difficult, and by the time we had gone through a few rounds, all of us were sweating. We then rested for a few minutes on our backs with our palms facing up, and then started meditation. We meditated for fifteen minutes on our breath, focusing completely on the in and outwards flow of air from our bodies. The teacher put on some relaxing music as well, so it was a nice end to the class.
The music ended and we all folded up our blankets from the cement floor and went up the stairs where I got the treadmill key from the office and everyone else sat down on the couches to rest for a minute. I went up to the gym and closed the doors to block out the sound of the singing class going on next door (all of the students in this class are little girls that live in the apartments), plugged the treadmill into the power source, and did my workout.
When I came back, I showered and my host mother and I made tea. Now we're getting ready to go out to the temple on the hill for a special puja. We'll leave when my host father gets home. Which should be any minute...