Weekend Swamp!

We had a ton of people out here today! There were 10 people in my class. 3 yoga instructors, 2 Chinese journalists, and the rest were from England and Italy. We went for a hike, took part in a kirtan (sort of call and response meditative singing of mantras), and I led my first yoga nidra (very deep mediation) session ever. Everyone was very receptive to my class and hands-on assists. We even had drumming lessons in a small twig 'bird's nest' that the director had built. It was totally cool. I hope Phil got some pictures because my camera's batteries died again. It's a battery eater. Almost literally.

Tomorrow looks to be just as packed with an Indian (of India) yoga teacher and a couple of his students here to check out the retreat. The director wants me to give a talk on my style of yoga, theory of teaching and learning yoga, and my philosophy of yoga for 30 minutes along with 2 other yoga teachers. It should be interesting. I'm really more of a demo girl nowadays with yoga.

Phil got us tickets to the Olympics online tonight. We are super excited. We've got our fingers crossed that it's all really legit and not some scam.

Sheila, the photos of the botanical garden are for you! They weren't quite as spectacular as the ones you emailed to me, but still it was fun to see something similar. The ones you sent appeared to be from Shanghai further south of here. So these are dedicated to you! :)

Oddities from a Western point of view (the giggle & head scratching section):

Pillows
Granted, even Phil will admit that I’m very picky about my pillow. It’s the one thing I refuse to share with him. I want MY pillow. So we arrive in China where the pillows are thin cotton bags (the equivalent of flour sacks) filled with tiny styrofoam balls the size of a ball point pen tip. It’s like sleeping in a large bowl of Rice Crispies all night. Also, the pillowcases have zippers on them so the pillow won’t fall out. But if you roll over with your pillow during the night, you might get poked in the eye or even nose with the zipper handle part. Even better is waking up with the zipper imprint across your cheek and forehead! It’s pretty funny. No sneaking naps around here! ☺

Sheets
There are no bottom fitted sheets here. There are only flat sheets tucked under the edges of the mattress. I am a wiggle worm as it is. Add the fact that the bed that Phil and I sleep in is a single bed with a flat sheet on the bottom. It takes some careful negotiation for two people to sleep in a single bed in the summer in order not to elbow, kick, knee, smack, squash, and/or shove the other person. So by the time we wake up, usually one of us is sleeping on the bare mattress. Kinda gross when you think about it. There’s a high turnover of volunteers here. Yuck.

Repairs
So check this out. One thing that makes Phil shake his head in this land is the way repairs are handled (or not-he has a great deal more experience with this than I do) here. For example, we have a door to our building with an extremely finicky lock. It’s taken us a week and a half to figure out how to lock and unlock it. I’ve had to jump out of our bedroom window several times just to exit the building. We’ve finally determined that it’s easier to lock people in the building than to lock them out. One of life’s little ironies, eh? Upon sharing this info, we were informed that we just can’t lock the door if someone is still in the building. Well, currently 3 people live in our building. Phil is an early riser; He sometimes gets up two hours before I do and goes for walks, etc. No longer can he do the courtesy of locking the door when he leaves unless he plans on coming back and letting me out again. Nothing will be done to correct the situation such as replacing the lock. It’s a “suck it up” mentality.
Another situation occurred where we noticed water running onto the floor from the back of the sink. We showed it to the head guy and he nodded patiently. He then showed us how to make sure the hot handle was completely turned off (it didn’t work anyway) before we turned the cold water handle. Then it didn’t leak. Why not just fix the hot water so there will be no leaks in the first place?
Phil has become an expert on Chinese toilet workings. (You can ask him about this in detail at a later point if you like.) The toilets often simply won’t flush. He’s figured out that if you carefully lift up the lid to the tank, the tank empties, causing it to flush. Carefully replacing the lid allows the tank to fill up again. Just as an FYI for the next time you travel to China. ☺

Brooms
Brooms are a constant source of confusion for me. In my mind, if it’s a tool needed daily, why not make sure it’s a good one? Brooms sold at the store have very thin, hollow, metal poles that are as tall as my waist. They rust and snap in half quickly. The end result? A tiny hand held broom only appropriate for a dustpan. How about outside brooms you may ask? Well, they certainly look really cool. They are made of longer wooden poles stuck into a bunch of straw. They kind of look like ‘witch’ brooms. However, mid sweep, the pole usually detaches from the straw bottom, and the straw bottom goes flying across the courtyard. As long as you are not in a hurry and don’t think seriously about your spinal health, it’s kind of funny.

Make sure to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page since I've added more photos!