My story begins not today, but Sunday afternoon in Acapulco, I begin my journey to return home, at 1230pm leaving the Acapulco princess for what may be the last time. My flight from Acapulco to Mexico city leaves at 2:55pm and arrives early just before 4pm in Mexico city. I had a planned layover until 9:20 pm when my flight should, this is where the fun begins, should get to Chicago O' Hare at 1:20am. No big deal, this was planned. It did not go as planned. As we left Mexico city around 10:00pm, I was not nervous at leaving late, just a yogi, getting on a plane. Around 1am, as I looked out of the East side window of the plane I noticed a huge band of black clouds that seemed to go one for miles, it looked really surreal because you could see a beautiful crescent moon above it, and this line of dark thunderheads, lightning and just pure chaos below. I knew we were not going to be landing in Chicago for some time, I was right. At about 2 am or 2:30 am we land, somewhere too dark to be Chicago O'Hare, I am not sure as I look out the plane window at the airport. One of my fellow yogis on the flight says, "We are in St. Louis Missouri, I recognize this airport." He, was right. The crew informs us we have over an hour wait to land in Chicago, due to bad weather, and we will be waiting on board the plane. I am still calm, as my flight out of Chicago to Minneapolis does not leave Chicago until 7am and I am still, O.K. We get back up in the air, all wind, turbulence, English bulldog determination and Bengal tiger strength, and arrive in Chicago a little after - 4 am. Good, I think, less time for me to have to entertain myself at a sleepy airport. So, I and one of my fellow yogis who is also taking the leg to Minnesota got to what we thought was the right area, but the airport is so big, that we did not realize until about 5:54 am that we were in the wrong building and had to take a train to the proper check in. We race to the ticket counter only to be told "Your flight has been cancelled and there will be no other flights until tomorrow." The end? No, I get to the counter, tell her something in some sort of exhausted bedraggled yogi language and she suddenly tells me in a very direct, stern, sort of secretive way. "Put your luggage on the belt to be checked in, you are going to Minneapolis via Detroit, just follow me to security" In the same voice a bank robber whispers "calmly put the money in the bag" because there were a lot of stranded travelers, yes they all needed to get somewhere, but how many of them had been flying or in airports for over 16 hours, I then felt like a bank robber but was too confused to stop what had been set in motion. I followed her orders, wound up in a security line for early departing flights, got pushed through, along with the other sleepy travelers and wound up on yet another plane, to another city, Detroit Michigan? Luckily I met someone on the plane named T.K. who was extremely personable from Virginia and he kept me happy with some human conversation about his wife, and family back home and fate, that it was great we met on that flight, and we were meant to be on that flight. Thank you T.K. from Virginia. We land in Detroit at around 9:30 am and I wander aimlessly towards - the mens bathroom. After being in Mexico for nine weeks, I looked for Banos, (bathroom in Spanish) did not see it, looked at the signs, became confused, and decided I just needed to go potty. Well some MAN, decided he did not want me to use the mens bathroom, go figure and started yelling at me, which got me steered back in the proper direction. Now, off to find Gate 70 and check in for my boarding pass for my 11:41 am flight out of Detroit to Minnesota. I was able to find my next gate and saw a frazzled woman standing there behind the counter, and for some reason, I sat down and I said to myself, "oh dear god bring me someone who I will not have to explain this situation to 200 times to get my final boarding pass". Not more than two minutes later, another woman walks up, I wait patiently, while she applies her makeup and does her hair. She looked nice already, but, whatever. After she was done getting settled, I walked up to this new counter person, she smiles (smiles) takes my slip and says "this is your lucky day, we have the same last name, lets get you a seat." I almost fainted. 5 minutes later, after briefly sharing stories about having the same last name, I had my boarding pass and sat patiently while the more energetic people boarded the plane. And I said to myself, I am pretty sure I did not say it out loud, it did not matter at that point: "I am not going to ask what is next, because I will never know, just get on the plane." We flew, pretty much on schedule, and arrived in Minnesota, at around 1p.m. just a little over 24 hours from when I left Acapulco. I was so confused by that point that I was so grateful my husband was there at the baggage claim to help me retrieve my bag, which, I am not sure how, but was there, and had made also made the 5th and final leg of the trip with me to Minnesota. So much for fears of lost luggage. Home, home, home. I promised pictures and I will add some more pictures, but I need to adjust to the lack of palm trees, the sudden quiet and stillness, and the fact that now, when I arrive home, my brain thinks in Spanish. Oh boy. This is going to get interesting. Oh and to the people who had spouses, family and or friends meet them and help them return home, that is an excellent plan, anyone who can help you navigate coming back home, it is not as easy as it seems, even if there are not hitches along the way, a travel companion who is not fatigued in so many ways, would help out a lot.
Graduation, parties, celebrations, we have graduated from a 9 week program that took me through so many changes, it feels like 9 years. I have learned that I can remember dialogue that I never thought I would be able to recall in a million years. I have lost quite a few pounds, I have lost a huge amount of emotional baggage, but I am pretty numb right now. I know Bikram said he would make us stronger, or better yet, realize the strength we already have within us, but I dont feel much of anything except for this strange connection to everything, and everybody that I did not feel before. It goes beyond the day to day hello/good bye connection, it is deeper than that. Before I arrived here, I had what I would call anxiety that went to the core of my being because I had been judged so many times, on so many superficial levels, and it all stuck with me, and what I have learned, and will continue to learn, is that I can change my relationship with it, and take away its power. Thanks to the many teachers and staff that helped shape something in me that I can not even fully understand yet, and probably never will. And a huge thanks to Bikram and Rajashree, they have the devotion, love and patience to go through this with us time after time, again and again, and 9 weeks is a long time to work towards helping people learn to become proficient teachers. Next: pictures, pictures, and a few more pictures of the graduation, and departure from 2212, the room I have lived in at the Acapulco princess hotel for 9 weeks. Thank you to everyone who has sent comments and support via email, and thoughts, I got every one, and it helped carry me through, thank you.
Thursday June 5th was our last day of yoga classes. Rajashree taught our morning class, and Bikram taught our evening class and I am torn between jubilation and sadness at nearing the end of this journey. Craig Villani has been a great guide on our tour, he kept us in line while Bikram was gone, gave us excellent advice and guidance, and taught a really awesome class Wednesday evening, and I stood tall through all three classes! It has been a struggle this last week because the small amount of dehydration and weight loss is starting to really catch up with me and I really feel weak in the morning, but I got a bottle of electrolytes from my room mate and that has helped a huge amount. I also began bringing my special orange cooler with me everywhere with either a combination of ice, water, gatorade, electrolytes, whatever I can mix together that will help me stay up during class. I am always thirsty these days, considering I sweat like a fountain in the yoga room. Here is a picture of one of my talented and strong yoga friends from Canada with my orange cooler. Almost everyone has one, and they are great because when someone runs out of water after class, there is usually someone with some type of liquid left in the cooler to share. They were dubbed the orange maracas because that is exactly what they sound like when shaken with ice and whatever else you want to mix up for class, whether it was gatorade, pedialyte, or just a good old healthy dose of water.
Wednesday, we were given a very special treat of being allowed to watch the advanced series. It is a very rigorous continuation of the beginning series, and you have to be very advanced in the beginners series to even contemplate participation in the advanced series, and still you may not be able to do the advanced series. It was a special treat, senior teacher Emmy Cleaves and Bikram taught and it was wonderful to watch the way people can move their bodies into those amazing positions, just incredible.
