Monday, January 21

I am grateful that I have only 5 more days of school until I get a 3 week break!  I am grateful to visit India!  I leave Chengdu at 12:50am Friday night (actually Sat. AM) and have 17 full days in Tapovan, which is the village just outside of Rishikesh where I will be staying at Maa Yoga Ashram!  maayogashram.com/ 
Two weeks of pancha karma - healing and restorative treatments!  And only $850!  I have wanted to take part in a pancha karma retreat since I first learned about these healing and rejuvenating Ayurvedic treatment therapies when I lived at the Himalayan Institute Ashram in Pennsylvania--so long ago - in 2006-2007!  
The flight's going to be a long one: 15.5 hours from Chengdu to Dehradun airport in Uttarakhand (the Indian state). I have 3 connections: in Bangkok, Kolkata, and New Delhi, before arriving Dehradun (airport code is DED, hahaha) and a one hour taxi ride to the outskirts of Rishikesh!  My flight back is only 10.25 hrs. with a stop in Delhi and Kathmandu (I wish I could just stay in Kathmandu... or btw, there is a school hiring in Kathmandu, Nepal for next year... hmm...!)

I am grateful that I am moving forward and having shaken off the inertia that has kept me bound for so many months. I am creating my usual Pros and Cons List for everything:  leaving my current school vs. staying, leaving China vs. staying, etc. Even though it's been hard as hell here, I really do NOT want to leave China.  I would definitely like to get out of this polluted city and move to a smaller, more mountainous town with clean air and access to nature!  I happen to have found a school hiring in Yunnan province, which is south and west of Sichuan, and the capital, Kunming, has only 6 million people, warmer temps and mild winters (50s-80s!), no air pollution, and is in the midst of mountains - in fact it sits at 1600 km.! 

So while it is a little scary and I worry about getting another job, I have hope and positivity!  Just the thought that I won't have to go into this morass of negativity every morning, or as other teachers like to call our school, "The Black Hole".  The Waldorf schools here in Chengdu looked so promising, but I think it's a Chinese school, so that would be an ESL job, which I am not interested in!  I really have a keen eye toward the post in Yunnan, if it meets my requirements.  I will make sure the website is not BS (like my school's is - not nature oriented, not holistic, no outdoor time... nothing promised delivered (slight exaggeration), except the hours and salary!

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