When i woke this morning it was to the sound of my nieces. And even though it really fellt like it was at an unholy hour, it is the cutest sound to wake up to.
I heard my niece hailie out in the kitchen telling her dad "I am going to go tell Michie that i love her!" Two seconds later Hailie was standing beside the couch where i was sleeping and told me "I love you Michie!" Then she gave me a big hug and a kiss. Then she went on to examining my feet. "Oh you have nailpolish, very nice Michie!"  Then she ran back to the kitchen to get her bottle from her dad and i must have fallen back asleep.
But really, being woken up by a two year old who tells you that they love you and that you have nice toes.. i mean seriously, does it get any cuter? Pure love.

I've had a very nice weekend, which i somehow felt that i earned after working seven days in a row, thursday being a 11 hour shift. After work on Friday I biked to the train station to go by train to Stockholm. Allready at the train station i got this itching feeling inside me, the feeling of being on my way somewhere. okay yes i know i was only taking the train to Stockholm but somehow train stations give me almost the same feeling that airports do. A feeling of excitment. I bought my train ticket and chocolate and got on the train. I like going by train, watching the scenery. Eventhough it was a quite cold and rainy friday afternoon, seeing the countryside from the train made me realise that it is becomming summer, it's really lush and green outside.

Somewhere between Märsta and Stockholm i fell asleep and woke up just as we were coming in to Stockholm. I realised when i got off the train that i think the last time i was in Stockholm was when i was going to get my Visa for India. This made me smile.
I walked from the station to Hötorget, which i find my way to. (once me and my sister weren't sure where it was and took the subway, it took like less than a minute, yeah what happens in Stockholm stays in Stockholm)
When i arrived at Hötorget i called Anna, she was allready there and she met me outside the cinema, a few minutes later Per arrived and we all hugged. It felt very nice seeing Anna and Per. It was a shame that Anna S was sick and couldn't come, but i am sure we will all meet soon again. We went to a small Indian restaurant called Mandira. It was very cozy and was decorated very nice with Indian movie posters on the walls. We had very good Indian food and drank indian, King Fisher beer and just sat and talked and laughed and remisced about India.
It was really a very nice evening and fun meeting my friends in sweden, the country where we all are actually from. It was fun sharing memories and remembering things. That is otherwise a hard thing when you travel alone that when you get home there is noone to sit and talk about it to. But i do. Which i am happy for.

So yeah i had a good time. Today is Sunday and i just ate a big dinner while watching greys anatomy(addict) I made lots of dinner so that i can have some tomorrow at work together with my sister..nice huh?

Ok i'm going to go back and watch some more of greys now.. i really can't stop.

Me, Anna and Per at Mandira.


I was playing around with my digital drawing board earlier today and made this.


have a nice evening.

//mich.

Okay, so i will write now, I will just sit down and for once finish writing so i can post this.

I have been home for a month now, a month! Don't get me wrong i have tried to write at several different times. I have logged in here more times than i can count and at several different times i have started writing actually. I think the thing is that i'm not really sure what to write.

So i will just write. The last month has been strange, in a good way don't get me wrong. It's been weird coming home and in some ways even hard. But also it's made me happy to realise what a good and happy life i have. After being away i feel more grateful for everything i have, all the amazing people i have the joy to have in my life, those kind of things, for example. But i miss india, i do. besides missing all the obvious things like all the amazing people i met, the food, the warm weather, the simplicity of life, spending days eating mangos by the pool..yeah besides all those obvious things what i miss the most is being able to have a six day a week yoga practice. I am not saying it is impossible. But i must confess that it is the thing i struggle the most with here. I do practice much more now in sweden than i did before i left for india, still it did not take long time for me to realise that practicing six days a week, working fulltime, trying to get enough sleep, trying to have a social life and at the same time try to get time to start up my  company..is infact a challenge.
So at this point practice has been four days a week. Which before i left i would have thought was great.. but now i still feel like somthing is missing. I prefer going to the shala for practice, sure i can get up early and do it at home. But early somedays means getting up at four o'clock and when you the night before worked until 10 pm well then it is way too tempting to turn off that alarm and sleep for just a little bit longer.

Yeah i guess it really all is about finding that balance in life, which i am most sure is possible. I spent hours in india disscussing the balance of life with various people. Still.. did we ever find an answer?

Enough about that now. My first month home has been good, and i have found that eventhough i am now constantly always a bit tired from working or practice, i find myself very often having a smile on my face. It's a nice thing really, just being happy where you are. It's a challenge of itself but being away and seing and experiencing certain things i think i have become just a little bit better at it.
Three days after i came home from india was my birthday, the evening was going to be spent barbecuing with my family at my sisters house, which sounded very nice. When i got to my sisters house i realised Manne was there which first surprised me because i didn't know he was coming, but still it wasn't strange that he was there, then while we where waiting i looked out the window and saw my best friend and her boyfriend walk by. I litterly jumped to my feet and screamed right out! I hadn't seen my best friend in such a long time and i was so surprised that they came, surprised but very happy. A little while later the doorbell rang again and i was then thinking it would be my parents so i ran to open and when i opened there stood all my friends from work singing to me. OHMY! Seriously.. i have never been surprised that way before. A lot of people were there, like all the people that are the closest and most important people in my life. It was a very nice evening with cake and wine and i kept saying "Oh My I can't wait to tell somebody, but everyone i know is here!"
It was a great evening and a great birthday, a great coming home. I felt very happy that my mom and my sister had planned such a nice thing for me.
Other than that i have during my first month home been to two different concerts, that were both birthday presents from Manne, first we saw Maia Hirasawa, then last weekend we saw Veronice Maggio. Both very good concerts, very fun.
I have more and more started to come into the daily routine of working again, and after just working three and a half weeks i have broken two phones down by the checkout, employee of the month? i think not. The second time was me getting cuaght in the phone and ending up with me doing a stage dive while like 20 customers were watching me. It left me feeling just slightly embarassed and also left bruises all over my body. Hilarious as always.

Ok, i thought that i would upload some pics from the last month. Nothing special just ordinary pics from ordinary days. Still happy days.

Best welcome home ever, being picked up at arlanda airport.



Sunny day.


Maia Hirasawa at katalin.


Valborg.


Having strawberries and coffee on my balcony.


Waiting for the concert to start last weekend.


Can't wait for it to start!


Veronica Maggio at katalin.



Breakfast at my place with Sis and Sydney.


Ok i was going to put up pictures from my birthday party too that my sister just sent over but of some reason they are a strange format they doesn't allow me to upload them. Oh WELL!!

I'm going to fix myself some lunch now then sit down infront of greys anatomy season four. I am addicted. Also in my hall there is a strange smell like burnt cables or something which i guess is not a good thing so i should find out what that is all about.

bye, for now.

mich.

Where do i start?
Today is my last day in mysore. It's a strange feeling really, what i'm feeling. Somehow i can't help to feel that it's gone so quickly, yet at the same time so much has happened, so much has changed. Suddenly the life here has become the familiar one and thinking of my life back home in sweden suddenly seems strange, like some kind of parallel world.
But i've heard that it does go way quicker to adapt back then it did adapting to this.
I guess we'll find out.

So obviously being here has been great, i mean obviously. uuunbelievable! So i've been reflecting over the last 12 weeks, of everything i've seen and everything i've experienced and everyone i've met. And how could i ever even begin to explain everything. Surely coming home to my family will be lovely, still i will miss this.

One thing that i feel i've learned being here is how very little you really need to be happy, and also how truly simple things and life in general can be if we just don't complicate it. Sound easy maybe, though in real life i guess it somehow is harder. But yeah being here has deffinetly made me look at things in a different way, i guess travelling does that, kind of puts things in a different perspective. You learn things about the world and even about yourself that you might not always have known. Some of these things may be good and some may be bad.
Being here i think i have learned to appreciate my life at home in a different way, my life and my family. I remember as a child when i would of various reasons be upset or angry my mother would tell me "but michelle, think what a nice life you have, you have a warm house and a family that loves you" I remember being fed up and telling my mom that, that infact "has nothing to do with anything" i now years later realise that infact, being happy where you are and being grateful for what you have really has everything to do with evertyhing. It's really all about how you look at it. So thank you mom, for trying to teach me that, and i'm sorry that it took me more than ten years to actually understand what you were talking about, i guess some things in life we just have to figure out on our own.

One of my first days here in mysore i was feeling completely lost and i went downstairs and knocked on the door to Brookes apartment. She invited me in and made me green tea and we talked, i remember telling her that i allready then wondered how it would be to go back after being here. How could we see all of this and be a part of it all and then just go back and live like we always have? She told me that it was true what everyone who comes here says in some way "India will change you"
I now realise ofcourse that it is all about how you use all of your new experinces and integrate them in your daily life. But i wonder, have i changed? I deffinetly feel some kind of change inside of me, somehow thinking of myself for just three months ago i feel i've in some ways grown lots or changed or whatever you should call it. I don't know if all these changes i feel inside me are things that other people will see, but i'll tell you here and now, you might not be able to see it, but i can surely feel it.
You know the classic saying "people change" I've heard  that people actually don't change, we just become a little more of who we really are. So in that case i guess i infact haven't changed at all.
But being gone for almost three months in india has deffinetly helped me become a little more of who i really am.
and for that i will be forever thankful.

