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In the states, I only thought I did yoga. I only thought I knew what an upward facing dog was panting about. But then, we moved to China.
It took about five months to find this studio which is transforming my body into human Origami. I learned about it at http://gokunming.com. That’s the cyber hangout for westerners, letting us know where to find necessities such as burgers that aren’t made out of yak meat and good doctors for when they are. One of the reason it took so long to find a studio was just learning how to navigate the city. It’s almost as difficult as the Ashtanga class. Forget googling the address on MapQuest. Street signs and bus schedules are in Chinese. The few maps that are in English use a font that’s approximately the size of an atom. For my initial visit, I looked up the Yoga studio’s website http://www.yutaoyoga.com/, traced the address with my best penmanship, 人民中路11号天浩大厦四楼 and handed it to a cab driver. Actually, I handed it to several cab drivers. They took one look at the address, shook their heads, laughed, and handed it back. Maybe what I copied down wasn’t the address of the studio, but something else entirely. Closed on holidays? Possible side effects include nausea, stiffness and bladder control? I’ll never know. Finally, I did what all westerners do in translation emergencies. It’s handing the phone to the cab driver, speed dialing a chinese aquaintence, and having them translate one’s transit needs. Anyway, the yoga studio is cool and super girly. The instructor looks like a Chinese version of Angelina Jolie. Beautiful and buff. She, like all of the other students, is as flexible as a rubber band, getting her body into poses I didn’t know was possible. The instructions are in Chinese but I’m holding my own. I wear my Ting Bu Dong shirt (meaning, I don’t understand what you’re saying). I do want to learn how to say, “Ain’t no way I’m twisting into that position”. 
I am also making a few friends. They are learning a bit of English from me, I’m gleaning a bit of Chinese from them. Namaste.