Yesterday was such a long day...probably because I barely slept for 34 hours. This was definitely the most complicated commute I've ever done while traveling. Starting from car to the airport --> 3 plane rides --> bus #1 --> train --> ferry #1 --> bus #2 --> ferry #2...I finally made it to the Holy Island...yay! Considering all that, I actually felt pretty relaxed and stress-free the whole time...I managed to hit all my connections and didn't miss the last ferry out. That was my biggest worry and if I missed it, I would've had to spend the night on the Island of Arran. I was telling someone about my commute to get here and he said part of the experience is the journey…so I feel pretty good because my journey has gone well so far!
I must have packed more than what people normally pack for the retreats...as I was getting ready to get onto ferry #2, the guy who was loading the bags looked at my bags in shock and asked if I was planning on staying for a month and as I was getting off the ferry, someone else asked the same thing! :) It was a small ferry that could only carry 10 people at a time to the island...so I guess my bags took up more room than the others...oops...haha. I had to explain to everyone on the ferry that I came from the US and that I was planning on staying longer in Glasgow plus I wanted extra space in my bag to take stuff home. Good excuse, right? It’s NOT because I am high maintenance, which I know some of you may be thinking! :)
Everyone seems really nice. I bonded right away with two of other retreat guests, Claire and Laura. Claire is 41 and Laura is 27. It's interesting how Claire, Laura and I bonded...because during dinner last night, we discovered that we all quit our jobs in April and ended up at the retreat. What a big coincidence, right? I told them fate brought us together and there must be a reason for this. Or this is where the crazy people go when they quit their jobs...hehe. Well, maybe not crazy...how about courageous since that took a lot of courage!!! :)
I brought my running shoes and workout clothes thinking I could run and exercise while I was here, but that won't be happening. The island is very small and since there are wild animals that also live here, there is poopie everywhere. I'd have to be dodging those as I run and next thing you know, I might sprain an ankle or something trying to dodge one at the last minute. Worst, I might fall over trying to miss one of the poopie and land on the other poopies! There is a way to hike up to highest point on the island, so I'll need to try before I leave. It's a bit rainy and dreary today...I'll probably just lounge around in between the meditation sessions. Yesterday was sunny for a bit and I actually had a chance to walk along the coast and take some pictures with my DSLR. I saw the Eriskay ponies and Soay sheeps. Oh my gosh...the sheeps were the cutest little things. There were 4 little babies with the mama and papa...one cute little family!!! Oh...and I also saw a guy going to the loo....lol...awkward! No pictures of him going to the loo, but I do have pictures of the sheeps.
Our first meditation session was last night, but Lama Rinchen (our instructor) was not here...so there wasn't any instruction on what to do and her temporary replacement just led us through a Tibetan chant of prayers. We had some sheets to follow along but some of prayers were missing from the sheets, so Claire and I were both a little lost. I eventually just closed my eyes and listened to the chants and it was actually really soothing to listen to. We've had a lot of silent meditation since I've been here...and just had our first session with Lama Rinchen since she arrived this morning. She went through the instructions for postures and how to meditate...so it was nice to get some guidance. This style of meditation is definitely different though...we have to keep our eyes open and look down to the ground...it’s suppose to help us focus on our posture. I'm finding it a bit difficult because my eyes gets in a daze from looking so long and I think it makes me more drowsy...either that or I'm still jetlag! :) Poor Laura said she fell forward during our 2:30pm sitting session when she fell asleep. ..and we had a good laugh over it. But then in our 5pm sitting session, when her head fell down…I thought she fell asleep again and it was so hard to suppress my laughter. They would’ve thought the American girl was crazy if I had burst out laughing. And Claire said she kept nodding off as well and that her mind would race with thoughts and some of them were impure thoughts…LOL. I haven’t been able to keep my thoughts away for long either…but all mine are pure! :) And I get very fidgety because I can’t sit in one position too long…our 5pm session was about 45 minutes long!
We did introductions today and I'm the only one crazy enough to travel this far for a meditation retreat, but then again, when have I ever been like anyone else? I march to the beat of my own drum..haha! Most people are from Scotland and England. I love all their accents, though it takes a lot of concentration to understand some of them. One of the ladies was really sweet and came to give me a hug for traveling all this way. And most people just wanted to find out how I found out about this place....all thanks to Google! I met a sweet little old lady this morning during breakfast and she told me she thought about leaving today because she felt out of place...I told her if anyone is out of place, it's me...I'm the only one from the US and I'm the only Asian (and the only non-caucasian)...but it's ok because I can blend in with anyone! :)
For the rest of the time that we are here, we have silence from the time we wake up until 1:30pm. I bet some of you are thinking there's no way I can stay quiet for that long since I'm a chatterbox, but anything is possible…plus it’ll be easy because there’s no one to talk to! :) It's meant to help our mind settle down. The first meditation starts at 7:30am...thank goodness I'm in a different time zone because I had a hard time waking up early for work when I was in Boston...so I would've struggled waking up for this meditation. Since I'm getting over jetlag, I can accommodate my body to wake up early…hopefully!
I know some of you are dying to know how I am doing without the rice and meat...so far so good! But it's only the second day...lol. They normally serve soup for dinner, so last night we had leek and potato soup. Breakfast is the usual with porridge, cereal, fruit, etc. Lunch is more of the normal meal. I was hoping to lose weight on the vegetarian diet...but with cream, potatoes, bread, etc...I might end up putting on more weight since those probably aren't all that healthy. I think the only exercise I might get is when we have clean-up duty. We had to sign up to help with cleanup after meals, so Laura, Claire and I signed up for two dinner shifts together…we avoided the lunch shifts because Laura said we would need to sweep! We are so lazy…lol.
Okie dokie...that's all the updates for now from Scotland. There's only one internet plug here in the library...so it's a bit challenging to connect to the outside world...but maybe that's the point since I'm doing my "escape" from the real world...I did promise some of you guys I would update you...so I had to keep my promise! :)
