I can feel my heart beat in my biceps...

A few nights ago T and I were working out at our gym (I know, shocker right?). Two of the trainers came up to us while we were doing free weights and they started talking to us about America and personal training and apparently boxing. I was a little distracted by their muscles, smiles, and all-around charm and didn't exactly focus on following the conversation. Vali (one of the guys) left for a second and came back with a clipboard and signed us up for a training session with him for last night. Oh, by the way, this wasn't just any training session. Vali is the boxing trainer. After we signed our names and started for the door, I asked T what exactly had just happened. And she said we would be boxing on Sunday. Oh joy.

So last night T and I were back at Le Wellness and ready to fight. Well, T was ready to fight and I had my fingers crossed that we were somehow mistaken or maybe we had signed up for Saturday and missed the session altogether. Vali first taught us the boxing stance and how to hold your arms. We found our footing and learned about the jab-cross. We strapped on our gloves and got to work. I am not going to lie... I was a little scared. Theresa is an athlete. A rugby player at that. Yes, women's rugby. Basically the most hard ass sport that there is. I know she can beat me up and now she has boxing gloves headed towards my face. So we did our jab-cross for a little while and then Vali had us pick up the pace. We were running, pushing up, sitting up, and sweating our bums off for about 30 minutes. After boxing he even had us do two of the machines to continue working on our chests and backs. I thought I would just pass out dead when we were on our final round of crunches. It was a workout I won't soon forget. My arms are a little shaky today and I am not exactly looking forward to our triumphant return to the gym. Who knows what we will end up getting into.

After the gym we visited "Mrs. Scarf Man," as Mr. Scarf Man apparently had the night off. I left with this wonderful find courtesy of Theresa's searching:

Don't mind the hair and the red face... Remember we had just gotten back from our death punching session. It is nice to go shopping on the streets. I also bought some cutesie Christmas presents for friends. I just hope I don't end up keeping them for myself. Which is totally a possibility. I may just have to buy even more. Shopping is great!

Mandarin lesson:
 Quánjí 拳击 (boxing) Chōngchuáng 冲床 (punch)