India blog 7

So that Monday I went to chanting with Zuza - that was her first time chanting in the shala because we went to Jayashree instead, who wasn't there that day - and it was really nice. In the afternoon I showed her the lake and there was another sunset, but not as nice as the first one... Next day was relaxed: practice, Jayashree and lunch, same the next day - lunch with with Philippe: it was his second last day here and we went to the same place he took us the first day we've met. In the evening I was invited to a dinner party at Free's house. Everybody had brought someting to eat and that was really nice. After the dinner party we went to Chris' place: he organised a little dance party on his roof, which was a lot of fun.
Thursday was a moonday, so no practice! We did go to Jayashree though and we had another appointment with the doctor. We rented a scooter for the day, because that's so much cheaper than taking a rickshaw everywhere and well, I had to do the driving, because Zuza didn't feel very comfortable with the idea of driving on the left side of the road in Indian style traffic. It not too bad though, not worse than Bali, as far as I remember...
The doctor gave us some more medication and suggested that we'd do a treatment for 7 days - having a mixture of 3 herbs and buttermilk poored on our foreheads for about 20 minutes. It would strenghten the organs and had many other benefits. Since we had nothing to loose, we decided to do it. So back home, we rented the scooter for 9 more days, so we'd be free to go anywhere we wanted to go and actually it's really nice not having to bargain over the rickshaw price.
After the doctors appointment we went for a little raodtrip and visited the sandalwood factory. It was kind of closed: they were not making the oil now, since they were waiting for new sandalwood to come. There were a couple of men working though: counting incense sticks, putting them in little boxes and closing them - all by hand. Can you imagine counting incense sticks all day, every day? Crazy!
Sunneva joined us on Friday for another cooking workshop at Anu's. We had lunch there the week before and the food was great, so we asked if we could make kind of the same and we could :) there were 3 more girls - 2 from Hongary and 1 from NY. It took some time to make the garam masala powder, the chenna massala, the curd rice and the pumpkin delight, but it was worth working and waiting for - lunch was amazing. More recipies to die for - love it! In the evening there was a Kirtan with Jenni, Mark Robberds and Clayton Horton and it was really good! I enjoyed it very much and was somewhat dissapointed that I missed out on the other ones.
Saturday (again) no practice and Zuza and I decided to do some big shopping. Since we're going to send some things home, we might as well right?! But first we went to the doctor for our first treatment and it was really pleasant - wonder if we're going to feel different after a week.. Exhausted we arrived back home around 6pm, but then I remembered there was a party going on at Noah McKenna's place - my sweet neighbor Zack did his teacher training and since that was the last day of the training, Noah organised a small party and invited the whole ashtanga community: there is actually a facebook page for the ashtangi's in Mysore. Really handy, cause you can find a lot of information about cooking workshops, massages, kirtans, party's, etc. I actually found a girl to share a taxi with to the airport when I leave and so saving a thousand rupees :) Anyway, I couldn't resist going there and it was fun: there was one girl from the Netherlands - Delft - who had done the course, Esther - I hadn't seen her before. Katie was there as well (girl from the USA, beautiful danser) and Zack and Noah ofcourse. So I left kind of early, but I had to get up at 3.15 again the next day, so it was a short night anyhow..
Sunday after practice we went to the doctor again and had lunch at Green Leaf. You can actually get food there without spices, so it's one of Zuza's favorite places. Went to bed early - needed that!
On Monday afternoon, after our doctors appointment we went for lunch at Sandhya's with all the people that went to Jayashree. It was quite a big group and the food was very nice, although I expected it to be even better... In the late afternoon I passed by Jenni's house for a short Kirtan and she invited me and a bunch of other people to come with her to the recording studio on wednesday to record some songs for the cd she is making.
Tuesday was the finishing shopping day - to get it over and done with. Zuza and I bought some nice little souvenirs and a couple of presents to send home. We had lunch at the roof top terras and that was the best lunch ever! It took a while before the food arrived (Indian style), but it was more than worth waiting for :)
On Wednesday we had lunch with Andrew at the stand up dosa place (Sri Durga) (cheap cheap) and in the late afternoon I went to the recording studio with Katie, Free, Lucy, Daniel, Clemens and Sharz. There were two small rooms (aboot 4 or 5 square meters) and jenni was sitting in one of them, playing harmonium and singing, while the 7 of was were in the other one - standing around the two microphones. The walls were made of glass on two sides. So that we could see each other as well as the recording guy and Ganesh who was playing the tabla (they obviously had some more space). As we started recording, the fan had to be shut down, so slowly it was getting hotter and hotter in the cabins - 7 people, 4m2 owowow after 30 min we could make drawings on the glass walls. Every break, we would turn the fan on and open the door to get some fresh, cold air in and some oxygen as well. The last song we sang lasted 24! Minutes and inn the end we girls were all laughing - silently - like crazy: probably because of the lack of oxygen in there. It was fun to do though - there was a great energy and despite the fact that it was bloody hot in there and the sweat was dripping down everybody's body, we were (kind of, as far as we could move) dancing and singing and enjoying ourselves. Don't know if the cd will turn out all right, but we definitely had fun in there. As we got back, we were quite hungry and we went for a snack at 'Van Dosa', which is basically a man that has a van that he parks across from the coconut stand - there he unloads his things and starts making dosa's etc. His (special van) coconut dressing is amazing and you'll only get it when you ask for it specifically.
The next morning was my last Mysore style practice at the shala. I got postures as far as ustrasana (camel, 8th pose of the intermediate series) and I'm very content about my practice. Since my hamstrings at the back of my knees hurt, I've been taking it a bit slow this week - Sharath told me I could modify Garbha Pindasana (can't do padmasana - lotus - cause that is painful for my right knee) interesting though: that is actually the pose I learned to do here properly and now I can not so it because it hurts - might have been to much for me after all. But the modifications work fine and the pain is getting less, so that's a good thing.
For lunch we met up with Andrew and Edwin - who would be leaving the next evening - and we went to the 3 sisters - famous for their food. I got their number from Eva and made a reservation the day before. Zuza and I followed the rickshaw Edwin and Andrew were in and we ended up in a little street. As we walked into the house, I had to bend my head, not wanting to hurt it - can you imagine how that was for Andrew! He's nearly 2m tall. So we ended up in this little room, where we were sitting on some rugs on the floor, waiting for lunch to be served - surely didn't have that in mind when going here. The food was really nice though and so was the conversation. One of the 3 sisters told us that she used to practice with Guruji at the old shala and she's been practicing for about (not sure) 18 years now and doing advanced series, which is pretty cool. The first Indian woman I've met who does this. She just started teaching herself, but doesn't have teacher - doing self practice every day, which I find very admirable.
I had a quiet night: very tired because of the night before - the kirtan singing was finished around 10pm and I wasn't sleeping before 11pm. Getting up at 3.15 am is still not a very easy thing to do, especially not when you're going to bed so late. It's a bit easier here than at home though, because it is warm.. Anyway, the next day was my last led class and it was a good one :) After the dokter (last treatment), I went over to Katie and Daniels for a massage and to jam a little bit. So the night before at Van Dosa, I was a bit annoyed because my shoulder started hurting again because of the driving on the scooter. Then Daniel had a go and gave me a little massage -didin't know he could do that! He's actually really really good. He promised me a full on one the next day, so I got it. It was amazing (but painful): a combination of hot stone and thai massage. Might have been the best I've ever had. There was a danceparty on Chris's roof again that night and some people went to see a movie, but I went home and had a great sleep that night :)
The next day I went for breakfast with Katie at Anokhi's and after that we went to Jenni again for some kirtan practice. Jenni invited us (the kirtan singers) for lunch at the green hotel, but only Lucy and I were able to make it that day. We still went, she would treat the others another time. When Lucy and I got there, Dylan and Chris walked in and joined us. Jenni showed up a bit later and we had a really nice lunch together. After lunch I picked up Zuza to go to the doktor - last appointment. We were supposed to send our stuff home that day, but Zuza got sick and she was really weak. But in the evening she felt a bit better, so we didn't have to cancel the doctor.
The next day I practiced together with Katie at her place (7am joehoe). Katie gave up after her sun salutations, but I had a very nice practice. Afterwards I helped her and Daniel with the backbends and we went over some other postures as well. I just love to do some free style yoga sometimes. Katie has a dancing background, so there's a lot of things she can easily do, but also some things that are really difficult - her shoulders are not open, so in the shala she's only practicing up to Marichasana D...
Since it was Zuza's last day, we went for lunch to Green Leaf, meeting Andrew there. First we had to send our package home though. I tried to find a rickshaw in the morning, but they wanted to charge us so much, that we decided to rent the scooter for one more day, doing it the Indian way: Zuza, me and a 20 kg package between us on the scooter! It was fun :)
Lunch was great - my last North Indian Thali...
After lunch I went to Katie and Daniel for a jam session and some chilling. We headed over to Jenni at 5pm to practice the Kirtan again.
Back home, Zuza and I went for a 'last' walk and a chai. Back in her studio, we did some yoga freestyle moves and we said our goodbyes. Zuza will be flying to Hawaii to Practice with a famous yogateacher (Nancy) there. It's crazy how quick the month with Zuza passed by. Since Zuza's taxe left around 11.45 pm, I didn't wait up to say goodbye. I was awake till late though - starting packing since I would be leaving in 2 days as well.

