Final Day off at the Ashram.. or just basking in the glory

Here I am, where I have been for the last 4 and a half weeks.  Sitting there, basking in the happiness of my new found reality. I usually have that grin on my face too.  Today was our last day off before we all start teaching our one hour classes. We have about 30 to get through so it will be a grueling week and a half.  Today we had off, and about half of the group went rafting. I got my skype credit the other day and realized it's 2.9 cents a minute to call home. I made the rounds today and I just couldnt bring myself to go out. I wanted to just get organized, start my lesson planning, clean my room, open up the windows to let the light in, light some incense, and go out and eat well.  I had coffee and eggs today and that just about sent me to the moon with happiness. I was completely content.

Those who didn't go rafting met for lunch at a cafe in Luxman Julla.  It's become a bit of a hang out, it's a market in Rishikesh.  We were celebrating our last day off of the program and talking about how we can't believe it's almost over.  You may have noticed my utterly happy state in my pics from the afternoon where we all cheers with glasses of fresh pressed juices (a new obsession of mine):

Jen decided to wear her sari today that she bought, she was so cute she got one of the indian ladies next door to help her put it on, got all dolled up with makeup, and trotted around the market socializing. She positively glowed:

Check out me and Lisa, the other half of the Swedish connection:

See if you can spot the miss spell on "Diet Coke" on this generic menu, which seems to the menu at each place to eat for foreigners:

I'll give you a hint: it's near the other soft drinks listed.

We heard that Lauren, one of the girls got some great deals in Ram Julla, which was across to the other bridge in the town, so we headed out and jumped in a cab to go there, a buck for all five of us. Totally worth it.

Then we crossed the bridge to the shops:

That is actually a diet coke in my hands, the only one I've had since i've been here..I sipped it slow and savoured it. After a tiring afternoon where I spent a whopping 500 rupees on a self help book, a cool stone for a ring I would like Toni to make me, A cool red india shirt and a white long nightgown length shirt for delhi with blue embroidery: you'll get a look when I post pics with it on.  That's 10 bucks. Phew. Almost broke the bank! ;)

After we finished, we went down to the river and took a boat back across because we were too lazy to walk the extra 10 minutes over the bridge to get back, but it provided us with an opportunity to ride in a boat:

This is Caroline, one of the English girls I've bonded with in the last few weeks. She is my new idol.  If you ever want to bargain, Caroline is your girl. I was so impressed by her skills that I had to walk out of the store as she beat the price down to virtually nothing and saw that she she made the men so uncomfortable. I've never seen anything like it. I wish I could do that.

After we got to shore, we found the perfect opportunity to put our feet in the Ganges. I thought it was about time. I am ready now. I am ready to absolve all my sins and really believe that I deserve to be happy and start over. It was such a great moment for me:

After we finished there, we walked past a woman who was selling flowers for the puja offerings to the river, and we bought some just to take back to our rooms and put some fresh flowers in:

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The woman appeared completely confused when we bought the flowers and headed back to our ashram, I bet she thought we were ignorant and didnt know what the flowers were for...we laughed as people all the way along gave us silly faces. Nothing beats fresh flowers, and today I got to appreciate another small thing in life that we need to stop and savour more: the gift of beautifully coloured life. I am just about as happy as humanly possible at the moment....and I'll top it all off with my favorite pic of the day that I scammed off Katherine after I noticed how great it was:

And I made it my profile pic on Facebook. Sweetness.

xoxoxoxo