Hasta la vista, India

I suppose none of us should be too surprised that I just spent an entire month being super zen in India and hardly posted on the blog. As the saying goes, time flies when you're having fun.

I'm already out of the country and in my new temporary home of Argentina, but I wanted to say "goodbye" in writing. Or as they say in spanish (or Austrian if you're Arnold?), "hasta la vista!"

When I left India, I felt like I was the parent obligatorily and guiltily leaving for work as India played the role of the beautiful, fun child holding me by the ankles and begging me to stay and play some more. And by play, I mean something like the "hokey pokey" (hokey cokey for my newUK friends) or twister. After one month of learning how to tell people to put their left hand here, right food there, shake about now, etc., I do kind of feel like I've been playing those games for the past month only under the guise of yoga.

I am going to miss the playtime in India. Even if yoga does become a full-on profession for me, I love it, so it feels like play. I especially loved learning the partner/acro yoga and even when we fell, it was a good laugh. We also got to do a lot of dancing and singing and learning at Ashiyana and it all was very playful.

It wasn't all yoga though, there was also playtime beyond downward dogs. Mostly, there was the beach. The sand was soft, the water was warm, the waves were fairly big, and it was in the 80's or 90's and sunny every day. Perfection. When I'm at the beach I typically limit my time in the ocean to just enough to cool off but in Goa, I would spend a decent amount of time actually swimming and tackling the waves.

Dad, don't read this next part. Goa is probably the most liberal state in India and has so much tourism from Europeans and Russians that nudity on the beach isn't really a big deal. I didn't go full-on, but many of the girls and I did remove our tops when we swam and I have to tell you it was a pretty amazing feeling. If I felt that free swimming topless in the Arabian sea, I can't imagine how the fully-nude elderly hippies doing headstands  in the sand as the sun rose felt. After a visual like that I don't think I need to say this, but if anyone is uncomfortable with nudity, I can tell you that my choice to swim topless would not concern you compared to some of the other "displays" seen on the beaches of Goa. We were born that way though, so get over it. I was honestly a little envious of those people because they just seemed like they might have the least worries in the world. Just doing yoga in their birthday suit on the beach and being super "in the moment." Those are the people that ought to be writing success books.

When I was out of the ocean and back on the sand myself, I was sun bathing of course because we all know how I love a good tan. While lying on the beach, various Indian merchants approach you to buy scarves, drums, produce, ice cream, beads... a little bit of everything. When you aren't in the mood for it, it can be rather obnoxious. When you are in the mood for it, it can be the most convenient shopping experience ever. All of the scarves I bought as gifts for people were on the beach and I also had henna done all up and down my right hand and forearm from the comfort of my beach chair.

I didn't just waste away and shopping on the beach in my free time though. There was also shopping to be done in the markets! On Wednesdays, there is is an afternoon market that a group of us shared a taxi to and it was where I got to practice my haggling skills some more. The general rule was to ask the merchant for a price and then give them a counter offer than basically cut their price in half, and then bargain from there. Sometimes when I'd be trying to get someone to go down from 250 rupees to 200, I would realize that in US dollars I was arguing the difference between $5 and $4 and I would feel a little ridiculous and just give up. It was still going to get the item for far better than I ever would back in the United States.

On the way home from the market, various children covered us in colored powder as part of the Holi festivities and it was a ton of fun and one of the more truly "Indian" things that I feel I got to experience.

The following day, the day of the full moon, was the actual Holi day and Ashiyana did some things so that we could celebrate like provide more color powder for us to play with on the beach and then that night we had a bonfire under the moon. The bonfire was a blast, people were playing bongos and teaching different dances and Katie even came out of nowhere with some amazing fire dancing!

The other popular market to go to was the Anjuna Saturday Night Market, which was less about affordable shopping and more like a big party. There was a stage with live music, lots of food and drink vendors, and this market also featured some Western vendors, meaning some things were a bit more expensive. We found a vendor with wood oven pizza and pounced on a couple of those along with some bottles of beer. While sitting at the bench, and Indian woman about my age kept looking at me and smiling. I finally said "hello" and she proceeded to tell me all about how she was in Goa on holiday with some other girls who she decided to ditch and that she just had a "good feeling" when she saw me so she wanted to say hi. I found out that my new friend Sphoorti is Mumbai, recently divorced, and works for an Indian fashion magazine and blog. Based on her outfit, I completely believe her. We exchanged email addresses and she was sweet enough to invite me to dinner in Mumbai if I had a long enough layover there on my way home. I never did meet her for dinner, but we did email and it's nice to know I have a friend in Mumbai when I do make my way back to India.

