Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
October 23rd Nate finally joined me for yoga and we both actually signed up for 10 more classes together! Afterwards we felt very refreshed, though Nate was feeling a bit more sore than I was. My other comment from the day was on all of the fuzzy baby cows and monkeys running around the streets and how I want to take them all home with me and start a farm. They really are cute though, they eat our banana peels.
October 24th Today we went back to our frequented cafe and Nate was introduced to the Little Buddha. I told him that I had seen the little fuzzball every time and explained that the cafe was named after /him/ and not the other way around. Sort of interesting how my nickname was "Mouse" my freshman year and now I've named one the Little Buddha... Not that I'm a little buddha or anything, but closer to that than a mouse I hope.
October 25th Nate's cozy slumber was so inviting is also kept me from my morning yoga class. I still got up to the roof to do my sun salutations and even had enough time to buy a fresh loaf of baked bread and some butter before 10. We then went to the bookstore to expand our library and I finished reading Rohinton Mistry's epically powerful novel, A Fine Balance. All I can say is that at one time, there was no justice in India and the suffering was unimaginable.
October 26th Yoga kicks butt! I got up in a head stand all by myself today - abs of steel!!!
The rest of the day was filled with thali and shopping. One new item was a chess board - on which, I had my first stressful "lesson". Basically, Nate showed me how to move the pieces and then proceeded to butcher me in 4 games and called that a lesson... it was pretty awful and I think I may get a self help book tomorrow for it.
October 27th Today was the money adventure where we played with PayPal and banks to get money from London to the US to India for our new friends Veryan and Scott. The whole ordeal took us into the afternoon, but was much appreciated since all of their accounts and money had been stolen from them while they slept on the night train.
The power continues to go out, putting the city into instant darkness except for the flames roaring from the street vendors. We've taken to retreating to our candle-lit hippy sanctuary to play chess and watch the wind carry my white silk scarf hanging over the window into the room.
October 28th Today and Indian man asked /me/ for directions and I was happy to oblige, though also a bit surprised and delighted that I could help him out!
October 29th The streets are lined with vendors and beggars between Laxman and Ram Jhula, but one man always makes me stare in wonder. One man, all alone, staring intently at a scale. As if he looked long enough, he would know the secrets behind the weight of time.
...Nov 9th Our last days in India were a whirlwind of emotion. Frustration and fear around our train ticket taking a leisurely 5 day journey to reach our hands; in which, one of us was always tethered to our room and also aggravation with trying to deal with banking and money annoyances sourced in another country.
Beyond my isolated personal woes, India was slowly showing its true colors; deeper than the ashrams and saris was the sadness and beauty of life. Poverty, wealth, the wild meshing with the growing cities and the city's reactions (to a stampede of wild elephants - no joke). To try to describe all I've seen would be a challenge even for the greatest writers of our time.
Though our journey now takes us to France for our final week of travel, this will be my last blog entry for this adventure. I hope you've enjoyed my stories and I thank you for being patient enough to read them while I have no photos to upload yet (the first week of Dec is my plan to have those up) - Though no words or images could even begin to do this country justice. It was more than an amazing experience.
- comments