Today was the last day of practice till the 27th. The shala recently posted additional closure dates starting on the 30th of September till the 4th of October. Haven't made any travel plans for those dates yet, but I'm sure I will find somewhere to go. I'm glad to have made it through this weeks' practice. The lack of sleep and poor diet has been brutal and my body is currently paying the price. I had a few moments during this mornings' practice when I wanted to lie face down and stay there. It's my karma! Back home I've taken some of my friends to one of my regular yoga classes and some of them literally end up exactly how I felt this morning. Every time this would happen, I would laugh and think it was funny. Now I know exactly how it feels and as painful as it is, it's still funny.
I had to run a few errands this morning and my first stop was the post office. My primary purpose was to mail a few postcards that have been sitting in my room for the past few weeks. I also wanted to go there and demand my package that my sister sent me. My sister sent the package priority mail and the scheduled delivery was 6-10 days. It's been longer than 10 days and I want my package now! There is food in this care package that I am after. I was able to get postage, but wasn't able to ask about my package. The Indian post office is conducted a little differently than our system in the US. Needless to say, I will never complain about the line at the post office. The lady that sold me the stamps took the stamps out of a folder in a plastic bag sitting on her desk. There were papers and mail everywhere in this office. The office looked like a guest house that is attached to the neighbors property. I had no clue it was there until the rickshaw driver showed it to me yesterday. I have been walking past it every day for the past few weeks. The cost to mail the postcards is Rs 12 (rupees). The post lady then had to count postage for 6 postcards and that pretty much took all morning. I then had to lick each and every stamp and don't remember the last time I had to do something like that. After I was done applying the stamps, I had no clue where to drop the postcards. The didn't want to wait in line again and found this lunch pail looking thing that read "Indian Post". I threw the postcards in it and everyone in line looked at me when I did this. Apparently, the cow for the cow mail train hasn't been born yet, so I'm not sure if the postcards will end up at their addressed destinations.
My next stop was to the local grocery store. Walking to the store or anywhere in town is always fascinating. Some of the locals look at you like a leper and sometimes from their body language you can tell the things they say could be inappropriate. I've never left the house without my iPod and if I turn the music loud enough I can't hear anything. My ignoring skills have definitely improved since I've been here.
I arrive at the store and one of the sales clerks spots me walking to the back. I find the yogurt section and like clock work she is there staring at me. She doesn't say a word so I ignore her. I walk over to another aisle and she follows me. I stop to look at an item and from the corner of my eye I can see she is standing about 3 feet away. Thought I would have a little fun with her, so I kept walking around the different aisles, stopping to look at various items. When she would catch up, I would walk to another section and pretend I was looking at something else. I think she got tired of following me so she positioned herself at the opposite end of the aisle. I could see her walking from aisle to aisle as I moved. At some point, I started walking faster and sliding around in my flip flops. I would stop in between sections to see how persistent she was. When she would miss me, she would go back to the previous aisle to see where I was. The store is pretty small and after my 3rd or 4th lap, I finally stopped and checked out. Yogurt was the only item I came to buy, but got so much more than what I paid for.
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