Queen of the space cadets.

So, there's this problem I've struggled with for most of my life; maybe it's because I'm indecisive, maybe it's because I'm an only child.  I don't know, but the issue is: being really excited about something for a period of time, and then getting bored and dropping it.  Or doing it less frequently.  Since I was 4 years old, I've been involved in each of the following for about a year or less: figure skating (both ice and on roller skates), ballet, tap-dancing, basketball, cheer leading, track and gymnastics.  Rollerblading, swimming and instrument playing have managed to be the only things I continued to do after a period of lesson-taking.  Oh, and writing, but even that comes and goes.  That being said, I feel this blog has fallen into the former category. 

I really like writing about what I'm doing here, but at the same time, my social life is soaring.  Surprised? Ha, probably not.  Part of moving to a new place is making new friends and striving to form new bonds.  To do so requires a great deal of present-mindedness.  I'm currently struggling with finding some sort of balance between making time for myself to be blogging, journaling and keeping up with emails while at the same time be present in my time here in India and hang out with people and learn about their lives and try and experience new things.  Ahh.  Living in community is awesome, but finding time to be alone is pretty hard. 

Even when you go to the bathroom, there is likely someone in the next stall doing the same thing.  Booyah.  As of late I haven't actually even been sleeping in my own hut.  The ants have officially driven me crazy!  There's this woman here who returned to be a long-termer after a brief hiatus named Jaspreet who is totally amazing; she's my brown other half!  Last week I was telling her about how stressed I was about the ants in my clothes and the ants on my bed and she's just like "Why don't you move?" Her place seemed so cozy and lovely in regards to the stress that I felt when I went to my own hut.  So I stayed in the extra bed in her hut for a  night. Which turned into many nights, until...

Jamey, the guy who used to run the show here at SF, left yesterday to take a vacation, then head to help with the SF Haiti project for a year.  I jumped right on the opportunity to have an ant-free hut and I moved into his old hut this morning.  It's really nice and has an outdoor shower downstairs, along with a double-wide hammock and hammock chair: amazing!  I love it!  It already feels more home-like than my last hut and I haven't seen a single red/black ant yet.  Though I did see a black ant (they're harmless) carrying a red/black ant, hopefully off to eat him and show him who's boss.  I think the black ants are on my side at my new pad.

Aside from that, things have pretty laid back: I haven’t worn a bra in days.  Maybe even weeks.  I don't know how I'm ever going to get another job. I can roll in early in the morning with nappy hair, pajama shorts and a tank top, sans bra, and nobody even flinches. Even bathing is optional. I washed my hair for the first time in 3 weeks. Eww. I was even starting to get grossed out about that one.  I would get it wet by swimming or going to the mud pool, even showering.  Washing my body isn't a problem, but there are no eco-friendly, biodegradable conditioners available around these parts, so I shouldn't even bother washing it or it'll be like Don King hair.  Seriously.  It is now. LOL.

At the end of last week I was really feeling like I needed some sort of change in my life here. I think washing my hair was a good change to help me feel like less of a scrub. But it was hardly what I really needed.  I've been struggling with boredom of the same old thing, already.  I miss all the action of Chicago.  As nice as Auroville is, it's pretty small.  

I'm even getting quite bored with the food.  Despite being a travel blog, the only traveling I'm actually doing these days is in pursuit of  food.  Typical.  I’m trying to only eat one meal away from SF per day.  I get free food here, there shouldn’t be any reason to leave, right? 

Wrong.  Some days the kitchen is on it and some days the kitchen is flipped over on the side of the road, smoking.  Since the shifts change each week for sous chef (the meal planner/organizer/preparer), so does the food and how well it’s put together.  Right now, we have a former vegan raw-food chef staying here, so each meal she’s in charge of is ON.  I always look forward to seeing her smiling face in the kitchen because we’re guaranteed something pretty tasty.  Like beet salad with peanuts, or rice with vanilla and cinnamon, or pumpkin soup with cumin and other tasty spices.  That was last night. Meow.