I'd already mentioned how I spent some of my free time in Arambol in a previous post, so I'm not going to rehash all of that, but I do want to share another Arambol adventure I'd had. On my last free half-day, I convinced Brianna and Laura to walk that way and quiz one another for the anatomy test we had the following day. We walked past the main part of town we were all familiar with and along a path that went along the cliffside and had some shops and hotels. Once we got to the other side, we found what we'd heard was a fresh water "lake," but it was hardly a lake. We went for a swim then had a beer and some lunch before the other girls made their way back to Ashiyana and I stayed behind because I wanted to find the "magic tree" I'd heard about. The waiter told me to head to the "Om" rock and follow a path just under it into the woods that would lead me to the popular banyan tree where people gathered. Just as I entered the path, an Indian boy of maybe 17 or so chased me from the beach and asked if I'd like I guide. Well, he didn't really ask. He just insisted, started to walk in front of me, and then I had a guide. I will always remember Rohan the Goan as the friendliest, most informative person in the whole entire world. I really lucked out having him take me along because he knew a fact about every tree we passed, every bird we heard... all of it. When we did arrive at the banyan tree, it almost seemed as though the tree was growing out of a giant rock. For all I know it was. That's the one fact that Rohan the Goan did not tell me, although I did learn that the banyan  is the national tree and very significant to Hindus. There was a mix of Indians and Westerners, all with a bohemian "look" to them, sitting around the tree doing a little socializing but mostly just passing some sort of smoking pipe I'd never seen before around and watching Moses the Venezualan do acrobatics high in the tree. It was interesting for sure!

 On the way back from the tree, Rohan showed me a good spot in the stream to stop for an all-natural and free mud bath. I covered my entire upper body and Rohan was "nice" enough to offer to help. Boys will be boys. I declined but I did let him take pictures of me in my mud disguise and he was pretty excited about that.

There is so much more I could share, but that should give a good flavor of how some of the free time in India was spent! Of course some of my favorite times were just hanging out with my new friends over a meal at two of our favorite spots, La Plage and Cafe Nu, or even while fighting over internet bandwidth at Dunes.

I'm going to miss India but it's time for me to focus on the here and now, which is Buenos Aires on Friday morning!

I'm a yoga teacher!

It's amazing to think that one month ago, I started the yoga teacher training course at Ashiyana with all of the jitters of a kid attending the first day of school and now I've left with a the credentials necessary to begin teaching yoga, over 30 new friends from all over the world, and more information and inspiration within myself. We can mark this off in the "success" column!

For those who are curious, I thought I'd paint a bit of a picture of what day-to-day life in the training was like.

My roommate Anna and I both had our alarms set for around 7am every morning, but we were usually woken up before that either pleasantly by the ringing of the nearby church bells, or somewhat violently by the calls of an incredibly obnoxious bird that I swear must have been living on our roof. The morning time until after 10:30 is supposed to be reserved for silence and solitude, but Anna and I started to break that after the second or third week while still in our hut so that we could discuss how much we hated that bird, any exciting international text messages we might have received, or freaky dreams. We got back to silence though the moment we stepped out of the hut and did our own thing from there.

Usually I'd try to make time for a chai tea before 7:30 yoga practice so that I'd have something in my stomach for the two hours before we'd finish and gather for breakfast. Early morning tea time was perfect for reflecting, writing in my journal, studying anatomy notes or planning one of our practice classes.

For the following two hours we either had a yoga class with one of the teachers, usually Linda, or we had self-practice where we did whatever sequence of asana (poses) that we wanted to. I enjoyed Linda's classes so much that I kinda hated self-practice, even though I know it was good to get more into the habit. 

Then came BREAKFAST!! Wonderful, wonderful breakfast. It was basically the exact same every single day and I never got sick of it. The meals at Ashiyana were always served buffet-style and the breakfast spread was always a mixture of fresh-cut fruit that you could then mix with a variety of things including a nut/seed mixture, yogurt, porridge, cinnamon, and honey. Then there was always toast with some sort of fresh jam, eggs done either hard-boiled, scrambled or in an omelet, and a different kinda of fresh juice every day. My favorite was a mint juice but they were all really delicious. 

