Today started out much the same as yesterday - WAY too early – I woke up at 2:30am and couldn’t, for the life of me, fall back asleep! My body seemed annoyed with me: “Why the heck are you trying to sleep in the middle of the afternoon, Krista?” Ugh….
a 9 ½ hour time difference really confuses zee poor body…I tried and tried to force myself to wonder back off to never never land, but that never ever happened.


Two interesting items I noticed this morning in the 3 ½ hours I had to spare before practice that are worth honorable mention:
1) Drying your laundry inside your flat underneath your ceiling fan happens to be the very best way to dry laundry here b/c when drying on clothes lines outside it always seems to rain, and if it doesn’t the wind will blow away your most favorite underwear!
2) When in India you have odd cravings for foods that you would turn down back home (at least I do!) I find myself CRAVING cashews when I’m here in India, but don’t even think about them back home – weird right? I do the same with curd – and yes I know we can’t get curd in America (at least not where I live) but it is very much like yogurt – and I don’t ever really eat yogurt back home - but here, OMG get me curd or I will cry!


This morning’s music selection on the way to the shala was my beloved John Mayer! Yes, I do love this man’s voice :) As I sat down to wait my turn for a spot in the shala I saw Sharath dropping someone back in backbends and had to smile – I am so blessed to be doing that which makes me happiest – studying at ARYI with my teachers. Speaking of teachers, “I wonder when Saraswati and Guruji will be returning from Florida,” I thought to myself. Not even thirty seconds later I heard, “One More!” and it wasn’t Sharath’s voice! [Sigh] I smiled from ear to ear when I heard Saraswati’s voice – I heart that woman! “Yippee, Saraswati and Guruji made it safely back to Mysore!”

I had an uber yummy practice today – always a wonderful way to start any day! Today’s practice was particularly awesome because 1) I’m in India studying with my teachers (as if that isn’t enough), 2) my sub par thin pvc mat was far more obliging in the non-slip department than it had been yesterday!, 3) my focus and breath were extraordinarily deep today 4) my body felt awesome and seemed to just glide into and out of each asana with such ease. Simply wonderful!

After practice I walked to Tina’s for breakfast with my new found friend from Hawaii. We share a common denominator; we both arrived to Bangalore without baggage! But her story I find even more bizarre than mine. She started her trip here from San Francisco and flew to LA before making way to London and then Bangalore. It was during her hour flight from San Fran to LA that her luggage was lost on Southwest Air. Apparently they miss tagged her bags (and get this, they don’t know how they have tagged them), and those bags are out there someplace in missing luggage land. I can’t help but feel for her because who knows how long, if ever, it will take to find her luggage. At least mine is tagged properly and will eventually get to me here in Mysore. And what is worse for her – she is only here a month, so it will be pretty pointless if her bags arrive in 21 days.

Mona and I arrived at Tina’s for some grub (and if you know me than you know I was STARVING!) When I arrived I gave Tina a giant hug – she smiled and told me Jake had told her I was coming soon. We chatted for a moment – she has recently opened her new restaurant on the main road in gokulam where she and her family serve lunch and dinner – they are open 1pm till 10pm. How exciting! We made plans to meet up tomorrow at 1:30pm so I can update her page on zee website to include this new restaurant, and newer information on her breakfast nook. Early next week I’ll get up to her new spot and get some pictures for the site too.

I had my usual fare at Tina’s this morning: half fruit salad, oatmeal, and four egg whites – yummy! It was a darn good thing I got a nice hearty breakfast today too because once Mona and I left Tina’s it was full speed ahead baby! Why? - So happy you asked me that very question :) during breakfast I got a most glorious text message from Ganesh letting me know that my luggage arrived in this morning’s flight from London to Bangalore and it was set to arrive in Mysore by evening. Am I the luckiest person in the world or what (I know some of you may be thinking, “No silly, if you were lucky you’d have gotten to Mysore with your luggage in tow, duh!” but I certainly feel really lucky today so get off it ;)

Mona and I made way to Anus so I could personally speak to Ganesh, and so we could both surf the web for a bit. Then I was off to my dentist appointment in KD road (same guy I see every year – he’s pretty cool for a dentist ;) He cleaned my teeth and splashed my face, and spoke to his attendant in a foreign language as I sat in that horrid dentist chair with my eyes closed and my mouth opened. Now, this is truly one of those priceless moments than many people would never in their lives wish you have – but you truly don’t know what you’re missing guys.

I happily skipped my way (ok not literally) to Girish’s rickshaw – he was waiting for me up the street so we could go back to my flat and wait for the internet techs to come give me cyber freedom in the privacy of my own flat!!!!! Oh yeah baby, and guess what else? I’m going wireless - that’s right, weather I’m at the table, on the bed, or on the toilet, I can email or Skype you people ;) Now as is ALWAYS the case, our initial appointment of 12:30pm turned out to be pushed back a bit….by oh about an hour. As I know this is the way of life here now it doesn’t phase me in the slightest these days. But it forced me to call Mona and push back our exploration of the city “aka SHOPPING” back a bit. Once the techs did arrive they spoke to Girish in Kannada so fast I couldn’t have gotten a word from that conversation even if I did know fluent Kannada! They were in and out pretty quickly, but my internet was not yet a go – it seems some Other tech people must come this afternoon to configure the system or something as these guys were only here to do wiring ?$%@^*#^@%!? Whatever!

Mona and I made way to the city so I could take her to Rashinkar’s to get some ready made clothes (that is exactly what they call clothing here – those that are, well, ‘ready made’ – oh the little things people, the little things bring me such joy!) We were there for nearly two hours, and I was so proud of myself I could cry! I didn’t touch more than one piece of material for my own selfish desires – instead I sat upstairs in the yucky ready made section of the shop right next to Mona as she tried on outfit after outfit. Now I will admit it was KILLING me to stand upstairs when I knew all that raw material was sitting downstairs waiting for me to come make something from it – but I did good, yes I did!

As 3:30pm quickly approached we headed back to Gokulam – I headed home to wait on the other set of internet techs to come make me cyber able. They were in and out pretty quickly – I am now officially wireless! FINALLY, a call from Ganesh letting me know my luggage had arrived at his house – so Girish and I went over to snag it! Thank goodness for Girish and his friend (dunno his name but appreciate him very much) – they lugged those two heavy bags from Ganesh’s to the rickshaw, and from the rickshaw up the stairs to my flat. I am pretty strong and like physical work but I did not, DID NOT, wish to carry those bags anyplace.

I thanked Girish and proceeded to spend the rest of the evening unpacking my bags. Happy to report that very little is missing from the bag – nothing important or valuable anyway – but the thing that really irked me was that one of my bags, and all its contents were soaked through and through – and Shiva only knows what the wetness is! This mystery liquid ruined my books (damnit!!!!), and everything else in the bag except for the clothes I’d packed in there because I had put them in an extra extra large plastic baggie (the ones that suck out all the air and compress the clothing to a really wee little size). I’m gonna wash all that I can from the bag in the hopes I can get some stuff clean, gonna replace the books, and hope for the best. I’m just happy to now be here in Mysore with my luggage – such a nice feeling knowing I don’t have to deal with the UNECCESSARY drama of fighting with British Airways daily for the next few weeks.

As you can see today has been a most wonderful day – one of those days that really makes me realize how special EACH and EVERY Day is. I for one am utterly exhausted and am now off to bed – sweet dreams my friends

Om Shanti