So to india, mysore and to all of the lovely amazing people i have had the joy to meet:
thanks, and also
i love you, love you, love you and i will miss you, miss you, miss you.



So i'm off to experience my last day(for this time) in mysore. Quite a busy day, i actually have lots of small errands i need to run around and do, and pack ofcourse and also maybe the most important thing of all.. scheduled chill out time. the best of all. we really all had our reasons for being here, didn't we?


until next time
you know what to do.

take care.

mich.

"Life is a highway and i'm going to ride it, and every day is a winding road. My rollercoaster has got the biggest up's and down's, as long as it keeps going round it's unbelievable"


Today is Sunday, easter sunday actually so i guess i should start by saying happy easter everyone! This morning when my alarm went off i was tired, very tired. I'm not really sure why because i got enough sleep. But I got up at 4 this morning which is a time that i don't usually get up at, either i'll get up at 3:30 or 4:30, not 4. But since lead practice today was going to be at 5(shala time) instead of 4:30 i slept a half hour longer which might have confused my body or something.

Practice was okay, it wasn't my best lead, but it was good. I enjoyed it. Somehow i've gotten in to the 'habit' or whatever you should call it, of not thinking practice is ever 'bad' it's really just how you think about it, right? My back bends were good today though, i saw my heels (it's possible, IT'S POSSIBLE!! What is more possible than this? haha oh good times)

After practice my whole body was filled with the feeling of "well being" a lovely feeling. Saraswati smiled at me when she went past my mat in to the office and after i'd rolled up my mat i put my palms together and thanked her and she smiled again. Sweet lady she is. I was just totally in my own world just smiling at everything and didn't even notice that the guy who has smiled at me everyday in the shala for two months today finally decided to say something to me. He said he'd gotten bitten three times by mosquitos today during headstand. I answered something like "those bastards, they're a real pain in the mornings aren't they?"
Someone outside the shala said "Now we just finished a week of practice, or wait did we just start a week of practice?" I have the same thought every sunday, not really knowing if it's the end of the week or the beginning of a new practice week since saturday is the resting day it kind of messes you up. So good question, somehow it makes me think of radiohead, where i end and you begin. I mean seriously..who knows?

Then i walked home smiling at everything i saw. Maybe since today was my last lead practice i just feel like "savouring" everything. I will probably have that a lot now i can imagine. It's my last week. And i am known to make everything become "the last supper" i did it before i left home, surely i will do the same here.
But i'm quite glad to say that instead of laying energy on thinking "i don't want to leave this place" I actually have the last few days been very good at savouring the moments and just beging happy. It's quite easy when you are surrounded by lovely people. Also the last days i've been thinking of my family and how nice it will be to see them.
But until then i am truly enjoying my last mysore days, and don't mind if i do so to the fullest.

Friday ws my friend Per's last day. In the evening my friend Irene invited some friends over to her house for dinner, Irene lives in my building, in the flat underneath me. The flat where dear Brooke used to live. So Me, Per, Alex and Elisabeth were invited to Irenes house. It was a sort of 'good bye dinner' for Per. It was very nice, Irene cooked pasta which was delicious (they don't eat much pasta here in india) and we'd even gotten beer since there was no practice the other day. Per left for his train around 7:30 and after we'd waved him good bye we continued sitting on the floor drinking our king fishers and eating cookies (made by the same people that make that heavenly homemade chocolate needless to say they are amazing) and chatting. It was a very nice evening with lots of laughter, later on Irene made us some lovely chai. Yes we just had a very nice time.

Saturday i had a sleep in, sleep in ofcourse meaning waking at 7 (practicing yoga six days a week doesn't really make you a party animal since we all want to go to sleep at a descent hour) It was nice though, before going to breakfast i even did some laundry in my lovely pink bucket.
I went to breakfast at Om Cafe sometime after nine and sat there talking to all the usual "Om people" which is always a nice scene, the breakfast scene. Closer to ten my friend Anton from lakshmipuram and his roommate Istvan came. Anton is the guy i met on the set of the Bollywood movie, i happened to bump in to him at the pool the other day and i told him he should come to Om for breakfast. We sat there for another hour or so then decided that Saturdays plans should be going to the pool, so after leaving Om Cafe we dropped by my place so i could pick up some things for the pool. Both Anton and Istvan liked my apartment. There is some kind of joke between people living in lakshmipuram and people living in Gokulam, the people in lakshmipuram think that we are all snobs over here since we pay 27000RS for one month just to practice at the main shala, when they pay 5000RS for one month. Haha it's quite funny the first time Anton told me the price he was paying i swear i said " you mean RUPEES?"
Okay so the joke's on me. Still for now i wouldn't change it. ("Who are you trying to convince there, me or yourself?")

After my place we walked over towards the shala, Istwan hadn't seen it before and i mean come on everyone needs a picture of themselves infront of that sign! =) so we took some photos and then decided to head over to Lakshmipuram for them to get their swim stuff. On our way to the rikshas a man selling mangos on a bike came by, "want mangos?" he asked. Being curious we asked the price. "150RS a kilo" i liked Antons response to the man "That's not good, you know sometimes you have to be honest..even to western people!" All of a sudden the man said 70 Rs for a kilo. Still we didn't buy them, later on Anton bought a kilo for 35 RS from another man. Haha.

So we headed towards lakshmipuram which is another part of mysore, it was nice and i got to see where they lived as well which was a nice place. We ended up having lunch there before going to te pool. Anton made a "western style meets india" lunch.. grilled cheese sandwiches but instead of regular cheese he used paneer! Very yummy.
So on the way to the pool they showed me where Patthabis old shala was. Being honest it wasn't that special, i think i might even hav walked by it if they hadn't told me. Still ofcourse being a devoted ashtangi i enjoyed seeing it. I liked the tiny little sign, they put a bit more money in to the sign at the new place =)

We stayed at the pool, southern star for a few hours which is always nice. Laying relaxing, swimming and eating mangos. Eating mangos by the pool, man i will miss that! As i mentioned before, mango season arrived, they are so fresh and juicy whoa! They really are absolutely lovely. How could anyone not love mangos?
After the pool Anton told me that there were "two options, either i go home to my place and just hang out, or you come with me to my place and just hang out"
I decided to go with the second option, meaning me going by riksha and Anton biking. Crazy funny i was sitting there laughing in the riksha. The riksha would stop at every red light and Anton would come riding up beside the riksha on his bicycle waving, then it would turn green, he would bike away, we would pass him, we would stop at another red light, he would pass us. This happened like four times, obviously being funnier everytime it happened.

So we made dinner, or Anton made dinner and i was supposed to time the pasta allthough both times(had to make it two times) i forgot about the time and he had to remind me "are you checking the time?" "Oh! yes! it's ready now!"
We watched some yoga videos he had, for example John Scott which is a yoga dvd i hadn't seen but that i can highly recomend. And ofcourse parts of David Swenson.
So now i know what Eckhart Tolle looks like..and how he SOUNDS. Feeling you Henrik.
So i rikshawed my way home from lakshmipuram back to my humble flat in Gokulam, realising i had laundry hanging upstairs, collected it and then went to bed.

Not much plans for today, lazy sunday, afternoon chanting in the shala with Saraswati. Just got a text on my phone, thinking it was another advertisement(they send text advertisements to you here like ALL the time and occasionally they will call you and like a voice will be singing or saying somthing weird in hindi, super strange) but it was from Alex saying they were going to tinas for dinner around 5:30 and wondered if i wanted to come. Nice.


Here are some random pictures from the last week:






Dinner at Green Leaf for 37Rs


Last breakfast together with Anna and Anna at Om Cafe.


Lunch at the "RRR" also known as eating thalis with your hands.


Birthday party for Javier at a very nice house in the country.


Full moon evening entertainment at Om cafe thursday night.


BARISTA! Elin, Lars and Per, happy scandinavians going to drink coffee.



Monkeys climbing the tree outside barista.


Irene fixing us dinner.


Per and Alex, Per happy to be drinking beer.


Elisabeth is burning yoga dvd's.


Sitting chatting after dinner.


Alex drinking chai. Had to take a picture of the brilliant cup. Quote from Elisabeth: "What the f**k is that? is that a carebear?"


The usual breakfast scene, Om Cafe.


The lakshmipurians that came to visit.


Anton and me outside the "main" shala.


Anton.


In lakshmipuram at Anton and Istvans house, eating grilled paneer sandwiches for lunch.


The old shala in lakshmipuram.


Me infront of the old shala.


"I can feeeeeel the energy!"



Bruno, owner of Alia's guest house and Om Cafe, and the young boy who helps out there.
"today coffee is on me michelle!" he said this morning, he does that sometimes, and i always reply "oh you don't have to do that" and he says " i know i don't but i have the power to do that"  haha lovely people.



have a wonderful day everyone.
lots of hugs.

take care.

mich.

