Oh, the horrible blogger that I am!If I had a penny for every blog that had been composed in my head, but not typed and posted … I’d have a few pennies.
So, several people have asked about my trip, so I’ll summarize it here.Since I tend to be long winded, I’ll try to give titles to sections so you can read what you chose.
London
I was looking for peaceful affordable accommodations near town.I was picking the brain of every person with a bit of British travel experience in them and coming up dry.I decided to email the Sivananda Yoga Centre in London, cause I know that the one in New York has some accommodations for passing Sivananda students.They said they had none, but recommended a B&B close by.I emailed the B&B but they were full and recommended a friend of theirs.It wasn’t clear to me if the friend was also a B&B or just someone willing to take in a boarder.Either way, it was affordable, reasonably close to town and sounded peaceful.
So, I arrive and guess what? It turns out it’s a couple that lived most of their lives in Zimbabwe!They had just moved to the UK when things got bad in Zimbabwe.They got sick of the UK after a couple years and tried to live a few years in Cape Town but decided they preferred London.So they moved back and there they are.They are not a B&B, but were fantastic hosts.We had long conversations on Zim, South Africa, Namibia… it was fantastic!I didn’t feel like I was renting a room, I felt like I was visiting old friends.It was also fascinating, to talk to white Zimbabweans.They made a lot of statements that made me cringe, but I learned a lot.
Other than that, I wandered around London, saw lots of the typical sites, blah blah blah.Ate lots of good Indian food.Went to a massive bookstore and enjoyed being able to browse a wide selection of books.Went to a yoga class at the Sivananda Centre, became a yoga consumer and bought a bunch of fun stuff.
Heather’s House
After two days in London, I took the train to my friend Heather’s house.She is married to a Brit and has two very cute kids.I kept laughing that her son speaks with a British accent. (Her daughter is not yet speaking)He says things like, “But Mummy, I don’t want to my trousers!” (in a very British accent)I asked her if it cracks her up too and she said yes, and that he has intensified her British accent cause she keeps repeating what he says.Anyway, he was the most adorable polite 3 year old that I think I have ever seen.He actually thought I was cool and liked playing with me!He tried to help me quite a bit.When he saw my chipped nail polish he pulled out his medical kit.When he saw my empty deodorant, he threw it away for me, but only after clarifying about 20 times whether it goes in the trash bin or recycling bin. I spent a day at Heather’s before and two days with her after the retreat.When I was visiting afterwards, we went to Cambridge and wandered around cause its reasonably close to where they live.
Cambridge – random thoughts
It was really interesting for me to visit England.It seems I’m normally visiting countries that are recovering from colonization.I’m used to critiquing the negative impacts of colonization and rolling my eyes at the influence of western culture and language on the indigenous population.Visiting England, I couldn’t help but keep thinking, “Wow! This was the heart of imperialism.Everything I’m looking at was built because they made a bunch of money from their colonies!”Then we went to Cambridge and it suddenly hit me how Western forms of knowledge became defined there and valued over indigenous forms of knowledge.It was so interesting to wander around these buildings and think of all the ideas that originated their, all the ideas that devalued the knowledge of most of the Earth’s inhabitants.
But then, jumping to Portugal quickly, it was fascinating to wander around Lisbon and think about how it also benefited from colonization, but where is it now? Its Portugal for goodness sake.Brazil may be doing better than Portugal itself.Fascinating stuff.
The Retreat
So, then I came to the 10 day silent Vipassana meditation retreat.People keep asking, “So how was it?” The short answer is “interesting”.The long answer you’ll have to meet me for tea to get and discuss.I had been wanting to do one of these for a long time as I have had several friends do it and it sounded so interesting.Even though I knew that it was a 10 day meditation course, teaching a specific meditation method, my mind was focused on the 10 days of silent meditation part of it all. While this new method was interesting, I don’t think its my thing.It was fascinating though to observe the mental games my mind played as I told myself this isn’t my thing, I should just run away, and then told myself to stay.I’m glad I stayed, I learned a lot about myself, my meditation practice and got some interesting ideas from this style.Onthe morning of the 10th day, we started talking.It turned out I had very cool roommates.It was really neat to talk to them, discuss our experiences, our thoughts, our reasons for coming, etc.It was also cool, they seemed to have set up the rooms by age, so all my roomies were 30 somethings.
Lisbon
Lisbon was beautiful.I wandered all over the city for a day.It was much warmer than the UK which made me very happy.Can’t say much more; I was only there for a day.
Photos
I posted some pictures on Facebook.I don’t feel like uploading them here too and it says that even non-Facebook people can view them.Let’s try.http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=56507&l=09a89&id=678707741
