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November 21, 2005

We're still here

I haven't really blogged lately for a few reasons. I have had really bad allergies for the past 3 weeks and have not felt up to it mainly. But things have slowed down also and I guess there hasn't been much to report. My allergies felt alot better yesterday, but then Andrew and I woke up this morning with sore throats. Hopefully we aren't coming down with something.

We have 3 weeks and 3 days left here. Who's counting? Then we are off to Thailand before Rowan and I head home on January 11th. At least I hope we head home because we are waitlisted for the flight. I am really looking forward to Thailand though. It should actually feel like a vacation after spending the last few months in Mysore.

We will arrive in Bangkok on the 15th of December and stay there for 2 days and then head to Koh Samui, which is an island off the coast. There is a yoga shala there that we will practice at and then hopefully just hang out and relax. The island is supposed to be beautiful, if not a little touristy. We heard there is a Starbuck's on the island. I won't lie to you, I can't wait to go to the Starbucks. We will be in Koh Samui for 3 weeks and then back to Bangkok where we fly back to Bangalore. I have decided to just come straight home from our Thailand trip instead of going back to Mysore so I will then leave for the grueling flight back home. (I actually don't think it will be grueling).

Jason is going to stay in Mysore after we leave until the end of February when the family is supposed to go on tour. Then he will join us back in the states. It will be hard to have him so far away from us, but I know he would really like to stay to see them off. I will just have to constantly email him about how soft our bed at home is, or about all the fresh spinach and avacados I am eating!

Nothing much else to report here. The yoga practice has been going fine. The shala has been very busy. There are yoga students everywhere! It will probably drop off some soon because Sharath will go to Goa for a bit, but it will explode in January and Febuary I think. It has been kind of cool, bordering on cold here. We are all wearing the one long sleeve shirt we each brought every day.

OH yeah, and we might do something this weekend, since it is MY BIRTHDAY! The BIG 3-0! There is a girl living above me who is also turning 30 on the same day. Trippy! We will have to put the 20's out of their misery and enter the 30's in style.

Posted by Tara at 05:47 AM | Comments (0)

November 12, 2005

Rowan's growin'...

Rowan will be fifteen months old in a few days and in the 2 months since we've been here she has grown so much. She has grown physically, but the biggest changes are in her abilities to communicate and interact with her environment. It is so much fun to watch. Here is a breakdown of her newfound abilities:
- Right now her vocabulary is expanding very quickly. Keep in mind that she often sounds like she has marbles in her mouth or only Jason and I really know what she is trying to say. Here are the words she can say so far: hi, bye, boob (when she wants to nurse), fish (sounds like "bish), duck, dog, cat, Mooo (for cow), Baaa (for sheep), momma, dadda, nose, eye, Rooooar (for tigers, lions, etc.).
- We are working on body parts now, so if you ask her to she can identify on her own body or on someone else's: eyes, nose, mouth, ear, hands, feet, belly button, and boobs. The last two are funny because she will look down her shirt to find her boobs and then she will lift it up and try and look over her massive portruding belly to find the belly button.
- She is starting to learn her animals too, so if asked she can pick out for you: dogs, cats, pigs, cows, sheep, ducks, lions, elephants, giraffes, fish, octopus, zebras, and probably others I can't remember.
- You can also give her small commands, like "bring me something" "give something to someone", etc. We had some friends over the other day and the guy asked Rowan to bring him some cookies and she did it. He was super impressed and told others about it later that day. We left out the part about how we had to repeat the command over and over and do a little coaxing to get her to do it, but hey and accomplishment is an accomplishment!
- And the most fun to watch is her playing with other kids now. She definitely likes interacting with small people alot. She no longer cries when she goes to nursery school, but waits patiently by the gate for them to open up and once she sees the other children she goes right for them. She also has made friends over the 2 months of other kids whose parents do yoga. She met one last night while we were out to eat and they ran around the Green Hotel for an hour playing silly games.

I wish all of Rowan's family were around to watch her grow right now because it is soooo much fun to see. The good thing is that she will have more growing to do when we get back - so you guys aren't left out of it completely!

