Kickboxing

Last night I got to try something really different: a kickboxing class! It might not seem that unusual, but the difference was that my roommate, Kenzie, and I went to one that meets outside of the Chang Kai-Shek memorial in the evening. It is a huge open area paved with square stones and there are lots of people just sitting or walking around. On three sides there are massive ornately decorated buildings, one of which is the actual memorial and another is a concert hall. The fourth side has the huge gateway made up of white archways leading into the whole area.

This particular night there was a jazz festival about to begin in a different part of the memorial, so there was live background music the whole time.
Kenzie and I arrived not really knowing what to expect. We saw the group (mostly foreigners) sitting by the gateway and several minutes later the class began. As newcomers, the other people warned us that it was going to be a hard 2 hours! They said we would be sore for days after... It truly was a total body workout; no muscle went unused! We began with a 'warm up' and after those 20 minutes I knew that the evening was going to be very intense as I was already completely drenched with sweat and winded! It was non-stop starting with aerobic exercises, then stretching, strength training, technique (which I have none of just yet!) and finally a little break for water, then running the 89 steps up to the memorial countless times, then ab exercises!

The teacher is a guy from Denmark who was a world champion but is now living in Taiwan teaching English, leading these classes on the side in the evenings. He is pretty funny and nice, but also really pushes people and encourages them to keep going when it gets tough. We went to different areas of the memorial and did different exercises...all the while many Taiwanese people were walking around and watching, sometimes in amusement, sometimes in confusion as to what we were doing...I heard one couple wondering if we were a cross-country team out for training! The people in the class were all really friendly and just like most other groups here, they get together often outside of the class for nights out, potlucks, and camping trips.
The humidity and heat (about 95F and 80% humidity) was so different from what I am used to exercising in and everyone was just dripping with sweat about half an hour into the workout! (The whole workout lasted a bit over 2 hours, but it just flew by!) I just loved it because back home, classes like this are just in boring gym studios and here we were outside of this amazing cultural sight with beautiful buildings all around, just the night sky above us! It was unlike anything I've done before and such a fun experience. I left feeling really good (but also incredibly tired) and ready to do it again, so now every Tuesday and Thursday evening that's where I'll be!


This is just one example of what I love so far about Taiwan - something that we have in the States is just in such a different setting or done in such a different way that it becomes so much more exciting! There is always so much going on that it is impossible to be bored.