Only one week left in mysore. Bring on the panic...
Yesterday i got asked how i felt about going home, it didn't really come as a surprise that my answer was something like "well i don't really want to leave" But the thing that did surprise me was that afterwards when i got the question "then why don't you stay for longer?" that the only answer i could come up with was "I don't know"
So here's the real question: "Why don't i stay i longer?"

When i woke yesterday i felt a strong pain in my left knee, the sort of pain you get from like sleeping on your arm or after sitting on the floor and feeling stiff. The kind of pain that usually lasts for just a few seconds. Only the pain in my knee didn't want to go away. It was strange cause i don't remember doing anything special that would have hurt my knee, but as soon as i would bend down to like sit on the floor or cross my legs it would hurt. So i was glad yesterday was a moonday. I was a bit worried that it would hurt today during practice, but when i woke this morning at 3:30 it was okay. Strange.  I can still feel there's something there i just don't know what. Opening? For sure soon both my knees will be super.

So what has happened since i last wrote? The true beauty of mysore, is the way things happen and unfold and how even the smallest things here seem to be an experience. I've said it before but i'll say it again even just walking to practice in the morning is an experience, or walking to breakfast. This morning i was going to breakfast at santoshas, but when i got there i found Julian, the new owner hanging over the gate, he said the chef called in sick and the produce guy hadn't come so he didn't think he'd open. He said he was sorry, and gave me a cookie. a beautiful homemade cookie that i'm pretty sure i will enjoy later on. Yeah life is a bit different here.

 Wednesday evening there was a birthday party for Javier which was quite far away like out in the country towards chamundi hill and the lalita mahal. It was a very beautiful house where someones friends to a friend or whatever it was lived. To fully explain how nice this house was just let me say this : There was a mango tree out in the garden.. A MANGO TREE!!! I mean if that doesn't say it all, then what does?

Anywho it was nice, lot's of yogis sitting on the floor chatting, just having a nice time, eating cake..
On the subject of mangos.. mango season just arrived here and with that i don't need to say anything more do i? The other day i looked down in to my fruitsallad and was like "Whoa! mango!" and someone said "yes mango season is finally here!" Sweet.
For two months everyone has been asking at every restaurant "do you have mangos?" and everytime it will be the same answer "no sorry not mango season yet!"
So i think i need to pay the fruit guy a visit today. =)

So my plans today are the following: Lunch at one, which is like soon, then after that the pool, then dinner at Irenes place and say goodbye to my friend per who is leaving for chennai tonight.
Sound like another lovely day if i may say so myself.

i need to get of the computer now.. it's nearly lunch allready. i'll try to posts some photos some day soon, i've been bad lately of taking photos though. i'll be better.

oh and even though they don't really notice it much here i would like to wish you all a happy easter!

hugs

mich.

Goodmorning.

It's 9:45 here and i'm on a serious caffeine rush. The last few days i haven't been drinking coffee for breakfast, usually we'll go to barista in the afternoon and have coffee drinks there but it's not like having black coffee for breakfast. I feel all jittery, maybe i'll have another giggle day..who knows. Last week i had several days where i just felt like giggling, somedays a lot of things will make me giggle. I guess it's all about the mood and maybe about how you look at things. Having a nice giggle or even just laughing out loud..how refreshing isn't that?

Practice this morning was good, After just the sun salutations i was sweating like a pig. I don't get it, the way i sweat here i've never sweated like this before..ever! So strange. Also Sharath said that you're not actually supposed to dry it off with a towel, actually you're supposed to rub it back in to your skin. But when it starts going in to your eyes and making you blind i just go with the towel.

After practice i walked home feeling the heat of the sun that had during my practice come up. I think i fell asleep during the relaxing today, or i was just totally relaxed. On my way home a dog came up to me, he comes every day he lives on the same street that Anu's is on. It was quite funny cause my first weeks every morning i would be walking home totally relaxed and then all of a sudden this dog would come running towards me in full speed and i would freak out. The dog obviously just wants to play, he has a collar and everything so he's not a stray dog. But after practice when i'm on my high relaxed cloud i don't really feel like playing (not that i usually feel like playing with dogs anyway) This morning the dog came again.. i've stopped getting freaked out when he comes. But this morning he jumped up on me leaving dirty little paw marks on my yoga pants (why you little)
When i got home i showered and then did some washing. Washed my clothes in my little pink bucket, then i hung them out on the roof. In the beginning i missed not having my wash washed in a proper washing machine a lot. But after almost eight weeks of hand washing i must say you get used to it. I might even say i enjoy it....well atleast i don't dislike it. I mean yeah it's a bit of a hassle from time to time. But somehow i find it a bit soothing and i love hanging it out to dry on the roof. I love going up there and looking out over the rooftops, seeing that view makes me always want to start singing "This land is mine" strange huh?

I went to breakfast at Om Caf'e where i as i mentioned had coffee, fruitsallad and toast. Lovely as always. After a nice breakfast i walked together with my friend Per here to Anu's internet cafe'. As we were walking still on contour road (road Om cafe' is on and the road that i live on) I said "wow the temperature is great right now, couldn't it be like this all day?" then we established that in about ten minutes or so it would probably be freakishly hot again. By the time we'd made it to the street that Anu's is on i said "yep, now it's hot!" Haha..

I had to change computers because the one i was first on wouldn't let me log on to facebook, the page had been blocked by some parental control.. the reason said "pornographic" haha facebook? what? So i changed.. now Per called to me and said that he couldn't get on to DN(a swedish newspaper online) because it was blocked and the reason said "weapons" Haha what's going on with Anu's computers?

Yesterday I went to lunch with Per and two friends from norway. The norweigan friends wanted to show us a lunch place where you could eat thalis directly on banana leaves. It was quite the experience. The restaurant was called "RRR" and was packed with indian people everywhere, we had a bit of a hard time finding a table at first because we must have gotten there at lunch rush hour. Finally we got a table, and it was a bit different from having Thalis at the green leaf. First this one guy came around and gave us each a big banana leaf..(this was our plate) Then another guy came around with a huge bowl of rice and slapped down a few scoops of rice on everyones banana leaf, then next guy came around giving everyone two little thali bowls each with different sauces in. Then the next guy came around with three different sauces or stews or whatever you should call it and slapped some of each on to our banana leaf. Then we were ready to eat. The proper indian way to eat thalis..is just to go at it. As in..you eat with your hands.. you mix the sauce with the rice with your hands and just shuffle the rice and sauce in to your moth with your fingers. Haha it's so funny seing the indian people eat like that, i'd never eaten like that before but once you've gotten over the thought of "Oh my my hand is sticky" or "I've got rice everywhere" it tastes delicious to eat with your hands.. and also it's quite fun.

 We where the only western people there and there where several indian people waiting for tables staring at us.. the indian people aren't so discreet and quite often people will stop and stare at you. Haha quite funny actually. The other day this boy almost drove his bike off the road turning his head looking at me and my friends when we were walking down the road.

So the eating pace at "RRR" was a bit quicker, and since people where waiting for tables. We practically threw the food in to our mouths. I think we were done after like fifteen or twenty minutes.. the bill came to a total of 180RS.. lunch for four people that is.. do note that 100RS is about 20SEK.. yep.. We were FOUR people. haha it's hilarious the other day i ate dinner for 37RS.
So when we got back out on the street outide "RRR" we where all speeded up after our "speed lunch of eating with our hands" so we decided to go for a nice relaxing coffee at barista. We squeezed into a riksha, usually one person will get to sit up front with the riksha driver if you are four people but this driver said we had to all sit in the back. The driver drove like a complete maniac..so after the "riksha ride from hell" where i was sitting half on Per and half on Elins lap holding on for my life and we were all laughing zig zaging through town saying things like "hope you don't mind if i throw up in your purse" and "one more bump and i'll be ready for another lunch" we finally arrived to barista which was like coming to airconditoned heaven...ah the silence.. ah..caffeine.

We sat at barista for a few hours relaxing, talking, laughing..just having a good time. It was a nice contrast from "RRR" and the riksha ride. The contrasts you see here in india is one of the things that amazes and fascinates me the most. I love the way everything is so completely different.

Well the plan for today is a trip down town then lunch, then the afternoon at the pool. The pool is very relaxing and sometimes when i'm there i'll forget what country i am in, another contrast. But always when i come back to Gokulam and to my apartment on contour road where the cars and rikshas never stop going and the cows and horses and goats walk loose up and down the street somehow i feel... home.

have a nice day.

mich.

Sometimes you gotta wonder why we do this, why people travel from all over the world to come here and do this. Why do we travel all this way to climb over gates at four in the morning or to sit outside the shala waiting for a good spot for an hour getting eaten alive by mosquitos. Pushing our bodies into strange poses and sweating like an animal. Yeah sometimes you gotta wonder. But as soon as i roll out my mat and step on to it, it becomes so clear. How could you ever not want to do this?

