Getting To Know People

Saturday and no practice. I slept to 8:30 pm! I had a good nights sleep. Am I getting used to the mattress? Last night we were invited to a party at Collette's place. She is a Canadian woman that Britta knows from chanting class. She rents a room in a house that is owned by a Norwegian ashtangi called Alexander Medin. He lives a great part of the year in Mysore, so he has built himself a house here in Gokulam. Very nice, modern, whin a zen-ish garden. If I come here again on my own I might consider renting a room in that house! Really, there is no problem coming here on your own. It might even be good. You get to know people very easily. After practice in the morning, people hang outside the shala and drink coconut and chat. After that you go home and change and then go for breakfast. There are a few places to go for breakfast. So far I've been to Santosha and Om Cafe. Most people are easy to talk to, especially if they are newcomers. I've noticed that people who have been here a while, or come every year are somewhat reluctant to talk to rookies. In a way that is understandable, since people come and go all the time. On the other hand you can sense that there is a kind of hierarchy. I prefer the humble people, those who think it is interesting to talk to other people despite if they are advanced yogis or newcomers. And there are ofcourse many of those too!
At the party I got to know a nice Brittish girl who tipped us about an Ayurvedic course that starts on Monday with a Dr. Kumar. I am going to go and see what it is. I really want to learn more about Ayurveda, and also it will be twice a week. It will be nice to have something more to do, and to have a routine. It might be just enough, people are saying how easy it is to get too busy here, when what you really need is to focus on the yoga and also have time to relax!