Would you like to go to Bhutan?

One knows that it is not so easy to travel to Bhutan. The entry into the country is controlled by the royal family and strict rules for travelers apply. So here I am sitting in India, talking to a wonderful woman who I just met named Maggie. She is talking about being tired and leaving for a trip next week. Innocently I asked: Where are you going? Bhutan, she says. Little did I know that she is the Bhutan expert and the main traveling teacher from our Buddhist sangha for the subject Bhutan. She knows the country inside out and all the stories around it. This year she is telling me is special because the group was only going to be 12 when usually close to 60. And then she said: Do you want to go? I only hesitated for a second due to cost considerations, but all of me was screaming YEEEES. I circled the meditation hall three times and slipped a note under her door: Please take me with you to Bhutan!!! Thanks to my sister helping me out with the money transfer I am now all set to go. I am really going! I still can't believe it. I hope I am making myself clear how unbelievable this is for me to get a last minute opportunity like this. It does not happen like this or it does. And surely higher powers are at play here. We are leaving for Nepal on Saturday and then with a small plane along the Himalayas and on with jeeps into Bhutan for a 10 day trip. I can't say how wonderful it feels to be free to be able to accept an offer like this, or any offer in that matter. I feel the freedom to take chances and follow my heart like never before. I am still planing to make it down to Kerala in the second part of my trip, but who knows what else is coming my way until then.....
Maybe a little more about where I am right now:
KIBI - Karmapa International Buddhist Institute
Every year our Buddhist group offers a three months course to study Buddhism here in India. The course is serious and I have previously multiple times checked out the curriculum. I don't think there is a better opportunity like this to study Buddhism with some of the highest and most respectable teachers in the field. I didn't make it to partake in the course this year, but will keep it in mind for the future. It must be possible to create a life which supports more freedom for ones studies and spirituality. The students live here at the center and study all things Buddhism, including learning Tibetan language. At the end of the three months course a public course is held for seven days, also with teachings. This is the part that I am partaking right now. The course is a combination of studies and days of initiations by our head lama - a rare and special honor, following a long Tibetan tradition within Buddhism. My days have been pretty full with teachings and not much free time. I was able to get a space here in the Institute with a super nice American girl, Ryan. She is one of the whole semester long students and kindly let me crash in her room. I have the highest appreciation for all the 60 people who came here from all over, who interrupted their lives back home only to focus on studying Buddhism in the solitude, only for their own development. What a commitment!!! In between I have been able to check out Delhi a bit and must say I like it. I can't talk about the poverty I have seen and some of the conditions within people are living here every day. I can't talk about it simply because I don't have words for it. I choose not to ignore it either and in between somewhere I ended up in my own experience of acceptance and just taking in without taking it on. And then the space is provided for the actual experience. I am pretty brave in terms of getting places and trying everything - including foods from the street. How could you not! It looks and smells wonderful. Everyone tells me I am going to get sick anyways, so why miss out on at least trying what looks new and interesting. The food is wonderful and gives me inspiration. The rest of the time we get fed at the center and spoiled by a wonderful Tibetan cooking team. I love Asian food!!! I have been to several markets and so far found whatever I was looking for. One adventure I must share. Yesterday I went to a tailor wanting to have some outfits made. I actually brought not enough nice cloth, only simply traveling gear. Once in Bhutan we will be meeting the royal family and I need a nice dress. So I was on a mission. The tailor was found, but I had no fabric yet. And so the tailor offered to lead me to the fabric store. I did not know he meant on his motorcycle. From here on only people who have been to India are going to appreciate the braveness included in the rest of the story. My friend and I were packed on the back of the motorcycle and off we went. Yes - there was 3 of us on one bike but that is totally normal here. We could have fit at least two more children and a dog. I knew I wasn't going to die in India, my heart was jumping for joy over the adventure ahead. We drove through town in the warm wind and dust, honking endlessly and trying not to run over or get run over by anyone else. The whole traffic chaos amazes me and somehow it works for everyone here. We did get to the fabric store and back safely. The tailor even bought us amazing sweets and coca cola on the way, apparently a part of his customer service or simply to be nice. I don't know. In the end he took my measurements and tomorrow I'll see what my hand tailored green long silk dress will look like. I am excited. Did I mention the total cost will be around 12USD and that includes the free motorcycle tax ride. Priceless.

Off to Delhi

In a few hours I am finally off to Delhi. I am realizing that saying I am going to India is much easier than actually doing it - aweeeeeee. My heart is racing for the unknown and the certainty that this not the average kind of beach hotel vacation. This is a new thing for me not knowing, not controlling and letting things be unplanned. I am also realizing that I waited too long to depart. It's like standing on top of a cliff, contemplating too long before the jump. Chances are you will back out instead of going for it. But in this case there is no turning back now. The plane is leaving and most likely with me on it. After all I paid for it with my very last and hard earned money. Off I go my friends. Till soon. Much love, Judith

Travel dream plans

India
Zuerich-Delhi - 02/26/09 - Arrival (I don't have any plans yet for the first week in Delhi. If you have any suggestions for me what to do, please pass it on to me.)
Delhi Kibi, Buddhist school Karma Kagyu lineage - 03/04/-03/12/09 Buddhist course with H.H. 17th Karmapa Trinlay Thaye Dorje
Kerala - 03/12 - ? Amritapuri - Ahram of Amma
Goa - ? - 04/28/09 Beach and Yoga
Delhi 04/28/09 - Flight back to Zuerich
Austria 05/01 - 05/03/09 Family weekend gathering in Bregenzer Wald, Austrian mountains
Frankfurt 05/04/09 - Back home to SF
San Francisco - Mexico 05/06-05/10/09 Brad/Courtney's wedding
Bali June/July

At the post break up recovery store and treatment spa.