So obviously practice today was good, as in very good. I had a very nice lead practice yesterday aswell but today was even better. I fellt tired when my alarm went off at 4:45 this morning, and a bit stiff in my hips, i figured it might have been from me stretching yesterday, i met Per on my way to practice and he said "maybe it's an opening!" Haha well yeah it might very well be.
Practice was good as soon as i started with my sun salutations it just felt so good. Somedays it's just that way, you never really know why or when it's just as if your whole body is happy, thanking you. Thank you for stretching me out. It felt good anyhow, i don't really know how to explain it.
So after i got hurt for a few weeks ago, pulling my hamstring doing kurmasana. I haven't been doing it. First i was just being careful because i needed to rest my poor hamstring, then after not doing it and remembering how it pulled i developed some kind of fear for it. So i havent been doing it at all. I've thought like every day "Today i will do kurmasana" then when i reach bujapeedasana and i think of being pushed in to kurmasana and my hamstring going "snap" i think again and go directly to the finishing poses.
Yesterday i said to myself "monday i'll do kurmasana, i will" But then again today after bujapeedasana i rolled my mat up and started heading to the womens changing room for finishing when Saraswati called after me "What was the last pose you did?" ehm... "bujapeedasana" I answered. "You come back and do kurmasana" Okay.. so i went back, put my mat back out.. did kurmasana while Saraswati was watching me, when i was done she said "I'll come help you soon!" So I sat there and waited, the guy next to me was smiling, and Saraswati helped him with backbends, then she helped another few people while i waited. When she finally came over to me i said "I pulled a hamstring doing kurmasana for a few weeks ago" "okay we take it slowly" she said. Taking things slowly at Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute is a bit different from taking things slowly at home. I got in to kurmasana and Saraswati pushed on my back then she started saying things like "Slowly take your hands behind the back" While saying the word "slowly" my arms were yanked back around my legs and back, it didn't hurt though i'm very happy to say, still it was neither slowly or carefully. So Saraswati was pulling my arms and my legs in ways i wouldn't have dreamed of even in my worst nightmares for like a year ago. But somehow it was nice. It was nice knowing that i can 'kind of' do it, atleast without hurting. Yeah kurmasana is a killer for those hamstrings, i guess you just got to take it slowly.

After getting helped i felt happy and went then in to the changing room for my finsihing, when i reached Baddha Padmasana (sitting in lotus) I swung my arms around and all of a sudden i realised "OH MY!! I am holding on to my toes from behind my back!" How did that happen? It was about two second of pure happiness until my right hand lost hold of the toe. But still.. come on!! It was great even though i couldn't hold for the entire time. Maybe it IS an opening.
Haha too funny the way the body plays tricks on us.
I find this practice so amazing and challening at the same time.

On my way out of the shala i got eye contact with my friend Olga who had just began, she smiled and i whispered "breakfast at santoshas" to her, then i thanked Saraswati and slid outside.

So i went home, showered and then went to Santoshas for breakfast. I had a very yummy breakfast and after breakfast i went straight here, not much has happened here so far today besides the good practice and good breakfast. At one i'm meeting some friends at the coconut stand, we're going from there to lunch. Then at four thirty i'm giving meditation another shot. Maybe i'll do a quick visit at the pool before that.. otherwise for sure we're going to the pool tomorrow. It's been soo hot here the last days.. haha listen to me i've been saying that for two months now.. yeah..it's hot lets leave it at that. The weather here is very very hot, but......i absolutely love it.





take care

mich.

On my way here to Anu's internet Cafe` i had such a strong feeling of happiness. After a lovely breakfast at Om Cafe with my friends whom which two of them are leaving tomorrow. All i could seem to think about was how very lucky i felt that i still have some more time. I could feel how the sun was getting hotter warming my skin, the traffic going by me, all the rikshas and mopeds, the warm breeze, and i though to myself "what a wonderful place this is"

Yesterday on my way to early morning lead practice, i left my apartment around 3:30 am and came down to my gate to realize that over the night they'd changed the lock. We have gate and there's usually a chain with a lock around it now this morning there was a different lock. Thinking that this was a bit strange and maybe because i was a bit tired i tried my regular key in the lock.. nope it was just turning around. And i thought to myself "why would you change the lock without giving the key to the people who live there?" Yep they'd locked us in. No way was i going to miss practice over such a silly thing so i threw my yoga bag over my shoulder and started climbing. I was quite happy that no one came by right then, might have looked a bit suspisious with me climbing the gate at 3:30 am. So i climbed it and went off to my practice.
After practice we stood outside the shala for a long time, talking drinking coconuts etc and i met Irene a girl who lives in my house too, she went by and asked me "hey michelle did you have to jump the gate this morning too?" "Yep!"
Funny.
When i got back home they'd tooken the lock off so i didn't have to climb. Later on i met my landlord and asked if i could have the new key.. his answer was: "The lock isn't working!" Well no, i kind of noticed. Haha seriously.
Note to other landlords who might be reading this: When changing the lock on the gate, make sure your tenants get the new key.

Okay.
Today is saturday which means no practice. After six days in a row of practice it was quite nice to get to have a 'sleep in' this morning. And when i say sleep in i mean i slept until 7, which is late. So far i haven't done much today, i washed some laundry, in my bucket and hung it out to dry on the roof, then i had a nice breakfast with my friends at Om Cafe and after breakfast i went here. I'm quite happy to not have to be dancing in highheeled shoes all day this saturday even though last saturday was hilarious.
Well it's almost time for lunch allready..haha seriously somedays it seems like all we do is laze around until we go to the next place to eat. Next stop is meeting for lunch at the Sixth Main at one o'clock. That's in one hour. I Should write some e-mails before that too =)
Well here you get some photos..enjoy =)


A tiny little lizard i found on my curtain before i went to bed, i told the lizard "it's fine if you want to hang out, but i'm going to bed now and you don't get to climb into my bed, okay?"



Birthday party for Per at cubs.


Yummy cake.



Happy birthday to you Per!


Anna, me and Anna at cubs.


Outside the shala after 4:30 am lead practice friday morning.


After practice, waiting to have a coconut.


Breakfast at Santoshas friday.



Yummy 'no practice today' breakfast at Om Cafe, fruitsallad and coffee.


Breakfast.


Landlord and cleaning lady, he was sleeping..as always and she thought i should take a photo, but then he woke up.



hope you all are well.
take care.

mich.

So along came april. God where have the weeks gone? In one way i'd like to say that i feel that time has been flying past me, yet in another way i really feel that so much has happened during my weeks here. Is it possibe for time to go both fast and slow at the same time? Or is it just me who never really got the hang of the whole "time" thing. It's a mystery.

So it's april and over the last week mysore turned in to ghost town, Okay not really but with Sharath leaving so did so many students. Now there is always room in the shala when i come in the morning. Also i got bumped up to practicing at 5:30 every day now..lead classes 4:30. The rumour goes that by next week it will be 4:30 every morning. Well i guess we'll find out.

So yeah lots of people have left this week making Gokulam more quiet. Which is both nice and a shame at the same time. It's nice that it's a bit calmer, but a lot of great people left which is a shame. This weekend some more of my friends are leaving. It's strange the way you get to know people here, there are people i've known here for like a two weeks period of time that i feel i know better than people at home that i've known for years. Maybe it's just the way we socialize here, the way we let other people in in our lives in a different way. I think we relax and instead of building fences around our selfes we simply open up our arms for friendship. I'm not sure. So yeah it's a shame that some of my friends are leaving but mostly it scares me that with them leaving that must mean that i only got two more weeks here. Again..time..when did it all start going super quick? I gues it's true what they say that time does go quicker when you're having a good time, and since i've really been having a great time..it just started flying.

Today i felt stiff during practice, somethings going on in my back..maybe opening or closing..who knows? I feel stiff like between my shoulderblades, i think it's from the mareechasana c and d. I can bind on both sides in D now, so yeah doing that might play some tricks in those back muscles. I like the way Anna said that as soon as she feels stiff or pain somewhere she tells herself that it will make that musle "super" soon, that it's just like working right now. She has pain in her one knee and knows that soon it will be a 'super knee' And soon i'l have a 'super back' with 'super shoulder blades' i can feel it...and it does feel super =)
I met my friends for breakfast at Om Caf'e. As always the atmosphere there was lovely and i had a great breakfast. Shared a small press coffee with Anna, I didn't think today was a coffee day, havent had coffee for a few days but it tasted excellent and i feel the caffeine now.
Today is my friend Per's birthday, we're meeting up a bunch of friends at Cubs for cake this afternoon. Yay happy birthday Per and happy cake! They have excellent chocolate cakes there, yum. We got one when my friend Marielle had her 30th birthday last month.
Before cake a few of us are going for lunch at green leaf.. thali again maybe? I love their thalis. Hmm.. seems that again i'm taking a bit too much about food. But yeah it's great. All is good, all is great. Let's just leave it at that.

Some pics.


The mysore palace. They light it up on sundays and special occassions, we where there last friday for the new year.



