Almost homeless in Mendoza. And we'd do it again.

The roar of a plane engine flying nearby just sucker-punched me in the gut. I've got flight envy... bad. At dinner with my grandmother Joan the other night we sat on the back patio of her Arlington condo, which provides perfect views of planes taking off from DCA. Maga Joan (I gave her this name once I could talk) loved and left many corners of the world, including Botswana, Costa Rica, and on twenty-something different occasions... Vienna, Austria. Knowing that I'm afflicted with the same wanderlust as she is, I took a mental note in that moment to not overlook whether a potential home has such a view in the future when making real-estate decisions. They say the golden rule of real estate is  "Location! Location! Location!" My preference is that it literally be in three locations. A girl can dream.

Anyways, today's plane roar inspired me to get back to the blog. Every time someone has come over to my house lately, they are bringing me a bottle of Malbec because they know it's from Mendoza. They either think I'm a Malbec expert now... or they want to make a gesture to connect with my recent travels to Mendoza. Either way, I'm flattered. I haven't really written about my time in Mendoza. Let me start by saying that I have tried to write this post multiple times and either technical difficulties or emotional difficulties stopped it from happening. Then, because I wanted posts to be chronological, I didn't write about the rest of my trip at all.

After a final night in Beunos Aires of tango lessons and the making of a lot of remarkable memories that I don't care to remark on on the public domain (but have dinner with me and I might tell you), Patti and I got on a north-westbound bus for Mendoza, Argentina. Our first time on a bus was quite the adventure. We really did no research, which I think added to the fun. For example, we attempted to prematurely evacuate the bus several times because we kept thinking we might be in Mendoza. Each time, the stewardess caught us with "No es Mendoza," and sent us back upstairs to our semi-cama seats. Semi-cama are the economy seats and something we learned on that trip was that if you're traveling for more than say... six hours... it's is worth it to spring for the Ejecutivo seats. The lesson from the multiple attempted "dismounts" was that these buses make multiple stops on their route to pick up and drop off other passengers. But, they don't really announce which stop they're at. Somehow people just know where they are. The best part of the bus was the amazing assortment of movies. I wish I could remember which ones but oh man... they either played good movies such as "Man on Fire," or the sorts of movies that are so bad they're funny. And they did it in a "bait and switch" fashion. I just asked Patti if she could remember the films from that particular bus ride and her response was "'Bad Teacher' and then some really sh!tty zombie movie." The best thing we viewed on that trip though were the Andes mountains as we got closer to Mendoza. Breathtaking.

Patti and I arrived in Mendoza on Good Friday with no reservations or plans anywhere. We were riding pretty high on that sense of adventure until we'd visited nearly every hostel in the city of Mendoza and they all informed us that they were booked because Easter weekend is one of the busiest for Mendoza vacations. Oopsie. One guy suggested a tent and we had to seriously consider it. Thanks to smart phones, we did find a boutique hotel about 30 minutes outside of the city of Mendoza (and right in the middle of several bodegas) in the pretty down of Chacras de Coria. Hotel SanFransisco was a bit of an unexpected splurge but still cheaper than what we would have paid for the same thing in the states and truthfully, it was relief to feel so "removed" after a week in the bustle of Beunos Aires.

After falling asleep by the pool for a few hours, we got ourselves together to explore the town, still exhausted from not enough sleep in the semi-cama seats and hauling our backpacks around the city for hours trying to find a place to live. The town was absolutely gorgeous. The homes were all beautiful and it seemed everyone had their own grapes growing and a pet German Shepard. Which reminds me... I stopped by the Animal Welfare League of Arlington recently to donate some toys and food, and it got me thinking how I don't think such a thing existing Argentina or many other countries because they let the dogs roam free or kill them if they're rabid. I don't know which one is a better system... just an observation. Anyways, Patti and I practically tripped over this little bodega called Pulmary as we were wandering and it turned out to be such a great find. The wine was all organic, the cheese and charcueterie board was scrumptious, and the staff was very laid back and un-pretentious... maybe even a little sketchy. Pol, who gave us the tour, was certainly a character. He had this unidentifiable accent... something to do with being U.S. born but his parents were both Danish and raised him part of his life in Spain... or something like that. When I asked if we could take a picture, he said it was OK as long as he wasn't in any because he didn't want to be found. We weren't sure if we should be nervous or excited, but we let the intrigue win over when he started pouring us "tastings" the size of full glasses of wine.

