A Day Outing

Things seem getting better for me in the last few days toward the second week of training, except on Monday when I took Malaria pill at breakfast and was feeing drowsy at Philosophy & Sanskrit class. It was so hard keeping my eyes opened! To be more comfy, I bought a bucket for storing extra water, a drymop to clean my room and a brush to clean my feet! Again Gamal went to pick up all those things for me and the total cost was only 450Rs ($9) he is an angel! People are so nice here and I am blessed.

I finally was able to connect with Gunther through video on Skype on Tues, that was the highlight of my day :) I also saw the first rain in India (there was some rain overnight before too but I didn't hear anything), it poured and that's the good thing because we got  tap water turn back on for a day or two. Yah!

On Wed, the day off from training, Bhooma took us to another ashram, where he was trained for 7 years. We met one of his teachers, who is 90yrs old, stayed silence for number of years, was fasting 30 days at one time to calm some conflicts in the ashram... Talk about faith and endurance!

Then we went to Varkala beach about 1hr drive. Stopped for breakfast first, of course vegetarian food again but different and better taste. I selfishly took the seat next to the driver the whole time back and forth. I knew some might comment on my action but I also knew I would get car sick if I didn't. I was in my own calm zone, no socializing as the group on the back seats, just observing the scenery, the dangerous driving--our driver passed a passing bus as the the opposite cars were approaching! I was the only one in the car put seat belt on. Have faith and no fear :)

Varkala Beach, Kerala

Bhooma left us at the beach by 11:30am and would return by 6pm to meet us again. We had that much of time to do whatever we wanted. I came prepared but decided not to step down the cliff to the beach (I heard the water was warm).

Varkala beach is very touristy but gives you comfort: lots of foreigners, better standards and variety of Western food if one is craving like me ;), lots of shops, massage places, guest houses, and resorts...all i bought were couple comfy pants I needed, trying to control my shopping habit. Enjoyed  a much craving lunch--red snapper with veg and salad for $6, cheese cake $1, and lemon soda $.50. All restaurants had wi-fi so I just sat and put my feet up, upload pics... Had Mango Lassi for snack. Jitra stayed with me the whole time so we kept each other company. Varkala beach is similar to some places I had been before in VN, but not better so not much to highlight, unless you like to swim, sun tanning, shop...

On the way back we stopped at the same restaurant for dinner, didn't understand the menu so we let Bhooma ordered, nothing special. When I come back to Canada, surely will not have Chapati  (like pita) for a while, and won't turn to a vegetarian either ;) However my eating habit seems improving: smaller portion, less sweet and still feel good physically:)

We were all very tired at the end of a "hectic" day (the rough ride back, the crowd, the excitement...) I was already looking forward to our second week of training  to find calmness :) Hmmm?

My "Funny Bone" Stories

Amazing how a good night would do for me on Day 5, I could see humor in anything happened and laughed at/with myself:

- woke up earlier than the others at 5:30ish; while waiting for them to arrive outside the kitchen for Netti Kriya (nostrils cleansing), I walked around the building in the dark, tumbled over a medium pile of dirt that a dog had a hole in which was big enough for her puppies. She barked at me while other watching and laughing as I ran back to them. My thought: Gosh! surrounding by all the calmness of people and animals and I still managed to piss off a dog that early in the morning. Now I have empathy for my husband who would lovingly say "that's my Le!" :)

-Watching all of us practised the Netty thing was hilarious! Me, swallowed the salt water instead of letting it out on the other nostril; some trying to squat down( ya right) or tipping their heads in different directions hoping the water would cooperate. Guys, water doesn't yield!

- The water story was not ended there, while I was in Downdog pose, the water was still coming out through the nose, I thought just me didn't drain it well, so I kept it a secret and wiping it . But not long after next to me, Jitra, a Thai lady who is very funny and expressive, had the same problem but lots more water than I did, she left her pose and asked Bhooma right away. That's when I lost it, dropped my knees down and laughed :)))!

- after couple attempts for Sirsana (Headstand), the Savangasana (shoulder stand) and Halasana (plough) seem like having a spa day for me!

- wish Kapabalati (breathing practice)gives me six-pack abs??? LOL! We are doing lots 2/day 3-4 rounds. Google it if you want to know more.

- haven't book a massage session yet, 700 Rupees ($15) I heard she use lots of oil and we don't have lots of water for shower.

Save the best for last, the language barrier! I am not exaggerating: when Bhooma said "hold you breath" in certain poses, I could only hear "hold your bra" seriously! Should i have my ears checked or my head? I always have a smirky smile when i heard he said it. Hope he never read my blog!  Now I could relate to the people who attended my classes how they were struggling to understand my cueing :)

Gunther said I signed up for this and getting everything had been advertised. So true!