 "You can never run away from coca cola"


A bit dark photo, my mats hanging out to air and dry outside my apartment.


breakfast this morning at Om Cafe`



take care.


mich.

First of all, thank you for all the nice comments i really enjoy reading them =)

Being here is like being part of a constant scene of craziness and for every day that goes by i fall more and more in love with it all.

No more dancing atleast, took me two days to recover. Haha still makes me giggle every time i think of it though.
not much news just a few photos =)



thali..yum!


I am obviously a giant and Saraswati is tiny. =)


Puppy!! We walk by this puppy every now and then and it's just the cutest sight ever.






mich.

Hey and goodmorning.

Today is sunday and i'm very very tired. Lead practice this morning was just focussing on surviving. I'm not kidding or exaggerating, when my alarm went off at 3:10 and i had gotten a good three hour night of sleep i though it was a good idea to go to practice, which ofcourse it always is. But man was i ever tired. I found myself in the far back of the shala, still feeling quite strong but oh so tired. I made it through all the standing positions without bigger problems but as soon as we jumped through to the sitting ones i felt a strong urge to sleep. I noticed that in all the forward bends i was closing my eyes resting my head on my knee. Haha serious. It was quite nice though when i'd reached bujapeedasana (which was a challenge cause i'd put mosquito repellent cream on my feet that had become slippery while doing my practice). Both the guy beside me and his practice were so beautiful so i did'nt seem to mind sitting waiting watching.
When we we're doing backbendings i got this rush of emotional relief which i've heard backbendings can sometime do cause you're opening your chest so much. I've heard all kinds of stories of people doing weird things after backbendings even crying. yeah my backbendings were good and left me with such an urge to giggle.. yes that's right. I felt this wave of happiness and giggles and also knowing that laughing now would not be appropriate so i held it back. I still had that giggly feeling in me for the rest of the practice and while we were doing the last uppward dog after uttpluthi i had to let out a small giggle. i've never had that giggly feeling during practice before, i've heard of it but today i experienced it myself. Maybe lack of sleep helped me.

I walked home after practice together with my friend Per who lives on the same road as me, we had a nice talk and i told him about my crazy day i'd had yesterday and i was so tired i accidently threw my water bottle across the road.
When i got home i showered, feeling happy and a bit proud of getting up and practicing, then i layed down on my bed, had a nice giggle..and fell asleep.

Now to tell you why i was so tired and why i got to bed so late i actually need to start by telling you about friday. Cause it was friday that things started. After lead practice friday, a nap, and a nice breakfast with my friends i went together with my friends Anna and Anna to the southern star pool. We were tired and a day at the pool was exactly what we needed.
We had a lovely time at the pool, swimming, sunning and talking and laughing. While we were there two guys came up to us, and indian man and a russian man. They asked us if we were interested in being with in a movie. Being swedish or maybe just being suspious we asked "what kind of movie?"  They told us they were shooting a bollywood movie at the lalita mahal palace and they needed western looking people to play brittish people.
We talked to them a while and agreed that we could not come today(friday) but we could come tomorrow (saturday) because that is our day off.

So Yesterday we woke, ate breakfast together at Om Caf'e and then headed around nine o'clock to the coconut stand where we were going to be picked up, there we met a guy that practices yoga with us. A driver picked the four of us up in a bus and then we drove first to lakshmipuram and picked up a few more western people. We were total maybe 10 people on the bus. Then we drove to the lalita mahal. As soon as we got close to the palace we saw cameras and reporters and cars waiting outside. We got out of the bus and followed our guy in to the palace, where we soon saw people walking around setting up scenes, people wearing really fancy ballroom clothes and also people wearing t-shirts saying "asst cameraman" "costume designer" and ofcourse "director"
I almost had to pinch myself to remind myself that this was infact really happening and not just a crazy dream..this really was the set of a bollywood movie, and we were going to be in it.

As we came in people were running all over the place and they sent us to costume design. As soon as we had reached the costume design a woman threw a light blue dress at me and told me to go put it on. So i did, it fellt like one of those ugly bridesmaids dresses you see in movies. Then they told me "go to hair and makeup!" So i went over to where they motioned and there were women there fixing girls hair, motsly western girls, but there were plenty of indian people too.
So this indian woman told me to have seat and she started fixing my hair, brushing it, curling it and putting it up nicely. Around this time my friends Ann and Per came, who were just going to use the pool at the palace but wanted to have a look at us too. So i got my hair all fancy made, then i got makeup done at another place. Then the costume designer came over and handed me these huge earrings and necklace and bracelet that looked like pearls and diamonds for me to wear.
Suddenly i felt like i'd been with on extreme makeover or something. After not have been wearing makeup for two months it felt like i was wearing a mask, especially since i don't really use that amount of makeup at home.
I was the first of my friends to be ready and the people working on the set told me to go in to the ballroom. So i did and i walked in to this place that looked like a 1940's ballroom, huge ceiling and dinner tables a stage and a big dance floor. I mean really it was quite the thing it was really so beautiful. There were lots of people in there and a huge camera and lightning everywhere. People running around wearing headsets working. This really was a movie set, and i was going to be in it. I found myself standing in the middle of the dance floor wearing my jewellry and fancy dress and higheeled white shoes thinking "how did i get here"
"you look nice" a guy said who was wearing a read uniform, "thanks i said, but i feel completely lost" the guy had been on the same bus as me and was a yoga student from lakshmipuram. We stood there talking for awhile until someone came and told me to dance. All of a sudden i was supposed to dance walz with this russian man, There were lots of western looking people who were dancing and soon i realized my friend Anna across the room smiling at me dancing with a guy from Afghanistan. So we danced. And we danced.
And they counted "5, 6, 7, 8"! "left, right, left, right!" and they shouted "CUT!" It was a ballroom scene and we were playing the brittish people it was the year 1945. We were still in india and it was hot. They filmed the scene of everyone dancing, and around us people sat at tables pretending to talk and drink, they filmed it from all kinds of directions. Yelling cut etc. When they were happy with a take they'd move the camera and we would wait and then we'd dance again. It was so weird and surreal and i got eye contact with my friends and we laughed and you could tell we were all thinking the same thing "is this really happening?"
Yes infact. it was.
After dancing for two and a half hours. Doing the 5, 6 , 7 ,8 and back and forth in higheeled shoes we started getting tired. There is so much waiting around when making movies i had no idea it was so hard. At 1:30 they said we could have a break and we all went outside and got lunch.
We got a 20minute lunch break then they wanted us all back inside and the dancing went on again. It got a bit tireing. Even though we all did our fair share of laughing and evryone was talking to eachother. We were getting tired. Around four o'clock me and my friends were talking and kind of saying, yeah this is fun but we've been dancing for five hours now and maybe this is enough.
Well we went to the bathroom and walked around the palace a bit. Then soemone came out calling us.. "you need to get back in there and dance!" "but we are tired we dont want to dance, can't someone else dance for a while?' "no that is not possible" haha wtf? A man pointed at me and said "i have your dress on the movie now, you have to dance"
So we went back and we danced, and we danced. And our feet were killing us and i was getting tired of the russian dude i was dancing with, he was starting to get on my nerves after having to try to be social and dance with him for six hours.
Time passed and we danced, and we ran away for three minute periods every now and then to drink water or try to sneak some rest...and they'd call us back.. "you blue dress!! where is your partner?" we danced and we danced.

Yes.. i am not kidding.. I danced from 11 in the morning til 8 o'clock in the evening with only a 20 minute lunchbreak.
It was such a strange experience being on a real movie set. As time went on and they were moving the cameras there were less and less couples dancing since they were shooting at a special place, of course me and Anna and Anna were a few of those last copules. In the end we were four couples dancing and dancing..and ofcourse the main actors and actresses.
After one little short pause of maybe five minutes of going to the toilet they asked me or rather told me "you keep on dancing" and i told them i was getting tired and they said "where is your dancing partner" i amswered "i don't know" "well what is his name?" "sorry i don't remember" I didn't rememer his name.. sorry but i'd met like a hundred different people and introduced myself and heared their names it's hard to remember everyones name. They were kind of like "okay whatever here's a new guy you can dance wiht, does he look anything like the guy you were dancing with earlier?' I looked at my new dancing partner, asked his name and where he was from(the usual) Afghanistan. and i told them "actually he couldn't look more different" they didn't really seem to care so i asked "could i atleast please take of these gloves now, it's really hot!" ( i was wearing these fancy lacy white gloves that went up half my arms) "No you can't take the gloves off, they are very important" I laughed then at the whole bollywood movie thing, how me wearing the gloves was an important part but the fact that my dancer had gone from being (and looking) very russian to being (and looking) very much afghanistan...didn't really matter at all. So what should we do? We laughed and then we danced some more.
Around eight my feet were killing me, i'm not used to wearing high heeled shoes, nore dancing and the combination for nine hours straight was not so nice on the feet. So i danced barefoot, telling the guy from afghanistan "you better not step on my feet now" and  he didn't.

