We've been back for almost a week now and... it has been hard. Whether it is the jet lag, reverse culture shock, craziness of New York, or returning to find ourselves without homes of our own, jobs, etc. that is the biggest factor in the difficulty of this transition I can't say.
Though I'm living outside the city for now, I have spent most of my days in NY at this point. Things that I expected to find comforting and familiar have been surprisingly upsetting. In India, we looked forward to finally feeling/dressing cute again, now I'm unsettled by the fabulousness of this city. For now at least, I exist in a different reality and am disconnected from what was my former life here. Plans I had no longer seem as relevant and my interests aren't aligned with the life I planned on re-entering. Running into old friends, teachers, etc. is hard.
India feels so far away now; like a distant dream. I kept thinking that with time I'd be able to process it, but now that seems silly. I'm sure we'll both keep learning from it for years. Right now lessons that I thought I had integrated are being forgotten in the context of a different (familiar) city. Especially now that there is so much to do......
One thing that has been wonderful is HSM3. This is my soundtrack these days.
I've got a lot of things I have to do
All these distractions, our future's coming soon
We're being pulled a hundred directions
But whatever happens, I know I've got you
Friday, October 31, 2008
Friday, October 17, 2008
team yogaheart
today was our last day of class at the shala. we cried cried cried and, with our alcohol tolerances as low as they are (nonexistant), after one beer tonight, we will cry, cry, and cry again.
we're going out with all our yogi buddies--the texan world traveler and his chinese-australian world traveler girlfriend, the guy from brooklyn, the girl from montreal, the irish diver, the denver yogi, the swedish dude...
today: yoga, packing, cleaning, coffee, bus tickets, trying not to nap, more coffee...
and tomorrow, to goa, to process it all on the beach for a few days before heading back to nyc.
we grew into this place, or it grew into us.
we're going out with all our yogi buddies--the texan world traveler and his chinese-australian world traveler girlfriend, the guy from brooklyn, the girl from montreal, the irish diver, the denver yogi, the swedish dude...
today: yoga, packing, cleaning, coffee, bus tickets, trying not to nap, more coffee...
and tomorrow, to goa, to process it all on the beach for a few days before heading back to nyc.
we grew into this place, or it grew into us.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
ten fun facts
1. a monkey almost came into our apartment today. we watched from the window as he ate the papaya peels in our trash. melina said, "it's eating our trash. and it has a penis." I opened the door to try to scare him away just by virtue of my tall presence, i guess, but it backfired. he just sat there and seemed to give me this look like, "oh yeah??" which then scared me. I consequently shrieked, which then scared Melina, which then scared me. we allowed him to continue to eat the papaya peels.
2. we are now gettin around on two wheels: on our "ranger-style" bicycles rented from the coconut man near the grocery store, and on the back of a 1940's royal enfield motorcycle, driven by our irish friend matthew.
3. our bodies hurt. melina has weird hamstring, knee, and other achy, knife-like-pain leg stuff going on; I have fiery hips and something nasty going on with my sacrum. i feel like a marionette with wooden joints.
4. we met a guy from williamsburg today--he's studying yoga at our shala and I believe at one point we were living within 4 blocks of each other.
5. we found a great coffee hut--smoky, dirty, loud, coffee, chai, cookies--where we are always the only women.
6. yesterday we decided to try a different cookie at the coffee hut, and it was a surprise spicy cookie. REALLY SPICY! masala cookie, i say.
7. I made up a song the other day while returning from the produce stand on my bicycle, with two limes in one pocket and two rupees change in the other, thinking: "bikes rule the world!"
if bikes ruled the world
(imagine that)
i'd ride all day long
(i love em love em bay-bey)
black street bikes with spokes
(could it be? if you could be mine, we'd both shine)
if bikes ruled the world.
8. we have a great next door neighbor, carole, who is an ex-painter/printmaker originally from san francisco. she's wildly interesting and has lived a very incredible life. she lets us come over to listen to the debates on NPR, and has saved our drying clothes from monsoon rains more than once.
9. melina made a very successful and hilarious indian joke. the other night we were helping to cook dinner at the shala. melina was grating some carrots, and the girl who is in charge of the kitchen told her to "be careful!" melina said that yeah, she'd better watch out or we would end up with a "non-veg" meal!
10. we love doing deep relaxation exercises before bed with the singaporean couple downstairs. we haven't mentioned the cockroaches, and neither have they.
2. we are now gettin around on two wheels: on our "ranger-style" bicycles rented from the coconut man near the grocery store, and on the back of a 1940's royal enfield motorcycle, driven by our irish friend matthew.
3. our bodies hurt. melina has weird hamstring, knee, and other achy, knife-like-pain leg stuff going on; I have fiery hips and something nasty going on with my sacrum. i feel like a marionette with wooden joints.
4. we met a guy from williamsburg today--he's studying yoga at our shala and I believe at one point we were living within 4 blocks of each other.
5. we found a great coffee hut--smoky, dirty, loud, coffee, chai, cookies--where we are always the only women.
6. yesterday we decided to try a different cookie at the coffee hut, and it was a surprise spicy cookie. REALLY SPICY! masala cookie, i say.
