Lotus

I can't stop taking pictures of the plantlife here. It's so beautiful.

லோடுஸ்
Lotus

Illness and Elation

Sorry I haven’t written anything in so long.
Things have not been going all that well and I just haven’t found enough time to be blogging much.
Thursday night I had a sort of anxiety reaction to all the things that have been swirling around me in the past 9 months. I was having trouble sleeping and breathing and wound up going to the ER.
I was pleasantly surprised by the caliber of medical care available in Southern India. They took very good care of me and we went back to Youth Camp at 2 AM. Needless to say I didn’t go to yoga in the morning.
I’m taking care of myself and getting some help here with a really nice woman named Barbara. Please don’t worry about me, I’m doing fine now and feeling a lot better aside from a pretty bad cold.
Basically the last week has been filled with tooling around on our bicycles throughout Auroville, getting tours of different communities and worksites; getting to know the other 14 people here at Youth Camp; yoga classes; and getting to know the villagers and their temples and “ways”.
I fit in so well here and I think it’s a really good place for me to be. Youth Camp is a beautiful place and the people in our group are so warm and welcoming.
Logistically, living in India is a lot easier than Tanzania. We have our own bikes, water, electricity, someone makes our food everyday, and people are really used to seeing Westerners here so there is little harassment by locals.
Currently we’re just going over the Living Routes’ pedagogy, policies, course outlines and reading.
I want to know how everyone is doing, send me an email!
Love,
Jenna

CONTACT

Yo, I want to hear from anyone reading this blog...that I know anyway. Email me... namasterafiki@gmail.com
India is great, I will post more when I'm not so tired.
Love love love love love

Journey Begins

January 21, 2009
After getting ready all day I had dinner with Dad, which was alright despite how tired I was. After dinner I played my piano for a while as I knew I wouldn’t see an instrument that large in a long time. I left around 7:30 to see Elena! I could only stay a bit because she had to run across the water to get some books or something. Anyway, it was nice to see her and chill out for a little bit and watch all the inauguration balls on TV.
Then I went and picked up Megan. We went the Shari’s and had pie. It was delicious as always and a nice treat before I left.
I drove all the way back out to Mom’s and finished up last minute packing. I fell asleep at some point right on top of all my bags and stuff…haha. Mom ended up waking me up around 1 AM and I finished everything up and then watched some Hairspray {what a awful/fun film}. Mom, I and Elroy headed to the airport at 3AM and traffic was pretty good. She dropped me off and I kissed my puppy goodbye and my journey had started at that point.
I went into the counter and checked in with minimal difficulty, went through security and waited at my gate. I had a good chat with “Joshua” in the seating area and by the time we boarded I was pretty tired.
The first flight went pretty well. I slept quite a bit on the ride to Chicago but was pretty tense when we landed.
I waited around for 2 hours in the airport until my second flight took off to Frankfurt, Germany. That flight was less exciting. I was exhausted by that point and was ready to be done flying. The food was terrible {no surprises there} and I couldn’t sleep. The nice part was that the flight was practically empty so I had the whole row {2 seats} to myself and could almost lie down. We landed in Germany on Thursday morning and I met a few of our group there.
We flew into Chennai a bit later and landed at 3AM on Friday morning. We met the rest of the group and went to the hotel in Mahabalapurem and crashed. GOODNIGHT.

Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, FLYDAY

Things I've still got to do:
{Saturday}
. AM chores
. Late Morning/Afternoon shopping
. PM Moneta Concert

{Sunday}
. AM Practice Packing
. Afternoon Get ready to leave Seattle (ie, pack up my stuff in boxes)
. PM Dinner with Dad? SWING DANCING.

{Monday}
. early AM Chanson's rehearsal
. AM any additional shopping I might need to do
. Afternoon Possibly ballroom dancing...?
. PM Dinner with Mom

{Tuesday}
. INAUGURATION DAY
. Rest of the day enjoying the sheer bliss, visiting with friends, finalizing any travel items
. PM staying up really late, never going to bed

{Wednesday}
. 3 AM Arrive at Seatac and check in
. 6 AM Fly out of Seattle, GOODBYE....arrive in Chicago, Illinois some time later
. 2:30 PM Fly out of Chicago...arrive in Frankfurt, Germany

{Thursday}
. 10:15AM Depart Frankfurt for Chennai, India!

Tolerance...?

Do you ever wonder why people who preach the tolerance of others are so intolerant of those who are not tolerant? Isn't that still intolerance? I'm confused.

Getting Ready to Leave Again

Wow, there is so much to do before I leave, yet I am SO bored here. It does not cease to amaze me that with so many more options available to me of what to do with my days here than there were in Tanzania, I am going nuts with the uneventful-ness of each day. At my home in Maji ya Chai there was always something going on and even the simple things, like making dinner or taking a walk, were exciting and new. I cannot wait to feel like that again. That seems to be a commonality with any travel. It's exciting, new and provocative. I think more when I'm away and it is so refreshing. With 8 days to go I feel like I should be busier, or at least feel like I've got things to do. And I do have a lot to do; so it's kind of a mystery to me why I should be feeling like there is NOTHING to do. On the agenda: a TON of shopping
Natural Health Store
earth-friendly sunscreen
earplugs
earth-friendly hand sanitizer (does it exist?"die")
Dr. Bronner's castille soap
earth-friendly toothpaste
nail clippers
earth-friendly antibacterial soap (die?)
rehydration salts
earth-friendly antibiotic ointment (die?)
grapefruit seed extract & acidophilus (for natural healing class)
earth-friendly bug repelent (die? also if it's citronella, that won't work, I'm allergic)
Costco
photo prints (for album to take to share)
laptop computer
additional passport photos
Other
wristwatch w/ alarm
electrical outlet adapter
combination locks (luggage)
large combination lock (hotel doors, et cetera)

If anyone knows a good/cheap place to get anything on the list, please let me know where.
In other news, I CUT MY HAIR! I'm so glad I did for a few reasons: It looks totally cute. It will be super easy to take care of in India. I'm 19 and have a rat tail.

The coming months

Welcome to my blog site! I'll be leaving for Tamil Nadu, India on the 21st of January and I couldn't be more excited. In an effort to bring a little of my experience back to friends, I have created this blog to share with everyone. I'll try my best not to censor and to be honest in what I have to say about my experience and to write at least once a week. I'll be away for 4 months, so prepare for a fair amount of information.
Namaste and peace to all,
Jenna