Also, I've eaten like, too much ice cream and pizza.  I'm over Western food.  This week I made it a priority to eat just Indian food.  It's working pretty well, and it's so much cheaper!  Even cheaper, rather.

Some other priorities this week: starting to more consistently do my yoga self-practice, challenging myself to be in the company of women more often and trying to spend more time with people that are challenging to interact with.  Making these things priorities has really helped me to feel less bored this week. Oh, and I checked the local Auroville newsletter that goes out once a week to see what things are going on in town this weekend.  E.T. is playing tomorrow at 2pm: we're totally going! 

Jaspreet and I are super stoked!  She's also been feeling the bored blues.  Not bored with each other, just Sadhana and Auroville.  The two of us are actually super lucky to have found each other here.  We get along like a house on fire.  I think we burned it down, lol. She's from Texas, yeehaw!  We already finish each other's sentences... And we work in the office together.  It's to the point where we are called "Danpreet." Emails for us aer labeled this way, Aviram addresses things for us to work on this way, people walking past our huts at night holler for us this way; it's rather comical.  Or if we're with Diva: Danpreeva.  It's good to have friends:)

Don't worry friends back home, I miss you plenty.  Each day I set aside time to think about home and what foods I plan to eat and what I'm excited to do with whom when I return.  Anyone want to take a road-trip across the country for a few weeks?  I've actually never gone west in a car further than Chicago, so I think it might be something a few of you should think about.  Get back to me on that.

For further excitement here this week, we had some gnarly thunderstorms last weekend and we spent half the week without power because lightning struck our power inverter.  They were literally some of the scariest of my life, but that might solely be because they were at night (3 nights in a row) and I live in an extremely flammable structure without a real roof.  I actually convinced myself that it might blow over with us in it.  Thunder is much louder and lightning seems more powerful when you're outside with it; I could feel the lightning, the storms seemed so close, and moved so slowly!  Each storm lasted like 10 hours, it was so wild!  It normally is dry here from January through July, thus these were unanticipated, severe storms.  There was probably a tornado watch.  Speaking of tornadoes, I heard there were some pretty deadly ones that moved across the southeast this week: scary and devastating :( 

For happier news, we had a dance party in honor of Jamey's leaving and afterwards we walked through the forest to the mudpool, in the mud, for some moonlight swimming to cool down and rinse off all the sweat. The mudpool has been shrinking away for the past few months, but now it's back to being really deep, you can actually swim in it, not just lay around in the mud with a little water covering you.  It was pretty magical.  Except I blew out my flip-flop.  Yeah, bummer!  I only have one pair, so I have been wearing my sneakers every day since. Eh. Or finding some around the main hut and wearing them to the bathroom, hehe, shhhh.

I want to say so much, but I feel like "blogging" tends to have a shorter length attached with it.  What I want to do now is more related to "noveling" haha.  Once I start, I get into it and don't want to stop.  Alas, "I have promises to keep..." In the meantime, enjoy some photos of Sadhana that I've been meaning to post for some time, think of it as a walking tour of some of the highlights here on the compound:

 This is the area where all the long-timer huts are, fondly referred to as "The Ewok Village."

 This is Paramol, our nighttime security guard.  We are buds.  He always tries to get into pictures with me.

 This is the main hut.  We spend lots of time here.  See that top area?  That's where the office is...

 This is a sign for the toilet, the other kind of office.

 This is the toilet: the long skinny part is where you pee, the big round part is where you poo.

 "Poo here." Self-explanatory.

 A nice, green walkway.  There are hundreds of these here at Sadhana.

 The Healing Hut, a place I grew very fond of in my first days at SF.

 Here's a bed in the Healing Hut, complete with a bed-side sick bin. Definitely used that when I was there.

 

 A simple hand-washing station.  We have no running water so this is cheap technology to use less water: yayy!

 The solar garden.

My new favorite fruit: the jack-fruit.  These things are bigger than basketballs and aren't even ripe yet.  I love them!

 I had no idea this is how pineapples grow.  Each plant only produces one fruit.  We are growing many here.

 Our super-snazzy above ground swimming pool.  It's about 3 feet deep. Fun fun fun.