The Improvements

I had a neutral day on Day 4, nothing exciting to report. Just floated through the routine, feeling zombie in the afternoon, but controlled myself not to take a nap. It worked! I had more than 5 hrs sleep that night.

What a difference on Day 5--today! I had a funny bone, just about anything could make me come up with a funny thought...more later ;)

Instead of boring you with my daily routine, I would change a subject such as talking about the weather, the people...

Just a few highlights:

- good breakfast and dinner

- Bhooma gave us each 3 bags of nature almond, cashew, and raisin to have in the room. Wow! It was unexpected!

- there was a yearly festival in town to celebrate its establishment, so we had some interaction with people in town, observed some traditional ceremonies...

THE WEATHER:

I had not seen any rain yet. Therefore we were allowed only to 1-2 buckets for shower/day. I asked why and someone told me the ashram had to follow the town's rules just in case Kerala has drought. So besides hydro was turned on and off periodically, water was also on the same page.

So far, the temperature each day was around 26-30 Celcius, nice breeze until noon then the humidity took over :( Well no water, no fan running in the room sometimes, where do you think I should be? Of course, at the staircase where Wi-Fi signal was strongest   Couldn't be at the beach because there was not enough time between training sessions to get out far for a while. This Wed will be a day for outing--visiting another ashram, to the beach, and to another celebration at night time!

THE PEOPLE

- friendly but quiet, maybe we couldn't communicate much because very few speak English; and if they did, I still didn't understand because of the accent. I always had to ask them to repeat at least couple times. Or maybe because I am in an ashram setting here.

- I haven't met any mean people yet!  Didn't see or hear anyone yelling, arguing...even outside the ashram.

- yes, they do have siesta in the afternoon just like in VN. Avelino couldn't believe that when we were sitting in the lunch room at our fruit time 1:15pm, behind us there were ladies who were lying down sleeping on hard surface of the benches! I am not surprised though because I am used to that :)

- we asked Bhooma his age and had wrong guesses. Augh, he doesn't look 44! So his advice with a smile was:  "Keep doing yoga everyday!"

- I would like to ask Bhooma to go help in the kitchen as doing Karma yoga and learn the cooking at the same time (but the timing of training sessions may be a conflict?). For the moment, we only clean the big room for our practice and its hallway only. There is a young lady who cleans all other floors but not our rooms.

- Chanting is the daily ritual here. We chant to begin anything we do: eating, practising...with different verses. I start to like the singing chants called Kirtan (popular in US.)

- Indian belief: there is only one God, just with different names in different forms.

Challenges and Adaption

Didn't know while I was still having problem with sleeping even I had a great day yesterday. Food? Surroundings? I  could wake up at 1am, stayed up for 2 hrs, managed to get back to sleep but had to wake up at 5am for early meditation. Hope this problem wouldn't last (?)

At 6am, attended the first 30-minute meditation which went fast, even we had distraction of loud mixed chanting noise from other ashram nearby. There was also very little instruction of meditation which we couldn't understand or hear clearly. Hope our feedback will gain some improvement.

Bhooma had confirmed that 2 hrs morning practice of asanas(poses) and pranayama (breathing) will be intermediate level, and the 2hrs in the evening will be a more mindful, slow, technical detailed one.

Here are the challenges of the day:
- as I predicted, I am having problem understand Bhooma's Indian accent, and I am not alone.
- I mostly enjoyed the 2hrs morning practice, except we had to do the Head stand & Crow (arm balance) poses which are my weaknesses! I was in the 10% of the class who struggled. Bhooma said I shouldn't use the wall because I will always rely on it! (There you go my participants! Please take note on this and know how "generous" I was to you--we used lots of props) He also said I will perfect the poses by the end of the week, how encouraging!
- I felt a little sick after that, hoped it wasn't caused by desperately "achieving" the difficult poses--my ego's word.

- swept the teaching room as a karma yoga practice.
- took a nap, but felt worse when woke up. Still managed to attend the evening practice which I was thankful that it was an easier one. Never done that much of pranayama practice before, it was very interesting, learned a lot to take home :)
- didn't finish my dinner, longed for a shower after a rough day but I only had a bucket of water to use for everything (I found out later there was a hot water tab in the bathroom I could use, ah!)

- felt a little better  when I attended the chanting lesson at 8pm. The highlight was: Swami Yogesh invited the swami who performed the opening ceremony to join us, who led us a long kirtan (singing chant) with some music instruments. He has an amazing voice that brought powerful spirit to the group. So glad I recorded in audio!

Well, today was so different than yesterday, I am practicing mindfulness by feeling all emotional, physical aspects as they arose...

I hope my sleep pattern will change soon, I am having another sleepless night so I am writing this post!

Heading to begin day 4 and hope for the best!

OM Shanti, Shanti, Shanti!

A Great Start!

