New Friendships

Day 1.


I can get used to waking up to this sight.  Is it not pretty?  I really cannot blame you for being green with envy.

Samui sunrise from my balcony window at 5:25am.

I went for a run as soon as I got up and it took me about 3.5 kilometers to realize that I am heavily out of running shape because I had given up after that.  Now I am swearing, with all of you as my witnesses, that by the end of this month, I will be back to running 10 kilometers at a semi-decent pace.

I had another hour and a half to shower and lounge around my room before I felt hunger creeping in.  I headed down to the Love Kitchen for what I had initially intended to be a light breakfast, after all, today was the start of the big D's: detox and diet.

My breakfast: homemade muesli with vanilla soy milk, an omelette with a hearty salad siding, bananas, pineapple, red papaya and raisins and brewed coffee with organic honey.  

Detox, yes maybe.  But diet, what is THAT?  I believe that word will not be part of my vocabulary for the next month.

The rest of my morning was spent lounging around by the pool and getting myself drunk with the heavenly juices from the juice bar.  I am not kidding when I say they have all possible concoctions for fresh juices and it will take you around fifteen minutes to decide which one to get.  It was a lovely morning, and I got a bit of a tan too, which made me happy has I was getting back to my Chinese yellow color.  More people started coming in but I was not sure which of them had come for training so I kept to myself and tried to finish the book Diego had given me before I left.

http://www.garthstein.com/arr/ - The Art of Racing in the Rain.  This book is a must read, especially if you are a dog lover like me.

Oh joy,  I made more friends!  I was introduced to Paulina, Matti and Trev, who arrived for training too. They joined Harreson, Julie and me to Plailaem School, 10 minutes from the resort, to teach kids yoga to 6th graders.

Yoga + kids = happy kids! 

My favorite girls at class.

Toe stand.

We said goodbye to the kids after an hour of fun yoga and Harreson was nice enough to take us around to do a little bit of the touristy stuff.

One of the temples near school.

Matti, Paulina, Julie and I.

Paulina and Trev at the back.

Daily offerings. 

Very pretty hand painted wood panels. 

The one with the many faces.

Paulina is from Iceland, Trev from Singapore and I am still trying to remember where Matti is from. Finland, I think.  Yes, it is Finland, because Julie calls him that.  Example: "Hello, Finland!"  She is such a character.  I love her.  I did not think I would find a New Yorker that interesting.  Harreson is funny and I do not know where he gets all his energy.  He makes me laugh and I know I will be needing good laughs the next couple of weeks.  I am already feeling lucky to have him around.

We headed back to the Sanctuary to meet up with the rest of the trainees who already had arrived.  We decided to hit a nearby beach for sunset, despite the gloomy weather.  I met everyone else then and I think I will be needing a couple more days to memorize everyone else's names.  I am really bad with names.  Get me through an introduction and the name flies right out my other ear after two seconds.  

I love rainbows. 

Crazy girls Meagan, Julie, Bree, Leona and Adelle.  

The beach trip was fun but quick.  We spent most of the time planning out our days off from training.  It looks like island hopping, shopping and eating days are set for the next couple of Wednesdays.    

Dinner was a buffet of amazing food.  I stuffed my face with so much salad because it was so good.  Everything in this Love Kitchen is made with pure, absolute love.

I love colorful food.

More salad.

I am extremely looking forward to the relationships that I will be building.  I cannot wait to get to know everyone and as early as now, I can already say that special friendships will be made in the weeks that would be spent together.  

I end today, body tired but heart happy and really excited for tomorrow.  Big day for this little yogini.  

So goodnight, world!  Rest well. I know I will. 

Love&Light,

Aisa