Diva and I on a tour-bus to the MatriMandir.  We are happy:)

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).

Joyrides and riptides

Ok. I'm back in action!!!

I've had a chance (forcibly, but still) to charge the ol' batteries and realize my limits in regards to the heat.  These limits are much closer than I once had originally thought: India is not Florida, and who am I kidding? When I lived in Florida I had constant access to air conditioning, Walgreens and a pool or the ocean.

Here?  Well, we get a breeze from time to time, but there is nowhere to hide from the heat, ahh!! It's driving me nuts.  Just thinking out being outside gives me a headache, lol. I always hope that I don't have to walk back to my hut from the main hut after 10 a.m because of the heat. It's sunny everyday and it never rains.  Portland sounds like a good move right about now.

To stay cool I've decided I need a moped.  Yes, that's right, I'm the proud renter of a moped for the next few weeks.  I went from never having driven one on Sunday, to riding all over town with not only one, but at one point TWO people on the back (though one was a pocket-friend and only counts as half a person, lol).  Yeah, I guess I'm a bad-ass.

There's even a few people here that have taken to nicknaming me "Rock 'n Roll." Ha, I swear it's true, and no, I didn't ask them to call me that, it occurred naturally.  Oh, and I decided to name my moped Harvey Dangerfield (get it? like Harley Davidson, haaaahahhahaha). 

The Internet has been out here for like 4 days, and it has been kind of boring.  I do love the Internet, especially when it's my one joy, the happy little center of my middle-of-nowhere life that helps me to stay connected to my peeps.  And I'm not going to lie, I've been dying to update my blog, ha, I know: dorky!

While I've been out joyriding around the past few days, I've done the following activities:

• Eaten pizza (which was pretty good! The place, Tata, is owned by an Italian, it's totally reputable).
• Been to the beach (but haven't actually swam in it).
• Eaten vegan and non-vegan ice cream (I'm still warming up to the food at SF, eek). 
• Almost driven off the road while thinking about pizza (no joke, I've been DREAMING of pizza); have no fear, there were no casualties or injuries, just a bruised ego.

It seemed like more in my mind.  Today I'll venture out to the city center to meet a friend for tea.  Everyday people with mopeds leave at least once a day in search of CHAI!!! It's a huge deal.  I still haven't found my chai "place" yet.  I have a samosa "place" now, which is pretty darn tasty, they have this sauce for the samosas with cilantro, lime and chili pepper; it's like an Indian/Mexican mixture. And they serve 200ml glass bottle pop for about 12 rupees each.  I LOVE how cheap India is.

I ate a whole pizza and drank a whole pop for 125 rupees (less than $3).  And that's expensive.  If you get Indian food from the local places, it's usually wayyy cheaper than the American fare or "vegan" fare. 

Before I came here I was like "OOh, I'm going to be vegan, and I'm never going to leave Sadhana and I'll ride my bike everywhere." Ha, fat chance.  I'm riding all over the place on a gas-guzzling moped eating ice cream and pizza every chance that I get.  And I still haven't ridden an actual bicycle since I've been here: FAIL!

Oh well, our plans don't always work out the way we anticipate.  I'm just going with the flow.  Though I would sell a left arm (not mine, necessarily) for some Mexican food (Chipotle, even, who cares) and some Sour Patch Kids.  Six months is starting to sound like a really, really, really long time.  Really.

I'd ask for someone to send one, but shoot, burritos don't really keep in the mail, and sugar is definitely contraband.  I don't know what I was thinking, lol...

I don't have many words left, I've been talking a lot the past few days, but I do have tons of pictures; enjoy!

 This is Ida and Swati.  I told them to look cool.  They are succeeding.

 This is a Banyon tree in the courtyard at the pizza place.  They grow many trunks.

 This is an empty Coke bottle.  You've probably seen one of these before.

 This is a pizza menu.  You've probably seen one of these as well.

 This was a slice of the Mediterranean pizza that made me feel less homesick. YUM!

This is Kali.  She is the Hindi goddess of time and transformation.  She frightens me.

