To celebrate the end of my first season in Goa …here’s a blog with all the bits you probably want to (and don’t want to) hear about.
As I approached the airport in my taxi today, I found it humorous thinking back to a version of Lynee from September. The Lynee that told her family that they’re silly for worrying about her so much and that Goa is safe and should be fine. That same Lynee got a government taxi from the airport and had a minor meltdown about what on earth she was doing here. Looking out the window of my taxi, there was trash everywhere, cows, of course, men peeing on the side of the road, homeless dogs running around everywhere, cats that were way too skinny, and run-down homes that were still being torn apart by the end of the monsoon rains. After about an hour into my taxi, I had already talked myself into the fact that my taxi driver is on his way to drop me off at the front door of some elaborate sex trafficking ring and I’d never see my family again. This poor girl had no idea about the magic that was about to happen.
I spent a few days on my own in a hostel when I first arrived to Goa. This wasn’t easy. I stayed a little bit south of the village I’d be living in, a town (village?) called Morjim. Later I learned that Morjim is a shit hole and it was a very poor spot to choose to spend my first days. The rains were wild, the restaurants weren’t any good and the beach was still a disaster from the monsoon. Really I don’t know what I did during those early days.
Eventually I found my way to Himalaya Yoga Valley Centre (HYVC from here on out) in the beautiful village of Mandrem. The centre is set back into the jungle, maybe a 10-15 minute walk to the beach. I’m not going to lie, the early days weren’t easy. I originally went to India to complete an internship with HYVC, which is 100hrs of continuing education for my yoga certification but also was an amazing opportunity to spend more time with all of the teachers at the school that I admired so much when I did my teacher training back in 2016.
I learned a lot in the internship. I learned that people are crazy, especially yoga people. The classroom management side of things is probably the most shocking. When I did my teacher training, I thought of the whole process as smooth and loved the structure. Seeing the behind the scenes, however, almost every teacher training has one or two people who are exceptionally difficult and usually at least one person who doesn’t complete the training due to _____ (insert anything here) kind of drama. I found it a bit difficult to establish myself as an intern and part of the team. I was the youngest person in my training group in 2016, and I was the youngest person in this group, and I didn’t know how to require respect from people older than me? (Thanks mom and dad.) Little things like getting people to listen to me when I asked them to tidy up the yoga shala became difficult. Luckily, the school very much expected the students to respect me and I had their support and assistance the whole time. So that was amazing.
I spent a lot of time trying to smell better. September is supposed to be the end of the rain, but a cyclone came and visited us in October which made for unbelievable humidity. I experienced heat rash for the first time, my armpits would chafe from all the sweating (TMI sorry), and there was nothing worse than taking off my yoga pants (warmly made for Idaho winters…) to cool down, and then having to put the same sticky pants back on because I only brought one pair! (I wasn’t supposed to stay for longer than a month and was trying to do a version of minimalism for my backpacking trip…) It was hard. I showered at least 3 times a day and my sleep was constantly interrupted by the dogs who’d bark outside my window, that is if I could bare the evening heat enough to fall asleep. We would genuinely pray for rain because it meant the night wouldn’t be so sticky …. Needless to say I’ll have air conditioning next season.
It was towards the end of my internship when I was sitting in the office and I heard discussion about advertising a marketing internship role. I thought about it for less than a moment when I raised my hand, spoke up and said: “Uhm just so you know I have a background in marketing and I’d be interested…”. Next thing I know, I was asked to stay after my internship and help out with the marketing team. I agreed, on the conditions that I still got to do my scuba trip I had planned with my dear Aussie friend Ellen, I would leave in March for grandpa’s surprise party and that I could call the role “Marketing Coordinator” instead of Intern…because, you know, it looks better on LinkedIn.
