I K S U = Y M C A :)

Well back home as Tyler can attest I've been talking about joining the YMCA for a long time - too long!  Apparently it took winter in Umea to make me finally take the plunge!  They have the most amazing of facilities here - IKSU (no idea if that stands for something! - http://www.iksu.se/?lang=en - and they have some video at http://www.iksu.se/2010/01/15/iksu-sport/) - and conveniently it is a few minutes away from my lab and right on my walk home.  And with repetitive mundane lab tasks sometimes a mid-day workout is a welcome reprieve!  A friend here doesn't use their membership card so they've given me their card to use which is great (otherwise it would be quite pricey - I think it is 20.00 for the day if you don't have a membership). 

Umea is a super active healthy community (aside from all the sugar consumption ;) - it seems like everyone goes to IKSU and/or runs and/or does some other kind of exercise (I heard some girls outside the gym Thursday even talking about curling!).  And of course everyone walks or bikes too.  It is very motivating! 
There are tons of classes offered at IKSU - you just swipe your card and click on the class you want and away you go :)  So far I have tried "Afrodance" - which is a good fun cardio work-out, "Core" - which showed me I have muscles I forgot about!, & "BodyPump" - which is a mix of cardio and weights.  I somehow keep managing to avoid going to the spinning class but tomorrow I will be finally doing that one with Kelley as my mentor - it scares me though b/c it sounds super intense - hopefully I will be able to walk home afterwards!  Today I will go to my first Yoga class and see what that is all about :)
In addition to all of these classes they have simulated golf (Don and Tyler would be all over that!), a climbing wall (Sheelah, Jaime, & Vince would be all over that!), a swimming pool, and the list goes on and on!  Innebundy is a form of floor hockey that seems like a national sport of Sweden! 
OH and it being Sweden of course all the instructors are speaking Swedish - so it is hard to judge for me whether they are saying only 20 more or 2 more - ha ha - keeps it interesting!  I think I am slowly learning to count backwards in Swedish although 2 "två" - sounds like four the way it is pronounced and one is "ett" which sort of sounds like eight to me!  Being a foreigner I had a giggle seeing the "Sex" bus - which is just the #6 bus ;)  But I will work on learning!  Time to do some Sunday morning yoga now :)