 
 Those would be intestines.

 This sharp lady was hanging out near Kali.  I don't know her name, but she seemed a bit friendlier.

 This was a giant tomb that was also at Kali's shrine, but it didn't look like Kali.  It's very large.

 Enjoy some palm trees.

 This was a pond at this sanctuary at the beach.  It's called "Quiet Beach." Don't worry, I didn't get kicked out.

 Ida on the path to enlightenment. Hehe.

 The ocean!!!

 These are huge lumps of fishermen ropes.  There are piles of them all over the beach (see: below).

Red and black ants and face plants...

Ugh. 

Around here, the Sadhana compound that is, there's this term that I've been hearing, constantly, since hour 1: full power.  It's like the "kaizen" of Sadhana.  It means feeling awesome and being all that you can be, yada yada yada.  People say it all.the.time.

Worse yet, I've even found myself saying it.  Not recently, but my first few days I'm all like "Yeah, garden watering, full power, booyah!" As a consequence of rockin' out a little bit too much full power, I feel like poopoo kaka.  Though I have moved from the healing hut back to my own hut, each day is a roller coaster ride of energy.  It's kind of hard to have energy when you don't eat, I guess.

Yeah, so I'm struggling with a fear of having the D word, which translates me to being afraid to eat anything that is prepared here.  It's kind of weird that I, Danielle Harkins, food lover extroardinaire, is willing to not eat because she doesn't want to get sick.

I don't really have much of an appetite either; the mere thought of any of the food from Sadhana makes me sick to my stomach.  I haven't eaten any of it since Sunday morning.  I know, crazy.  They say fasting is good to defeat sickness, but shit, I'm tired.  Kind of makes me miss the teege.  I'm craving some gnocchi sorrentala (sp?) from the frozen section right about now...

Sorry to sound a little like Debbie Downer, this is the part of the blog where I get real with the folks back home.  Don't worry, though, just becaue I haven't eaten anything from here doesn't mean I haven't eaten anything at all!  Some nice people have been kind enough to sneak in contraband (read: processed food, still vegan) that tastes good.  A few days ago, someone brought back some rolls, so that was my meal on that day.  The next day, someone brought back some little crackers, potato chips, and even some Kombucha (which is crazy cheap here, like 35 rupees=less than a dollar, screw Whole Foods).

Last night, someone even brought back some paratha from a local Indian restaurant.  I feel like I'm eating like a picky 2 year old, haha.

And I haven't been alone.  It just so happens that my closest Sadhana friend thus far, Ida from Sweden,  has been just as sick as I have and we've been able to spend time loads of sick time together, eating contraband snacks, hehe.

I'm not gonna lie, it still sucks.  Now that I'm back in my own hut, I have to resume a war with these red and black ants that sneak up and crawl over everything.  And they bite. 

One of my first afternoons here I took a shower (read: filling up a bucket and dumping water over yourself with a cup, in privacy, no less!) then returned to my hut for a nice little nap.  When I woke up, I had these stupid ants crawling all over me.  You can't feel their bites, you just see them later.  So I've been walking around the past week with about 70 bites all over my legs and arms.  Awesome.

And apparently, I haven't quite figured how to get rid of them, because they keep showing up.  Never at night, thank God, so I can sleep then.  It's just in the afternoon, when I want to take a little siesta, they pop up everywhere.  And it's never when my eyes are open, I never see them, it's as soon as I start dozing off, I can feel one or two crawling on my leg, maybe my arm.  I swear they're little demon ants.

I even have lots of bug bites on my face, though I think they're from mosquitoes.  That's why I'm not posting or taking any photos this week.  There's got to be at least 30 on my face, I look like I have acne; people keep asking like "Dude, what happened to your face?" It's awesome.  One guy thought I had chicken pox.  I was like "Hey guy, wrong number, I've already had them, I'm actually a leper."

Eh.  So that's what's going on.  If it's what you're into, I could use some prayer this week, to bring me back to full power, and to bring my heart back to why I'm here because I'm almost ready to call the whole thing off.  The past 5 or 6 days have been baddd.

Kisses!