Following the bodega, we walked our sauced selves into the heart of town and wandered into an innocent looking shop serving tastings of all sorts of jams, tapanads, dulce de leche flavors... and liquors... including their homemade absinthe. We enjoyed all that they had to offer and then poured ourselves into a cab to go meet my friend Cliff for dinner in the city of Mendoza. When I'd announced on Facebook that I was in Argentina a week before, Cliff popped up and let me know that he was as well and we'd planned to meet up in Mendoza since we'd both be there Easter weekend. I feel pretty bad that we showed up as exhausted and inebriated as we were because I don't think it made us very exciting dinner companions. And we certainly didn't make it past dinner. It was fun though to see another familiar face from home and I remember the food was awesome. It's so funny that by coincidence, or universal/ divine intervention, Cliff's good friends from high school are now my roommates!

We spent the next day resting by the pool and wandering around a winery that we found out we weren't really supposed to be at.

The next morning, Patti and I took the scariest cab ride of our lives deeper into the mountains to spend the day at some thermal pools that looked nice in a brochure in the hotel lobby. Although the driver was a mad man on those switchback roads, he was a nice guy who could tell we loved the views and stopped a couple of time to let us out for pictures. A result of another one of those "lost in translation" mishaps, we arrived at Thermas Cacheuta an hour before it actually opened. Or anything in the teeny tiny town it was in. And it was chilly because we were at a higher elevation and the sun was still working it's way over the mountain peak. So... we walked around. We sat down. We did some yoga stretches. Walked around more. Got into a general store-type shop as it started to open and poked around. Pet some horses. Told a guy the time.. in Spanish... which was pretty exciting for me. Once we actually did make it into the park though it was worth it. The pools felt amazing and we had a fun bilingual chat with a stunning family from Mar del Plata. The husband looked like Antonio Banderas. I'm just sayin'. After we'd had our fun with the pools and laying out, we went to a restaurant in the village where we had the best epandadas in all of Argentina... in my opinion. I still think about those particular meat pockets. I also attempted blood sausage for the first time and loved it.

We took a taxi ride equally terrifying to the one before back to the hotel, picked up our bags, and moved into Hotel Lao in the city of Mendoza. It wasn't part of the plan, but Lao wound up being my home for nearly two weeks and this post is already more verbose than most people can tolerate on the Internet... so I'm going to end this post and pick back up on the rest of Mendoza another time.

"We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us." - Joseph Campbell

I'm back!

OK, I've been back for quite some time. I spent 111 days traveling and returned to my little cottage outside of D.C. Memorial Day weekend. I spent that first weekend at my mom and Dan's house on the Wycamoco Bay, relaxing by the water and savagely devouring blue crabs smothered in Old Bay seasoning. You don't get them served just like that anywhere else in the world. I know, I've now done the research. Then made my way to see Dad and Karen to visit the graves of fallen servicemen we've known and loved and pay our respects, followed by some fun sailing by the monuments along the Potomac River and then  making our own homemade sushi back at the house with some celebratory champagne. I was super determined to just enjoy those moments that weekend and not think about the overwhelming question on every one's mind... "what's next?"

Fast forward to today. My life is still transitioning and my bank account is still in a lot of residual pain... but I feel less stressed about the future and comfortable in the moment than ever before and I feel incredibly rich in all of the ways that it is important to be rich.

Professionally, I was not punished in the least bit for my adventure. I did not return to my last employer, but they had me in to the office after I came back to give a little presentation on my trip and were incredible references for my next endeavor. Not only have I landed a job, but I had two competing offers from employers and actually had to make a tough decision to pick one! I make a good amount more money than I did before with more benefits and on a pretty high profile account that is awesome for my resume. Added bonus: my morning commute is only 15 minutes and I can still wear jeans to work like I did before AND... there is a keg in the office. I still miss the old gang but in case anyone was worried that my decision would hurt my career... you can go ahead and worry about something else :) To be fair, some potential employers were concerned that I'd up and left like that, but the majority found it pretty badass. I'm sure the  manner in which I presented my little career break had something to do with it, so keep that important caveat in mind in case you hope to do something similar and yield the same results. I can't write every one's cover letters for them, but I'm happy to chat with you if you get to that point and do have questions.