7. I made up a song the other day while returning from the produce stand on my bicycle, with two limes in one pocket and two rupees change in the other, thinking: "bikes rule the world!"
if bikes ruled the world
(imagine that)
i'd ride all day long
(i love em love em bay-bey)
black street bikes with spokes
(could it be? if you could be mine, we'd both shine)
if bikes ruled the world.
8. we have a great next door neighbor, carole, who is an ex-painter/printmaker originally from san francisco. she's wildly interesting and has lived a very incredible life. she lets us come over to listen to the debates on NPR, and has saved our drying clothes from monsoon rains more than once.
9. melina made a very successful and hilarious indian joke. the other night we were helping to cook dinner at the shala. melina was grating some carrots, and the girl who is in charge of the kitchen told her to "be careful!" melina said that yeah, she'd better watch out or we would end up with a "non-veg" meal!
10. we love doing deep relaxation exercises before bed with the singaporean couple downstairs. we haven't mentioned the cockroaches, and neither have they.
Friday, October 10, 2008
change of change of change of "plans"
surprise, friends.
disclaimer: for those of you who didn't know our plans in the first place, this is not a surprise.
we were supposed to have left mysore this morning for coorg, to go on a 4 day trek before heading to goa. but yesterday morning, in the span of about 4 minutes, we decided that we aren't done here, and that we're going to stay for another week. we feel "in the middle" of a lot of things in terms of yoga, and we're very happy to be staying. we were luckily able to keep our apartment.
today for breakfast we ate a papaya/pineapple/sapota fruit salad with wheat germ meusli.
we've also decided that every day after class we're going to climb the 1,000 steps up chamundi hill, and come back down. we may be yogis in india, but we're still overachieving new yorkers at heart.
the other day, melina ACTUALLY said, "I'm walkin' here!"
and she was, friends.
she was.
disclaimer: for those of you who didn't know our plans in the first place, this is not a surprise.
we were supposed to have left mysore this morning for coorg, to go on a 4 day trek before heading to goa. but yesterday morning, in the span of about 4 minutes, we decided that we aren't done here, and that we're going to stay for another week. we feel "in the middle" of a lot of things in terms of yoga, and we're very happy to be staying. we were luckily able to keep our apartment.
today for breakfast we ate a papaya/pineapple/sapota fruit salad with wheat germ meusli.
we've also decided that every day after class we're going to climb the 1,000 steps up chamundi hill, and come back down. we may be yogis in india, but we're still overachieving new yorkers at heart.
the other day, melina ACTUALLY said, "I'm walkin' here!"
and she was, friends.
she was.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
workin' hard in Kochi, Kerala
rowing a boat through the backwaters
Melina and I were the only ones who wanted a piece of the action
safety first! always use the utmost precaution when dealing with electrical equipment
catching our own dinner, and an extra fish for the resident pregnant cat
it's funny
Back in the states, no one can figure out Melina's name. Common interpretations/variations:
Malena
Milena
Malana
Melissa
Alana
Melita
Malika
And back in the states, my name's as common as something that is very common.
But here in India, the name Melina is understood immediately, even celebrated--we've heard there's an Indian celebrity with the same name. This means that we use her name for food orders, hotel reservations, and the semi-obligatory introductions to eager passerby.
The name Kate is feared and looked upon with vague disgust. Various interpretations/variations:
Cage
Kale
Kelly
The guy that thought my name was Cage said that he was very scared of me because he didn't want to be locked inside a cage. I then corrected him, and after that he was very excited to learn that I was "named after" the girl from Titanic, Kate Winslet.
Malena
Milena
Malana
Melissa
Alana
Melita
Malika
And back in the states, my name's as common as something that is very common.
But here in India, the name Melina is understood immediately, even celebrated--we've heard there's an Indian celebrity with the same name. This means that we use her name for food orders, hotel reservations, and the semi-obligatory introductions to eager passerby.
The name Kate is feared and looked upon with vague disgust. Various interpretations/variations:
Cage
Kale
Kelly
The guy that thought my name was Cage said that he was very scared of me because he didn't want to be locked inside a cage. I then corrected him, and after that he was very excited to learn that I was "named after" the girl from Titanic, Kate Winslet.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Backseat Bitches
It's rare that we actually have to be somewhere, anywhere, especially at a specific time. But three nights ago, this was the case. We were meeting our friend Julia at our apartment to cook dinner for her last night in Mysore. We ran to More Megastore to pick up groceries to make a vegetable curry, some rice, a salad, dessert, and cocktails (Mysore Manglers--guava juice and Hercules brand rum; more on how ridiculously sketchy and difficult it is to buy alcohol later). After spending the seemingly obligatory fifteen minutes waiting in line behind people getting their things pricechecked over and over again, using coupons, and trying to bargain down the price of biscuits, onions, whatever, we found a rickshaw that would accept what we wanted to pay ("60 rupees? No, no, we only pay 40 from here to Gokulam, and that's twice as far! No, well, ok, we'll find someone else. Oh, you'll take us now? ok!"), we figured we were home free. There's a post office on our street that serves as a solid landmark for drivers. Lakshimpuram post office, in Lakshmipuram. Can't fail, right?