The "D" word

So, when I first got here, I thought it was rather curious that within the first conversation that you have with somebody, that diarrhea is likely to come up.  I was like "hmmm, in the states, it's a little peculiar to have poo talk with someone until you're close friends, and even then sometimes you don't go there."

Anyway, I realized why it comes up so much: because it happens to everyone! Ewww.  The past 48 hours have been some of the sickest of my entire life.  I have been lying on my almost death bed in the "Healing Hut" (infirmary), hoping to feel better.  Luckily, I haven't had an appetite for several days, so eating food isn't an option for me.  Although, white pasta with olive oil, salt and pepper sounds amazing. Ahh, the things that I took for granted in my past life.  Six months is sounding a bit longer now that I've had my first life-or-death sick experience.

I was literally walking around like "I want my Mom, I want my Dad" being a big, whiny, sick baby, with a fever, a headache, bug bites all over me, throwing up, and ailing from the big D.  I'm telling you, it was rough.  I looked like some crazy leper.  Not to mention my hair is wilder than ever here.  The shampoo is a little too natural and makes my hair look oily, so I've given it up and have been washing my hair with mud from the (clay) mud pit.  It's where we all go to swim and cool down.

I had gone for a fresh swim and wash on the day I came down with the plague, and something in the clay makes my hair huge, I'm talking carrot top huge, so yeah, long story short, I've been lying around looking pretty scary with some sort of weird messed-up afro for several days.

Luckily, everyone here is really nice and really cool, so all day yesterday people were stopping in to say hi and to keep me company for a while.  They're all like "Oh, we've been there, what a drag, it's just what happens when you come to India, especially Sadhana Forest" and so forth.  And of course everyone wants to discuss the big D, like what color is it, how frequent is it happening, yada yada.  I'll spare you the details (and photos), as it's likely I haven't quite broached the taboo poo subject with all of you yet at this point in our relationships.

Nonetheless, I'm feeling better now.  I'm still going to have to spend a few days lying around and healing, but at least I don't feel like I'm dying.  Whew. I'm worn out, and it's only been a week: 25 weeks to go!

Camp Al-Gon-Quain: The Later Years

So, to recap:

The second flight was easy-peasy: 3.5 hours, no big deal.  The 2 hour car ride from the airport in Chennai to Auroville, where Sadhana Forest is located, was something else.  The driving was so wild!  It's kind of my dream: you can drive all over the road, pass on all sides, and no cops will pull you over! And, the best part, you get to honk the horn and flash your brights all the time; it's expected, especially if you're passing another vehicle. 

As I normally do not like to ride in vehicles with other drivers, I was rather impressed with my ability to keep my cool; I actually had full faith in my taxi driver to get me to my destination both quickly and safely. It almost felt like a controlled environment, like Mr. Toads Wild Ride, on amphetamines.

When we were almost to Sadhana, the driver pulled over and asked if I wanted some coconut.  I was thinking to myself 'hmm, everyone says not to eat fresh food or eat street food', so.... of course I partook, lol. 

So this guy on the side of the road hacks open a coconut, grabs a straw, and I drink.  It was utterly delightful, much better than the coconut water that you buy in the tetra pack (sorry, Zico).

Upon arrival to Sadhana, I was feeling energized and exhausted simultaneously. It was only 7am and I had a whole day to go.  After some asking around, I found Jamey, the guy I was here to "report" to, or the only person I had been in contact with.  Then I just hung out, ate some food, met some people (there were so many, lik 70 the day I got here, and already 20 have left in anticipation for the hot season), and volunteered to work in the kitchen.  By the time lunch rolled around, I was delirious!

Thus, some nice folks that live here showed me to my new home/hut, where I proceeded to cry a little bit, make my bed, get things tidy enough, and fell asleep. For hourrrrs.....but I still managed to wake up in time for dinner, duh!  It's that Harkins stomach, it knows when feeding time is, lol.

The past few days have been a blur of working, making friends and getting to know sadhana.  On Thursday night "Night Out" is imposed, where you have to fend for yourself for a meal.  Many people who are staying here long term have motor-bikes or mopeds, yet I haven't even checked out a bicycle yet.  The roads are so crazy I don't want to be on them at all!

