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Endings in Guatemala
“Better late than never. Or whatever.” – A bunch of people say this all the time 2024 Prologue Let’s first take a moment to reset. I traveled to Guatemala and first drafted this post in 2019 and updated it in 2020 after I had returned home from my travels, following a few months of adjustment back into adulting. I updated it again in 2022 reflecting on the massive changes in my life and the world feeling the impacts of a global pandemic. These thoughts and insights are a moment in the history of things that I would like to keep some record of for myself if nothing else. I wrote…
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Yoga Teacher Graduation
“We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The Last Week of Yoga Training The third week of yoga teacher training in Guatemala is testing week. Everyone in the training had to teach a one hour class during the week and take a written exam at the end of the week on Friday before (hopefully) graduating on Saturday. As the usual, we still had a 90 minute yoga class with Doron each morning. Every once in awhile, if the group looked particularly exhausted, he would go easy on us with a slower, less strenuous…
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Becoming a Yogi: Part 2
“Every exit is an entry somewhere else.” – Tom Stoppard Dance Like No one is Looking A week through my Yoga teacher training class in Tzununa, Guatemala. Honestly, it’s been great. Better than great. I hate to be cliché, but it’s life changing. It’s like three weeks of physical workouts, intensive emotional therapy, career and life counseling, friend making, and new experiences. Saturday mornings we do Zen Dance for an hour and a half in lieu of a morning meditation. It’s 90 minutes of music, and dancing like a liquored up soccer mom let loose on a cruise ship dance floor. A.K.A., like no one is looking. Limbs are flailing,…
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I’m Gonna be a Yoga Teacher
“Life is not what happened to you but what you remember and how you remember it to retell it.” — Gabriel García Márquez Get me to the Shala on Time Yoga training. Guatemala. Here we go. I left Antigua on the arduous trek to Lake Atitlan, the location of my yoga teacher training. I’ve spent enough time relaxing and eating while traveling, it’s time to Yoga. Three hours on a shuttle bus that ran 45 minutes late, and a long walk with a heavy backpack later, and I’m waiting at the dock in Panajachel, a.k.a. Pana. Pana is one of the larger towns on Lake Atitlan, and the one connected to…
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Last Stop: Guatemala
“When you’re traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don’t have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.” – -William Least Heat Moon Back on a Plane After two months stateside, I left the US in early April for my last foreign destination of this year of travel: Guatemala. I’d be lying if I didn’t say it felt bittersweet leaving the US this time. After spending two months at home, I expected to be excited to jump on a plane for one last passport stamp. When I was home, I felt a lot of life stresses coming back. But I also felt…
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Yoga Retreating in Indonesia
“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” Confucius Diet, Exercise, and a Life of Travel I am an active person. Before embarking on this year of life and world exploration, I was a runner, cyclist, short distance triathlete (though I do not care for the swimming), occasional rock climber, and general cardio connoisseur. I’ve woken up at 4:30am to make a 5:30am spin class. Got home at 9pm on a Wednesday night because I stopped on the way home for a Yoga HIIT class. Whatever that means. I don’t do these things because I’m a natural athlete who just loves cycling so…
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New Years in Ubud
I know I’m WAY behind on this Blog, but good things are worth waiting for, so keep your pants on. Cassandra Johnson Leaving the Resort After spending Christmas by a Hilton Conrad pool in Nusa Dua in Bali, Vinisha, Ali and I made the journey to the faraway land of Ubud, Bali. It’s a deceivingly short 45 kilometers between the two cities. But don’t let that fool you. It takes damn near all day to get there. Balinese residents have had the pleasure of living in a peaceful, tourist-free oasis existence until just recently. Because of this, there are no wide-laned highways transversing the island. It’s blatantly obvious that the…
