It’s only my second day here and I already feel like I’ve been here a while. I have Very good news. They have something very Special here. It’s called Bed Tea or Bed Coffee! When you are in a hotel, like setting the alarm with the front desk, you can say I would like bed tea at 7:00 am. And they bring it to you- for Free! I don’t understand all aspects of it – like- do they use the hotel key to enter your room so you don’t have to get out of bed to open the door? When the whole point is that they are bringing you tea or coffee in bed? So it is new to me and I will let you know the intricacies of this concept- I love it!
My second day at the Yoga Shala-
Quite the crowd! Looks like it is a staggered schedule. I think it may begin at 6 or 7am. So basically, you show up at the time you’ve been given ( tho no one is checking) and you do your practice. There is a set series of poses, which you are supposed to know by heart before you come and you move thru the sequence, sun salutations and all the rest in the Primary Series. I had heard, years ago that you should have been doing Ashtanga daily for 8 years before you were ready for the class here in Mysore. But there was a girl in the class today who didn’t know from nothing! First time she’d ever done it. I guess there are exceptions to every rule. As I was finishing up my practice, I did headstand before shoulder stand- standard the world over- but not in Ashtanga. So it’s all in the details.
I had breakfast with a lovely yogi named Vanya, from Montreal; a costume designer who has many friends who work for Cirque! Small world. Then onto chanting class in the main Shala with about 300 yogis. And massage time (no 6) at noon.
Getting all oiled up is getting old and frankly boring. Thank goodness I have only one massage left- tomorrow, and then I’m moving down the street to another Ayurveda place where the guy does transformational healing( I have an appointment on Sunday)- and he does past life regression- and he does workshops on how to do that to others. His name is Kumar, and I went to one of his free meditation classes in a bamboo hut on top of his roof. He said something that cracked me and Allynn up – talking about himself- he said us Indian folk here in India do not do yoga- we sell yoga
Tomorrow is Saturday, and there is no Astanga class on Saturday. And Monday is a full moon so there is no class then either. So maybe I’ll go with Allynn in the morning to his gym and see if I can have a guest pass. Maybe I’ll do my Ashtanga there. I’ve always done it on Saturdays! And on full moons too. Maybe I’ve been working too hard- entirely possible. Tomorrow I’ll take a picture of the new Indian breakfast I’ve been eating- pretty interesting. Neither one of us are sick! It’s great and we’re going out for Indian food tonight- Whoopee!!! 
About the cow picture, after mandatory chanting class every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, at 11:30 am, these 2 cows show up all decked out in Sunday finery ! And their owners ask for money if you’d like to take their picture! How innovative! They’ve figured out the perfect time – critical mass – when the most yogis are exiting the building – I fell for it and they were very difficult to photograph! So I’ll try again next time.
Love to you all! Have a lovely weekend. Namaste , Annie