Posted by Tara at 05:04 AM | Comments (0)

November 02, 2005

Pics

Here is the link to pics from our trip to Auroville/Pondicherry/Bangalore and various other pics...

share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8Acs27Fy5atWGo

Posted by Tara at 01:36 AM | Comments (0)

November 01, 2005

Our big India adventure

Auroville, here we come…

Guruji and family went on a African safari this past week so the shala was closed. Jason and I kicked around a few ideas of places to go during this time off; Sri Lanka (too expensive), Goa (didn’t pan out), Kerala (again didn’t work), and Auroville. We sort of decided on Auroville at the last minute even though we had kicked around the idea for a couple of months. It had a certain appeal. It wasn’t too far from us and there would be yoga. SO, Auroville it was. The journey begins…

Getting there
To get there we took the Shatabhi Express train from Mysore to Chennai. It took about 7 hours. We were in the first class cars (don’t get your hopes up – it is kind of like a run-down Greyhound bus), but boy did they feed us. They probably fed us every hour. I have never eaten so much on a bus/train/plane. Rowan did fine and slept part of the way. Jason walked around with her a bunch too. It wasn’t too bad over all.

From the Chennai train station we rented a car that drove us 2 ½ - 3 hours the rest of the way to Auroville. There is a nice paved highway from Chennai to Auroville and the ride was not bad. We didn’t get in until about 1 in the morning and we were exhausted. We basically crashed after that.

Auroville
Auroville is a kind of hippie social experiement in my opinion. It started as some sort of idealistic community revolving around the teachings of Aurobindo and the Mother. I don’t know too much about them at this time, but will report more later. Anyways, the Aurovillian community was supposed to sort of mesh with the surrounding local villages and create this awe-inspiring trans-cultural/political/spiritual community. I don’t think it has turned out that way though. It seems like there is still a deep divide between the local villagers and the Aurovillians (who are mostly Europeans: French, Italians, and Germans it seems). Anyways, here are some impressions so far:

- One good thing about those Europeans is they know how to eat. There are amazing bakeries here with CROISSANTS! Yep, and sticky buns, and fresh bagets, apple crumb cake, etc. At the local general stores you can get fresh Aurovillian made cheeses (all kinds – mozzarella, gouda, bleu, etc.), pastas, even olives! My point is, I haven’t had any Indian food since I have been here and it is great. I was seriously starting to have issues with Indian food. The downside is nothing is ever open. Jason and I have thought it possible to starve to death here because we always seem to miss the open hours for restaurants and cafés. They are very specific times they are open, for example on the 3rd, and 5th Monday from 11:49- 1:17. Okay not that specific, but we still haven’t figured it out.

- On the Auroville website it mentions a number of times that they don’t cater to tourists and to not come if that is your intention. Well, I don’t know if that is entirely accurate because the villagers seem to have made it a good business to sell loads of tourist crap. Need any hippie clothes, purses, statues, wall hangings, jewelry, etc? You can find it here. Even at the Auroville visitor center there are 2 kind of pricey boutiques. I am not complaining though. I found some really cool stuff at the boutiques �\

- Ever see those pictures in National Geographic of African children standing around covered with flies? That is here. I have no idea why there are so many flies here, but they are everywhere. Everywhere. There are also a lot of ants, cows, and stray dogs. I am currently on a personal mission to eradicate all ants in my presence. Also, surprisingly there are a lot of cats. Really beautiful cats not like the ones in Mysore that are scrawny and basically look like they are just around to feed the booming dog population. The cats here in Auroville look well fed and they are relaxed, not skittish. We have sort of adopted one little brindle colored one that has been hanging around our room. We let it sleep inside and feed it when we can. I know, I know, but I miss my cat at home. Rowan is very into the cat as well. She keeps trying to sit on it and pick it up by getting a choke hold around its neck. The cat is humoring her because it doesn’t want to give up the rest of the privileges of hanging with us.

