The most stressful thing about traveling is the packing process; you can forget to pack so many vital things. Luckily Paris is not a third world country and I will be able to purchase most of things that I may forget. I went shopping for a new four-wheel luggage today and I must have looked so silly, pushing and pulling all these luggage, lifting a different one on each arm to test their weight. I bought a cool luggage scale and weighed my luggage before packing to decide which one to take with me. Turns out the lightest mid-size one was around nine pounds when empty.
I'm about 90% done packing and I've only filled up the luggage about 60% of the way. This has never happened before. Maybe I'll leave some room for gifts.
Yesterday my girlfriend and I went to Spaworld for the first time. We had a Groupon for reduced entry. Here we were, two healthy girls fresh from recent holiday gluttony, attempting something completely outside of our comfort zone: the bade pool at Spaworld requires full nudity. For hygiene reasons they require a "proper bath" before entering, whatever that means. We were apprehensive about having to be nude and I couldn't really pinpoint why since everyone else would be nude too. Maybe we were quietly afraid we would be judged for our bodies the biggest thing that most of us do not have control over. Besides our diet, our body shape, size and color is mostly dependent on genetics. Would we stand out? Would they stare at us like we had a third nipple? I gripped my towel, that was the size of a face towel and way too small to cover up anything, tightly as we proceeded forward.
Once we entered the misty room, I was in total awe. Never before have I seen so many different body types ranging from young to old (over 60) and I couldn't stop staring. Hopefully this was not too obvious. Everyone was so vastly different and naked. Starkly naked. We were all vulnerable and exposed, all on the same playing field. Seeing all this variety in front of me, each beautiful in their own way, I began to wonder what was normal; what was the normal accepted body shape that society had been selling us all these years? Not many of those types were represented here; the tall, skinny and fit types that weren't too bottom heavy or top heavy. I only saw about one person who resembled that ideal, while the rest had curves where some were stick thin and vice versa. They were all gorgeous to be honest.
Towards the end, I lost my towel somewhere between the steam room and the dry sauna. I had lost the self-consciousness that I had carried with me into the spa when I lost my towel.
It was an interesting experience that, through exposure, taught me how to appreciate my own body along with the bodies of others. As my female friends hit the gyms this New Years, I find myself opting out. I'm all about staying fit, which I am, but I am pretty satisfied with my body just the way it is.
I'm about 90% done packing and I've only filled up the luggage about 60% of the way. This has never happened before. Maybe I'll leave some room for gifts.
Yesterday my girlfriend and I went to Spaworld for the first time. We had a Groupon for reduced entry. Here we were, two healthy girls fresh from recent holiday gluttony, attempting something completely outside of our comfort zone: the bade pool at Spaworld requires full nudity. For hygiene reasons they require a "proper bath" before entering, whatever that means. We were apprehensive about having to be nude and I couldn't really pinpoint why since everyone else would be nude too. Maybe we were quietly afraid we would be judged for our bodies the biggest thing that most of us do not have control over. Besides our diet, our body shape, size and color is mostly dependent on genetics. Would we stand out? Would they stare at us like we had a third nipple? I gripped my towel, that was the size of a face towel and way too small to cover up anything, tightly as we proceeded forward.
Once we entered the misty room, I was in total awe. Never before have I seen so many different body types ranging from young to old (over 60) and I couldn't stop staring. Hopefully this was not too obvious. Everyone was so vastly different and naked. Starkly naked. We were all vulnerable and exposed, all on the same playing field. Seeing all this variety in front of me, each beautiful in their own way, I began to wonder what was normal; what was the normal accepted body shape that society had been selling us all these years? Not many of those types were represented here; the tall, skinny and fit types that weren't too bottom heavy or top heavy. I only saw about one person who resembled that ideal, while the rest had curves where some were stick thin and vice versa. They were all gorgeous to be honest.
Towards the end, I lost my towel somewhere between the steam room and the dry sauna. I had lost the self-consciousness that I had carried with me into the spa when I lost my towel.
It was an interesting experience that, through exposure, taught me how to appreciate my own body along with the bodies of others. As my female friends hit the gyms this New Years, I find myself opting out. I'm all about staying fit, which I am, but I am pretty satisfied with my body just the way it is.
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