Shortly after eight there was a few seconds where we could get away, me and Anna and Anna. We talked to the guy who was like our "manager" or whatever and said that we were getting tired and exhausted and could we please go home now, this has been fun but come on!! He said we could have some cookies if we liked and we kind of figured that since they weren't going to let us go home until this neverending scene was done we might as well eat some cookies..we hadn't eaten anything since two o'clock, So we went outside where there were all these trailers parked.. those kind of real "movie" trailers. And we sat outside in the warm dark indian night eating cookies and drinking chai tea. And we laughed and giggled. Just like we'd done all day. "here we are in india wearing these princess dresses, sitting outside in the dark eaing cookies on a movie set" Then we started joking around talking about our ugly dresses and i said i felt like a five year old who was dressed up as a princess, and now i was becoming a cranky five year old who wanted to through a fit screaming "i don't want to be a princess anymore!!"
It was hard work but at the same time great fun just because it was so unlike something i've ever done. They told us we were supposed to stay until 9 and we said okay..and went in again and continued dancing. Again my dance partner was gone, well actually the guy from afghanistan was dancing with his real dance partner, the one he'd been dancing with all day before my russian split. They wanted me to keep on dancing and i said.."well i've been dancing for nine hours now..and my guys gone what do you want me to do?" i kind of snuck out to the side and watched from there, then i found the guy who i'd talked to earlier that morning and we stood and talked and laughed about the whole situation of being on a movie set. Such a strange day. So the last hour of filming i wasn't dancing atleast, i was just standing talking and laughing with my new friend at the side..which incase you wonder makes time go a lot quicker than dancing.

At 9:30 they were actually done and finally we got to go take our dresses off and put on our regular clothes. I don't think i've ever loved my clothes that much before =)
After we'd changed and left all the clothes and jewellry we went outside, and they served us dinner. We were starving and it tasted sooo good. We sat outside in the warm night eating our indian food chatting with all the people. And it was just so fun. It had been such a strange and long day and we had really all been on some kind of emotional rollercoaster, one minute loving it the next minute hating it.
But all in all...what an experience!!
They paid us aswell we all got 1500 RS which actually wasn't too bad for being an extra on a bollywood movie. Then all of us western yoga students from Gokulam and Lakshmipuram crammed in to a little minivan(we'd come on a bigger bus)
and they drove us home. They said they had to keep on filming tomorrow and asked if we could come. We figured one day of constant dancing in india warm weather in fancy dresses was probably enough for us. And also we had practice at 4:30 am. So we said that sorry we would not be able to make it tomorrow. They were a bit irritated, but then someone mentioned that the last bollywood movie they'd seen they'd changed the main character in the middle of the movie without explaining why, so we figured it probably didn't matter that some of the dancers had changed.

I got home to my place sometime after 11. I was tired and somehow it fellt so nice being back in Gokulam and being in my apartment, it's strange how this place actually does feel like home.
By the time i'd washed all the makeup of my face and gotten in to bed it was nearly twelve and i looked at my alarm that was set for 3:10 and thought.."i'm going to need a big coffee for breakfast tomorrow!" then i feel asleep.


Now you're probably wondering if i've got photos, i'm sorry to say that i only have a few from before and after the filming since our bags were locked in i trailer during the filming so we couldn't take photos then. But atleast i have a few pics so you will believe me that this did infact happen.



Outside the Lalita Mahal palace where we were filming.


Getting my hair fixed.



My hair from the back



Makeup and hair from the front.


Me being a "brittish woman in the 1940's " also known as "Michelle ready to dance for nine hours"


People getting makeup done.


Anna, Anna and me happy to not be wearing our dresses after being on the movie set for twelve hours.



Happy to be home in my apartment on contour road and tired. Took me like 15 minutes to get all the makeup off.


Well as you can imagine today i'm abit tired after getting three hours of sleep and getting up for practice, i had a little nap after practice though, for about an hour then i went to breakfast at viviennes. Now i'm about ready for lunch. Gonna go upstairs and find Anna and Anna.

Oh yeah the name of the movie is Madharasapattinam. And according to someone we talked to it will be all over the world.. hahah yeah downloadable probably. Either way if you ever do find it in like a year or so.. look for me in the ballroom scene.


Oh india! you will never stop surprising me =)

take care.

mich.

Hello,

Today is a moonday which means we did not have any practice today. So i had a sleep in..sleep in means i woke at 7:15 =) I had a great breakfast as always at Om Cafe and after my two hour breakfast i went together with three friends in a rikshaw(yes it's quite crowded but fully doable) to out mehendi class (learning to paint the henna) it was fun and cute as always..those indian women are adorable and i love listening to their stories.

After mehendi we went for lunch at Shailas, very yummy. Then we went to a jewellry shop were Ann went crazy =) and after that we went to barista for coffe drinks. Somehow the days seem to go by so quickly lately. This last week..it's like..wow! Scary almost. I don't really know what i'm doing, just small outings, hanging out with friends, practicing and just simply having a good time. I feel that i enjoy every mysore day here more and more. For everyday that goes by i get more used to everything and i'm really learning to just 'love' everything happening around me.
It's a nice feeling really. Today is two months since i left sweden. In one way it feels like yesterday yet i still feel so much has happened during those two months, i feel like i've seen more than i would have done in years being home, is that a weird thing to say? I don't know.
lately a lot of people have been leaving, since it's the end of a month and since sharath is probably leaving too. I thought that when people would be leaving i would feel like going home too, but actually the last few days it has been the opposite. It has been scaring me how freakishly quick time seems to be going right now.
But i'm just really trying to relax and enjoy every minute...=) and i think i'm doing quite a good job.

So here are some pics from the last week. not so many maybe but a few atleast. =)


The 1000-step! Yay we climbed them all..and made it upp chamundi hill



The temple at the top


Some of the cows that were hanging around the temple.
Those two little white ones were standing so close to eachother like cuddling, supersweet.



Holding hands by the market. Gotta love the friendship people have here.


Hanging my laundry on the roof watching the sun come up.


Nice big dinner at Sixth Main with friends.


Me and Carolina at dinner "oh we're cute!"



Lovely breakfast at lovely Om Cafe with lovely people...ah this lovely life =)


Being 'good students' going to mehendi class.


Awesome sticker our rikshaw driver had today.





well dear friends and family, you gotta love the "sweat" life =)


hugs,

mich.

Hey,

The last few days have really been so nice. I've just been having such a very nice time..all the time. I'm feeling so unbelievable grateful being here. I wake up with a smile on my face when the alarm goes off. Knowing that the sound of the alarm means going off to practice. Lovely really. I love my walk in the morning, both to practice and back from practice, but especially my walk in the morning on my way there. All is quiet and still and there is somehow something magical that time in the morning, i don't really know how to desbribe it it's just such a nice part of my day, and then ofcourse the practice itself. Don't get me wrong practice isn't always great here..even though most days it is very good. I mean sure there are days here aswell when i wake up tired and feeling stiff.
Still.. i just have to say how happy i am being here. It sounds a bit silly maybe. But really I mean everyday here is an experience, what will happen, who will i meet, what will we talk about? It feels like a never ending adventure. And how even the smallest things..like going to the supermarket or just walking down the street to the breakfast place will somehow be an adventure of it's own..i mean really..that's india.

take care.

mich.

Hey,
sorry that i haven't written for a few days. I've been busy i guess and when i've gotten to a computer i've been e-mailing instead. But i should try to write a bit more here i guess.
Anu's internet cafe has opened back up now, so i don't have to climb that hill to Rishi's. Haha so lazy...no but really in this heat anything uphill is a challenge..no actually scratch that in this heat..most things are a challenge.
The last few days have felt hotter, if that now is possible i don't know. But yeah. It's hot here i can tell you that much.

Yesterday was Saturday (naturally seeing today is Sunday) Saturday means resting day, or no practice atleast. I went to Chamundi Hill with three friends and we climbed all of the famous 1000 steps. Very uneven steps i might point out. Some were tiny little steps and others were big ones. At some places it was also very steep and it was more climbing than walking up some steps. It was hard work, especially with the weather being hot, but i really enjoyed it. We had a nice time, had to stop a few times on the way and drink our water though. So yes climbed the 1000 steps..actually there were 1001, at the top was this big nice temple and like lots of cows up there just laying around outside the temple. haha lovely! You actually don't have to climb it, you can take a bus or riksha either half way or the whole way up. But i think the climb was just as big part of it as the actual temple. The temple was nice and we had a look inside and had a rest and drank a coconut before heading down again.
I can feel it in my legs today, especially the muscles you use going down the steps and also i think you tense up a bit more going down hill, since you're more scared of falling.
But yeah Chamundi Hill was very nice, that's one of those things you should do when in mysore and i've been wanting to do it.

The other day i went to this mehendi place (i'm not sure if that is how you spell it, i've seen it spelled like ten different ways, anywho) It was at this indian womans house and all these indian women sit around doing different kinds of crafts, embroidery, painting, sewing etc. I got to learn mehendi, the drawing with henna that they draw on hands and feet, but i was just learning the designs on paper for now. It was fun and interesting, we were the only western people there in this little house. I liked it the indian women were so sweet sitting there chatting, gossiping etc. They were very friendly to us, and i think we are going back tomorrow.

