Here's the Scoop

Hello and Happy Friday, November 14th!

I'm sitting at a cafe in Edinburgh sipping some coffee before teaching my beginner ashtanga yoga class at Bristo Place. I had a delicious mysore practice this am at Union Yoga with David Swenson. He is in town this and next week doing workshops and teacher training, but he's also offering morning mysore practice at 6am each morning this and next week, which I am very happy about - it is so nice to practice in heated room with about 20 other yogis early in the morning. I've been thoroughly enjoying my daily practice alone or with my friend Chris at Bristo, but it is mighty cold down there in the basement of this building I use, and after 2 1/2 months of it, I welcomed the chance to do morning mysore at Union Yoga. Practice was really special this am b/c yesterdays moon really knocked me around - I felt physically and mentally drained all day - but awoke this am with a new found energy and pep in my step - and my practice was just amazing! Hot, sweaty, bandhas, breath, drishti - the whole shebang!

Here's the Scoop: this week I officially changed the Bristo program ;) Since the 15th of September, since I first started the program of Ashtanga Yoga classes there - I was doing a beginner class at 11:15am Monday, Wednesday and Friday and then a Led Ashtanga Yoga class at 12:30pm Monday through Friday. My students are ready - and so am I..... Starting this week the beginner classes stay the same but the Monday, Wednesday and Friday Led class is now Mysore style but am keeping the Tues and Thur Led Ashtanga for the next two weeks to help ease some hesitant students into the program. Before I leave though it will be a full on Mysore program and that makes me happy! I have learned and grown so much through building this program and I feel truly blessed. I will miss all my students here when I leave, but I am grateful to know I've been able to share my knowledge and passion with others. I hope this program stands the test of time!

In other news, Kwang arrives in TWO WEEKS! I can't wait - I'm counting down the days...He will fly in Thursday the 27th and will be here til the following Thursday. So sweet he's made sure to plan his trip to be here on my Birthday ;) It's been six months since we saw each other - we have NEVER been apart quite this long before. Needless to say it will be a long anticipated reunion!

I will be flying to India in One Month! I leave on December 15th - I will fly into Delhi, travel a bit on my own for a week and then will meet up with a tour and travel through the North of India for two weeks before flying down to Bangalore and making my way back to Mysore. I'll be spending my Christmas in Dharamsala and New Years in Varanasi! I CAN'T WAIT!!!

Lots of familiar faces here in Mysore this year ;) Three fellow yogi's from Paul's 2004 teacher training are here with me in Mysore, and it looks like we will all be here til the end of August! I'm so stoked ;) Some other yogi's I've known in Mysore the last three years are arriving as well - its really nice to come back each year and reconnect with friends from all over the world.

My friend Ethan does an awesome online news broadcast called Open Sermo. If you actually want to start enjoying your news, you should really check it out! One of his weekly editions is called "What Should You Know!" - for instance check out WSYK #15 about how to save money on gas. He rocks, he's funny, and well let's be honest, really entertaining. Keep rockin it Ethan!

I bring him up at this moment in time because I want to give him props for keeping me in the know - I would be oblivious to current events without him! I'm also bringing him up b/c I'm going to start a little "Here's the Scoop" section for the blog and Ethan's work was my inspiration - thus he deserves double props this Friday morning (thats rigth Ethan, go ahead with your bad self : )

So, Here's the Scoop:

- Practice was terrific today, extremely challenging, but terrific! Sharath was certainly enjoying leading the class, and he got a kick out of keeping us in Navasana, Sirsasana, and Uth Plutith FOREVER! I thought my shoulders were gonna fall right off my frame after headstand, and just didn't have enough in me to keep my lift in Uth Plutith for the 3 plus minutes he had us up.

- It seems that I've been blessed with Dehli Belly. I'm quite surprised by this fact because I have only been in India a few short days - and while that doesn't matter much I usually get sick later in my trip. For those of you back home going, "What the heck is Delhi Belly?" I'll spare you the explicit details, but lets just say I don't have to worry about constipation! Nough Said... Luckily it didn't hit me til after practice. Hope it passes quickly - sucks being in this state of affairs anywhere but especially here where clean toliets are few and far between. Thus I can't really go anywhere or do anything til this passes as, for obvious reasons, I need to stay close to a toliet (don't you just love my blog ;)

Thats the scoop for now!