Clerk (Behind the counter): "Can I help you young lady? You look lost." Customer (Female, mid 30s, freshly single): " Yes, please. I would like to order an enormous portion of self confidence, please, and one to go also to take with me home to California. Also, if you could add a pair of reality glasses and new hearing aid, the ones that filter the emotions. Oh, and I also need a protective aid for my heart, the extra strong one please. This is going to be a tuff one. I could use one of those alcohol overdose prevention protectors. Just in case. I heard good things about it. I better get on the wait list for one of those great rebounds you carry. The one with the no attachment feature. I head there was a six months delivery time frame. Do you still have that book on the shelf were someone wrote about the meaning of it all? What's missing,,,,,ahhh, the most important, the memory eraser treatment. Can we please proceed with that treatment right away? I could really use a dose now. At last I have a question. How do I get rid of the love symptoms and the pain in my chest." Clerk: "I am sorry dear. We are still working on a patent for that one. Try coming back next year."

Berlin pictures - on the way to class

www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=r97tojn.9yk67joj&x=0&y=-5b4oq3&localeid=en_US

Berlin - Random Thoughts

I am never tired of looking at Graphiti. 

Men with strollers are sexy. 

My appreciation for San Francisco dog owners has grown. Pick up your shit Berlin people!

Can I please take the cute cafe I fell in love with and transfer it to San Francisco? 

For some reason the German none smoking law memo has not reached Berlin. They even invent their own rules opening up smoking at a particular time of the day.

Or - Berlin rules anyways.

I, too, want the apartment with the old squeeky hard wood floor, gigantic decorative ceiling, six cornered massive rooms and the french door balcony overlooking the buzzing neighborhood. And all this for a bargain of 200Euro a month. I am not choking!

Money seems a none existing goal in this city. How refreshing and inspiring. 

The official Berlin campaign slogan - We are poor, but sexy. 

Want to open a business? Come to Berlin. 

Anyone speaking German around here? 

Not all second hand cloths are vintage. 

Enough with the cold already. I am ready for some sunshine. 

Berlin's housing projects

Last night I went to view and visit one of my class mates commune housing projects. I should back up and perhaps tell a little about these very special to Berlin history around housing projects which marked and era just after the wall came down. At that time Berlin was in the news all the time showing horrifying pictures of police fully armed dragging people out of houses they had taken over, squatters. It was a revolutionary movement all over town for people to take over houses. Some simply were fighting for their believe in freedom and against the system of materialism, others were associated with particular political groups, demonstrating for whatever the group stood for, others were groups of artists creating a experimental situation or installation with the house or some were simply fighting to save an old building with lots of history to be torn down by big bad development companies and investors. The project I am going to talk about is a combination of that with an interesting twist of events following, involving an art project and perhaps some luck. This house I am going to talk about is well known in Berlin as it was later funded as an art project by the city called Project K77. It is also famous because this group of squatters succeeded were many others like I mentioned before were removed from the houses using violent acts by the police. This success is explained with an interesting chain of events happening at the time. It all started like I said with a group of people not agreeing that this house, the oldest house in the area of Prenzlauer Berg was to be torn down by a new owner and rebuilt with an ugly apartment building. Seeing the building anyone would have to agree with the protectors. The house is stunning. Houses in Berlin are famous to uniquly consist of a front and a back house, two seperate buildings, connected through a large court yard. Lots of live happens in these court yards and creates a unique feeling of community in itself. The group of young activitsts and artist squatted in this building with no electricity, no heat. This was 17 years ago. The owner tried to evict and remove the squatters but due to elections going on at the time the police held back, trying to keep out of the news and the town quiet. At this time the house has already caused some public news and attention through the conflict in the neighborhood. With the police not acting the owner hired a private squat removal team, a special force, in my imagination trained for real war. With the intention to remove the people from the house again this group started an attack so violently and aggressively, using methods bordering on real war scenes to the point were the people in the house themselves in thread of their lives called the police. The police came and now an interesting event occurred again in favor of the house. The police acted in favor of the young activists, protecting them and against the squad team hired by the owner. Now this story was covered widely all over the country as a revolutionary act. After the owner then sold the house giving up on dealing with the situation in public. The new owner decided to support the none paying tenants, creating a none profit organization out of the house, selling the house peace by peace to the organization, which now in turn is trying to self sustain. In addition the project got funded as an art project and so K77 was born. And so last night we got a tour of the house. It was amazing! In the house live 23 adults and 7 kids. The front of the house if facing a pretty and busy trendy street with a tiny movie theater and cafe, which also belongs to the house. Above a pretty well known comic artist is renting space for his studio. The middle level of the house through the court yard hosts a ceramic studio and above that the floor was turned into a dance studio. The rest of the house is filled with the individual rooms. Each floor hosts one community hang out space and the bottom back of the two houses is the home of the large community kitchen and eating space. In the court yard my friend Nina showed me the last existing public toilet, freely accessible from the front of the street. She is sharing with me that many homeless people come here to use it. We were invited for dinner. Each night for the last 17 years all people in the house eat together. Cooking groups are organized, but you will be amazed to know that other than that there are very little rules, like no cleaning rules. The community has a commitee which meets once a week. Here larger issues are discussed. The house is continously being remodeled and of course at this size, including commercial spaces the organization requires some business like discussions. The house also holds true to a rule of switching rooms every two years in order for people to practice none attachment and to flow the energy in the house. I found this a great idea I had never considered before. I could go and on talking about this project. We need more of these projects in the world!!!! I got to run to class.....