Toutes Directions

Inspired by KSam and Andromeda and the fact that my clothes are a lot tighter than they used to be, I have decided to exercice more often and have joined a gym.

Wednesday I went on my way home from work and swam a few laps. The gym requires you to wear a swim cap, so I bought my very first one this week. I think I wore one once when I used the pool at my grandmother's trailer park, but other than that, for me, swimming caps are what Haley Mills wore in The Parent Trap (1961 of course; the other doesn't exist), but if you have to, you have to.

I discovered while swimming that the cap doesn't actually keep your hair dry because water gets in around your ears. Well, part of my hair was dry, but part of it was wet too. This drawing is thus false.

While I was buying my cap, I bought a one piece suit that was on sale because my current suit is a bikini I bought in Italy when I was thinner and the ties are not really adapted to swimming laps. We'll skip over the fact that my suit was two sizes bigger than the dress I wore to my wedding in October...

The pool at the gym is next to the sauna and hammam, so I'll have to get used to seeing men in speedos (again, trunks not allowed) walking through to go to the sauna/hammam.

At 7pm when I was doing my laps the pool was empty but the rest of the gym was really full. There were about 30 people doing a step class, including at least one man. There were lots of young guys on the weight machines, and young students on the stationary bikes/step masters. There might have been women lifting weights, but I didn't really go an investigate since there were so many people.

Around the pool there are signs "no shoes" so I didn't wear my flip-flops, but on my way back to the locker room the dirty floor made my American mind think of athelete's foot. It's funny how in France the concerns are all about the water (take a shower before you go in, cap, no trunks that you potentially wore on the bus too the pool, etc) but in the States it's more about your personal risks (sandals to avoid athelete's foot, lots of sunscreen if outdoors).

In the end my laps experience was rather positive. I've never swum laps just for exercice, but it's amazingly effective. I know, it seems rather evident, but in California I went to the pool to goof around with friends.