The Past Six Months: A Summary

September 9th, 2013 - Darwin, NT, Australia

Hello loyal OM readers!  Orion here.  Before I begin, I must apologize for our long silence.  In this email, I'll give you a short summary of what has happened in the past six months.  In the next one, I'll get to the real excitement that has transpired over these past few action-packed weeks. 

About six months ago, we landed in Australia, and you received our culture-shocked first impressions of this sunny land.  A lot has changed since then.  We lived in the biggest city of Western Australia, enjoying our first experiences surviving in the big city.  We were in the suburb of Fremantle, which has a wonderfully cosmopolitan vibe and catered to all of our artistic needs.  We lived and worked and lived and worked and lived and worked, wrote songs, amassed possessions, played gigs, made friends, and lived as an Aussie for our entire time there.  It was a wonderful time and we were accepted not only as residents of Australia, but as Australians. 

Many other side stories were born and died in our Australian home, but I won't be able to relate them all here.  I'll skim over a few of the more important ones to fill you in, and I'll do my best not to leave you with too long of a novel to read through.  However, I know my own writing pattern, and this is likely to be long, so I recommend taking it in a few sessions, or at least reading it on an ipad or similar device so you can get comfy.  If you can't get cozy for this session, plan ahead.  The next blog is bound to be even longer, and nail-bitingly tense.

After living and working for a while in Perth, Marina and I had saved enough money to buy our home for the months to come.  We proudly purchased a camperized 1995 Mitsubishi Starwagon, and started doing little trips in and around Perth.  For those of you not familiar with Mitsubishi, I'm sure you've seen heaps of jacked up 4WD Delicas in BC.  Mitsubishi made the Starwagon for a while, until they realized it's superiority over other vans.  It had more clearance, was more rugged, had more power, and handled better than the competition.  To put their newfound knowledge to practical use, they created the Delica.  They took the Starwagon, put bigger tires on it, jacked it up, put in a bigger engine with four wheel drive, gave it all of the other necessary 4WD amenities, and the Starwagon became the Delica.  To aid your visualizations of the tales from this point on, just picture a Delica.  Most people who see our van in person think it is one, so your metal picture won't be too far off from reality.  

After only a month of owning our trusty steed, Loup-Xavier, disaster struck.  On one relatively far weekend trip down south, we broke down on our way home.  Rather than going through a long and tedious description of exactly what happened, I'll quote my elated facebook status when I fixed the major problem.  I had never even owned a vehicle before, let alone done mechanical work, so it was a major accomplishment, and I think this status best expresses the situation and my emotional state:

"55 days ago, our van broke down in Busselton, a long way from home... After an epic adventure involving identity theft (with permission), a "free" rental car, a "free" hotel, a 3 hour "free" tow, and insane amounts of gratitude to my fake identity/my friend's RAC coverage, we made it home with our broken van. 

The next stage of the adventure involved finding out the problem. After some time and fiddling, the local mechanics nearby discovered that the valves were bent in the head....a BIG job. I took it upon myself at that moment to become a mini mechanic, as it would save us thousands of dollars in real mechanic's labour. 

Arduous weeks passed, and I entered the forsaken realms of the interior of my van's engine. Finally, the head was out! I sent it off to be reconditioned and found that 14 of 16 valves were bent! The head itself was in great shape though, and came back gleaming and as good as new. 

Putting it all back together was another epic, and I replaced everything that needed it on the way - water hoses, rusty pipes, etc... To keep this relatively short, I'm leaving out the numerous side-plots of savage difficulties that occurred along the way. 

Finally, at 5:35pm tonight, it was done. DONE! I started the motor and it purred to life gracefully on the first try. No leaks, no scary noises, no dramas! I checked all of the oil levels and checked and re-checked all the hoses, nuts and bolts. The test drive around the block was a glorious occasion. Amazing...

The van drives so much better now than before! Wonderful. The engine is quieter, the acceleration is smoother, there's more power, and the van is happier. Makes sense when you recognize that the engine is essentially brand new... 

It's been a battle, but I can tell you one thing: it feels INCREDIBLE to have conquered."

Marina had been there helping me take the engine apart, but she had to leave for her yoga teacher training in India right when we got the head out of the van, leaving me to do one of the hardest parts alone.  It took me almost the whole month she was gone, doing it between work and music and yoga, and I barely finished it in time to pick her up from the airport.  As difficult as it was, I wouldn't change it.  I learned so much, and when we finally hit the road for good, I felt 100% confident that I could fix almost any problem, and had an amazing intuitive sense of our newly (shorter) named travel companion, Xavier.  We thought that a new engine merited a new name, and he likes it.  Loup was the old owner we bought the van from, and we had named the van after him because he too put a lot of work and love into it.  But after our mechanical journey with Loup-Xavier, as well as some epic cleaning and detailing, we decided he had graduated from Loup and simply become Xavier, like a fresh new van and a fresh new man!

I'll let Marina summarize her arduous experience becoming a certified yoga teacher in the Indian summer!  Here she is.

Hi everyone! So yes, India.  Well, first I quit my job at Gordon Street Garage, a fancy and very hip little restaurant/bar/cafe in central Perth where I was learning all the snobbishnish of making fancy coffee and decorative latte art, and started to pack a very small bag for my shortest and 3rd trip to India to do my yoga teacher training.  I had enjoyed that job, but was ready to move on to bigger and better things!  The course was a month long intensive and I would be staying in an ashram in Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh, in the middle of the humid roasting summer and the pelting rains of the monsoon.  After a 20 hour layover in Singapore, and a few more plane trips, I was on the flight to Khajuraho and had already met some of the girls from the course on my flight.  Everyone was very nice, and none of us knew what to expect.  

