If It Walks Like a Girl and Looks Like a Girl, Still Might Not Be A Girl

Woke up feeling good today.  As I was walking in the dark to the shala a smile came over my face and it surprised me.  Most of the time when this happens I usually have some smart ass thing going through my head.  I was happy to be awake and going to practice even though it was 4:30 in the morning.   I would prefer to be sleeping during these hours of the morning.  When we were chanting the opening mantra I got goosebumps and that was the moment I knew I'm meant to be here.  Seeing and knowing some of the people in the class has definitely helped with my comfort level.

Yesterday Christian and I hired a driver to take us to Bangalore to go shopping.  I didn't have anything to buy and went along for the ride.  Bangalore is a 3 hour drive and sitting in the car for that amount of time was a perfect opportunity to catch up on much needed sleep.  I've mentioned before that the drivers here are a little insane and don't abide by any rules.  Everyone constantly honks for you to move whether they are near you or not.  I kept going in and out of sleep and I think that made me more tired.  When we arrived in the vicinity of Bangalore the traffic was bumper to bumper.  Horns blaring, smog in the air and a ton of people everywhere.  We had no idea where we were going and the only direction we gave the driver was to go to an area for shopping.  Driving there seemed like it took forever.  I was getting so impatient and not feeling well made me more grumpy.  I consider myself pretty mellow, but when I lack sleep, have low blood sugar and need food I can be unpleasant to be with. 

When we finally arrived at the shopping area, I could not have been any happier to get out of the car.  Christian had no idea where he wanted to go so we just started walking towards the crowd of people until he found a store he wanted to stop at.  One thing I noticed about the beggars and the street vendors in Bangalore is that they are not as persistent as the beggars here in Mysore.  If you say 'no' one or twice they go away unlike the beggars here where they are hanging on to your pant leg and you are literally dragging them along.  A group of peculiar "girls" came up to us asking for rupees.  Christian being the sweet sucker that he is, was surrounded by them and gave them all change.  I wish I would have been able to take a picture of this group.  There was about 5 or 6 of them dressed in saris, age varying from 20's - 50's.  Two of them weren't anatomically born as females, but if you told them otherwise they would tell you were wrong.  After Christian gave them all rupees, he walks up to me and tells me that they were ugly and he just wanted to make them go away.  I couldn't stop laughing when he said this.  Christian is a very mild manner guy, sweet and not the type to be judgmental.  So coming from him those "women" must of made quite an impression.