Sound and Color

After 32 hours of traveling (three planes and one taxi), I made it to Rishikesh!  The town is pretty rural, 100,000 in a country of 1.3 billion.  It's considered a holy city neither alcohol or meat are allowed.  If I'm ever reincarnated as a cow, send me here!  Fat cows and poop everywhere.  Monkeys roam the streets like squirrels - one of the girls I met, April left her door open and had a feisty one roam into her room on a mission to get her crackers.  There's a tiger reserve nearby and leopards further in the jungles, but the bigger danger are the elephants that can block the winding roads in the evenings.  Our driver told us that because of this they close the narrow road along the Ganges canal at 7pm.

In the complex where I'm staying there are several hotels catering to yogi tourists, complete with rooftop Shalas and English speaking staff.  My hotel has some sort of school with elementary aged children chanting throughout the afternoon.  They are curious and very friendly, the girls shyly say "hi" to me whenever I see them out.  All the locals have been quite kind and will greet me with a smile or "namaste".  My latest adventure was finding the "electronic shop", which was a small kiosk that sold me a charger adapter for 40 rupees (~ $0.60 USD).  Everything here is pretty cheap!

I completed my first day of training yesterday - 4 hours of asana practice, breathing and meditation, then breakfast,  2 hour opening ceremony, then lunch and a short nap, 3 hours of study and teaching practice, then dinner.  I'm terribly sore and will probably end up losing a few pounds on this vegan diet but I'm learning so much already!  I got a ritual blessing at the ceremony by a Hindu priest and am now doning red string for protection, which I'm instructed to keep until it naturally falls off...but more on that later, it's 6:15am and Day Two practice awaits.