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Filmings officially wrapped up last night with the taping of Bodyjam +. It was sooooo packed. I literally had about 6 inches of moving space on each side of me. Gandalf taught all by himself. Before class, he said he was nervous.

We didn't do the entire class straight through. Instead, we started with a brand-new, Dance 4 Life warm up bonus track and then we skipped to track 3, where he added in a new side kick option.

We then went, I think, from the last track of the Tribal Salsa.

We did the entire 2nd half block. The + version is pretty different than the base. He added in some fancy foot work that I couldn't quite master and, get this, a Triple barrel roll! Yes, a triple! It's so fun! He had given us a little heads up before we started and explained how to spot, which you've got to do or you fall over. I loved it! Being so crowded, I'm sure you can imagine, we were all landing on top of each other.

Of all the releases that have the 2 versions, I think this release has the most variations between the base and the +. Not so much on the first half, but definitely on the back half.

I'm taking jam again today at noon. Now that the filmings are over, I'm curious to see what we'll be doing.

Today, we'll be rehearsing for the Make More Freaks interview. I'll pretty nervous. We tape the real thing tomorrow.

I also took bodypump last night after jam. Sara Ostergard was teaching. She's a great instructor....excellent connector and just super cute and likeable.

I'm going to try to get more pics of the club today when we go.

Cheers!

Hey everyone! Thanks to everyone who stood up for me and Fitness Works on the last blog post. "Whoever" wrote it chose not to leave their name, but really threw some punches where it hurt. I've been trying to not let it bother me. So, anyone else from our "little gym" who wants to give a shout out to let the world know that we are a force to be reckoned with, go for it! Just make sure you use spell check...hahaha. Just kidding. I just want to stay positive and focus on what I know to be true! I won't let mean people make me sad!

The filmings were once again awesome. They were held later in the evening, so it seemed like it was more crowded. Dan Cohen was the MC and he's so funny and so cool. He kept us laughing between takes and between classes.

Bodystep was first. Mark presented with Sara, Lisa O, Susan Tolj another girl (Victoria from the UK, maybe?). It was super fun. You start with your bench turned vertical. I LOVED the music! Lots of sing-a-longs.

Jam was next. It wasn't just packed. It was JAM-packed. (Sorry, a little cheesy.)  I could barely move, but it made the energy that much more incredible. My legs were pretty fried from bodystep. It was so cool to see the release evolve in the past week to the final product -  polished and perfect. They nailed it. G brought out his baby at the end. Check out his little camo pants and headphones!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Bodyflow (bodybalance) was next, but I was seriously too tired to stay. I've had a head cold the past couple of days and my head felt like it was about to explode. I also missed rpm earlier in the day (sorry my flow & rpm peeps).

Bodyjam + taping will be tonight. I'm excited because I have no idea what the + options are! Oooooo, the suspense.

Yesterday we took a bus to Rotorua, which is a city north of Auckland (Yeah! I spelled it right! :-) and has a strong mauri presence. Our bus left at 8am and we were told it was a 3-hour ride. We made lots of stops, so it ended up being a little over 4 hours and we didn't get there until about 12:30. We ate lunch at Nando's (Portuguese food...yummy) and then went on a gondola ride. It was absolutely gorgeous!

We got to go on a couple luge rides. This was so fun! Our kids would have loved it. Mike sped up on the last ride so that he could get a video of me coming down, but he couldn't find the camera in his pocket. He assumed I must have had it. Nope. We started getting pretty stressed and went to go look for it. Not one minute later, a nice family behind us came and gave it to us, saying they found it at the bottom of the luge track. It's all dinged up now, but it still works!

The day before we had taken a ferry to Devonport, which is a nearby island. It was also absolutely breathtaking! It used to be used as a military base. They used this weapon that they would use water to hydrolically lift out of the hole in the mountain to come up, shoot, and go back down where no one could see. Freakn awesome.

This hideout is at the top of the island, which is a big climb. Check out the gorgeous view!

Yesterday was fairly uneventful. We slept in, went to the cafe and talked with the other Make More Freaks winner (DeDe), shopped a little, went to bodyjam and then watched a movie at the hotel. It was really cold, but fortunately no rain.

I thought Chris Richardson would be teaching jam, but it was Gandalf, Carla & Danny again practicing for the filming (which is today). I'll be excited to do a different routine after today. The class was packed! It was in studio 2 (the smaller room) on a Sunday afternoon.

Today, we're just waiting for our laundry to finish and then we'l be heading to the ferry to go to Devonport, a nearby island. If we have time, we'll go to the New Zealand museum.

The filming begin this evening for bodystep, bodyjam, bodyflow and rpm. I'll be doing all of them except rpm. They'll do the base bodyjam version tonight and the + version on Wednesday evening. Should be a good time.

I realized that I forgot to write something about the pump filming last week... The instructors use FAKE weights! Everyone in the class uses the heavy silver bars, but the instructors use lighter black bars with weights that look like the same ones we have at the Mesa & Gilbert Fitness Works (bulkier). The participants use the weights similar to those at Chandler, that are slimmer and more compact. ...Just an FYI. I've got a couple more things to say about the filmings, but you'll have to ask me in person ;-)

Here are some pictures from our Harbor tour a couple days ago:

Above is a view of the Auckland skyline. Our hotel is right by the tall tower.

Above is a view from our harbor cruise of a small island.

Sorry it's been a couple of busy days so I didn't have time to blog so much. Friday night, we went to the "party" at the LMI offices for all of the international visitors. It was in  a tiny room, very hot and crowded. We didn't stay long, but it was so nice of Philip Mills to arrange that. Afterwards, I took jam again from Gandalf, Carla & Danny? I think. Again, they were rehearsing for the filiming. They're getting better. It's cool to see the improvising G will do. You can tell by the looks on the other instructors' faces that he's just spontaneously throwing things out.  Awesome class. I got pics with them afterwards.

Saturday, we went on a ferry tour around the harbour. It was very cold and it started pouring. We also walked around some of the shops again. We took a few pics and I'll put them up later.

Then, in the evening, I went to take jam. It was a class with Annie, who is the one who showed us around on our tour of the LMI offices. After the warmup, she invited me and a couple of other instructors to come up on stage with her. It was so fun. We did rio de janeiro, hip hop and freakn fakn house. I had a blast. After class, people were asking for our pictures....funny. One of the other instructors had her camera, so she's suppose to get me copies.

Afterwards, Mike & I went to the movies and saw The Breakup. Hilarious.

Not sure what we're doing today yet, other then taking jam from Chris Richardson this afternoon.