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Published: October 8th 2009
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Sunday, Oct 4th - Monsoon & Group Silence
So, again, as always I wanted to write stuff down earlier… but, oh well… Where do I start? Town on Friday was awesome. You just need to get use to Indian cities, I guess. I got everything done that I wanted including my feet. It’s amazing how cheap beauticians in India are, well, besides everything else. Oh, and I booked a flight to Goa! Excitement! I’m going there on the 20th. The thought of leaving here makes me really sad, but I know that I can always come back here.
Yesterday was a very special day for Indians: The full moon in October. We celebrated this with Bajans and sweet thick milk. A lot of people from town came and participated. Bajans is basically group singing and dancing. The songs are being lead by an old lady who is the wife of the founder of this Ashram. She is totally awesome: I’d reckon she’s around 70 and she is just so energetic and vital, jumping around like a teenager. She’s the best proof that Yoga keeps you young :-)
Also yesterday it suddenly started pouring. We’d had a couple of showers before,
but nothing compared to this. This is not simply rain, this is put-one-foot-out-of-the-door-and-you’re-soaking wet-rain. And it’s been raining since. For the first time I’m actually glad to have my raincoat! It’s still not cold, but you seriously get soaked anywhere you go, which is kinda annoying. I tried to take pics, but it turned out to be very complicated! Just hope, it will eventually stop, especially cause our room’s a mess with all the wet clothes that won’t dry and the dirty footprint everywhere. But you get used to dirt really fast here: The problem is, that the water isn’t superclean, so nothing ever gets really clean, it’s more a matter of spreading the dirt evenly :-) I already got used to the thought that I’ll have to throw out most of the stuff I’m wearing here…
Anyways, today was nice and quiet - we had group silence. I must say though, that I like my single-silence better, cause you get to listen more. And I did the crow pose today!!! And the headstand!!! Love my new wrist support! Only the swan pose keeps being a bitch ;-) But I still have 10 days left to practice . And I
know I keep repeating myself, but: time just passes by so fast here!
So guys, I guess that’s it for today! We still have a group discussion coming up and after that I’m just gonna crash!
Hari Om
Tuesday, October 6th - sore like hell
I didn’t think I’d get to this point, but right now, I’m just very sick of Yoga. My entire body is aching and every time before I go into an asana (yoga posture) I think “Ok, how the hell am I gonna do this???”. Ok, time to stop whining. Other than that everything’s good. Haven’t been sick so far! Knock on wood... The food in the ashram is very good, though. It prepares me for the rest of my time in India. And I just love eating with my fingers. Eating with the fingers enhances the Prana of the food. Prana is the energy that flows is every thing and being (more about prana in my yet to come topic on Yogic life…) . Here, you pick up the food from your plate either in small balls that you form with your fingers or with chappathi. That’s very thin bread comparable to
tortillas or durum. I really miss fresh rolls and German bread so much. Here we always have fresh fruit and some warm dish for breakfast. The fruit’s awesome: papayas, bananas, pomegranate, dates… some right out of the ashram’s backyard. The warm dish I had to get used to. It’s mostly cracked wheat/rice/puffed rice with tomatoes, cucumber and potatoes. And of course: fresh coriander… I thought I hated coriander, well I got taught otherwise, cause here, they put in EVERYTHING, I mean literally everything. And they love cumin and cardamom! And peanuts! It’s awesome to eat pure vegetarian food again. I hadn’t realized how good it makes me feel! So much on the food topic…
Our day off has been moved to Thursday this week, cause we have practical exams on Friday. It’s getting less exiting every time. But I still miss the Internet and some kinda information. I mean, the world could go under and we wouldn’t know… Decided to buy a newspaper on Thursday! Gotta go, have discussions now!
Love ya <3<3<3
Wednesday, Oct 7th
OK: Last night, a girl from my course woke up with a baby snake on her head!!! Oh man, I
would have probably died of a heart attack! Fortunately it turned out to be non-poisonous, but you never know… Other than that not much happening today… I’m not so sore anymore, cause one of my classmates gave me an awesome massage with some Thai wonder balm. It worked, so yoga started being fun again today. I kinda looking forward to being done with the actual course next Tuesday, just to be able to practice the poses I wanna work on. Plus I wanna read so many yoga-related books… We still have an essay due this Sunday and I haven’t even started working on it. Gonna write something on Yoga and Depression and if it’s good, it’s gonna get published on the Ashram’s website. We had interesting lectures about Yogic Diet and Indian cooking today. Again it was conducted by the older lady that also does the mantra chanting. Apart from being totally cool, she told us so much about Indian spices and stuff. Now I know, that the spice I really didn’t like is cumin. I got used to it by now, since, like coriander it is used in EVERY single dish…
Oh, and I figured out what to
do after this (it was about time…) First I’m gonna go to Mumbai with a girl from my course. Then we’re going to Goa together, where a friend of my yoga teacher rents out little huts on the beach. After we’re done seeing Goa, we’re gonna travel further down South along the coast until we get to Kerala. Excitement!!!
Tomorrow on our day off, a couple of girls and me are gonna walk to Trimbak early in the morning to see the temples there… From there we take a Taxi to Nashik. Tell ya more tomorrow!
Good night
Thursday, Oct 8th
Good morning!
So, this morning we went to Trimbak to see the Temple. We left the Ashram at around 5:30 am and walked there. It was awesome, cause we got to see the sun rise over the hills. The Temple's one of the 12 most important temples in India, because Lord Shiva meditated in it. We were really lucky to be allowed to go inside, cause usually only Hindus are allowed in the Temples. Couldn't take any pics, though. Afterwords we went crazy on the nearby market. I spent around 2 Euro and just go like
sooo much stuff: Necklaces, anklets, little Ganesha statues... The we took a Taxi to Nashik. so here I am now... Unfortunately I can't put the pics online, yet, cause they don't have a card reader here...
Later on I'm gonna meet up with Amy, a girl from my class who is gonna come down south with me to plan/ book stuff.
Oh, and thanks for all the messages. I'm so happy to hear from you guys!
More later!!!
Later on...
Ok, got tickets for Amy and me booked!!! totally happy to hang out at Goa's beaches, soon!!! Going back to the Ashram in a little while. Still need to prepare for our practical exams tomorrow - five minutes of shoulderstand isn't really that much fun :-( Pretty happy to get back though, the city's always prety intense!
Love you guys!!!
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