I've done it! I think I've really done it! I have figured out how to wait in line in India. Last year I learned how to cross the crazy busy streets- you just walk real real slow and let everybody drive around you cause if you run across chances are someone is driving right into the spot you are about to spring into, so just let them drive around you! And this year i've learned how to wait in line. I've been doing it all wrong! Since I'm a bit more bravehearted now traveling in India when people have cut in front of me i've been taping them on the shoulders, giving a cute girlish non aggressive smile and saying or motioning, "excuse, but i was in line here" and it has shocked me how many people are so courteous and apologetic putting their hands in prayer, bowing and saying sorry etc. So then i got to thinking, well, it's obvious i'm in line, i'm behind the person in front of me right! so how can they not notice? but they seemed so sincere in apologizing so it got me to thinking.... oh! they don't think i'm in line cause there is a space between me and the person in front of me. If I'm not actually touching the person in front of me, then I'm not really waiting in line. so I'm still hesitant to touch the person in front of me but now i just use my bag to make contact. I'm also more patient when someone is pressing on my back cause if they don't, someone is just going to cut in front of them. I consider this a big milestone :)

So, just returned from my ten day silent Vipassana retreat. www.dhamma.org Man, intense! I feel like i just ran a marathon with my brain and body. By 9am every day I had already meditated three hours, eaten breakfast, and taken a 45 minute nap! NOT KIDDING!!! and let's talk about the physical toll on the body trying to maintain the meditation position, and not moving for 2 hours at a time. i am drained but it a good way, my brain is empty but good empty. There is so much to say about vipassana but it just has to be another time. In general though I'm a fan of the technique, I felt the benefits personally...Amazing, hard work, difficult challenging etc. i went through every emotion, anger, frustration, pain, confusion, anxiety, eagerness, beauty, love, exhilaration, bliss etc. all to fully work towards equanimity in it all! life is beautiful and a strange trip for sure :). I LOVED the silence. It was so funny too how after it was all said and done I felt so close to all these people i spent ten days in silence with. a definite bond. I did go ten days in silence too... well, almost more like 9.5 days cause of some bizarre circumstances.... and so the story follows...

On the very last night of the vipassana retreat, at 12:30 am i was startled awake by this awful, horrific sound of slamming doors. It sounded as if someone was opening their residence door, slamming it shut and doing this over and over again. It ended after about 15 seconds and I was stunned, thought maybe i even dreamed it? i dunno, fell back asleep only to be awakened again by the same scary sound one hour later. i was so scared there was NO WAY i was gonna go outside and check it out. Sure enough same sound occurred sometime soon later and with this i heard all these other doors open from the female residence rooms. A bunch of the Indian women woke up, started speaking in Hindi and I felt so relieved thinking, "ok, they'll handle this, now i won't be so scared and go back to sleep". so the indian women talked for about twenty minutes then they go to bed. But! about thirty minutes later the same freaky, bizarre scary sound of slamming doors, like someone was throwing a suitcase against the wood doors, happeneded again!. So then i hear a knock at my door. I open it up and there are about six Indian women, one who speaks English and asked if I was ok, if i heard the noise and if I would knock on doors of the other westerner travelers and see if they were ok.

So imagine the scene, me in my pink flowered flannel pajama suit set with a headlamp and a bunch of short Indian women with shawls, clanking bangle jewelry shuffling behind me like a group of hens or chickens as I tip toe to each door and knock trying to figure out what the hell is going on. I kept laughing too cause the scene was just too much, here I was all Nancy Drew India style, suddenly being the leader of this Indian female gang, and we've all broken noble silence now. So I knock on doors and each lady opens their door terrified and wide eyed. all of us are awake now except one woman and we've deduced the noise is coming from her room. and of course, i thought this lady was a bit crazy after observing her for the past 9 days... weird behavior schizophrenic patterns. So, we knock on this ladies door, you ok? "hello, you ok?" no answer, now i'm getting concerned like, could she be unconscious in there? we keep knocking, "we just want to make sure you are ok".. and with that, a note gets slipped to us under the door. On it is written, in super hard core pressed scratched up writing, like she wrote the note with her fist clenched.. the note said "I AM SLEEPY, DON'T DISTURB ME!!!!"

ok? allright? so, i just turned to everyone, said, well, she's obviously breathing let's go to bed. The Indian women all clucked in agreement but not after admiring and poking at my pink flannel pajamas. I couldn't stop laughing, such a bizarre scene. Anways, crazy lady proceeded to continue banging doors all night long, freaked out the next morning on the guruji (teacher) accusing him of sleeping with one of the students who has plotted her destruction fro the past five years and one and on about chakras, kundalini stuff and bla bla bla then crazy lady just left... sad, my heart goes out to her but i'm glad she left. she was scary!

So i'm now back at my favorite place in all of India, the sacred town of Rishikesh- considered yoga capital of the world. It felt like i was coming back home when entering parmarth niketan ashram again. www.parmarth.org it was cute, so many familiar faces everywhere. "one of our students has returned!" someone said :) Here i'll do more philosophy study and start up again with my favorite yoga teacher in the whole world, Surinder Singh!

Lots more monkey stories but of more interest today a cow came up starting licking my arm, then proceeded to bite right into my bag and not let go. he smelled the bananas inside i think. anyways, the cow wouldn't let go and i ended up in a tug of war with him and my bag. people started laughing at it all... finally some young boy came to my rescue by wacking a stick on the ground scaring the cow a bit. oh india! :)

much love- sari barbie

Here's all the food I dreamed about while on the Vipassan retreat: peanut butter and jelly sandwich on white bread, chocolate cake, mac n cheese, pepsi on ice with a straw, my mom's pasta sauce, tootsie rolls and twix, milkshakes, cereal, guacomole and salty chips, grilled cheese, raw almonds, frozen yogurt, baked potato with sour cream/butter and much more.