raindrops on roses

the days are flying by now as fast as a dandelion disperses in the wind. the tighter i try to hold on to it, the faster time slips away... like grains of sand falling through my fingers. i am leaving india in a week... and it breaks my heart.

5 months ago, i lay on a bed completely foreign to me, in a country that i knew nothing about. i was so scared that i flirted with the idea that maybe i could sleep for a few months until bec got here... so i didn't have to face my fears and the unknown alone.

but i dug deep and found the courage to leave that room and go out into a world that intimidated me... and i discovered a beauty and peace i've never seen before. i learned that smiles are easy and people are loving, if you give them the chance... and life is way more than making money.

it turns out that there is so much beauty in this world that sometimes it takes my breath away... literally.

red and purple flowers fall from the trees while women meticulously sweep them up and wash their driveways. bold, vivid colors splash the streets from saris and butterflies floating in the wind. the smell of jasmine constantly floats through the air, mixing with the spicy scents of curry and rice wafting in through the windows. the rythmic hum of conversations in kanada meld with the street vendors singing about their wares. power outages and rain storms. easy, brilliant indian smiles. sincere joy and happiness radiating from every pore. the calm, almost still pace in a culture of cluttered calamity.

manasa... a little girl riding on the back of her dad's scooter, leaning back and holding tightly to his waist. she soaks up the sun with a huge smile on her face. she is a constant reminder to me of what i'm looking for in life. she smiles endlessly and dances about. she doesn't speak much, but she laughs all the time.

leaving all of this is heartbreaking to me. i have found a home in india. i have found friends and i have found myself. i have learned and grown so much here. i am strong and i am at peace. i'm glad i didn't sleep for 5 months... it's hard to imagine now that i ever wanted to. there are so many things that i will miss about being here, but what i'll miss the most is how india makes me feel about myself... and i give thanks for that.

and now i can go home because i am happy and i am strong... and i know i'll be back.

into the wild

i've been trying to upload videos for weeks now and the indian internet isn't having any of it. either the power goes out randomly (which is about 95% of the time) or the super-slow indian internet connection freezes up and crashes if i try to do anything complex (which includes the complexity of uploading any videos to my blog)... so you'll just have to be satisfied with me simply describing our adventure into nagarhole national forest... and keep in mind that i do have video to actually back my story up this time to prove that i'm not exaggerating... for once.

the trip to nagarhole national forest began with a phone call to the central bus stand... which turned out to be quite the adventure in itself.

the phone rang a couple of times before a man picked up mumbling something that sounded like "hallo", being followed by a string of very fast words spoken in a language that i do not understand.

"hi, um, hello. i was wondering if you could tell me what time the bus leaves for nagarhole national park tomorrow morning?"

the man rattles off another string of very fast kanada... this time, a little faster and a little louder.

"um, hello? is this the central bus stand? what time does the bus leave for nagarhole?"

another mumbling string of words and i hear the phone being shuffled and passed over.

"hallo?"
"hi. yes. what time does the bus leave for nagarhole?"
"eh?"
"nagarhole. what time?"
"nagarhole?"
"nagarhole."
"6:15. 9:30" click.

seeing that this is a normal indian phone call for me, i mistakenly overlook the fact that this should of been a very inauspicious sign for us...

bec and i get to the bus station at 9 am the next morning, still questioning if we will even get close to the national forest. after wandering around aimlessly through a maze of honking city buses with drivers yelling and ticket men trying to convince us to come to bangalore instead, we finally find ourselves on a bus heading to nagarhole.


















side note: according to our guidebooks, we should avoid the crowds and go to the forest during the week instead of the weekend to ensure a spot on the safari that will take us through the forest to view the fascinating wild animals that live there. since this was a monday, which happened to be a day off for us because it was a moon day, we were happy and relaxed not to have to elbow our way into the park.

our guidebooks also gave us some vague directions on how to reach the park from the small town we were to be dropped off in... i figured it would be a perfect little town to have lunch in before we headed into the forest, so i made sure to have a small breakfast as to not ruin the fabulous lunch i had envisioned for us.

alas, you can imagine our surprise when the city bus dropped us off in the middle of the forest instead of in the small town we were expecting. as we get off the bus, the bus driver and the ticket man smile widely and wave as they slam the doors and tear off down the road. bec and i watched the back of the bus until the cloud of dust disappeared.