After breakfast, we could break the silence and begin going to our various classes of the day. They included anatomy classes,  classes where we learned how to teach and got to practice teaching one another, and classes about the philosophy and spiritual aspects of yoga. It was always a well-rounded, action-packed day that was broken up only by lunch and an hour-and-a-half of free time. We usually used that time to go down to the beach or to go to a local cafe to try and get some internet working. It was also a good time to take care of "chores" like laundry and showering. 

As the weeks went by, we wrapped up some of our sections such as anatomy and started using that class time to teach full mini-classes and get evaluated. I was a nervous wreck the first time I taught my short class but it flew by and went more smoothly than I'd imagined, so it made teaching a longer class much more relaxing. 

After dinner every evening, we had some sort of activity, usually of the music/dancing/chanting variety. They had different local artists come in and perform for us, including a didgeridoo player who is a San Fransisco native, the guitarists I'd mentioned in my last post, and a girl named Storia with a really awesome and unique sounding steel drum from Switzerland called a HANG.  

The nights that we did the more spiritual and chanting stuff (Bhakti yoga) really grew on me over time. I wasn't' sure how to feel about it at first because I don't consider myself a religious person and some of it frankly seemed a little silly. However I kept an open mind about it and found the sounds beautiful and the impact really bringing me into greater awareness for being "in the moment." Nothing really having to do with any God in my view, and yet a un-intrusive, spiritual feeling experience. It turns out it was really my kind of thing. One night we also watched a movie that was pretty groovy to look at called Ashes and Snow and I recommend you check it out if you can handle that it doesn't have a lot of words but is very visually stimulating. 

It wasn't all yoga stuff though. Everything in moderation :) We had half-days on Wednesday for free time, as well as from dinner on Saturday night until 8pm on Sundays to do as we pleased. A lot of that time was spent on the beach, out to try new meals or at the markets. I'll write more about extracurricular activities in another post though. 

Namaste! नमस्ते 

Sample 48 hours in Goa

As we all lay on mats and cushions on the floor of the main yoga shala, a Russian man sat down in front of us, said a few humble words that also happened to be funny, and then he got right down to business. He put his fingers to the strings of an electric-ish spanish guitar and did not stop making music out of it until an hour-an-a-half later. He didn't sing or stop to rest his fingers or tell us a little joke, he just went straight Carlos Santana on that thing the whole time; one seamless song. His only other "gimmick" was his Indian friend who sat down next to him in the beginning and a couple of minutes in, started to feel the music and move around, eventually getting up and dancing around the room. This got some of my classmates up, including Ashley, who is Indian as well and actually owns a dance studio in Mumbai and is well-known as a Bollywood choreographer. As you might imagine, the whole things was beautiful to be witness to. 

To add to how beautiful and refreshing this different kind of concert was, when we all went to clap at the end, he asked us to stop and to please just let it be in silence. His ego didn't need the applause or requests for CDs. He just wanted to come share his instrument with us. I got up in silence and then was when I finally remembered that I was in pain...

Earlier today I'd had another hour-and-a-half long experience that was also beautiful but equally painful: my very first Thai massage. I got up from the massage, looked at Steve (a tall British masseuse at Ashiyana) and only said, "Wow, I feel like you just performed an exorcism on me." He hand found a spot in my lower back that felt like it needed some work and so he'd basically beaten the snot out of it. Other than a brief dog fight, that's really the most violent thing I know of happening since I've been in India. I'll take it. I'll even sign up for another before I leave, but I think I'll wear yoga pants next time instead of shorts. I have learned a valuable lesson about appropriate dress code for a Thai massage after Steve had me basically tied up in a pretzel. Luckily he was really professional about it, but you might want to learn from my mistake if you've never had one before. 

Yesterday was pretty interesting as well. For those of you who know me as "Stranger Danger," I want you to know I was all over it. We have half-days on Wednesdays and I'd talked to some of the girls about meeting in Aranbol, a bigger town about a 40 minute walk down the beach from where we are in Mandrem. As you get closer to Aranbol, the language becomes significantly more Russian and the people look much more bohemian.

