Monkey see, monkey do.

Wow. Hi. I can't believe how fast time has been passing by.  The first two weeks of being sick and miserable and lying around for 23 hours of the day really went slow; it's amazing what you can accomplish when you feel better.  And have a scooter:)

In the past two weeks, I've been introduced into an entirely new form of a social life: having the scooter.  I love it.  I was finally taken to the secret chai shop that all the "cool kids" kept leaving like four times a day to visit.  And now? I end up going at least once a day, no joke.  The best chai latte you'll ever drink and it costs all of 5 rupees.  CHEEEEAAAAP. For realsies.  It's so easy to sit and drink two, no problem.

Today, it was a bit of a sad day at the chai shop because three of my favorite peeps were leaving to continue their travels in India, and it was our last visit together.  Officially, out of the 70 people that were here when I arrived, there are only about 30, and I am the last one (besides other long-term volunteers) left of that original group. 

Whoa. So yeah, the expression goes "tears dry fast at Sadhana" because there are always new people coming, old people are always going, etc.  I seem to attract change in organizations: I show up, everyone that's been there leaves, and I get to continue on in a constant state of flux.  I guess it's pretty cool?  It's all I know, I must be the catalyst for chaos:)

Back to the chai shop today, it was pretty hilarious, actually.  There are all these little snacks available to eat, like processed, packaged cookies like Bourbon, Hide & Seek (fav!) or Milk Bidi's, along with homemade goods.  I haven't really tried the homemade goods, aside from the peanut brittle, which used to be my favorite until I feel like I cracked a tooth over the weekend, this ol' bird can't afford to visit a dentist in India.  Today we were there with a few peeps I hadn't visited with before and this one young German guy, Tobias, TORE UP the homemade cookies.   I would never have tried them if it weren't for him, lol.  They were alright, but this guy was eating them faster than the cookie monster.  Out of the 6  containers of different cookies, I think between the 7 of us (mostly him) we cleared 50 cookies.  He spent 30 rupees alone on cookies. 

I was laughing about it all day and calling him all sorts of names like snack-a-licious and the German cookie eating machine.  Whew.  (As we speak I'm sitting up in an office and I can hear him below, talking to someone else about the chai shop, lol). It's really an obsession, once you get initiated, you can't get enough of the sweet stuff.  It's also a place to go to smoke cigarettes since doing so anywhere near Sadhana would likely burn this mother down considering all of our huts are made of dried up wood, leaves and rope and it's the dry season.  It hasn't rained the entire time I've been here, holy hell.

It's heating up.  Each day that goes by, I hope that it's going to rain, but in all honesty, it probably won't rain until mid-July.  It's only going to get hotter and drier each day. Meow.  What was I thinking, haha.

Aside from constant chai runs, the past few weeks have been a blur of eating egg-and-cheese in as many forms as I can find it (it's almost a sick obsession, I've had the combination on a sandwich or a pizza or a galette at least 5 times in the past 9 days, this is what vegan boot camp does to a foodie), meeting new people and spending quality time with the oldies, doing so much office work I don't even check my personal email everyday (or blog, sadly) and being really present minded.

I meditated the other day for the first time since I've been here. Whoa.  Most people do it like 30 times a day here and do yoga and all this other stuff to be "present" and "spiritual" but I just hadn't been feeling it or have been surrounded by people so much that it's really hard to make space in your day for it.  Usually if I ever try to meditate it ends up being like 3 deep breaths before I fall asleep, the end.

This meditation came about because I visited the Matri Mandir, which is the heart of Auroville and The Spot to get your meditation on. It's kind of a big deal.  You have to set up an appointment and watch a video and go on a tour and ride a little rickety bus just to get there.  Once you arrive, it's like you've pulled up to a golden EPCOT center (even though I have never been to DisneyWorld, I am familiar with this structure, you might be too). It's like a GIANT golden golfball.  And you're not allowed to take pictures, soI just "borrowed" this little gem from another website, oops. Don't rat me out...

