Some friends of ours gave us free passes to their gym for the week. So far we've gone to spinning class yesterday and kettlebell class today.
Spinning yesterday was actually NOT the first time I've had a Finn on a bike yelling at me - my instructor back in Sharjah was Finnish (but the class was in English), and she was my music kindred spirit. I loved the songs she chose and more often than not, at least one song turned into a sing-along during class.
Spinning here was a completely different experience - huge, dark studio with fancy lighting and lots of generic Euro pop songs. It's a good thing I'm basically familiar with spinning, since I couldn't understand most of the instructions apart from the times the instructor yelled "yks! kaks! yks! kaks!" to help us keep the beat ("one! two! one! two!"). It was mesmerizing.
Kettlebell today was my first time ever in such a class, and I just tried to copy the instructor the best I could since, again, apart from stuff like "right/left/both hands" and counting, I couldn't understand the instructor. But that didn't stop me from getting a "hyvää!" ("good!") from her, directed at me, on her way to correcting Jeremy's form, next to me. Woohoo! I will say, though, that if I were still playing the piano professionally, I would not have completed the class - it's very hard on your wrists!
In the locker rooms afterward, it was my first real exposure to the casual attitude toward nonsexual nudity here. You hear all about it because of the sauna culture, but I haven't been brave enough to go sauna-ing outside of my own home yet. But I can confirm that yes, nudity is no big deal here! I hope my girls can pick up the benefits of this attitude toward bodies while we're here - that our bodies are awesome and we all look different and sometimes it's ok to just be naked in appropriate places/times.
I'm looking forward to day three of the gym pass tomorrow!
