First run

This morning I woke up at 5am and went for a run (in my man shoes). And didn't die! It's been nearly three months since leaving the states and having any real exercise and was starting to feel slothy. The run was fantastic, and I can only assume that living and exercising for nearly two years at altitude in Denver, CO has made me feel superhuman living back at sea level. It was pretty warm and humid for 5am, but there was a nice breeze and it was very peaceful. Since there wasn't really any traffic yet at that hour, the only sounds were of the city workers out sweeping the sidewalks with the huge whisk brooms...swish swish swish. After the run I stopped in front of my apartment building to cool off a bit before going inside, and so I did some light stretching and some standing yoga poses. Then a little old man walked by, and then he turned around and walked back by, and then back by and so on, just staring and staring. People are constantly staring anyway because I'm a foreigner, but he must have been freaked out by the strange foreigner doing weird movements all alone in the dark in a parking lot. If there's one thing I like about being here, it's that whatever self-consciousness or shyness I may have still had is now completely gone. When people are always staring, making fun or making comments, and you can't understand most of what they're saying about you anyway, you begin to exist in a very happy-go-lucky ignorance-is-bliss sort of state. And I like it here.