we slowly turned a full circle to stand facing each other again... i think we realized at the same time that we were the only 2 people in a country of one billion that had decided to go to nagarhole national forest on moon day. we looked at each other in utter silence and i hesitantly shrugged my shoulders and smiled...

and then my stomach growled.

absorbing the silence

almost four months in and i am officially turning indian...

and it's not just because my feet are constantly dry, cracking and dirty... or that my face is the tannest part of my body... or that i have an indian accent and have mastered the ambiguous indian head-wobble... or even that my sweat smells like curry and my sense of timing has slowed to a standstill... or because my days now revolve around my yoga practice and my next meal... and if i do a bucket of laundry AND go to the market, it's a busy day...

it's because i can now sit for hours and just... well... just be. i can be quiet and still and observe the things going on around me and the things that are going on in my head. i can slow the chaos of my mind for just a few seconds and be completely content with the present moment. i can now watch the world and ponder life... believe it or not... in complete silence.

i know most of you are wondering who are you and what the hell have you done with my super-loud and sometimes obnoxious friend... and honestly, i wonder the same thing myself.

i have come to india to try to sort out my head... and i have come to realize that not only is that an impossible task, but that i am learning something far greater than figuring out what's actually going on in my head... i am learning how to listen to the world through my heart.


















bec and i realized that after 5 solid weeks, we finally fell silent. we found that we don't need to communicate verbally all the time anymore... we don't need to be babbling constantly and filling the air with noise. we joke about being telepathic now because we can just look at each other and know what the other is thinking... which usually ends in bouts of laughter and head-nodding.

we recently went to nagarhole national park and sat quietly for hours without even noticing how much time had gone by. we blended in with the indian men that seemed to be a part of the forest... silent and unmoving. a huge wave of peace and contentment washed over me and i finally realized that this is what it truly means to be indian.

i now feel a sense of peace and love radiating from everything around me... and i can only sense it when i allow myself to be silent... so i'm trying to quiet myself every now and again so i can absorb this bubble of internal peace... wow. i think that was the hippiest thing i have ever said.

shine on you crazy diamond

the same day guruji passed from this life, my very best friend in the whole wide world landed in india... i decided to surprise her by taking the late night drive up to bangalore with kumar in an old ambassador.

after whipping through traffic and flying over a bajillion speedbumps, witnessing a few car wrecks and seeing a few dead bodies along the way... i arrived at the airport 4 hours later, cold and jostled, but completely estatic. these were the thoughts that ran through my head as i was waiting for her plane to land...

i should of brushed my teeth before i left. i would strangle a monkey for a piece of gum... i'm freezing my bollocks off. maybe i should of had a hot coffee instead of this iced eskimo... kumar picks his nose a lot, but he's very sweet... it's the only cold day in india and i'm sitting outside the airport in flip flops and a flimsy longsleeve t-shirt. what airport puts the waiting lounge outside the actual airport anyway?... i'm so excited, i could puke... the flight is delayed... just my luck. the universe tests me again...

after what seemed like eons, bec finally walks out of the airport with a huge smile on her face and a shell-shocked look in her eye. she spots the driver, kumar, holding a sign with her name on it, jumping up and down and waving her over. as she walks towards him, i tackle her from the sidelines... and get the biggest hug in the universe.

seeing bec walk out of the airport and into india made me realize how far i've come... in life and across the world... and how badly i've needed her here. i've been needing a good, solid hug for weeks... especially from one of the people who know me best in this world.

we laughed and cried and giggled and sighed the whole entire ride back to mysore... and i haven't shut up since. i even had to force myself to stop talking so she could take a shower.

we have coffee on the balcony at 4:30 am and absorb the quiet beauty of dawn with whispered conversations and cool breezes... a blue hue blankets the streets of gokulam for just a moment. we're awake even before the birds. yoga practice is beyond amazing and we can't wait to get there.

we have band practice in the afternoon... um, yeah... who knew i would ever be in a band... since i don't want to outshine the band, i've decided to take a back seat and be the chai wallah and the t-shirt designer... i make a killer chai these days. i've taken the title of band manager... and i'm pretty good at it. (my bandmates didn't want me to feel left out) becca and our aussie friend tim spend most of the time randomly strumming their guitars... sometimes they learn new songs and natalie the mexican and i pretend we know how to sing. my favorite song so far is "i'll give you a dollar"... we've even made our first music video.