I now live in a townhouse in Arlington and I'm loving the proximity to my friends and some of the things I like to do. I enjoyed living so close to my family and having so much nature in my backyard, but I didn't have to give much of that up. The roommates and I have a little backyard that they've let me get creative in and I'm walking around like I'm some expert farmer because I got green things to sprout out of the grown that I'm hopeful will become vegetables before the frost comes. It's a fun project. And, my new bedroom is GORGEOUSLY decorated with the stuff I've acquired from my travels. Funny story about the roommates, they're two guys who I met via Craigslist thinking they'd be strangers and it turns out we had a couple of mutual friends... including my friend Cliff who I hadn't seen in a while except for we happened to be in Mendoza, Argentina at the same time while both traveling and got to have dinner together. Crazy, right? I think that and another reference helped me get the spot in the house so that's another positive change in my life that I actually thank my travels for!

Life is balancing itself out nicely, but I'm certainly still in a transition stage. My yoga practice is still strong and I plan to begin teaching this coming month some nights and mornings outside of my regular work hours. I'm focusing on doing things I like to do and spending time with people who fill me up. I've removed several things, including relationships, from my life that I don't feel serve me. I just don't put my energy into those things so much anymore. I'm focused more on my health, shopping at the farmers market and doing regular physical activity. In a way I'm still traveling, but it's less literal. I'm wandering around my own life and my environment in a more present and aware manner. I'm in awe. I'm free. It rocks.

My heart twinges a little bit when I get taken back to my trip. Random things trigger it. The other day I was in traffic heading home in gorgeous weather. Jamming out with the windows down, a Foo Fighters song came on the radio, bringing me back to seeing them live with Patti and some of our new friends in Buenos Aires. As I was riding on the high of that moment, a girl in the car ahead of me stuck her hand out of the window to ash her cigarette and I noticed a gorgeous henna tattoo design up her hand and arm. That image took me back to the beach in India, laying there as a local woman in a beautifully colorful and glittery wardrobe drew swirls and flowers all over my body as my multi-national group of friends and I crushed on the gorgeous Austrian man down the beach. And then forward to a moment of looking down at that same henna but more faded as I landed in Argentina, aching to be back. Having all of that come in at once was an overwhelming and powerful moment. The real kicker? The Foo song playing was Everlong. So with that, I'll leave you with a link to the song and some of the lyrics, and a promise (maybe more like a "good intention") that I WILL fill in the blanks on the rest of the trip in later posts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBG7P-K-r1Y

"And I wonder if everything could ever feel this real forever
If anything could ever be this good again
The only thing I'll ever ask of you
You've got to promise not to stop when I say when"

Buenos Aires

Once again, I've been a bad little blogger. The good news is that it is because I'm very busy and having a blast! Today I've finally found myself without plans and totally alone, so I'm taking the opportunity to catch up on writing and various "travel chores."

I arrived in Buenos Aires with 250 rupee still on me and they wouldn't exchange it at the airport. No worries though since the universe has a way of taking care of me. I wound up sharing a taxi with an anesthesiologist from Philadelphia in town for a conference who told me he visits family in India all of the time and would be more than happy to take those rupees off of my hand and give me some US dollars. First problem in South America immediately solved. I love strangers.

It didn't take me long to shift my awareness to the bigger challenge in front of me: no hablo espanol. Whoever told me that the people in the city of Buenos Aires speak "a lot" of english either lied or only stayed in the confines of a hostel the whole time. The good thing about this is that I've been forced to pick up more of the language and quickly. Well, until I made an American friend who is fluent. It's amazing how lazy a translator can make you.

That wasn't until I moved into my hostel though. I spent my first dat in Buenos Aires in a hotel downtown so that I could catch up on rest in a big comfy bed and get my bearings. The concierge taught me the most important phrase I've learned since I've been here, "estoy aprendiendo espanol," (I am learning spanish), and then released me into the city to figure everything else out by myself.  I made my way to one of the pedestrian avenues they have throughout the city with a ton of restaurants and sat down at the one with the most people for my first of what I knew would be many glasses of Malbec and any sort of appetizer... since I knew I was nowhere close to true Argentina dinner time. Two Argentinian girls heard me speaking to the waitress in very bad spanish and probably a hyper-obvious American accent and invited me to come join them at their table so that I could practice my spanish with them and they could practice english with me. So nice! I can't imagine many Americans doing the same for a struggling tourist.

So there I was my first night in Buenos Aires, having drinks and cheese with two incredible nice locals. Great start :) My new friends are named Analia and Jesica and not only did they show kindness to me, but also to a beggar who they gave their french fries to. They told me that generally people do not give money to beggars but it is not uncommon to just give part of your meal to them and that the beggars are usually very grateful. Another difference from what I'm used to at home and since then, I've given a lot of food away to homeless here. It's my new diet.

