In Vienna!

I arrived at about 4pm Vienna time, Sunday, April 20, and here was my first reaction to being here, from excerpts to John, now so far away:

I feel like I'm on the other side of the world! Oh, I am on the other side of the world. And I feel it.

My room is very bright and sunny. Very sparse, but it will suffice. Everyone speaks German. Why can't everyone just speak English for crying out loud!  I don't know what the hell I'm doing here, but I'm here! The flight was the longest flight of my life. I slept about 20 minutes on the plane (but saw two good movies they showed). Then a couple of hours off and on in the Frankfurt airport.

The Frankfurt airport!! Oh my God. Definitely not your mother's airport. Unless she is German, of course. And from Frankfurt. It was a pretty interesting experience for sure. At first we were herded (literally, there were a lot of us!) into a huge blob in front of "passport control" and a bigger blob to get through security. Took about an hour and everything was pretty civilized. No riots or anything. Just lots and lots of people, of all different shapes, sizes, colors, flavors. Quite lovely to see the variety of the human species for a change. Not like homogenous Portland, Oregon.

I'm eating a freeze-dried rice and bean soup thing--add water and viola! Soup! Tastes like crap. But it's food. I'll need to get better than this, though. I miss my almond butter. And they took away my organic beef boullion I brought for the nighttime when my blood sugar gets low. Very sad. My little water heater/kettle I brought with me works incredibly well. At least I'll

 have hot tea readily available.

I took some pictures of the room and plan to post them on the blog. In a bit I'm going to see if I can find wi-fi. Of course there is nothing here in this room. I'm lucky the electricity works!  

Pictures of my room:

Okay, it's a bit messy, but hey, I haven't had a chance to get organized yet!

More angles of my room (maybe not so riveting, but it's where I'll be spending the next three weeks, so it's darned interesting to me!

Here's the view from out my window:

I have more pictures to post tomorrow of the area.  The architecture is beautiful and today the weather lovely.  No jackets, a light breeze, perfect!

Our first day of the intensive was two hours of Zhander talking about some very interesting foundational information about the practice and why he chose to call it Shadow Yoga.  Also a reflection on what he means by 'revised preludes'--that it's more about revising our way of practicing and focusing on what yoga can teach us about ourselves and the 'geography' of our physical and engergetic makup.  And then how to work with that information. Anyway, it was good!  And long.  But good! 

It's very strange being here, not being able to be in contact with anyone except by email.  I have an iChat (a program like Skype) set up with John every day at 6pm my time (9am Portland time).  Can't use the cell, way too expensive!  I am surprised by how dependent I've gotten on my cell and feeling always connected.  

I am very much looking forward to having time for myself.  So many new things coming into my life.  My own projects, working with the Shala on marketing and the like.  I'm not sure any more of where this is all taking me.  And what is best for me to be doing.  Zhander talked today about knowing your purpose and living life from that place.  Words I've heard most of my life in one form or another.  And there are times I know so very clearly what that purpose is.  But things have gotten foggy.  I'm comfortable with not knowing where I'm going, but not so much with not knowing who I am along the way.  So, while I'm very sad to be away from my husband and my dogs and my Shala family, this time is very welcome.  I've lost touch with my work, my true center, and I need to find it again. And the practice is the key for me.  That and a lot of time for going inward.  I love solitude!  Being 'out' there in the world so much of late is not something I'm used to!  I've lived a monk's life, in many ways, so I suppose that is what is next for me--learning how to live clearly from knowing who I am while being out there in this crazy, beautiful world of ours!

Off I go for some tea and reading the Taittiriya Upanishad (I feel a collective groan from my class mates!).  No, I couldn't bring them all, so I picked this one as the most appropriate to the work I'm doing here.  I couldn't bring many books--too much weight for the luggage!  But I have plenty to read, including a very cool new trilogy Matt turned me onto.  The first book's name, The Shadow of the Torturer.  Okay, so that sounds really interesting to me already.  Severian is one interesting guy.  All written in the first person, which I love.  Flays people for a living.  Uh, huh.  Interesting!

More to follow when I have more to say.  I'll share more about the practice too as it develops and whatever new stuff that comes of it.  All my love...