my best friend is finally here. my heart is filled. i feel complete. even though i've been feeling all the heaviness of the world lately, i now feel safe within this light. i feel grateful for my own life, for my own strength, for my own happiness. i know how precious life is, how lucky i am to be where i am and to have all these amazing people around me. i laugh all the time now and get random hugs whenever i need one. india is good... it all is.

beyond the darkness

there will always be light.

from this day on, may 18th will be known around the world as a day of sadness and death... it is the day that the sparkle left guruji's eyes forever...

but when i look at it a little closer and from a different angle, i also see it encompassed in radiant light, love and hope.

sitting in the shala, surrounded by pattabhi jois' family, friends and students, meditating and praying, i realized how incredibly grateful i am... to this man and for my life. this man laying before me on the floor, covered in garlands of flowers and rice, has changed my life forever... and i never even met him before this day.

guruji gave this world a yoga that has healed my body, mind and soul. he has shown me the peace and light that life brings. his energy permeates the shala, the world and my whole being. through this practice, he has taught me that i have the strength and power to heal myself. if this amazing being never existed, i wouldn't be here, in this space, at this time... and for that, i am eternally grateful.

so instead of grieving his death, i will celebrate his life... for no matter how indirectly, he has changed my life and given me strength... and love for myself.

over the rainbow

... is a land called oooooty.

after 2 months of being solely in mysore, i started to feel a bit stagnant and antsy. i needed to get out, even if it was just for a couple of days... so a few of my new-found friends and i decided to venture into the mountains to a city called ooty.

ooty is about a five-hour bus ride through one of india's lush national forests... up, up, up into a british hill station surrounded by a bajillion curves, turns and bends... where a cool breeze and clean air were waiting for me.

the drive up there was exhilarating. we were on a standard indian bus with wide open windows and no shock absorption. i hung my head out the window the whole time like a car-ride-loving dog... though i did manage to keep my tongue in my mouth for the most part.

the time in ooty was uneventful other than the fact that i finally got to see another part of india and my butt didn't sweat for the first time since i've been in this country.

we stayed at the ywca, and i got suckered into sleeping on the concrete floor... of course the story is a bit different depending who you ask, but this is my blog, so we'll go with my version... i woke up very stiff and sore... and vowed the next time i go camping, i'm bringing an air mattress...

instead of trying to fight the indian crowd at the bus station, we decided to get our return bus tickets from the ywca reception desk... now i know when someone offers a smaller bus that will get us home faster, i'll think twice about it and say "um, no".

we were told that the bus would arrive from 3:30 to 4, so being the very punctual virgo that i am, we were there by 3... the bus finally pulled up at 4:30. the "bus" turned out to be a small airport shuttle... "small" being the key word here... i've only been in an airport shuttle for a 20 minute ride to the actual airport, so i had no idea what to expect on an airport shuttle flying down a mountain for 5 hours...

the four of us were the only ones getting onto the bus, so i figured this wouldn't be as bad as i initially thought. we each took a row of seats to ourselves and settled in for the "shorter" ride home.


















the bus drove us into the center of ooty to the main office... apparently, we were picking up more passengers. the director of the expedition made the four of us cram in next to each other while 20 more people squeezed onto the bus. i was sitting as close as i possibly could to my new friend natalie... aka the mexican, but not really a mexican... and my left butt-cheek was still hanging off the seat into the aisle. as my luck would have it, two big-boned indians and their 6-year-old spastic son took up the seats next to me.

the ywca was right about one thing... the bus was faster. i've never seen a vehicle fly so fast down a mountain before. the driver had no awareness of anything else on the road. we almost killed a few pedestrians, took out a few trees and natalie almost lost her head from oncoming traffic. after about 20 minutes of whipping around hairpin curves, the bus pulls over... the 6-year-old has to pee... in moments, he is whisked back onto the bus, the driver slams on the gas and we were off again... most of us suffering from minor whiplash... another 20 minutes later, the bus pulls over again... a woman in the front has to get sick... i wish i could say it was the only time.

after 6 and a half hours of bouncing all over the road, stopping and going at top speeds, dodging speed bumps and potholes and listening to the constant sound of indian ring tones... and i mean constant... we finally pull into mysore, exhausted, but smiling. i've discovered that the journey to the destination is always my favorite part... whether by scooter, rickshaw or bus... and no matter how ridiculous the situation seems to get, it's part of my adventure... and i laugh the whole time.

mischief and mayhem

for the people i had to leave back in the states... i thought you would like to meet the riffraff i've been hanging out with...

