Al Gimnasio

I love my gym here in Chile. It´s very near two universities, so they get a lot of extranjeras, so I´m not such a novelty. When I went to join, the man was very nice, and very willing to go slowly so I could understand him. And it´s only 18,000 pesos a month, about $36 U.S., which is a lot less than I was planning on paying! I chose not to use the pool, since I don´t think I´ll want to so much. However, there are tons of classes during the day, like Pilates, Aero-Box, and Step, just to name a few. There machines leave quite a bit to be desired, and there are no treadmills or elipticals, only bikes, but it will do.

Saturday, after my climbing of Cerro Santa Lucia, and a little more meandering I decided to take my first class at the gym. I was very nervous, but I assumed I would have to understand little to be able to follow an aerobics class. I was right. I took the Aero-boxing class, and it was great! The music was so loud I doubt I´d be able to hear the leader even if I could understand her, but for the most part it was just her doing a combination and then us following for a number of times. She would say the occasional derecha, isquierda, or arriba, but luckily these are all directions, words I know, lol. And that class was HARD. I mean it was a struggle. It was a great class and so much fun! I´m so glad I braved it out and took it. It was a great stress reliever to, so I was pretty happy when I left.

Monday I went back to the gym and actually used the machines. They were pretty basic, the same as in the U.S., just much older. There were a few differences, but I´m pretty comfortable in most gyms. However, I got a personal trainer for the day. No, I didn´t ask for one, there was just this one guy, who helped out tons of people while I was there, but evertime I moved to a new machine, he´d watch me and then come over and tell me how to do it better. It was actually really nice, lol. I officially like this gym better than any other I´ve used, simply because they are so attentive! He knew I didn´t speak spanish, so he spoke really slowly and used lots of hand motions. I feel very comfortable in that gym, so I can´t wait to go back. And that is exercise life in Santiago! I´ll let you know when I go back again!