THEN you go inside and it's like boarding a zen-ed out space ship.  No joke.  Every interior structural surface is made of white marble - the hand-rails, the stairs, the center of the staircase - while the external-interior structure (i.e. walls) are made of gold, with a fountain running down each side.  The only sound is
that of running water as you climb this spiral walkway (not even stairs anymore) around and up the inside of this trippy zen spaceship.  They even make you put on special socks! Once you finally finish this steep climb to the top, you enter the meditation room.

This is when you start to believe you are ACTUALLY on a SPACESHIP.  The room is fairly dark, with really high ceilings and 12 large, white marble pillars encircling the center of the room, with a golden orb on a pedestal in the center.  It's a very cool room, probably air-conditioned to the perfect temperature, and there is plush white carpet.  Perfectly laid upon the white carpet are perfectly square pillows to rest your butt on, so you walk in, choose an area, sit down, and get ready to get your meditate on.

It's definitely one of the wildest, but most calming experiences of my entire life.  This place had an calmness about it that wasn't even eerie; it was like ultimate soothing energy, you couldn't help but meditate there.  I didn't want to laugh or be goofy; I wanted to close my eyes and get internal. I know this sounds totally bizarre and kind of cheesy, but that's only because it TOTALLY was.  Matri Mandir story: done.

Another exciting thing that happened last week was mistaking a moped for a dirt bike.  By this I mean dirt bikes are designed with a suspension that support revving the engine when you approach a steep bit of dirt or land, sailing smoothly over the ensuing valley, and landing safely on the other side.  Mopeds are not designed with this type of suspension.  I can attest to that now.

I was taught a new "short-cut" for getting to the chai shop by a man named Dave from the Cave, who is kind of a wild man.  I nailed this shortcut several times with Ida as my passenger (as she weighs like 4 ounces) and decided to give it a go with a new passenger, someone much taller and heavier than sweet little Ida.  Also, I had the directions of when to rev the engine backwards: you're supposed to go slowly over the steep bump, and rev the engine when you hit the deep sand (a huge obstacle that can cause one to slow down or even have to put their feet down).  I was thinking "Eff it, let's rev the engine so we fly over the sand, screw getting stuck in it!"  So I did. 

We cleared the deep sand, for sure.  Yet, as soon as we re-entered the atmosphere after a brief brush with the sky, we crash landed in the dirt.  I immediately stood up and was like "Ahh, are you okay?" To my passenger, and convinced myself that we were fine.  Except for the piece of my scooter that was lying in the dirt.  We had to pick that up and bring it along with us.  (I'm literally LOL'ing so bad right now that I think the people downstairs are convinced I'm crazy: I cannot tell this story without getting into hysterics! My new nickname for myself is "Born to be Mild."

Everything is fine, we are fine, my passenger got a small scratch on the ankle, just a little blood. I got a little sandy road-rash on my elbow and knee, a ripped-up, bloody pair of leggings and a sprinkling of small bruises on my left side: NBD (no big deal).  The biggest injury? A bruised ego.  I've officially cut myself off from using the shortcut in any way, shape or form.  For now.  I'm still riding the shit out of that scooter, obviously.  The guy I'm renting it from even came the next day and fixed Harvey Dangerfield, without asking questions, though my guilty conscience offered a BS story about the little piece just falling off while I was going over a speed bump (which are everywhere around here).  Sucker. Jk.

I understand this is a pretty enormous post, sans pictures.  I actually took a bunch this week specifically for the purposes of the blog, a little walking tour of Sadhana so you all could see what I see on a daily basis.  It's getting pretty late, but I PROMISE to post them in a few days with some funny little comments.

One last thing: I really did see two monkeys today, in person, not at the zoo.  They were just hopping along on some dirty ol' buildings (ODB!) on Koot Road (the closest place to ride to on a moped, about 2 miles away), I could barely believe it.  I thought they existed only in the wild, but apparently India's small villages are wild enough for monkeys to roam.

In case you were wondering what the infamous Harvey Dangerfield looks like, this is his sexy self. Meow. (Dad, it's made by TVS Motors, India's 3rd largest two-wheeler manufacturer).