However, I found myself hurtling down dirt roads and past cows on the side of the road on the back of a moped with a new friend, in pursuit of an ATM and some authentic Indian food for dinner.  If I thought the taxi ride was wild, this moped ride was horrifying!!!  I was like "Slow down, I'm an only child!" which of course elicited much laughter from my co-rider.  Geez Louise.  But once again,
I'm obviously safe and sound:)

For the work life, I've been volunteering to water the garden the past 5 days, which is really nice, but is also a job that requires work on the weekends.  Early.  Each day, I work outside with a hose and water cans from 6:30a-12:00p (with a break in between for breakfast).  Whew.  I'm looking forward to some new 1st and 2nd work (that's the insider terms for the work we do before breakfast and after) next week. For sure.

I'm not trying to knock it; I've learned so much about plants in a small amount of time, which is awesome, it's just sooooo hot.  The high here is in the mid-high 80s everyday, and it doesn't rain until monsoon season, which means it's super sunny, all day everyday.  Meow!  Luckily, I've been rockin' the SPF 100 to protect the tattoos and the skin, lol. Everyone here is tan besides me, especially my legs, eeew.

All in all, I'm loving it here.  I wake up everyday and can't believe I'm actually here while at the same time I feel like I've been here forever.  Also, each day when we wake, it's to several people walking around with an acoustic guitar, singing lovely songs.  It totally beats an alarm clock!  I had a dream about John Lennon the first night I was here and woke up to realize that the people walking around were singing "Here Comes The Sun."  It was soo awesome!!!

Here's a visual recap of the living situation: (and I get a personal hut because I'm "long-term" meaning I don't have to sleep in the dormitories: Yeah, privacy!)

This is what they look like from the outside, there's like 30 of them, they look like scary birds.

This is the view of some of the tapestries that act as a door and curtain.

This is my bed on the floor.  The mosquito net I have doesn't fit, so I sleep with the bugs :)

This is bed #2, in case I have any visitors/sleepover buddies. Or it's an alternative spot to nap.

Uh, this would be me, in my hut, decked out for watering the garden (sans sunglasses, duh).

So that's India, in a nutshell.  Stay tuned for more grown-up summer camp tales from yours truly:) 

Thirteen hours on the run, and I'm not even hungry.

My first adventure as a traveler of the world was rad.  Big planes are definitely more fun than little planes, and a little less scary. However, I was rather nervous flying over the ocean; there's so much of it.  Six hours into the flight, though, I finally relaxed a bit:)

Each seat had a tv screen on it, and there were "lots" of movies to choose from.  I watched "True Grit."  It was pretty good, for a western ...

Believe it or not, it is pretty hard to sit still, in a single seat, for 13 hours, in the middle of the night.  I think I caught about 3 total hours of sleep, which is admirable considering I was sitting up the whole entire time (I am a huge fan of sprawling-style sleeping on a bed, for instance).  An extra $10,000 to sit in first-class would have been nice, those guys get to lay down. Niiiiiice.

Yet, I really can't complain because I'm an eater, and there was more food than I knew what to do with trolling down the aisles of that planes' cabin. It seemed like every 20 minutes the flight attendants were returning with more goodies.  Granted, it wasn't like dining in a 5-star restaurant, it was better than a bag of pretzels and a diet coke.

My favorite thing: in the middle of the night (flight), this guy came around with ICE CREAM!!! It was soo good, it was like a Klondike bar, but bigger and better, with a caramel swirl. Meow! Glad I wasn't sleeping at that point in time, otherwise I would have missed out on my final pre-vegan village treat.

As for now, I'm in Abu Dhabi, waiting for flight #2 to board.  It's pretty great here, it kind of reminds me of Miami, with a similar climate.  Here are some highlights from the airport:

(a toilet for all ability levels!)

(I'm a sucker for anything that looks remotely tropical)

And there were TONS of international hotties, but taking their pictures would have been weird. 

I must board now. Kisses!