Three-day weekends at UCLA are very contradictory. On one hand, campus seems incredibly empty while several events still seem to be taking place! I had friends who took ski trips, beach trips and even retreats with their school clubs. I kept pretty busy with athletic events on Friday and Saturday, and open lab re-scheduled for Sunday. (Food for thought- why did they re-schedule Friday labs for Sunday? I certainly would have rather just attended my normal Friday time and had Sunday off.)

For me, the Friday holiday allowed to me to thoroughly enjoy open recreation gymnastics on Thursday night! Even though I am in the gym virtually every day, I haven’t done much participation myself lately. I was so excited to get some flips in! More importantly, I got to see all of my open gym buddies. Yates Gym is located in the front of the Wooden Center, with several glass windows. I have now nicknamed the area the “fish bowl.” There are always several people staring and watching. The only problem with that is my friends and I like to have a little fun. We really emphasize our salutes at the end of the tumbling pass, mock floor routines from the 1996 Olympics and so on. I tend to forget there are people who don’t know what is happening watching. So, as normal, I stuck my front full rudi pass on tumbal track and threw my head and hands back in victory. Well, I didn’t think much of it until a few girls sitting on the bench started chuckling. Being myself, I just gave them a big grin and went back to take another turn. Different day, different place where I manage to make a fool of myself. I must not be too embarrassed if I’m writing about it online. By the way, the pass I did was in Nastia Liukin’s 2008 Olympic floor routine. She won the gold medal 😉

As much fun as I had, man did I forget how much gymnastics hurt. After doing uneven bars for the first time in a few months, my pectoralis major muscles (I had a quiz on this today- I can tell you the origin, insertion, and action. Thanks phy sci!) were sore for days. They even hurt while running three days later. Maybe next time I’ll stick to tumbling.

Go Bruins!!!