for my new friends i found here... if you have not made my list of riffraff... do not think you have escaped... it just means that (a.) you will be featured in a different blog... i gotta keep these things readable, ya know... or (b.) you're still here (or you just left)... and i have plenty of time to make stuff up about you.


















this is my british friend alice (finally shown here)... she taught me how to eat in this country... she was my first friend in india as well as the reason i gained weight in india... i'm sure my mom thanks you girl. she also taught me how to play the "indian game" and how to laugh at myself (even more than i do already)... nice one, yeah?... you should sing a song about that.














these are the canadians... they taught me words like gunt and swass... they tried to show me how to be canadian, but there's no hiding the fact that i'm completely not... they gave me the biggest gift of them all... the cake man. i found joy in them. they gave me a name and reminded me how to be truly happy.














gigi is my new german friend from LA... she is a healer... even though she would never admit it. she has a great laugh and will scare the crap out of any indian... especially the kids. ella, ella!














this is alex... she is also my new german friend, but she actually lives in germany. she taught me how to let go and reminded me that i can heal myself... she showed me that unrestrained laughter is a huge healer and coffee is even more delicious than i ever knew... wow, those are really big glasses!














these are the swedes. they showed me that i should learn a foreign language just so i can mess with people who don't understand the language. mutter something and insert name here... hahaha.














this is david from toronto. we connected as soon as we met. he thinks i'm funnier than i do... i didn't even know that was possible. he's the first to put a stipulation on my couch-surfing north american tour... three days max... always keepin' it real, yo.

i feel so lucky to meet so many fascinating people from all over the world. it's nice to discover that you can connect so deeply with people in such a short amount of time... and find so many who will let me sleep on their couches.

auspicious ambiguity...

or... things that are "very indian"

i learn something new about the indian culture every day, so i thought it would be fun to enlighten you on some of the things i'm learning... like the fact that indians use the word "auspicious" for everything. i don't even know what that word means... but i know that it's not very auspicious to wear my shawl upside-down and inside-out... so my british friend alice (again, not shown here) sent me this definition...

Aus.pi.cious. adj.
1. promising success; propitious; opportune; favorable: an auspicious occasion.
2. favored by fortune; prosperous; fortunate.

it seems pretty vague, but i take it as super lucky, especially in the "blessed by the gods" kind of way.

first and foremost... there is this head-bobbing thing i've been trying to understand ever since i arrived here. it's not a yes nod or a no nod... it's kind of in between... sort of like a bobble head really... i've come to the conclusion that it doesn't mean yes or no, but rather "maybe, if i feel like it"... or "yes for now, but that could change in a minute"... or sometimes even "i'm not going to tell you, it's more fun to watch you guess". even though the meaning is very ambiguous to me, i have found that i've picked up this mannerism for the occasions that i don't really understand something or if i don't want to give a straight answer.


















indian queuing... waiting in line in an indian post office can be pretty exasperating. indians have their own way of queuing... basically, they just think that they should be next. i'm working on being more aggressive.

indian electricity... the electrical power in this city goes out at least once a day. i find this very amusing for some reason. it's very india to me... i like to think it's the universe's way to force everyone to stop what they're doing and chill out for a minute... but really, it's probably because the city lights up the whole palace every sunday with a bajillion tiny white bulbs and they need to save up energy a little bit at a time throughout the week.

the electrical wiring is a mess here (my german friends would be horrified). there is no order or any caution taken when dealing with electricity. i once saw a random indian man walk up to a power box, snip a wire with a pair of honkin' scissors and the house in front of him went dark. i'm guessing he was the power company.

indian driving... the driving in this country is loud, fast, spastic and dangerous... i love it. i'm too scared to drive myself, but one of my favorite things here is to ride on the back of a scooter, zipping in and out of traffic, bouncing from one side of the road to the other, dodging cars, buses, rickshaws and food vendors... nearly getting killed and laughing the whole time.

most indians drive a scooter or an enfield... and they carry their whole family of five and all their belongings with them... literally. recently, i saw two men precariously balanced on a bike, one driving and the other holding a full-size computer screen under one arm and a large suitcase under the other.


















every day i see loads of things that make me smile and every day shines new light. i feel that my mind... and my soul for that matter... opens more each day. i love this country. i love its people... and i love its food (obviously). i sweat constantly and i'm completely okay with that. i like bucket baths and bucket laundry. i like smiling all the time. smiling is my favorite.

