Tuesday, October 5, 2010

inspired in Montreal

Having such a great time in Montreal!  I love this city, it almost makes me wonder if I really am a small town girl at heart.  I really dislike Vancouver, but this city is so vibrant and alive.  It's a city I could live in for sure, there's so much going on all the time, lots of great classes to take, great food and it's the most bike friendly place in North America.  I'm loving the "real" fall days too - crisp mornings, sunny afternoons and lots of crunchy leaves to jump on.  I'll admit, It's got me questioning if Prince Rupert is really the place I want to settle down in.

I'm staying with my friend Kanti Devi in our friend Vishnu's house.  Vishnu is off on a RTW trip and is at an ashram in India right now and Kanti is staying in his apartment while he's away.  It's been such a blessing to stay here with her.  It's in an amazing location for one thing, right at the base of Mont Royal.  But the real treat is Kanti herself.  She's an amazing cook, musician, artist and yogini, totally devoted to her yoga practice.  She lives, breathes, eats, and sleeps it - nothing sways her.  It's so inspiring.  For me, my practice comes and goes in waves; I can be right on it for one week and right off it the next.  It's hard not having a yoga support system at home - yoga classes I can attend and yoga friends, but I'll leave here inspired to work on my self-discipline.

Highlights of the past 3 days:
Sunday:  hike up Mont Royal to enjoy the view of the city, Sunday Satsang and dinner at the Sivananda Centre, the Depreciation Guild at Casa del Popolo and the fun people I hung out with that night
Monday: 4hr bike tour which included all the sights, plus a delicious coffee and croissant in a beautiful hidden garden cafe and later stone-fired pizza and microbrewed Montreal beer at the Atwater Farmers Market, a yoga class at the centre en francais,  yummy homemade dinner with Kanti followed by guitar playing, singing and chanting
Today:  my first Moksha yoga class (a type of hot yoga-loved it!), shopping on Ste Catherine and in the underground city

That's all for now.  I wish I had pictures to add but I haven't been taking many and I also forgot my cord for transferring them onto my computer - sorry!

lots of love - Bhargavi

Friday, October 1, 2010

Busy Bee

The past week and a bit has blown right by! wawawowza! 

I worked 6 12hr dayshifts in a row, volunteered 2 of those nights at hockey games, went out for some night training on the rescue boat 4 of those nights and each night we were out until about midnight, and last night I went to my Steps to Leadership class for 3.5hrs.  Whew!  Thank goodness I have a nice restorative vacation coming up!  It's fun to be busy for a bit, but I was so grateful for a night shift tonight so I could sleep in, mow my lawn, clean my house and run some errands in town yesterday. 

The good thing about all this busy-ness is that I haven't had any time to spend money!  In 6 days I've spent $16.  That equals $104 of savings into the ski fund!!  Only have to save another $595 bucks and those sticks are mine!! That's only 30 days of not spending any money...totally doable.  Keepin' the dream alive!!!!

I've been planning all sorts of fun stuff for Montreal tonight, and I'm getting so excited.  I leave tomorrow morning, right after my last night shift.  Sunday is my first day there and I think I'm going to rent a bike and tour the city, head to the Sivananda Centre for drop-in yoga and Satsang, and then I'm going to check out some live music.  It's the last day of POP! a 4 day International Music Festival, tonnes of amazing bands playing at venues all over the city.  I bought tickets to see Film School, Depreciation Guild, and Receivers at Casa del Popolo.  Should be a good day :)

Stay tuned for lots of Montreal updates and have a smashing day! Shanti B