Yoga, Restaurant Week, and Impending Midterms

This past week was a bit of a blur to remember (probably due to too much Netflix watching curled up in my bed), but there are still a few exciting adventures to account. Last Sunday night I threw a pizza party and had some friends I study with come over to cook and eat with me. We had a blast and spent a good portion of the night singing along to popular songs as our friend Sam played the guitar. It reminded me of jam sessions I used to go to at Wellesley and felt a little like home. I immediately wanted to throw a pumpkin carving party too, but it’ll be a little too hard with everyone leaving town over Halloween.

On Monday I spent the entire day struggling with homework and napping. Then, in the evening I went to my first yoga class at a place my friend Kim recommended where they teach in English. The class was relaxing and really helped me shed some of the stress I’ve had about all the midterms I have this week. I talk about myself like the poster child of the “grades don’t matter campaign”, but it’s usually a ploy to convince myself of that more than everyone else. It’s been a while since I’ve had so many tests packed into the span of two days thanks to Wellesley’s self-scheduled finals, so if you’re the praying type I wouldn’t mind a few.

 On Wednesday night I convinced some friends to go eat Indian food with me. It was an excellent idea and I’m realizing that I definitely missed out as a child without any Indian food in my life. On Thursday I went to search for a yoga mat anticipating I’d want to do more and more yoga and thinking I’d need one for the retreat I was headed to on Saturday and Sunday. On Friday I went to have dinner at Trattoria Mama, one of the restaurants participating in Budapest’s restaurant week. I drank the most amazing rosé wine and ate mushroom soup, salmon with spinach fettuccine, and something that I can only describe as a chocolate mousse filled cream puff (see picture). It was an amazing dinner, and I think restaurants may be God’s gift to the world.

 On Saturday I got up early to get ready to go to the first day of the yoga retreat. I had no idea what to expect except that I’d be involved in this retreat from 10AM to 6PM. In retrospect it was kind of a big commitment for two full days of yoga, but it was amazing. We spent the first hour each day doing pretty typical poses and asanas like what you’d expect from the average yoga class, then we did some yoga ninja, a bit of meditation, drank smoothies together, talked about theory behind the practice of yoga, had lunch together, took a walk, and then spent the afternoon learning more adventurous yoga. On Saturday we tried a few different types of headstands, and on Sunday we tried acroyoga. I’m terrified of headstands, but I made some decent progress towards convincing myself I could actually do a headstand one day. I was also pretty terrified of acroyoga since it’s basically either someone lifting you up into the air or you lifting someone else up into the air; but, it was amazing. It’s really fun to try to hold people up in the air and to learn how to hold yourself up as you balance on someone else’s hands or feet. I wasn’t terribly good at acroyoga, but I think it’s a really neat thing to try.

 The yoga retreat was a really good way to center myself for the undoubtedly stressful week ahead, and a surprisingly awesome way to meet cool people. Everyone who went to the retreat was from all over the world and had such interesting stories. The group also vibed together really nicely, so it made the retreat that much more fun. I don’t think I’ll be a yogi next time you see me, but I do think I will spend more and more time practicing just to continue challenging my body, and enjoying the company of other people who do yoga too.

 I’ve noticed I’ve been kind of bad at pictures lately, and I’m sorry to disappoint. I’m traveling to Spain and Copenhagen over fall break next week, so expect many more pictures of adventures to come.

 Also, the most exciting news: I found my way to Szimpla's Sunday market this morning and I GOT KALE. I never realized how much I loved that leafy green goddess of a vegetable until it became impossible to find, and now I'm looking forward to a week filled with kale everything.