being peace

i live at the bottom of a rather steep hill... and at 4 o'clock every morning, i climb up this hill to the yoga shala.

the only sounds i hear are the flip flopping of my birks... which seem to echo in the stillness of the early morning. the rustling of a bush from some unknown creature or the creaking of a house gate sound a lot louder than they should... and for a brief moment, a b-rated horror flick flashes through my mind.

far off, i see the silhouettes of other yoga students also walking in the quiet darkness. as i get closer to the top of the hill, i find that i'm breathing a little heavier and my heart is beating a little faster.

when i arrive at the shala, some of the yogis have already started their practice. the air is filled with the rhythmic humming of their collective breath. everyone flows to their own pace... their own rhythm. inhale... arms float over head. exhale... the torso falls gracefully forward, nose touching the knees. some people float through the air, light as a feather. others are a bit heavier in their mind... and it reflects in their practice.

the energy here is tangible.

i lay out my mat and step to the front. standing with my feet together, i feel the balance of my body. i bring my hands to my heart and close my eyes. inside, i pray for the peace and strength to let go so i can heal. deepening my breath, i melt into the meditative rhythm.

for the next two hours, i am lost in breath and movement. i feel a calming peace wash over me. for a short time, my mind is free from thought. here, i feel complete happiness, complete truth. this is what i've come for. to be able to let go of everything... if only for a moment. "Being in the now"... step four.

indian spice

a lot of people have been asking me what i do all day... so i thought i'd fill you in on a day in my indian life... first, i have to actually think about what i do all day.

because the pace is so much slower here than it is in the west, there is so much more time to absorb each moment to just be. it's a foreign idea to most of us, but i'm allowing myself to sit still long enough to listen and absorb the things around me... i've actually found that i'm learning so much... about myself and the world...

i wake up super early to absorb the silence before going to practice. my practice starts at 6 now... so i'm moving around by 4:30-ish... which means i'm usually in bed by 9...

after practice, i take a two hour breakfast... come to think of it, i pretty much eat all day. i might take a nap or read a bit here and there, but if i were to sum up my day, it would be pretty much... eating.

before i left for india, i got a lot of sarcastic jokes like "well, i hope you like indian food."... to which i always replied, "duh, of course i do." it didn't really occur to me until after i landed here that i realized that i've never actually had indian food. this really isn't such a good position to be in when you have a very sensitive "that's an unfamiliar texture gag reflex"... especially since i am now immersed in a foreign country that has no cocoa puffs or 5 guys burgers.

to put it mildly, my first indian meal was a bust. when i finally found a place to eat, i perused the menu and realized with great shock that i had no idea what i was looking at. for some reason i didn't even think about this predicament before i left the states. being a planner... as you all well know me to be... i would of expected to have thought this through... maybe i would of done some research so my first meal wouldn't involve me randomly ordering something off the menu by pointing to it and grunting to the waiter... unfortunately, this is exactly what happened.

i ended up pointing to the special of the day... which i soon found out that i should never do. what i got was a bowl of mushed up corn bits mixed up with some mash or porridge of some sort... i don't actually know what it was... i just know that my gag reflex was definitely kicking in. most of you know that i don't do well with chunky or slimy or mushy... or raw or lumpy or... well you get the point.

i knew that i needed to activate my jedi-mind trick if i was ever going to get through this. praying that my probiotic system would kick in at the appropriate moment, i started with baby bites. this only worked for a short period of time. i gave up after choking down a few spoonfuls and accepted the fact that i'd probably starve to death within a couple of days.

the day after this dreadful experience, i was of course hungry again. i realized i couldn't avoid food for the next 5 months, so i decided i would look to see what everybody else was eating and then just point to that... this worked fine for a while, but it got pretty boring. i knew there had to be a better way.

then i met alice (not shown here). alice is my new british friend who has shown me how to eat in india... and now i can't stop eating. i think i am the only girl in the world that goes to india and actually gains weight. my mother is thrilled. i've actually put myself on a diet... in india... it's really the funniest thing ever. who does that?














besides for stuffing my face, my day also consists of meditation and chanting classes and a lot of wandering around. i've met a lot of cool people from all over the world... so i've been doing a lot of talking and laughing. india is good and i'm starting to blend... well, as much as a white girl from florida can.