I wandered into town and had an eye out for the girls as I also checked out the shops and tried to find a good place to eat. As I wandered, I came across a nice looking older man playing a drum in front of a music shop. I stopped to listen and look since I'm thinking about bringing my brother back some sort of instrument and he offered to teach me how to play. That poor guy had no idea what he was getting himself into. The chaos I created for the next 20-30 minutes on the drum drew other shop keepers away from their posts and it wasn't long before I had a mini crowd... my first concert! If I can make a generalization about the people of India based on just that experience alone, it is that they are very patient people who are kind enough to humor a curious and silly person like me. If I ever choose to pursue a music career, I know who my target audience will be. It's all about the fans, baby. 

I was even more famished than before after my big concert, so I resumed my mission to find a decent meal. The trick to finding a good restaurant in India that won't make a western stomach sick is to seek out places that other westerners are eating in. The problem though is that it wasn't really lunch or dinner time, so almost everywhere was empty or people were just drinking. I did find a german bakery that several people were sitting in and i proceeded to stare helplessly into the glass case in the front, deliberating between the chocolate or the nutella croissant. So similar, and yet, so different. 

"Tough choice, huh?" I turned around and an Indian guy about my age was standing next to me. We got to talking about my eating options and he offered to take me somewhere on his motor bike. Feeling Stranger Dangerous, I got on the bike and we zipped between pedestrians and other vehicles in search of sustenance. He stopped the bike at a jewelry store that turned out to belong to his family, sat in office chairs... and that's when I started to wonder if maybe I was in a sketchy situation. He waved across the street and a teenage boy came over and took our drink orders and then reappeared a few minutes later with some juices. I sat for about 45 minutes and got to know my new friend Shane. We talked mostly about India and traveling and exchanged some "cultural" jokes that had us both laughing. It was a totally harmless, fun and random time. Maybe slightly sketchy, too. He invited me to a big Indian wedding before I leave and I hated to turn him down because that's a bucket-list item, but it would mean skipping some important time in my yoga training. 

I was probably walking home with a stupid grin on my face because nearly everyone said "hi" to me. At one point I passed a man in purple pants who I eventually "felt" following me. He introduced myself once I turned around and became my new, strange, Hungarian friend. He mentioned that he was influential in the fashion industry and when I probed further he said "you know white shirts with graphics in the middle? I was the first guy to do that." Oh. My. Gosh. Wow. What a character. What an interesting walk home.

So that is just a taste of some of my time here in India. It's just the past two days! I do want to write more about what has happened in the past 2.5 weeks and what daily life in yoga training is like, but I'll have to save it for another post. 

Namaste :)

I'm in India!!!

It was a 14 hour flight. Or was it 15? Does it matter? Dad made the journey with me to make sure I got here safe, to check out the resorts in Goa for possibly coming back with my stepmom, and just to spend some quality father/daughter time. Isn't he the best?

We had a relaxing and educational 24 hours exploring the tiny village of Mandrem Beach, including my first attempt at haggling. I didn't bring a beach towel so I went to one of the street stalls that appeared to be owned and operated by a 9 year old girl. A 9 year old girl who has a heck of a lot more hustle than most 30 year olds I know. I was able to get the price of the towel down from 400 rupees to 200... which is $4 USD.  A huge beer here is 100 ruppess, basically $2. Yea, don't hate on India.

The people here are very nice, and incredibly trusting. If you are shopping and want something and don't have enough rupees, they will let you have it and you can just pay them later. They're not worried about it. It's been a little challenging for me to adjust to this much trust when it comes to money. It certainly isn't the "American" way.

I've been at my teacher training training for nearly 2 weeks now and it has been so busy, plus so spotty with internet, that I'm only now posting on the blog. Sorry!!! I don't even have a lot of time right at this moment, so I'll try to just go for the highlights:

• There are 31 people in my course from all over the world, mostly Europe. My roommate is named Anna from Austrailia and she is hilarious. 
• I'm 10.5 hours ahead of east coast time and I spend most of my time from 7:30am here until 9pm or so in various yoga/ yoga related classes, five-and-a-half days a week.
• I have not gotten sick or kidnapped and I doubt either is going to happen to me. 
• I have already gotten to experience so much that I want to share but don't have time to right now... it's time to run off to a class!

I'll attempt to right more in the next couple of days!

Namaste :)