two 9hr flights + 4hour taxi = arrived

we arrived early saturday morning from our thursday evening departure. our taxi driver wasnt there to pick us up (due to a communication error on my part) but luckily a fellow passenger was also travelling to mysore so we jumped in her taxi. this is typical of my trips to india, obstacles arise and solutions follow just as swiftly. jen and i stayed in a hotel - where we slept all day and one night, the next day at breakfast we met a girl who was leaving and she helped us find an apartment. we are all settled in now, renting a room from a nice family that lives 2minutes walking distance from the shala.
on sunday evening we registered at the shala and Sharath, our teacher gave a lecture. this is an informal event where he answers questions from the group. it was so nice to have this as our first experience, we saw all the people practicing now in one room (about 200people) and i saw many familiar faces from my last trip.
monday morning was our first practice. i felt really excited to practice, the energy in the shala is always contagious, and i was moving with my breath so wonderfully for the first half hour. then my back pain returned. foolishly i thought it would not act up here in india. it was very difficult for me to handle being limited in my movements. especially since i was jet-lagged, tired and had such high expectations. i am taking care to rest now and working on switching gears to take one day at a time.
attached is a picture of jen and me enjoying a coconut - truly the most refreshing beverage i've found!