When I was eight my dad decided to do his Ph.D. in France so my brother Leif, my parents and I moved to Avignon for a few years. After my dad finished his degree we returned to Mexico, and I started attending a French school, the Lycée Franco Mexicain, where I stayed through high school.
In France I started playing the Saxophone at the local music school and fell in love with it. I kept playing, mainly at home with my family (my dad plays guitar, my mom the drums and my brother can play any instrument you put in his hands!). After high school I attended (in addition to studying math) the Saxophone program at the National School of Music (Escuela Nacional de Música) for three years. My professor there was the awesome free jazz sax player Remi Alvarez. After leaving the program I played in a couple of Jazz-Blues bands. In April of 2000 the National University went on a 10 months strike so instead of doing math during that time I became a sax player and backup singer for the Mexican boy band Mercurio on their Mexican Evolución CD Tour. I cannot describe how incredible it is to play at the National Auditorium, in front of over 10,000 people! You can now see me perform on YouTube here or here! After the tour I went back to math and played with the New Age-Blues band Java. Since I moved to the US in August 2002 I hadn't played much, but I am now playing a little bit once in a while. My husband Tony is usually my sole audience member though!!!!
When I was thirteen I started practicing track and field. I was in love with hurdles and trained for the 50m and 300m races (junior events). I did pretty good and was invited to train at the Olympic Training Center (CDOM). The following year (1992) my coach wanted me to do a 400m/hurdles at a standard competition. I said no. He punished me by forcing me to compete in triple jump. I won that competition, then the citywide, state and national championships! (I was only 5th in hurdles! Needless to say, I loved triple jump after that...) I went to the Central American Championships and won 2nd place. For the next five years I trained four to six hours a day, six days a week. I did real well (won several national and international competitions, broke a couple of records), loved my coach, my teammates, training, competing... I "retired" in 1997 after being really injured and having had several consecutive bouts of pneumonia. I went back for another season in 2000-2001 but realized I wasn't up for that much sacrifice anymore! I will never forget my training days. Even if I tried, I have jumpers knee, a chronic knee condition that prevents me from engaging in any type of impact activity, to remind me of just how hard I trained!
For the past four years I've been practicing yoga and it has really changed my life. I discovered that I could still challenge my body while taking care of it and take my mind to places unknown to me before: concentration is crucial as an athlete but I found that meditation can take you even beyond. Yoga has helped me learn a lot about myself, improved my stress levels and even helped me solve some math problems. Physically, by focusing on the postures that help my knee and modifying the ones that would hurt it, I have managed to stay practically pain free for almost two years and I am now even able to go backpacking. From September 2006 until May 2007 I attended the Yoga Teacher training program Yoga • Body, Mind and Spirit, with David Beadle and Lisa Clark and since January 2007 I have been teaching yoga at Tone Up for Women, in Raleigh. I love teaching yoga!
Another thing I really enjoy is dancing. I've taken all sorts of dance classes: ballet, contemporary, jazz, African, tap, clogging, ballroom... In Mexico I danced in a couple of contemporary dance groups and also performed with a traditional jewish dance group for couple of years. When I moved to Colorado I taught Latin dance for a while and after meeting Tony got into swing dancing, specially lindy hop. In Raleigh, I've taught Latin dance at Tone Up for Women and at private parties, it's a blast!
I believe the most important thing in life is to find people to love and share your life experiences with. I'm very lucky to both have been born into an amazing family and found incredible friends who always show me I am in their hearts. That's by far the best gift of all.