So today i haven't done much, got up at the crack of three this morning, nope not joking. On fridays and sundays my alarm goes of at 3:00 am, sometimes 3:10 though. So yeah my alarm went off at 3:00 am this morning and somehow i had trouble finding it, i was deep in to this dream of popping popcorn with Hailie at the summer cabin, allthough we were making the popcorn on a little burner that looks just like my one in india, and just like here we didn't have a lid so we had to use a plastic plate for a lid. Either way the popcorn got out of hand and me and Hailie ran outside and stood in the sandbox (suddenly we were standing in the sandbox at my old house in jarlasa...here we go again) then we went inside and there was popcorn everywhere!!! Then through my dream i heard my alarm go off and i litterly had to dig my way through the popcorn to find it.
haha woo...intense. Yep So i got ready and dressed and teeth brushed etc and walked to practice, 4:30 am(shala time) lead class this morning with sharath. Intense, good practice though. I was way tired afterwards, went home, showered and went back to bed. Isn't that lovely when you're able to go back to bed? Allthough it makes the day quite strange, I woke again at 8:30 and almost thought i'd missed practice, then remember that it was still the same day.
So i went to Om Cafe and had some french toast "it's a french toast kind of morning" everyone was saying and somehow everyone at my table were eating frenchtoast this morning. =)

After breakfast i went with some friends to an organic market. They didn't have so much there so we weren't there too terribly long, then we went to a bookshop, supermarket then home again. Cause by this time it was getting super hot and it's nice to be inside during a few of those hottest hours atleast. I fell asleep once home again.. again..LAZY!

Haha well now i'm out walking around again, it's after three now and there are a few clouds on the sky which makes it okay to walk around, well i managed to walk here without fainting atleast =) i'm going to head over to the shala i think, they have office hours now and i need to change a thing i bought there (hopefully)
Well this evening i'm going to go with some friends and listen to some live music here. I've herad that should be nice, some kind of jazzy style on the rooftop at some little place around here. Sounds nice and i'm looking forward to it.

Well you guys.
That was atleast a bit of an update i guess. Oh and what day is it today?...One month til Sydneys first birthday!! I got to talk to my sister yesterday! Yay, we hadn't even planned it, i just logged on and there she was.. it was great though eventhough we didn't talk for such a long time. For two months i've ony spoken to my sister three times... that's usually how many times we'll have called eachother on a normal day, before lunchtime.
I got to see them all too on the webcam, got to see how sydney can walk. Sweety pie. The camera was a bit delayed so it looked like she was walking in slow motion =) aaw..gotta love the internet sometimes don't you!!

Okay..now i need to get going.. just wanted to mention that little thing. =)

take care

mich.

Hello you all!

I would like to start by saying Happy birthday to my dear Grandma Joanne!! It's her birthday today and i want her to know i'm thinking of her =) and also Grandma thank you for your comment the other day, made me very happy to see and to know that you are reading my blog aswell.

And ofcourse, thank you to all you others who always read and leave comments. thank you, i enjoy reading your comments.

Today is tuesday and i had a very good practice this morning. I might even say amazing..haha well okay it was very good, lets just leave it at that. I find it interesting how you really never know how practice is going to be. Somedays are good, some are bad, some are really good and some are really bad. I guess it depends on a lot of things really, the way your body and mind are feeling, what you've eaten or been drinking the day before etc, if you've had a god nights sleep. Well yeah it depends on lots of things i guess. But today..deffinetly one of my best practices here yet, one of them =) A lot better than lead class sunday atleast when it was so crowded i spent bigger parts of my practice trying not to jump in to people or have people jump in to me. We were talking about that at breakfast this morning, lead classes and a guy said.."well really lead class is just about surviving!" haha i liked that. It describes how tough it can be sometimes.

Well so my practice today was very good, i deffinetly had some kind of flow going, being focussed or what ever you want to call it. I felt very '"aware"of my practice. And less aware of things around me. Lovely feeling really.

When my alarm went off this morning i swear i thought i was at home, which actually i first thought was very strange cause i haven't had that thougt for a while now, usually now when my alarm goes off i know that i'm in india and i'm off to practice. You just get used to things. But today i was surprised to find myself in india actually and while getting ready to go to practice i was wondering why this surpried me today and then slowly it came to me that i had been dreaming that i was at home.
It's strange really cause usually when i wake up i wont know what i've been dreaming first and then after i've been awake for a while it will come to me or i'll see something that will remind me of something from my dream and it will come to me that way.
Either way i dreamed i had just gotten home, back from india and even in my dream i was surprised to be home i was like "hmm that's strange that i am home already" and i was with my family which ofcourse was nice and i was giving them gifts that i'd bought them, the thing was that in my dream the things i was giving them i had no memory of buying. And they were quite weird things as well. And my family who ofcourse are lovely even in my dreams were all nice and sweet and saying things like "oh how nice thank you michelle!" when infact in my dream i was thinking "why the hell did i buy that"and actually i was a bit embarrassed of how ugly and strange things i'd bought. I had bought this awful longsleeved shirt for Henrik. i mean really in my dream i thought "what was i thinking?"and Henrik was so nice about it thanking me and i was so embarassed. haha it was a strange dream. Henrik i promise i wont buy you a ugly longsleeved shirt!
 Oh and another strange thing about my dream.. while all this was happening we were ofcourse at home..only the thing was that home was in Jarlasa. The house i grew up in, the house i moved away from when i was twelve, still in my dream i knew that that was 'home'
And still after that house i've actually had two other homes. yet still in my dreams (this has happened before, even a few times here in india) when i dream of 'home' it is the house i grew up in. Do any of you have that as well?
I dreamed for a few weeks ago that i was going to an early practice with my mom and dad and we overslept and i stood in the kitchen (of the house i grew up in) together with my parents wondering why all the clocks in the house went wrong. Strange.. and in my dream the kitchen looked exactly as it did when i was little, i remember in my dream seeing that white fruitbasket we had hanging over the counter, i remember the color of the wooden counter lots of details that i haven't thought about for years.... strange.

Well okay enough about my strange dreams. I mean seriously when was the last time you heard anyone say "hey i had a totally normal dream last night!" ? Yep whatever.

After practice i went home(my home in india) and drank green tea and ate some fresh fruit, then i showered and went for breakfast at Alias where i had more fruit, a hummus sandwich and shared a large pot of coffee with a friend. Nice.
And after breakfast i went straight here. Yep that's my day so far =)
oh another thing about 'home' i had a feeling the other day after coming home to my apartment after dinner, i went in and closed the door and thought to myself "oh its nice to be home" and then i kind of laughed at myself at how quickly you tend to get used to things and how the life here has all of a sudden became everyday life and how everyday life at home in sweden now somehow seems foreign. Yeah we sure are creatures of habit aren't we. Get us in to somekind of a routine and we're happy. =)
okay i need to stop writing about strange things now.
But well 'just want you to know i'm happy

Here are som photos from the last few days:


I went to the Zoo with my friend Brooke for a few days ago, it was quite fun. Allthough the indian people thought we were more interesting than the animals =) I especially enjoyed all of the hilarious signs everywhere and ofcourse the clothes that the indian tourists were wearing, i love their "western style"- indian clothes.
I wish i'd gotten pics of that. Here's one of the signs though.


Another stupid tourist infront of that sign =)




Some pics from around here:










I hope you all have a wonderful day!!


mich.

So i've survived my first month in mysore, who would have guessed? =) haha no really i can't really believe that a whole month has already gone by. The first days here two months felt like the longest time ever and already a month has gone by just like that. It's sooo strange really. it's gone so quickly and i'm so happy that i have another month here. I have so far been having such a very very nice time here.
I went and paid for my second month of practice yesterday =) fun. I'll be practicing earlier my second month, at 6:00 o'clock and at 4:30 fridays and sundays (lead classes). So it will be quite early mornings for me, but i'm really looking forward to practicing earlier. It will be great because the weather will be cooler at that time.
Oh and about the weather, note to self: walking out in midday dressed in black clothes...not such a good idea michelle! haha seriously! of some strange reason today i'm wearing a black shirt and black pants, way too warm if i might say so. Well actually i was wearing red pants earlier but while having breakfast(frenchtoast and coffee) i spilled honey on my pants. Therefore change of pants.
Oh and another thing when on the subject of weather, the other day it rained! OH MY! haha no seriously i've been in india since the end of january and not once has it rained, i seriously started thinking that maybe they did not have such a thing as rain in this huge country(no ofcourse i didn't really think so)But it's strange being in a place for a long time and never seeing a cloud on the sky. But then this week i've seen a few clouds actually and thursday evening it rained. It was quite nice actually.
I was in this little shop looking at things and the guy working there said "it's going to rain tonight ma'am" and yes indeed it did. I love the smell of rain when it hangs in the air. And specially 'summer rain' you know, when it's hot weather or warm and it rains. Somehow summer rain always makes me think of visiting my Grandma in Alaska, sitting inside drinking tea and watching movies from blockbuster and listening to the rain through the screen door. I don't know why rain in the summer time always makes me think of that, Because it actually didn't rain like unually much when we were there, i don't know that's just what comes to my mind when i smell the rain hanging in the air. And it's a very nice thing to think of so i think i'll continue with that =)

Well yesterday was lead practice which actually went very well for being lead. Usually i'll prefer mysore style ofcourse cause it really is alot nicer to do it in your own pace, and during lead Sharath makes us hold certain poses for a very long time. It's funny though cause like if someone will not be holding the pose or like going up in upward facing dog before Sharath tells us to he will say "why you hurrying? you have someplace else you got to be?" or "why you hurrying are you hungry?" haha it always gets us all laughing which makes holding the poses even harder one day he was even saying "why you in a hurry, you got a date or something?" to someone. Hah yeah try Uttpluthi while hearing that one.
But i'm starting to enjoy the lead practices more and more.