- had ginger tea at 6:30am (sneaked out to have a chai before this, shhh ;)
- the opening ceremony for the course begun at 7am, and it lasted more than 1hr. It was unique! All the detailed traditional steps which a Swami had to perform to ask blessings from a Ganesha for us, the students: a mixture of fresh flowers pedals, herbs, liquid...was sprinkled into the center fire of coconut skin, following with chanting of different verses... Students were also asked to individually offer flower pedals, 3 handful rice crispies into the fire..  At the closing ceremony, some of the lightly roasted herbs were mixed into a paste of 3 colors: white, black, red, and dotted on students third eye (space between eyebrows) as some meaning symbols... Small breakfast was offered right there.

-1.5 hours asanas (Hatha yoga poses) & pranayama (breathing techniques) Head stand, Shoulders stand, Plough, Fish are performed right after Sun Salutations.  I had never done that many of different   breathing techniques which were extended up to 1/2 hr! So much awareness was required!
- fruit time around 1:30pm.
- free time until 4pm (today is the first day of the course so some parts of schedule were skipped) I took advantage of this free time to go outside looking for an Internet cafe to send news home.
- back for another 2 hours asanas and pranayama.
- dinner
- chanting session with Sanskrit to end the day!

On reflection, I had a well-receiving nourishment day: spiritually from the ceremony; mentally and physically from the asanas & pranayama & healthy meals with Bhooma, who has knowledge of giving well-balanced chosen sets of poses and dietary advice which I so needed after a few days full of stress; emotionally from the chanting with Swami Yogesh who is so humble, sincere, caring, fun, and determined to make each one of us re-chant the verse. I even recorded Avelino's voice who was reluctant to chant but was the last one in turn ;) He said the same thing as my friend, Nirala, wrote 2 years ago on her blog: "I couldn't believe they made me do this!"
I was finally "at home with myself" again with much gratitude!

First day at the ashram

- the day temperature was 26 to 32 Celcius. It's hot already!
- got a nice big clean room on the 3rd floor! Dropped off the luggage and went for Chai (Indian tea) for the first time. It was Ragesh's treat to welcome Avelino, and me.

-  heavenly enjoyed the shower after the long flights!

-  unpacked and had a brief rest, I was still "sleepless in Kerala" though.

- went downstairs for breakfast. Ha! Very simple vegetarian food.

- met one of the other students, Bre, she is from Wisconsin but currently an exchange English  teacher in Korea, who got a month off to India for Yoga Teacher Training Course.

- went shopping for slippers, hand soap, laundry detergent (we got a washer!). Bought some fruits and nuts to have in the room for my unexpected hunger ;)

- lunch was at 1pm, continued to adapt the new way of eating (with fingers picking up rice soaked in butter milk and sauce...) and the new diet (vegetarian and plain food) Will see ;)

- briefly met with Bhooma, my teacher, for admin info...course details...

- the hydro had been randomly on and off, therefore the Wi-Fi was also interrupted. You would notice that I might publish couple posts at once, then be out of contact for awhile...

- one very restrict rule was: bare feet everywhere in the ashram so our soles were black like charcoal!  Hmmm, I brought 3 pairs of shoes!  Well, it was just another adaption of the change! I know I would still miss this place after one month time.

- 6:30pm still waiting for the arrival of other students. There would  be 10 of us in this course, small group which was nice to get more teachers' attention.

As I was waiting for dinner and drafting my posts, I could hear the chanting coming from some the ashrams or temples around, not sure yet. Will explore more when I gain back my sleep, get familiar with the surroundings...

- dinner was delicious! It was my favorite among three meals. Didn't know what was in the food they served but I didn't feel hungry, even I was eating small portions comparing to what I ate at home! (Thanks Nirala for preparing me for this)

- met three more students: Jitra, Kelly, and Leja...and few more later.

To bed at 10pm.

The training begins tomorrow 6:30am. Until next time... I am sending love to all.

The Journey To Thrivandrum, India

- weather was good for take-off!

- both flights were booked fully--no empty seats to sleep as I hoped. So far, I am not too impressed with Emirates airlines regarding foods and services.

- the airplane from Toronto to Dubai has 2 decks and carried 600 passengers, you should see the line-ups which had lots of children. See pic of staircase going the second deck, very fancy!

- there was no problem to get through immigration, claim baggage...

- Ragesh, my teacher's assistant and a driver were already there to greet and drove Avelino and me to the ashram. The drive took about 1.5 hours, had familiar feeling as being in Vietnam except noticing that they are driving on the left side as in England. The cost was $40US shared with Avelino.

- I gave tips to the driver, but Ragesh who declined because he works at the ashram and is not allow to accept gifts or tips... (including children and others...)

It was all worth it the minute we went through the gate of the ashram! I  felt like I came to the "right" place (?) Will see.

Panmana Asramam