Swim & Swing

Before I left the US, pretty much everyone was saying, "You need to learn how to swim", "I can't believe you're moving to Australia and you don't know how to swim", "What? You lived in the Philippines and you don't know how to swim?"

Beaches and swimming is the culture here in Australia...more likely for Sydneysiders. Most people in Australia live along the coast. So its no surprise if people tell you they're leaving work early to go to the beach. Or one day when I saw a woman walking in the middle of the city carrying her surfboard. And Sydney has a couple of the best beaches in the world. The famous one, of course, is Bondi Beach. The other is Manly beach which I actually read on MSN is one of the top nude beaches in the world ??? I've been there a couple of times but I didn't see it. It must be a secret place I don't know about. Oh well!

Anywho. So I finally signed up for a swimming class at Cook & Phillip Aquatic Centre situated next to Hyde Park and St Mary's Cathedral. Surprisingly, I was able to swim the width of the 1.2M deep (now I better not drown in it!) on my first day of classes (I'm 5'2"...you do the math... well, to save you time from calculating, its actually just below my shoulders). Quite impressive for me. Hahahhaha. I've been to my 4th class and I've learned how to do freestyle, swim sideways, glide, etc...but I still can't float. I guess going to a swim class right after work makes me tense. Or I'm just tense being in the water. I do about 1hour of swimming every Monday including 30min of class time. I didn't know it gets that tiring. Wanna hear the good and bad news about me going to swim class on Mondays? Monday nights is "Desperate Housewives" night. That's the only TV show that I still really follow. The good news is, Michelle gets to tape it for me! Yay! This Monday, I forgot to give her the VHS tape!!! Thank goodness when I got home, she said she had a spare one. Whew!!! Well, she just had to tape it over Star Wars...don't worry. It was just a copy.

Tuesday nights is Swing Dance class. Beginners, of course. Can't believe it took me this long to sign up for a dance class. How come I never signed up for any of these classes back in the bay area? I guess I just didn't give it the time. Too much work to do. Its fun and its a good workout. I didn't think I would be learning all of these here in Australia. That's part of my life experience here.

Hope this inspires some of my readers to try something out. Its not too late. If you've got two left feet or water-challenged, hey, at least it was a workout! Try it!