After practice yesterday Me, Brooke and Marielle went to the Lalita Mahal, which is actually a old Palace but is now a hotel where you can go to use the pool. It is such a beautiful place, its really like going back in time going there (maybe not the pool though) but the inside. They have a lovely garden as well where we took lots of photos doing all kinds of different yoga poses. hah we had a great time and i think the guys working there had a great time watching us.
After pictures we swam and layed in the sun abit. Somehow the sun yesterday was fierce and we all ended up getting a bit burned. Damn! I was so proud that i hadn't gotten the least bit of burned, but now the back of my thighs are a bit read. I didn't understand why yesterday after getting back from the pool it stinged a bit when i sat down on my bed to count the money before going to pay for my second month. And then i looked in the mirror and i was like "oh okay that would explain"
It's really not that bad though.


Well i guess i'll upload some photos for you as well. They are quite random photos taken over the last few weeks /days or whatever who knows? =) hope you enjoy. i do.



























okay so i had loads more photos i was going to upload but just uploading these have taken more than an hour. so this will be all for now.


mich.

Goodmorning,

Yesterday was a moonday which meant no practice, I went to the southern star with Brooke and we layed on the grass under the palm trees working on our tans and sipping sweet lime sodas. Yum.
So today is thursday and i've done my practice, i fellt quite tired today though, maybe since i didn't practice yesterday, who knows. It went okay though. After practice i went home and showered then went to Alia's for some toast and some coffee. Today is a coffee day i guess. =) they have good coffee there.

The last few days it's been a bit cloudier in the mornings, which actually is quite nice cause it makes it possible to be out walking in mid day with out being in direct sunlight the whole time(read: without constantly sweating)
It's still quite hot though but i think i'm getting more and more used to the heat, which i guess is a good thing.
I'm thinking about taking awalk around and just taking photos around town today(or someday soon atleast), you really see a lot of interesting things. Some day soon i'll come here and just upload a bunch of photos, i don't think i'll do it today though because it takes quite some time, cause it goes veeery slowly. But yeah i'll try to keep you updated with some pics someday soon.
I was taking pictures on my way here, i took a picture of this really shabby cat. Somehow the dogs walking around here look much more healthier than the few cats you see.
When i came in to the internet cafe` here that i'm at right now the owner commented first on my pants then looked at my camera and said "oh you should take some photos of my son!" haha don't you just love the people here? i do. The conversations you have with people here, even just walking down the street or whatever, you always get in to  these strange conversations with indian people. It's really funny somedays. The other day this guy stopped us to comment on my friends skirt, something about in india men wear skirts too. And we were saying yes like the guy who lives here and pointed to the house beside where we live (cause usually that guy always wears skirts) and the man said "no ma'am he is wearing shorts" (because yes..that day he was)
Or the other day having dinner at this restaurant parklane, when they brought the bill out they had put the bill in a little silver box and Brooke said "Oh how cute!" and the waiter answered "it's just a box ma'am!"
Haha.
Okay i'm going to get off this computer now, i need to write some e-mails first though.

hope you all are well =)

mich.

Goodmorning,

Today is tuesday (i think) god i actually have no idea what day it is anymore. But yeah tuesday it is. The days don't really matter, all you actually have to keep track of is: what time practice is, is it lead class or mysore style or is today maybe a moonday?
Yep that's about it. And for the record tomorrow is a moonday, right? yes. So no practice tomorrow. Maybe i'll have a sleep in.

Practice this morning was better than yesterday, i still feel my hamstring quite a bit but i seemed to be able to get down a bit further today atleast. So i'm guessing i'm on my way to recover. Just have to keep in mind to still take it easy =) certain things hurt more than others. Like kurmasana (the one i was doing when i got hurt) i think i'll forget about that one for a few days, i started trying to do it today but..no way in hell was my leg going to cooporate with me on that one, uh uh! Even bujapeedasana hurts a tiny bit but not like kurmasana. Hah listen to me! no somehow i'm just talking about the negative stuff, truth is i felt like i had a very good practice today actually. I felt stronger than the last two days and on my way home from practice i wasn't dead tired i actually felt i had some energy left. Nice. This is without coffee. Mhmm coffee would be good though.

Yesterday evening i went with brooke to barista and had coffee. Well what we actually had was mocha sundaes, which was like a tall glass with espresso in the bottom then ice cream and chocolate sauce..was there whipped cream in there too? Probably. It was like a boost of sugar and caffeine. Lovely haha. No really it was amazing and we had such a nice time drinking our nice coffee and talking.

So it's only 10:30 here and i have the whole day infront of me, what a lovely thought. I don't really know what todays mission will be. I'm thinking of going to buy a pineapple maybe..i've found the fruit man that my father was talking about! Maybe i'll give him the picture my dad sent with me, if he's there today.
Other than that me and brooke were talking about maybe sitting in the park and studying the posture names. I really need to learn them instead of saying things like "you know that one when you bend down like this and do like that?"

yep. gotta learn those.

well. a picture for you of the lovely mocha sundaes. =)



bye!

mich.

Hey,
I would like to start by saying thank you to you guys who always leave comments, even though i don't comment back i really like logging on and having nice new comments. You know who you are =) so thanks to you lovely friends and family.

Today is monday and even though yesterday was like the longest day ever (getting up at 3:00 for 4:30 practice) i still couldn't fall asleep last night. Strange how things are i spent the whole day being super tired and then when i finally went to bed- couldn't sleep! Well it didn't really matter cause i kind of had a sleep in today....compared to yesterday that is. I slept til 6:15 today which was nice and i went away for my 7:00 o'clock practice. I love walking to practice in the morning, it's a nice time of my day before it gets too hot and too busy outside, things are actually calm. And also i'm happy to be on my way to practice.

I can't get over the feeling when the alarm goes off in the moring and my first thought is that all i have to do today is actually my practice and i don't even have to do that. it's very nice having time to focus on my practice. Even though today i did not have the best practice, i pulled a hamstring last week. Which wasn't good at all. I had acupunture for it. That was a strange experience i climbed a big hill to go this acupunture guys place. He stuck some needles in the back of my thigh and on my ankle and then gradually during the day the worst of the pain went away. So interesting. I think i might go for another session with him like maybe tomorrow or wednesday. He was very good.
I could still feel my hamstring today which makes some of the foreward bendings a bit difficult (note to self: don't push yourself) It's funny really because the whole "know your limits" and "don't push yourself too much" is talk that often comes up in converstations like easy everyday with all kinds of different people. yet i think we all some how do it. Maybe it's being here and how we tend to get so wrapped up in the whole energ in the shala.
Because the energy is great.
Well so im going to try to take it a bit easier (meaning not pushing myself too hard) this week so i don't overstretch my hamstring even more. I'm just sooo happy that i can do the practice even if i don't get down as far in forward bendings like i did when my hamstring wasn't bothering me, atleast i don't miss practice. makes me happy happy.

So i don't know how using the internet these next few days will be because Anu's is closed now until the 21st of march which means the other places get a bit more crowded. I'm currently at another place which ive gone to a few times but i had to wait like 45minutes to get a computer today which frankly is just craziness!

Well is almost lunchtime, maybe i'll eat my lunch here.. hmm..haven't tried this place yet. We'll see.

So i hope you all are fine. Because i am really am =)
 Oh india!



mich.

Hey i'm way too tired to write right now, i got up at 3:00 o'clock to go to practice this morning. Yep that's right 3:00 o'clock. Actually practice started at 4:30 am (shala time) but then you have to get there like an hour early when it's lead practice to be able to get a good place =) yep.. so i can deffinetly say that today was a three cup of coffee morning. God i've been like a zombie most of today =) after practice we stayed and watched the intermediate lead class. That was very fun and interesting. And after that i had a two hour long breakfast at Alia's =)
Well i'll just give you two photos for now, cause im using a new internet place and uploading the photos seems to take forever. but i think these two photos(this time from my big camera) gives you a quite nice picture of india and mysore =)


cow.


rikshas all lined up.




bye!

//mich.