My Life is Too Exciting to Blog

So I know you all have been daily checking for more updates from me but my life has just been too exciting to take the time to sit in an internet cafe. I left Rishikesh yesterday and am now in Goa! Over my three weeks in Goa I went to yoga every single day, often twice a day which is pretty much more yoga or physical activity than I have done in well over a year. Needless to say I started pretty out of shape but I was able to make quite a lot of improvements due in no small part to having a brilliant teacher. I really lucked out in finding his class. In the morning I would take Ashtanga Vinyassa which would be about 2-2.5 hours and was quite a workout. It is pretty much the same moves that I was used to doing in yoga but done in a specific order and with great focus on the breath and dristi (where you look for each pose). Our teacher was super traditional so I felt like I really got to learn about Indian yoga as apposed to the western yoga that I was familiar with. The evening yoga was Hatha which would be another two hours but was much more relaxed and slow. We would pretty much just work on a couple of poses and make sure that we were doing them exactly correctly. One of my favorite things that we did a couple of times was doing a sun salutation where we would chant a different name for the sun with each posture, very traditional apparently. Our teacher really emphasized the important of the whole philosophy of yoga and how it is really meant to be a way of living you life with one pointed-ness rather than the western emphasis on the physical aspect of it. It was really interesting to listen to him when he would get going on yoga as a whole. Even though he was only 24 I feel like I learned so much from him. The classes were generally pretty small, there was one woman who was doing the teacher training when I was there so she would be at every class but other than her there usually wouldn't be more than 6 of us. With such small classes, we were able to get really helpful corrections and assistance in each class.
Other than yoga Rishikesh was a pretty quiet city/town, especially since it was low season. There were lots of nice cafes along the Ganges where it was great to sit and hang out for the afternoon. I finally made it to the Beatles ashram last week and the highlight there was that completely randomly I walked into a room to find a whole wall covered by the amazing artwork of Eva Donnelly who had been there over a year ago! The ashram was pretty cool, very overgrown since it has been closed for a while but with tons of beautiful little meditation huts made of stone that various travelers have painted inside with references to the Beatles. One huge hall had been completely covered with portraits of the Beatles as well as other leading spiritual people in India like the Dalai Lama, Amma, Sivanada and Yogananda.
It was great to spend so long in Rishikesh and I was able to meet some really interesting and fun people but I was ready to move on and see a little of the South before I go home. I can't believe I only have one more month here, its going to go by so quickly!

Rishikesh

I am now in Rishikesh where people come for three reasons: because it is one of the Hindu holy cities (so thats the main motivation for Indians), because the Beatles wrote the White Album here (thats for all the white kids) and because it is the "yoga capital of the world" (again all the white kids). So far all that I have done here is yoga though before I leave apparently it is very important to swim in the Ganges which makes me a little nervous because the monsoon has turned it into a really high and really terrifying river and also to visit the Maharishi Ashram where the Beatles staid. I am planning on being here for a while though so I have time to check off all those boxes. For now the focus is yoga and getting myself back in shape after a year of eating fried chicken and beer in Korea. After trying out a few classes I was recommended to this one instructor who is great and since it is low season its just me and one other girl in the classes. Now my darling mother immediately worried that the instructor would try and put the moves on me in the studio but unlike the majority of young Indian men it seems that those that practice yoga are extremely spiritual and not at all creepy. Anyway, the yoga is very traditional and therefore very different from what I was used to in the US. For proper practitioners the physical aspect of yoga is only a minor step on the way to meditation and full self-realization and its just us westerners who stay on that first step. The classes have been great as he is really specific about each pose and getting us to perform them just right. With only two of us we get lots of help and corrections and also don't get to slack off in the back of the class the way I usually do. I am have been going everyday for almost a week and even though I am super out of shape I can tell that I am getting a bit stronger and have better endurance.
Besides yoga and all the other new age crap that hippies bring with them wherever they go there isn't much to do here besides hang out in cafes and read. I have been meeting some interesting people though so I am not going crazy being alone. One of the benefits of being in a super new agey hippy area is that there is awesome food that is also super healthy so its been over a month since I have eaten meat or drunk any alcohol. Don't be too worried that I am going to come home a changed person I plan on order a rare steak and a dirty martini the first chance I get when I come home...which by the way is September 27th so get ready!