the darjeeling hum

i've had many odd encounters with cows and monkeys, but chickens seem hard to come by. week one has passed and i finally found my chicken. unfortunately i wasn't sitting next to it on a bus, but i figured this was close enough.

as each day goes by, it gets easier and easier living in india... i don't think i'll ever really blend, but at least i'm not just wandering around looking lost anymore. i am getting pretty comfortable with the constant noise, the dusty air and the foreign food... and being stared at everywhere i go.

my yoga practice starts at 7 a.m. during the week. i wake up at 5 a.m. just so i can absorb the silence. it's not too often that india is actually quiet. i wake up slowly... i'm doing everything slowly these days... that's just how it's done here. i stretch out a bit on my bed and play a song on my ipod before my feet even touch the ground. This never fails to bring a huge smile to my face. It's nice to lay there in the dark and just smile for a few minutes.

softly, in the distance... i hear a street vendor pushing a cart through the neighborhood, calling for pineapple, watermelon and papaya... soon after, Kellashrani, the elder in the house calls upstairs to wake the family. the birds start chirping. a horn sounds. a car drives by. a gate creaks open. the old man coughs up a loogie. a bike bell chimes. a conversation in hindi is being mumbled in the next room.

slowly these sounds start to merge into one giant clash of sounds. one car has turned into a bajillion cars, all honking at the same time. they honk for everything here. when they're turning, when they're passing... when they're going to hit something... when they pass a temple... sometimes i think they honk just to honk. each horn seems to have a different sound, so it sounds like a symphony of chaos. i'm still laying in bed and notice, this is very india... it was completely silent five minutes ago.

i find that my senses are amplified here... i wonder if it's because i'm in a foreign land or if it's because i'm starting to quiet myself... or maybe i just cleaned my ears.

The Griswolds Go To India

i decided to do the tourist thing the other day to try to get my head around the fact that i'm in india and i'm not taking it by storm... so instead of trying to blend, i decided to be the blatant tourist... except i forgot my camera... Mandy's camera actually (thanks girl)... so i had to photoshop a visual reference for my fans. Hopefully, i won't forget it again or you're going to see this image a lot.

i ended up taking a rickshaw ride to the maharajah's palace (side note: a rickshaw is not a little asian man pulling white americans around on a two wheel cart, but a miniture automobile americans stuff themselves into if they don't want to walk) because my Rough Guide To India says it's the biggest tourist attraction in mysore... why go small really? if you're gonna do it, then do it...

being the only single white female in this joint, it's safe to say i got a lot of looks... actually, it was like i was in a zoo... except there was no glass. i learned that indians travel in packs for the most part, so i really looked alone... kind of like that little red fish in a see of blue fish. a lot of people goggled at me, some even asked for my picture... i felt like a famous polar bear in the desert. a group of woman were laughing at me as i walked into a temple. one of them even followed me in there, grabbed my arm and pulled me back out to the group so they could laugh some more. apparently my sunglasses were funny. i laughed with them.

the people in india seem lighter than americans. they don't carry the weight of their problems on their shoulders... and they smile easily. the children are my favorite. they are so excited and sincerely curious about me. what is your name? what is your country? and if i see them again, they run by screaming "Elisabet! Elisabet!" and laugh the whole way.

i'm slowly getting adjusted and more comfortable being in india. i started my yoga practice yesterday and it was absolutely amazing. i've never felt such a tangible energy before.

i haven't sat next to a live chicken yet (or dead)... sorry Kristen... but i did get swooped by a family of monkeys. Cows are everywhere except for my dinner plate and i haven't got the delhi belly yet... knocking on wood.

Traveling Across The Universe

so, when they say an image is worth a thousand words, i think this is what they had in mind. this is the beginning of my flight out of miami. gianormous john is already sweaty and busting a gut... this isn't good for me. before i left, i said i didn't want to get stuck (a.) next to a crying baby (b.) in the middle of two fat people (c.) next to a chatty cathy, space-invader... guess which one i got... yup, not to mention he smelled like gin and cigarettes. ug... at least he wasn't boring. after about four hours of chatting it up with my new-found friend, he gave me allowance to sleep. i think my continuous yawning and rubbing my eyes clued him in. quite the start to my incredible journey.

eight hours to london, four hours waiting in the airport, nine hours to bangalore. finally, my nerves start to set in. as we were descending, i look out the window and see nothing. no city lights, no moon. and then it hit me. i'm in india. what?!

