Today I made an incredible discovery. I put on my yoga pants (which until this time have acted as pants that I wear under my skirts here) and dug my running shoes out of a box and got my little booty down to the GYM!!! There are gyms all over the place but they are only for men. Well, one of them in town decided to open it's doors every day only to women for 3.5 hours. Some friends and I went there today and worked out. It was one of the most amazing things I've been able to experience here. There were about 10-12 local women, young, ambitious...married and single. It was a great place to strike up conversations while on the treadmills or doing sit ups. The equipment is not too bad...not Lifetime Fitness by any means (the seats on many of the weight machines are car seats...like they have an actual seatbelt on them. Hilarious!) but I was able to sweat and strain some muscles. I know for many of my readers, it may not be a big deal. But please understand, women do not exercise here. I cannot run, I cannot do anything outside my home so I've been limited to pilates and workout videos. One of the ways I relieve stress at home is to go for a nice, long hard run or hike all day until I'm ready to fall over. Here, the most I can do is pound my head against the wall. I'm looking forward to meeting more women here and am going to make regular event of it.

The weekend is upon me starting tomorrow. I'm in desperate need of it as I've been putting in 14 hour days most of this week. So, I do have one family I'm visiting tomorrow but besides that, my time is MY OWN!!! yeah!!!