I moved into Art Factory hostel in the San Telmo district the next day and that became my home away from home for the rest of the week. I planned to take it easy my first night but after a siesta and some gentle arm twisting from some of the other guests and even employees at the hostel, I found myself dancing like a maniac with confetti flying everywhere in a club called Crobar in the trendy Palermo district of Buenos Aires until 5 or so in the morning. So much for taking it easy. I'm glad I went though because it began the bonding of me with a handful of other people who I wound up doing everything else with the rest of that week.

The following day, I tried to go back to Palermo for a day market but my cab driver and I had some language issues, so he wound up dropping me off at a random shopping mall. I wasn't upset about it though, I thought my first "lost in translation" snafu was kind of funny and I took it as an opportunity to walk around the city and do some discovering. The more I wandered the city, the more I was reminded of Washington, D.C., even down to the eerily familiar look obelisque-shaped monument in the city's center.

I decided I was interested in going to a soccer/futbol game while in South American and so me and some of my new friends, Alex (from Canada), Will (from USA) and Andrew (from Australia), all hopped onto one of the city buses for the first time to make our way to the stadium. Yes, I'd found myself in a group of all boys, just like I often do at home. While we were on the bus, a local informed Will who is practically fluent that the game was about to end and we wouldn't make it. Soccer field trip fail :( We made our way back to San Telmo and agreed that steak and wine was a solid "plan B." Andrew and I had both heard good things about a place called El Desnivel so we took a chance on the slightly sketchy looking place. If you even go, order the flank steak. They brought sometime out that was about the size of my head, delicious, and only about $10 USD. There was so much leftover steak that we took some back to the hostel with us along with some eggs that we were able to buy directly from the restaurant and made steak and eggs in the hostel kitchen the next morning.

The following days were full of a lot of walking and adventuring around and it was all a lot of fun, but here are some of the highlights:

• They LOVE parks in Argentina. There are beautiful parks all over the place and the locals definitely take advantage, whether they're playing soccer, making out in the grass, fishing in ponds, grilling picnics, playing with their dogs or utilizing the built-in exercise equipment. I think this might be why you don't see a lot of fat people in Argentina. I give props for the Argentina government for maintaining this system that seems to serve their people so well. 
• They had... like... a NASCAR type race in the middle of the city while I was there. It was the coolest thing. It is called the TC 2000 and they shut down 9 de Julio Avenue, a 12 lane avenue in the middle of the city that is said to be the widest in the world. The roar of the engines could be heard from very far all around the city and the streets were crowded with vendors and spectators, including on the top of the surrounding buildings. It was an unexpected and unique experience that I'm glad I got to see. 
• Even though it is still hot in Buenos Aires, it is now considered their autumn and if you don't want to stick out as a tourist, you should be wearing fall fashion... especially boots. My flip flops have earned me a lot of stares. 
• Steak and wine are the main menu items for sure. You have to put in extra effort if you want to eat any fruit or vegetables. And if you want to eat dinner when the locals do, plan to go out around 10 or 11. 
• Went to the Foo Figheters concert at the River Plate soccer stadium and it was incredible! Patti had just gotten in town that day so I was very excited about that and we went with Alex and a couple of other people from the hostel. We'd bought general admission tickets but security wasn't checking at all, so we were able to walk right down to where the stage was. They played for about two-and-a-half hours straight and I think that was the best show I've ever been to. The Foo Fighters apparently have a lot of fans in Argentina because everyone knew all of the words to the songs and they even had a special chant for them.
• Had a lot of steak in Buenos Aires but the best by far was the kobe flank steak that Patti had at a restaurant along the canal called La Cabana. You should all get on an airplane right now just to come and have a taste. 
• Got to see a lot of tango and also took a lesson! I'm hooked!

Those are some of the main highlights, as Buenos Aires kind of feels like a long time ago and I'm feeling too lazy to write much more about it. Overall, I did like the city but I think I mostly liked it because of the people I surrounded myself with while I was there. Other than that, it really reminded me too much of DC and so I was very ready to leave and see other parts of Argentina that would feel more foreign to me. Patti flew into Buenos Aires and spent a couple of fun days with me there, and then we got on a night bus headed for the Mendoza wine country on the other side of Argentina. That is where I am now and I'll try to do a post on my time here so far but I want to get off of the computer now because it's a beautiful day and I want to get out there. No plans today, we'll see how it goes! 

Ciao ;)

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 :)