Like learning how to fly

In the words of Paul from New York, "India is beautiful, horrible, inspiring, confounding, and amazing."

Last night, Alex, Nuno, David, La la (sp?), and I crammed in a rickshaw and went to the Mysore Palace (pictured) again. I didn't really feel like going. It wasn't the palace, I'm just usually not really into things like that (the Rockefeller Tree during Christmas in New York, Christmas lights on houses [unless it is really really good and I'm slightly intoxicated], top of the Empire State Building, etc.). I went anyway. I just had a lot of things on my mind. This time, it was a lot less of looking at a bunch of light balls sucking electricity on a bu idling, and a lot more like something bright to stare at and zone out into a trance like state. There has been a bit of that over the last weekend.

I haven't got a place to stay yet. I won't bore anyone with any of the details at the moment, but actually, I'm not as stressed out about it as I was before. Alex doesn't seem to hate me yet, we've worked out a good system for key exchange, I've come to peace with the feelings of uncertainty, and have embraced the thought that when a home is ready it will come. That said, this guy Brian gave me a couple of tips of houses he knew about, so when the rain stops, I'll go look. Finding an apartment feels a lot like speed dating.

I had the worst sleep last night. We forgot to turn on the mosquito repeller, and the entire night we had mosquitoes buzzing about. I was up at least every hour slapping my face and trying to pull the covers over me (sheets in India are never the right size). When it was time to officially wake up, it was okay that I hadn't slept. I was happy to go to practice. I felt refreshed, and a little wired on the idea of it.

My practice time is still 7am. I really think that is a good time, but everything we are doing is so intense and extreme that sometimes I feel like I want a super early time just for the challenge. A lot of people have left this week already. There were way less students than usual, but still there were many. In front of me was Gibran, to my right was little Nuno, behind me was big Nuno, and scattered around were other friends and acquaintances. It was really nice to be surrounded by all that energy. You see someone during the day. You see them interact, and walk, laugh, joke, and eat, and then you see them practice and its like they are possessed or in a trance or in a hypnotic state. It is amazing. So there I was practicing in the midst of all that. Really a good day of practice. Afterwards I felt so amped. When I did the teacher training with Mary Flinn, someone asked why she started practicing yoga. She said it was because it was the closest thing to learning how to fly.

Breakfast at Tina's again. I've decided the toast with spinach and tomato chutney with the banana,soy, peanut smoothie is the right combination. I'm going to try to eat more like a boy in a vegan way to see if it help me get stronger in practice. It is so funny the things people get obsessed with here!

Last night in the rickshaw back from the Palace, I rode with Fred the Swiss guy from Geneva. We were taking pictures of each other in the disco lighting that the driver had installed in his "pimped out" rickshaw. Very modern art. Anyway, he said that he was only staying for a month and that he thought that people start to go a little crazy here when they stay too long. Its not the first time I've heard that...

I'm going with Elena to Sanskrit and chanting with Jayashree again today. Elena is from Milano, Italy. She is here with her teenage son for an entire year! He is attending an international school, she is practicing yoga. She says that she wants him to have a greater experience of the world.

So how it works with Jayashree's classes is you can really drop in whenever you want. You pay either by the week or by the month. All payments are by donation. The chanting starts at 4:30 and ends around 6pm. This is Monday through Thursday. Before that form 3:30-4:30, she might hold special classes on demand. For instance, last month she broke up the sutras so that we could identify the different words in order to teach to our students back home. This month, the focus is learning basic Sanskrit. I'm not sure what we'll be doing. Maybe writing in Devanagari. maybe learning sounds. She has a very open and fluid way of teaching, it just like of happens organically.

In India, everyone has a puppy.