Upon arrival in Khajuraho, we had one night to spare, and a new friend and I found a cheap room together, easily slipping back in the chaotic bargaining ways of India.  Ah, India!  I can honestly say it was good to be back.  The next day in the pouring rain we met our pickup and headed off to the ashram.

It was a very beautiful ashram  with so much NATURE all around... I swear I had never seen that much free untouched land in all my travels in India.  It was beautiful.  There were many people from all around the world in the group, including Columbia, Australia, Canada, USA, and all over Europe.  Everyone seemed super awesome and we all became fast friends, knowing we would sharing a very special experience.

Well, what can I say? The month took off with a bang, and before you could say "Shavasana," we were doing hours and hours of yoga everyday, teaching our own little mini classes, and learning vedic philosophy.  On the FIRST day of class, they had everyone learning headstand, and though I was a little intimidated at first, I had it down after only 3 classes.  I was rather proud of myself :)  We had three teachers: Ram, Omkar, and Madhav.  I loved learning from Omkar and Madhav, and watching Madhav (who taught us asanas) bend and contort himself into ridiculous poses and then telling us to try!  However, I think we all surprised ourselves with what we could do and how fast we progressed.

Everything was going so well... until the sickness started... 

 A couple people were getting sick and I thought I would be fine as I had eaten many a slightly unsafe thing in India and been ok.  But one night I was sitting outside after dinner and felt some upset in my stomach.   I ignored it, thinking it was nothing, but next thing you know, I was throwing up! And MAN was I sick.  I was up the entire night throwing up and I couldn't even drink a single sip of water without it coming right back up.  By the morning I was SO dehydrated that as I lay in a stupor in bed, I was having visions of waterfalls and of sucking on icecubes, and sweating cold glasses of water.  I began to get worried when morning came and I still hadn't had anything to drink, when one of our teachers saved me!  He offered me "lemon water."  I said sure 'cause I had no idea what that even really was and I thought maybe it would be cold, and I was dying for cold.  What I got was super hot water with limes in it.  Not really the same thing, but when I drank it, it was 100x better!  Somehow I was able to drink almost half of this huge jug in one go!  The limes and hot temperature just soothed my stomach and I was saved!  Hurray!

It wasn't just me who got sick.   By the end of the month, I think at LEAST 30 of the 40 people had been in bed for a whole day sick, and pretty much everybody had some form of diarrhea.  By the end of the month, we were all several pounds lighter, a LOT flexier and stronger, completely detoxified, and totally open with eachother about any sort of issues we may have been having.  I swear our friendships developed extra fast and extra close as everyone was suffering some form of sickness and it was up to us to support eachother.  By the end of the month, we had all worked our asses off to become teachers and we DESERVED our certificates.  It wasn't some show up and win a prize lame-o yoga fun, it was full on, intense, use-every-ounce-of-your-will-power-to-make-it, monsoon hot yoga of survival!  Which is what I think the true practice of yoga is about anyways... pushing yourself past where you thought you could go.  By the end we had all learned some powerful lessons about ourselves and discovered the ability within us to teach others!  I really feel like I learned a lot.

At the end of the month, we said our tearful goodbyes (I think everyone cried a little!), congratulated eachother on surviving the month and earning our certificates, and parted ways.  Time to travel home! 

I thought I was totally better, but NOPE!  Whatever evil little creature was inside me had not quite given up.  I had a layover in Hyderabad and I had booked a nice hotel to stay at.  I thought I deserved a proper shower and comfy bed after that epic month!  I got super excited by this epic free breakfast buffet, and as I finally just gotten my appetite back up, I perhaps over indulged a tiny bit.  I felt fine for the first while, but as I was waiting in the airport to catch my flight, I started to feel some interesting stomach pains.  I won't describe the whole thing in detail, but I will say, when I finally made it to Perth, poor Orion was expecting a nice excited hug, but instead I just collapsed on him!

I spent the next 4 or 5 days recovering from these crazy wild stomach pains that assailed me with intense force, and slowly, slowly I survived!  When I was up and about again, I weighed myself and discovered over the course of the month I had lost 15 lbs!!! As I normally weigh 120, 105 lbs is NOT a healthy weight.  I panicked a little, and as soon as I felt up to it, I got to eating!!  And eat I did.  

Anyway, I got all better and my stomach somehow resumed some kind of normal digestion again, and I regained all the weight I lost, and I was ready to hit the road!  What an ordeal!  But I can now officially say I am a certified yoga teacher!  And I feel proud.  I can't wait to get back to Canada and start teaching!

It's Orion again.  Time to wrap this summary up.  Immediately after I turned the key in the van and shouted for joy as it hummed to life,  I quit my job and started planning our epic 'round Australia road trip.  I got new tires, spare parts for possible outback repairs, and checked and re-checked nuts, bolts, and fluids.  The van ran like it did when it's life began eighteen years ago.  When Marina got home almost everything was ready to go!  We packed up our house together and said goodbye to Fremantle, keeping a special place for it in our hearts labelled, "Our Australian Home." After the serious detailing of the van and saying goodbye to our mates, we hit the road!  The next phase of our adventure had begun, and it was about to get a lot more exciting than anything we had anticipated...

Stay tuned for our next update - bush fires, roos, coral reefs, road kill, roos, crocs, roos, and the constant, unrelenting, merciless sun...

Keep on skankin,

Orion (& Marina)