- Rain, rain go away. It is monsoon season here. Who knew? The first two days we were here it was hot. Hotter than hot. Sweltering. I didn’t know if I could make it a week in this heat. If only I had known we wouldn’t have to I would have welcomed the heat. Because then it started raining. Basically as I write we are on day 4 of rain. It has rained non-stop for over 24 hours and everything is wet. It will not dry either. Our room smells funny and we are all getting a little stir crazy. Oh, and MUD! Lots of rain plus dirt roads and dirt paths make MUD – lots of MUD. Jason says that this is the closest thing to camping without actually sleeping outdoors. There have been more than a few times during this trip when I have prayed for a nice hotel room, with clean sheets, and room service. Actually, I have made it clear that on our way home we are stopping in Bangalore and getting a nice hotel room before we go back to Mysore � A girl has to have some pampering some times!

- Okay, enough of the complaining stuff. Despite my love/hate relationship with the weather at this point, it is still very beautiful here. Auroville is what I would consider in a very rural area of India. Pondicherry is not too far away, but where we are staying is out in the boonies. It is very green and lush, especially with all the rain. There are plants everywhere. The Aurovillians have also built some really beautiful and unique buildings and homes. There are these great colonial houses set out in the woods. You would never see them unless you are right up on them because they are so hidden by all the trees. Oh, and they have a freakin’ skate park here. Jason said it is about 20 minutes out in the middle of a forest and then you come upon this massive concrete spread with a half pipe. Jason took Monica’s sons skating one day to show them some tricks. Apparantly growing up here is a lot like being at summer camp.

- Then there is the yoga… We came to Auroville specifically because of Chad and Monica. They teach Ashtanga from their home Mysore style Monday – Friday. Despite the rain, it has been a wonderful week practicing yoga with them. There were about 8-10 of us that came up from Mysore this week to practice and let me tell you what fun it has been practicing with a dozen people compared to 50 or more! We practice on the roof of Monica’s house. She has a sheltered area set up to protect against the sun or rain but you still have these amazing views of lush forest. Check out the pictures. Chad has a very gentle touch and unassuming personality. He gives great adjustments and feedback on what he observes in your practice. Jason and I REALLY enjoyed the yoga with them and plan on coming back at some point – and this time we will know what to expect! On Sunday they let us all come and do self-practice with them and then afterwards we had a potluck brunch at their house. It was so nice and the perfect ending to this week.

Home again…
We left Auroville Sunday after the potluck and drove back to Chennai. We were so haggered by the end of this week that we decided to indulge and fly back to Bangalore. We found cheap tickets on and Indian airline called Air Deccan. For both of us plus Rowan our tickets ended up being about $75 total. Not bad.

We got to the Chennai airport and our flight was delayed about and hour and a half so we had to wait. A lot of airports like to appeal to the consumer in you by giving you shops to go in, places to eat, etc. Not in India. Basically there is nothing except a small bookstore and one snack stand. So you just sit and wait.

The flight was fine, very basic, but fine. Rowan and I slept most of the way. When we got to Bangalore we had a car from the hotel waiting on us. We stayed at the Park hotel. It is pretty swank and I can say that I have never spent as much on a hotel in the US, but we felt like we deserved it!

Here is what we did at the Park Hotel: sleep on nice clean sheets with fluffy pillows, eat yummy food, get massages, watch television, etc. It was great! It was a much needed break for me and I felt much better by the end of our stay. Ready to take on India again!

Rowan loved everywhere we went. In Auroville we had a nanny named Kalima who would watch her while we did yoga. She was a village woman and did not speak very much English. She was really good with Rowan and Rowan seemed to like her. There was also a girl Rowan’s age in the same place we stayed and they played a lot. The other girl couldn’t walk, just crawl, so when they played together Rowan would crawl around with her. It was very cute.

The staff at the Park loved her and whenever we were downstairs eating or hanging out she would be off with 2 or 3 staff. They all knew her by the time we left. One of them even bought her a Barbie doll as we were leaving. Yes, it is her first Barbie doll…

Home sweet home
So now we are back home and it feels good to be back in familiar surroundings again. We are self-practicing on Wednesday and then we start back at the shala on Thursday. Overall, it has been one VERY LONG trip, but worth every minute.

BIRTHDAY COUNTDOWN REMINDER!!!!!!!

THERE ARE ONLY 23 MORE SHOPPING DAYS UNTIL TARA’S 30TH BIRTHDAY. MAKR IT ON YOUR CALENDAR �

Posted by Tara at 11:18 PM | Comments (0)