As our more clever readers may have guessed, no, not right. Actually, wrong.
We drive, and drive, and drive, and as a huge park or lawn, some mass of green that stretches for what seems like 2km, passes on our left, I lean over to Melina and say, "where the f*ck are we?" (trying to cut down on my cursing, really). She thinks we're headed in the right direction, but quickly changes her tune when we begin to experience a case of "bizarro neighborhood"--we see things that we have in our neighborhood, but they are different and bizarro. Nilgiri's, our local supermarket--but no, this is not our Nilgiri's. I lean over to the driver and attempt to confirm, "Lakshimpuram post office?" He nods and repeats what I've said.
But no, dude, we are NOT headed to Lakshmipuram. After a bit more driving, I then say, "Near Big Bazaar?" He repeats, "Big Bazaar," and drives a bit longer. During this time I am repeating the name of our neighborhood, and he seems to be repeating it back. He then attempts to drop us off somewhere completely random, a bus station on the corner, or something. I see a restaurant that yogi friends have talked about--Green Leaf. It dawns on me: we are in JAIlakshmipuram, a faraway neighborhood. not Lakshipuram.
This begins a fight. The only one we've had with a driver, and boy, were we pissed. For ONCE, we were ACTUALLY late to something. We pictured Julia sitting on our dark stoop with all her luggage, thinking we stood her up.
driver: "Jailakshipuram, Jailakshipuram!" (intonation says: "you said Jailakshipuram!"
us: "No, not JAIlakshipuram. LAKSHMIpuram!"
repeat this about 5 times.
driver (sighing, exasperated): "Madam, madam! 4 kilometers!" (intonation says: "What the hell, madam! You made me drive 4 kilometers out of my way!"
us: "yeah, 4 kilometers in the wrong direction! We told you lakshmipuram, and now we're late!"
we start yelling at him in english we know he doesn't understand, and I think at one point I even resort to the "talking loud as if someone that doesn't understand english will understand it better if you say it real loud" : "it's a NEIGHBORHOOD!"
we decide that we'll be much better off just getting another driver, as this one is pissed and we're pissed at him. I give him 20 rupees (we agreed on 30, but he took us waaaaaaay the fuck out of the way, though he did use some gas), and we kind of promptly catch another rickshaw going our way.
On the ride back to our hood, I turn to Melina and say, "Everyone always comes back from India so open-hearted and full of love, but we're just going to come back as huge bitches."
Melina says, "Yeah...but I think when we get back I'll have a bigger heart, for like, people. Maybe."
As our more clever readers may have guessed, no, not right. Actually, wrong.
We drive, and drive, and drive, and as a huge park or lawn, some mass of green that stretches for what seems like 2km, passes on our left, I lean over to Melina and say, "where the f*ck are we?" (trying to cut down on my cursing, really). She thinks we're headed in the right direction, but quickly changes her tune when we begin to experience a case of "bizarro neighborhood"--we see things that we have in our neighborhood, but they are different and bizarro. Nilgiri's, our local supermarket--but no, this is not our Nilgiri's. I lean over to the driver and attempt to confirm, "Lakshimpuram post office?" He nods and repeats what I've said.
But no, dude, we are NOT headed to Lakshmipuram. After a bit more driving, I then say, "Near Big Bazaar?" He repeats, "Big Bazaar," and drives a bit longer. During this time I am repeating the name of our neighborhood, and he seems to be repeating it back. He then attempts to drop us off somewhere completely random, a bus station on the corner, or something. I see a restaurant that yogi friends have talked about--Green Leaf. It dawns on me: we are in JAIlakshmipuram, a faraway neighborhood. not Lakshipuram.
This begins a fight. The only one we've had with a driver, and boy, were we pissed. For ONCE, we were ACTUALLY late to something. We pictured Julia sitting on our dark stoop with all her luggage, thinking we stood her up.
driver: "Jailakshipuram, Jailakshipuram!" (intonation says: "you said Jailakshipuram!"
us: "No, not JAIlakshipuram. LAKSHMIpuram!"
repeat this about 5 times.
driver (sighing, exasperated): "Madam, madam! 4 kilometers!" (intonation says: "What the hell, madam! You made me drive 4 kilometers out of my way!"
us: "yeah, 4 kilometers in the wrong direction! We told you lakshmipuram, and now we're late!"
we start yelling at him in english we know he doesn't understand, and I think at one point I even resort to the "talking loud as if someone that doesn't understand english will understand it better if you say it real loud" : "it's a NEIGHBORHOOD!"
we decide that we'll be much better off just getting another driver, as this one is pissed and we're pissed at him. I give him 20 rupees (we agreed on 30, but he took us waaaaaaay the fuck out of the way, though he did use some gas), and we kind of promptly catch another rickshaw going our way.
On the ride back to our hood, I turn to Melina and say, "Everyone always comes back from India so open-hearted and full of love, but we're just going to come back as huge bitches."
Melina says, "Yeah...but I think when we get back I'll have a bigger heart, for like, people. Maybe."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)