Day 61: Wet dreams

No, not the ones that English native-speakers are thinking about. I was dreaming about swimming.

I wanted to go the swimming pool for quite a while now. But first I was ill, then I was just-after-illness, then I finished my work late and then there was a weekend.

I thought the weekend would be a great time to go to the pool, but apparently it's not that easy to do that here in Mexico. Swimming pools are open for very short hours on Saturdays and Sundays (until 5.30h and 2.30h respectively).

There are four sport facilities that have pools and are fairly close to my home. But:
1st one - a social club. You can only get it if you pay 2000 pesos membership fee + monthly fee. (2000$ MNX = 151$ USD = 119 EUR)
2nd one - family place. Closes relatively early on workdays (8.30h) and even earlier on the weekends. Not an option, because I finish my job at 7pm.
3rd one - Don't know yet. Like most of them, it doesn't have a website, so I have to actually go there to get the information. But I don't know when to go, because I don't know when it's open. Phone doesn't work.
4th one - I went there. And I paid 200 pesos... (15 USD/12 EUR)
It was OK, but not really new, so I didn't understand what was the money for. But I really wanted to swim, so "whatever..."

OK, so here it goes. Locker rooms have lockers, but no locks. You actually have to buy one yourself! I asked receptionist about it (maybe I can borrow or rent one?) and she offered me a piece of rope, if I wanted. I didn't. I left my backpack at the reception. That meant I had to go to the hall in my swimsuit (twice - before and after swimming). Nevertheless, I cared about my phones and money more than about my dignity (really, who can NOT look dorky in sport-swimming outfit? I mean, latex hat, goggles and everything).

So after I took care of the no-lock-locker problem I was happy to enter the pool area. It actually took me a few wrong turns, but nice people pointed me the right direction. And then I pushed the door to enter...
"No! No puedes entrar!" So... I waited for weeks to go swimming, I went to two other swimming pools on the weekend that turned out to be closed, I finally got into this gym, paid 200 *^&%ing pesos and now I can't enter?!

"If the door is closed, it's closed. The class starts at 7pm", - he said. In Spanish, of course. I told him I don't want a class - I can swim on my own. It didn't matter. It was 7.25pm and people can only get in between 7pm and 7.10pm. The next "entering time" was at 8pm. So I had to wait for 35min in the locker room doing nothing. And then at 7.50pm I went to the "waiting room" (hall before entering the pool) just in time. Because the rules say (I had time, so I've read those) that only 10 people can enter. I was the 8th.

After finally getting into the pool area, I was pleasantly asked to introduce myself and prove that I can actuality swim. The coach listed 5 different ways to swim and I was really scared, because I only know three. That was fine. As long as I could do Crawl, Breaststroke and Backstroke, and float vertically while reciting alphabet - I didn't have to know Butterfly. Thank you!! After all these tests (physical and psychological) I could start doing my rounds.
40x25m and then I dragged my feet home.