The next day I didn't feel well and after some sunsalutations, I adjusted Katie instead of practicing myself. It was really interesting to adjust a dancer - the body is so different!
After a coconut I went to my last chanting class and afterwards I was supposed to meet up with Lucy to go to the swimmingpool, but Lucy already passed by as I got home. She went for a massage first (she's got a slipped disc) and left her scooter for me to use. So I went to the swimming pool, where I would meet up with the other singers, but I ended up alone there the first our and that was fine :) I listened to some music, had a ping pong game with some staff members and went for some dips in the pool.
When the others got there, we did some singing again and Lucy and I left around 4pm for a late lunch at Green Leaf (again). After that we went to the studio to sing some more - everybody was quite exhausted, but it was still fun to do.

My last day wasn't so bad :) I went over to Katie for some yoga - when you travel one should only do a light practice and that was the plan. As I was lying on my belly on the mat, waiting for Katie, Daniel started massaging my back, which was hurting pretty bad (probably travel stress) and 45 minutes later he was done - lucky me :)

We still did a little bit of yoga before I left... I had little time to finish packing and meet up with Lucy and Andrew for an early lunch at the standing dosa place. Thanks to Lucy, I went to the internet cafe afterwards to print my e-ticket - I actually needed that to get into the airport!
As I walked back home, the taxi was waiting - 10 min early!
I was ready to leave at noon exactly, said goodbye to my landlady and off we went. The ride was really fine - Jess and I talked lots and it took us only 3.5 hrs to get to the airport, which is super quick. If we would have left later, we would have been stuck in Indian traffic and it's much better to spend some extra hours at the airport then in a non-ac car.
My computer crashed again at the airport, but in just before I left it worked again.. I had my last Indian meal (paratha and yoghurt) at the airport and then it was time to go - new country, new advertures and SURFING!!! :)