People say that you have a love hate relationship with India and I agree with that. Last Wednesday and Thursday I hated this place. Still not sleeping well and actually thinking that I'm going nuts. Before I go to bed I take a shower to cool myself down, than I put on coconut cooling oil all over my body, wet my towel to put on my forehead and turn on the fan. The fan is so loud and goes so fast that it sounds like a helicopter and I thought that I would take off first time I slept there. But it keeps all the mosquito's away. Ready to go to bed. Oh I put earplugs in as well. Then I close my eyes and try not to think too much. Then it gets hotter and hotter, the oils stops working and is actually making me feel much more hot. The room is getting smaller, I cant breathe so I start to feel claustrophobic. I get up to wet my dirty toes and I go out on the balcony. But there it's also hot. I feel like the world outside my door is too small for me. "Oh my god! I'm going crazy. No Ingibjorg you are not. Relax and just breathe. The world is not too small for you" So I need to talk to myself allot during the night. Finally I fall asleep. It's not always like this. It's just, this place and this country can be so over whelming. There are people everywhere...looking at you and specially the men. They usually try to talk to you and ask you questions like "what's your name or which country" And if you answer back it's like they don't expect that you can actually talk so they start to laugh or follow you. So now I never answer back of course. You cant trust anyone. Everybody are trying to scam you. Everywhere. It can be very exhausting to argue with f.eks. the rickshaw drivers. They always try to make you pay much much more and you just want to get home. So you walk to the next one and the next one until someone is willing to drive you home for the right prize. So I'm learning allot how to be extremely decisive here.

There are many types of violence in the world and I have discovered a new one " COSMETIC VIOLENCE. Me and My friend had this cosmetic lady come to my house to give us oil head massage and henna color mud to put under my feet. It's supposed to cool you down this henna thing. My friend was also going to get pedicure. On Thursday she came at 11 am and I went first. I sat on my bed with my legs crossed and the first thing she did was to put allot of oil on my head. MMhhh, a nice head massage. Then she started to massage my head really fast and roughly. It was more like washing my head. And that was not it. She started to pull my hair and it hurt. Then she pulled out his massage head machine from the eighties and that was even worse. This was so bad I couldn't believe it. Was this for real?? Was she having a bad day or what?? After 20 min she stopped. She offered me a face massage and unfortunately I said yes. It was more like hitting my face then massaging it. After that she put on a face mask which smelled awful and a rosewater in a cotton ball to put on my eyes. The last thing was the henna colour and that was ok. But it didnt really cool my feet. Then it was my friends turn and I told her that she was a little rough, this lady. But she gave it a try. I have to say that I have a better tolerance for pain because she was yelling out loud and I don't blame her. I couldn't help myself and started to laugh watching my friend being so surprised by all this. I asked if it was an Indian thing to pull the hair and she said it was good for the blood stimulation. Then she was suddenly in a hurry. Took her stuff, took our money without giving our change back and left. This was an experience. So we laughed about this horror massage therapist. BUT the story is not over yet. SHE STOLE MY PHONE. Probably when I had the cotton balls covering my eyes. Then this was not funny anymore. I talked to Tina ( the woman who has the restaurant at her house) because she recommended her. It was a friend of a friend. She got so mad and called her up and of course the horror massage cosmetic lady denied. But Tina hasn't given up yet so we'll see what happens. I am pretty sure she has my phone. I didn't take it with me that morning. So it must be her or God. Maybe its my karma not to have a phone here in India. I felt so attacted to it. My little phone. But now I don't care. Its gone and so be it. I can live without it. So now you now. I don't have a phone anymore. So Wednesday and Thursday I was angry at India.
The next day after yoga practice a group of people and I decided to visit SERA which is the largest Mahayana Tibetan Buddhist monastery in exile here in India. There are more then 5000 monks in the village which is two hours away from Mysore. It was so wonderful to be there and to get out of Mysore. It was quiet, clean and no men harassing you. The first thing that we did was to watch the monks debate. They debate the study and science of Buddhist logic. They gather together in groups probably around 200 and start to shout and clap their hands and make all kinds of stylized movements. Everything has a meaning. Next morning we woke up at 5:30. We went to the main monastery and the monks invited us to have breakfast with them. So we sat there with 600 monks and had butter milk and bread. Then they chanted and that was amazing to hear that. Later we visited other monasteries. The temples are so beautiful. I took pictures there so you can see it when I come home. In one temple there were birds inside flying and singing. I was in tears. It was so peaceful to be in there. I felt so much better after visiting the monks. I felt more peaceful and relaxed.
Today I love India. Nothing bothers me. I had a great yoga practice this morning. The guru is pushing me.
It's a great lesson to be here.