La piscina

Several months ago, June to be exact, I went to a physiotherapist for a problem I was having with my shoulder. My neck and shoulder had been causing me pain for more than 8 months, so I had finally relented and went to a doctor. She advised 10 sessions of electro-therapy and suggested I start swimming. I could go on about the electro-therapy, but I won't. I think the most useful outcome of my 10 sessions with, what seem to me a very 19th century approach to medicine, was the daily bike ride to the rehabilitation hospital. It is on top of a fairly steep hill and there is no longer a suttle bus from Pergine. My options were to go by bike or on foot. After two weeks my stamina on the bike had improved tremendously. I was going to continue to bike daily up a steep hill, there are plenty around, but you know what they say about the road to hell.
Today, November 9th, four months after being advised to do so, I took up swimming. I keep meaning to do it, but the terror of the new that grips me whenever I do something here was strong enough to keep me from acting on my doctor's orders. I didn't know if I needed a bathing cap, or where on earth I would buy one. I'd even quizzed my 9-year-old neighbor about the swim cap issue with no clear results. Well I have a thousand excuses, I should get to use some of them. What finally pushed me over the edge was my aunt. We were talking last night about how good swimming was, especially for people with back problems, and I told her how I had been delaying my trips to the pool. She told me not to think about it anymore and take myself to the pool today.
I arrived at the pool with my suit and my towel, paid my entrance fee and walked on in. I told the woman at the desk this was my first time there, and she made no mention of swim caps so I thought I was in the clear. As luck would have it I ran into someone I knew right away. This really isn't a difficult feat in Pergine. I asked her if there were lockers inside and she said yes, but I needed a lock. Lucky for me she was kind enough to lend me hers. This was to be the first kindness bestowed upon hapless, perennially unprepared Kate. The second came from the lifeguard, who upon informing me that I needed a bathing cap (as I had feared), found one for me to use when I replied that I had none. Really what I said was "I don't have," when I could have more elegantly said "I don't have one of those." After surviving these traumas (I omitted the first trauma, which was knocking over someone else's bike, as well as my own, while trying to secure my bike to the bike rack), I slipped into the very nice pool.
I haven't swum laps in years. As a child I took many a swim class, but I was never very good. I flunked beginner swimming 4 times, as I was unable to float on my back. My sister, of course, was much better than me. She even took a lifesaving course. As with most things I am unable to instantly excel in, I did the best I could and vowed to just ignore it whenever possible. Don't get me wrong, I can swim, but it's not pretty. I just concentrated on my favorite strokes, the breaststroke, the elementary backstroke, and the sidestroke, and avoided the hated crawl. I love the sidestroke the best, but was dismayed to find out that I had tremendous difficulty doing it with my left arm on the bottom. After two or three laps I started to feel the work in my arm muscles and I was getting a bit fatigued. I stuck it out for about 25 minutes to half hour and figured I was good for the first day. By this time it was close to 11am, and it was starting to get a bit busy.
Back in the dressing room, I started to notice all the signs that were posted about this and that rule, and realized that I had broken just about every one. There was the sign that told me it was not only obligatory to use a swim cap, but I was also supposed to shower before I entered the pool. Oops. I rinsed off afterwards just to make a good show of it. On my way out as I sat down to put my socks and shoes back on I noticed the sign that said is was forbidden to wear your street shoes into the locker room. Oops. Good thing nobody noticed. They did have a huge bank of hair dryers to use, and I only had to switch once to find one I could manage to turn on successfully.
Since I wasn't yelled at by an angry employee and my acquaintance suggested I go with her to the water aerobics classes on Monday, I think I might just go back, as long as I can swim in silence, and I don't piss off the personnel with my strange foreign ways.