as i get off the plane, i expect a clash of sounds... but instead i was overwhelmed by the stunning silence. it was almost surreal... filing off the plane, through customs and even to baggage claim... complete silence except for the occasional whisper and shuffling about. it's 4:35 am.

last minute before i left the states, i decided to rent a private driver instead of taking the train four hours to mysore... this was the best decision i've made so far. when i walked outside, my driver was standing there calling my name, "elisabet, elisabet!"...bouncing up and down, waving and smiling as wide as humanly possible... his energy calmed me down and i knew i was safe. what a strange feeling. it was a bit dodgy around me, but i felt protected. the ride from bangalore to mysore was absolutely crazy and i loved every minute of it. I almost died 5 times, but i still felt safe. mahesh was on it... There was an accident at one point, so he made a three point turn in the middle of a one way and started going in the opposite direction. it was perfectly normal, dodging the oncoming traffic as he went. I loved it. I even laughed out loud and told him I thought his driving was fantastic.

mahesh dropped me off at my indian family's house. i was greeted with warm smiles, short sentences and a lot of head-bobbing. i'm getting used to not talking so much. i know, amazing really.

the first day was a lot of aimlessly wandering around. it was quite intimidating and overwhelming. i soon realized that instead of trying to take mysore by storm, i'm going to take it slowly... not the european way, but the indian way. i have a lot to learn and i'm loving every minute of it.

The Hardest Part

As I sit down to write my heart-wrenching good-bye, I realize that I'm finally at a loss for words. I'm sitting here, staring at the computer screen wondering how I can express exactly how I am feeling. And then I think... this blog thing is going to be hard. It's much easier to write my feelings in a journal, knowing no one will ever read it... but now, I have 17 followers... that's a lot of pressure people. So no judgement.

The hardest part is letting go and saying goodbye. I've never been good at it. My chin wrinkles up, my bottom lip quivers and my voice shakes like a little kid who just fell off her bike. Beyond being an ugly crier, I just hate saying goodbye to the people in my life, even when it's only for a short time.

I was going to be all cliche' about it and tell you how much I'll miss you... how grateful I am to have you in my life... how glad I am that we became so close... how I'm going to miss being your bus-buddy and poking you with a plastic sword... how glad I am that I used to smoke because that's how we became so close... how I'm going to miss dancing and being your biggest fan... how I'm going to miss busting your balls and calling you out... or kicking you in the shins... or yelling at you for looking me up and down and giving me the stink eye... how I'm going to miss doing all of your work... how I'm going to miss you telling me how to properly kill a man with a pen... how I'm going to miss making up acronyms just to prove we are ITK... how I'm going to miss being your WBFF... and talking about why I'm REALLY not on facebook... and how I'm even going to miss all of your white shirts.

I'll miss your laugh, your smile, your wit, your attitude, your teasing, your kindness, your generosity, your friendship and your love.

But then I realized that you would think who the hell just wrote that... So I'm just going to say that I'm glad you're all in my life... and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Slumdog Elizabeth Party Pictures

Q&A with Elizabeth

In general, what inspired you to go on this adventure?
You mean, besides going through a mid-life crisis at the age of 33? Instead of buying a corvette and getting an 18-year-old girlfriend, I decided to follow my heart and my passion to India to study yoga under the only living guru of my practice... To find myself and my direction in life...

How have you prepared for this trip, mentally & physically?
I removed the mental and physical clutter in my life. I gave most of my stuff away and stopped hugging people I don’t like... I also got a world map.

Give us a better picture of what your average day in India will be like.
Who knows really? I’ll probably be climbing out of my cardboard box around 5 a.m... Practicing yoga for a few hours... Chanting, meditating... Eating rice and smacking a heck of a lot of mosquitoes along the way... And avoiding the toilets.

How long do you plan on staying and will you come back to Jacksonville?
My return ticket is for July 23rd... That doesn’t really say much. I have no idea if and when I’m coming back or where I’ll be when I’m through searching. Are we ever through searching? I guess that’s part of what I’m looking for when I’m over there... What I want to do and where I want to do it. Maybe it’s in Jacksonville, maybe it’s climbing Mt. Fuji... It’s probably couch surfing for a few months across the country. You and Robert have a nice couch, right?

What do you anticipate that you’ll miss most about the USA?
Oh, that’s easy. Margaritas and hot dogs.

Do you promise to keep in touch and update your blog as much as possible?
Of course. I love the people in my life. If I didn’t, you wouldn’t be in it.