Ba-da-bing-ba-da-boom. Fast forward a couple months and I find myself living in Goa for( almost) the whole season. The months that followed weren’t as eventful, but much more special. I now spent my days working in the office with my new boss, Dan. I don’t know where to begin describing Dan, other than he was an unbelievable teacher. From the start he checked in with me about what I wanted to be learning in the role and the things I’d want to focus on. He told me that because it’s a small company, our projects are really dynamic and things can happen really quickly, which means our priorities change constantly. This became one of my favourite parts of the company. In the 5 months I worked in the office, I saw how the fluidity of the company was a major strength for them in terms of product development.
For example, they were considering what other courses we could run at the centre, and a Yin yoga training came up. Since the birth of that idea, they had sent a teacher on a training and are already starting to formulate the content. It’s officially on the calendar for next year after less than 3 months of work.
I was able to help out on a video project, where we had a videographer come in and shoot some really beautiful videos of our centre, teachers and trainings. Being on the behind the scenes of a project like that was really cool. I also learned a lot about being resourceful. Goa doesn’t have all the same amenities of home. When we wanted to do some internal branding at the centre, it took me months before I found a place that could do custom design printing on aluminium signs. I started playing around with a fancy DSLR and even got some compliments on my pictures. I learned how to use photoshop and put together videos. I dabbled in data analytics and did some email marketing campaigns.
That may sound super boring to you, which I get, but I honestly feel like I gained years of experience in those 5 months, doing things I could have never done in an entry-level marketing position. Which is why when they asked me to come back next season, I was really really excited. I had my hesitations and had a round of phone calls with some of the family / friends to help me decide, but ultimately it came down to me asking for what I wanted from the company and seeing how that went. We negotiated a bit and it was final. Next season I get to come back :).
I’ve met a lot of extraordinary people on this trip. Mainly, the team at HYVC. A lot of the other people I met here were quite transient, which made it hard to establish friends outside of the school. I’ll save names and stories for private conversations or this blog post would triple in length. But for my own interest when I someday look back at these blog posts, shout out to: Tara, Tomoe, Annabel, Dan, Lalit, Maeve, Simon, Jack, Rory, Ram, Sunny and Nithia for being a part of my first season here. It was extraordinary.
The run-down of my time here may sound quite bland, but it was genuinely
Wake up
Morning asana (yoga)
Work until 5pm
Beach until sunset, 7pmish
Dinner at HYVC, potentially out somewhere
Saturdays typically included a US$14 60min massage. Sundays were pretty much exclusively at the beach. I did the occasional outing to new markets, a couple workshops here and there, but living in Goa is best described as a bubble. There’s just enough to do to keep you from getting bored, but I didn’t enjoy going out very much for post-work drinks kinds of things, so it mainly was yoga-work-beach every day.
Despite my father’s warnings, I did learn how to drive a scooter. No incidents this season! That was a really nice addition, especially in terms of motivation to go to the beach. I know, how can I possibly complain about a 10-minute walk to the sea? But given the humidity and how strong the sun is, I stand by the decision.
I also learned how to surf, shout out to Swap the surfer for my lessons. Goa is a great place to learn how to surf because the waves are generally small. I’ve caught a couple by myself now! I need to get stronger and paddle faster, but I have a whole season to get better. I think I’ll even buy a board while I’m home to bring back…
One of the most extraordinary parts of living here is that I’m surrounded by people are interested in hearing about these issues and helping each other process things. You know who you are. I feel like I’ve been given so many tools to deal with a variety of issues in a really practical manner. Simple things like learning how to sit with the bad feelings in my stomach or how to go deeper than my initial reactions to things. It’s really cool to start trusting myself to work with and through various levels of discomfort.
Coronavirus...I mean you have probably heard all the same things I'd say about it by now. My best friend Annaliese was almost on one of the cruise ships that was quarantined off the coast of Japan. India is locking everything down now, I have no idea what it would have been like trying to get home even 2 or 3 days after I got to Texas. The timing was perfect.
Okay, really long story short, I’m coming back to Goa and I love it here. I get to escape another winter and will be enjoying the sunshine in India from September 2020 – May 2021.
Well, you’ve committed to almost 2,000 words of pure ramble…I’m impressed and I hope to be connecting with everyone soon. I’m sure you’ve got stories for me!
Lots of light and love always,
Lynee
