... it's a jungle out there...

Nope, it is not really a jungle, just the song from Monk that got stuck in my brain because I watched two episodes while I was on the treadmill earlier today. Actually the gym does make me think about compulsive disorders a lot, and not the ones connected with weight gain or loss( although I can see good examples of that there), but with cleaning, because everybody is supposed to use this little towel with disinfectant after using the machines...get that nasty sweat out of there before someone else gets to use it.

It is great, don't take me wrong, what I found a bit funny is how people get so self-conscious about their cleaning. There is not much staring at people while they exercise but during the cleaning session it is always there.

Blogbi was telling me (Blogbi was born here so he is American) it feels like people at the gym are all first graders afraid to get cooties!

The concept of cooties was one that took me a while to grasp. Cooties are something you get from the opposite sex, not quite a disease or germs or virus, when you are grade school children. Something that would make your face scrunch and you can even go and say: EEEU!
The term was first used for lice but it evolved into a purely imaginary stand-in for anything that is considered repulsive, in a cute way.
I then realized that the gym is very much like being with kids, people there will talk with perfect strangers, smile a lot more often, will volunteer suggestions on exercise or exchange pleasantries while changing clothes, in a much more care free way than I have seen anywhere else here.
Now I know why I went to the gym every day this past week (my very first week after I joined), there I feel a lot more like I did when I lived in Brasil!
Do I like to exercise? Noooooooooooooooooooooo… I only do it because I need to be in better shape.
But I must confess: I LOVE THE GYM!