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!