So happy

He has arrived! We spent the better part of the day eating, introducing him to all the Ashtangis I have met, and napping. Sharath wasn't in his office hours so we paid his assistant and are keeping our fingers crossed that things go well tomorrow at practice!

I hope he gets over the jet lag sooner rather than later...there are still many meals to be had :)

Bits and pieces of the day

Enjoying a nice glass of tea before practice.


Finishing up my practice. I do wish I could take more practice photos, but, alas, photos are prohibited in the shala and it's quite difficult to do an asana and hold the camera as well. Another auspicious practice day :)


Enjoying breakfast at Santosha. I had a small fruit salad, the "Magnus special" and an OJ with spirulina.


Accompanying Jill to get her eyebrows threaded...only 20 rupees!


Hiring Umesh, my primary rickshaw driver's brother, to take us to the city.


I never get tired of seeing ladies in the saris.


Me and my dear Rachel. She is the best!


Devouring a banana smoothie with chocolate and almonds for dinner. I ate it so fast I forgot to snap a photo!

By the light of the moon

Last night I crashed at about 7 PM and woke up this morning at 2:45AM for our 4:30 AM practice. Yes, ashtanga yoga makes you have a wonky sleep schedule! I snapped this photo of the "Supermoon" before walking to practice.

Today was the start of my 6th week of practice here. Led was tough this morning, which I am going to attribute to the full moon. With only 8 practices left here in India, I really want to make sure I get something out of each one. During conference this afternoon, Sharath was emphasizing the importance of deep breathing during practice, so that's what I am going to do tomorrow.

Too many chapatis

This afternoon we took a cooking class with Shaila.


She demonstrated cooking some dishes that would comprise a South Indian Thali:


Dhal Curry


Beetroot palya


Brinjal (egplant) Potato Masala


Curd Rice


And a few different rotis and chapatis.



The finished products were delicious.


Marika making a chapati.


Shaila and me. My face is covered with paint, courtesy of some passing young boys celebrating Holi, the Hindu Festival of Colors and marking the start of spring.


Me and the 83-year-old helper.


While I don't see myself making an entire Thali anytime in the near or distant future, I like seeing the process and learning the combination of spices that are used. I even bought myself a masala spice box so I can have my own collection of spices. I do plan on using more cumin, curry, turmeric and coriander when I cook veggies!

Behind the lavender door

I am beginning to understand why people practice at Mysore for months at a time. This first month is where you are just getting used to the new environment and while the practice is good, you are still adjusting. My first 2 weeks here was spent dealing with an extremely snotty nose (sorry if that's TMI, but what can I say, it's true!) from dusty India so my main goal was just to get through practice. The allergies got better the second two weeks and I was enjoying getting deeper into my poses.

Starting this week, I realized I am over half-way through with my trip here so if I want to IMPROVE on my practice I better concentrate and work, which is what I have done. I wouldn't be doing drop-backs on my own if I had left after 1 month. And I am definitely sad that I only have 9 practices left. You bet I am going to do my best to make the most out of them!


As a reward for my hard work this week, I treated myself to a castor oil massage at Three Sisters. The castor oil is believed to have a cooling effect to help counteract the heat we produce during our intense practice.

Harini and her sister perform the entire massage with their feet. Their place is under construction so is definitely not where you would imagine an incredible massage could be (i.e. no candles or mood lighting or music). This is an India-style massage that feels wonderful but, like most things in India, is not for the faint of heart.

It is 5 AM Saturday morning for me right now, and I am not sure if I am sore from the yoga or the massage. It's probably a combination of both. So glad we have the day off from practice today!

Unbelievably blessed

In light of everything that has been happening in Japan over the last week, I am feeling so so lucky. This week has been so auspicious with my practice and I feel like everything has been falling into place. What I came here to do, I am doing. For this I am grateful and I am sending all my Oms out east.


He is another reason our family is blessed! Baby Bres 2 was born yesterday afternoon, weighing in about 8 lbs 5 oz. He arrived exactly when he was scheduled to, on lucky St. Paddy's Day!


He's so beautiful! My sis and her hubs now have two gorgeous baby boys. I cannot wait to meet him!

A Swede in India on St. Paddy's Day

Santosha is one of my favorite breakfast places by the shala. I think I come here at least 4-5 mornings out of the week, because of proximity to my house as well as tastiness of food.


Magnus served us some delicious cardamom cake at Santosha's this morning. They usually have a new baked good other every morning.


Ellie got the requisite green drink and wore the requisite green shirt in honor of the day.


I have dubbed Marika our "Julie Cruise Director," as she like to plan our social events, a.k.a. places we will be eating our meals.


My girl China having her usual tofu scramble with multigrain toast plus butter and ragi chocolate pancakes!


Magnus and Anne are quite a wonderful couple and run a very comfortable place to be at. Eating Western-style breakfasts helps to balance out the Indian food so I feel like I am getting the best of both worlds.

I feel like this week things are just clicking: my practice, my health, finding balance between being social and being alone, meeting some really good ashtangis. I am starting to understand why folks like to come here for more than one month.

It's a rough life

Today I ate lunch at Sandya's house to wish a fond farewell to my new friend Rachel.


Simply delicious home-cooked Indian food (sorry for the blurry photos...should have bumped up the ISO on this one!)


I really enjoy sitting on the floor on a cushion and eating my meals.


Rachel is a beautiful soul inside and out.


As if we didn't eat enough at Sandya's, we stopped at Pascucci for tea and dessert.


Thanks to Simon for photographic evidence that I was actually there too :)


As my time winds down here in Mysore, I am realizing I have nothing to complain about. Usually the biggest decision of the day is where to eat for lunch. It's a rough life, but someone has to live it!

Beautiful language

I love seeing the print of non-latin based languages.


The spoken language here is mostly Kannada, although many people speak at least some English.


And I am not sure if the signs around town are in Kannada or Hindi.


But I think all the swirls make even the bank sign look lovely.

Go!

With less than thirteen practice days left here in Mysore I want to make certain I push myself as much as possible in each one. I am not sure when the next time I will have the luxury of focusing on my practice like this so I have to take advantage of every minute in the shala.


This is the face of an extremely happy yogi. Today I finally got over myself and dropped back into backbends from standing! And I did it 3 times. Saraswathi was standing next to me when I informed her I wanted to try to drop back. Her words of wisdom to me?
"Go!" So I did!

I was a bit overcome with emotion during my finishing poses. I have been practicing ashtanga yoga since before I started writing this blog and dropping back has been a goal of mine for at least 2-3 years. So I think today is going to be a most excellent day.

A fun snack

I am not sure how "Indian" this is, but we have been enjoying fresh potato chips from a vendor along the main road in Gokalum.


I'm thinking that vat of hot oil will kill any germs on the potatoes.


Somehow fresh, warm chips seem a tiny bit better for you than a bag of Lays. But maybe I am just justifying...

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Side note: I am selfishly thankful that my extended family in Japan are all okay. I am sending extra oms to that part of the world.

Making new friends

The hardest thing about living alone in India is being away from family and friends. Luckily being in the shala brings many like-minded people together and I have met some good peeps.


Here I am with China, Marika and Magnus, one of the owner's of Santosha, one of our usual breakfast spots.


I escaped from India for a couple hours with Rachel, Marika and Ellie, to the pool at the Hotel Regalis.


After the pool we met Padraig, Jill, Simon, Edwin and Cheryl for lunch at 6th Main. Countries represented are US, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden and Australia. I think it's so cool that yoga can bring people from all over the world together like this!