The semester is finally over and what a semester it was. I now have about two weeks to get myself caught up on everything, before I head off for a travel seminar to South Africa and Lesotho on January 3rd. My sincerest apologies for dropping out of communication for the last few months. I've been quite busy, but hope to be able to resume email communication now.So, all in all I had a great semester. The students were amazing and fantastic. As I alluded to, I have some serious differences with my boss, which was really the most major challenge of the semester, although it was a MAJOR challenge at
times, but I won't dish out the dirty laundry here. Although the students were wonderful, they are tiring. Even on the "day off" in Cape Town, we had two students get lost on Table Mountain, one that had a puffy eye from bug bites and of course there are the never ending random questions that mistake me not only for a mother or a medical official, but now as they were getting ready to go back to the States, they also mistook me for a customs officer and a thousand other things in which I have no expertise.It was definitely with mixed emotions that I bade them farewell. As much as I loved them, I looked forward to some peace and quiet. So peace and quiet I got. I went directly from the airport to a 3 day retreat at a yoga ashram in Cape Town.
Look at the difference in the first two photos. As much as hiking around Table Mountain was certainly one of the highlights of my job, do the yogis not just beam with peace and serenity? Anyway, that was one of the smartest things I've done in my life and I reconnected with a sense of peace, calm, purpose and energy I hadn't felt in way too long. I visited this ashram in 2002 and it had a major impact on me. It was only on revisiting it that I realised how important it had been to my spiritual development. It was also amazing to come back after 5 years, and see familiar friendly faces that remembered me and said, "Has it really been 5 years?"
I just feel the need to share my Friday night because it was again a contrast. I came home from yoga and bumped (not literally) into Martin - my neighbor. He told me that there was a summer concert in Zoo Park with all the biggest names in Namibian hip-hop/Kwaito. As peaceful and sattvic as I was feeling, it sounded like fun, so off we went. Contrast these two photos. Tuesday night rocking out with the yogis and Friday night with The Dogg and Gazza. I love my life!Okay, I'll post a more thoughtful post when I've had time to sit and process the semester, life, the universe, etc.
