Dropped of the face of the Earth...again

So, the Summer retreat with Rinpoche came and went. The Center needed the computer cabin for transcribers, so we had no access to the internet for about 2 weeks. But I'm back in the little tin computer hut in the woods. WHOOHOO!

The Retreat was unlike anything I've ever experinced. I got caught up in the organization of allocating 150 one hour jobs to 150 people, with another volunteer named Polly. It was quite a monster of a job and Polly and I wanted to basically throw ourselves off the cliffs by the time the retreat started. On top of that, we had our own daily jobs to do. During the Retreat I ran breakfast, which was estimated to be for 50-60 people at 7:30am. My manager put me on breakfast because she thought I liked to get up early...we're obviously really close. It wasn't until 3 or 4 days in, when I made a random comment of needing someone to basically flip my mattress in the morning to get me out of bed, that she revealed her reasoning behind that decision. I have no idea what EVER gave her the impression I was a morning person.

Anyway, moving on...I got to go to quite a few teachings, but the Rinpoche actually made it a point to humiliate people publically (how Buddhist of him) and extend the teachings as long as he wanted to. And as much as I LOVE public humiliation, I would rather it be self inflicted and NOT in front of over 200 people on a mindful Buddhist retreat. So, sorry, no humiliating stories.

A few days before the Retreat started, when Polly and I were holding each other back from hurling our bodies into the Sea, we decided to go on an adventure. We left one morning and decided to go hitching and see how far we could get. The first few people that picked us up weren't that amusing, except, if you remember way back to the man who asked me if I could recommend a good cheese in the supermarket, and found it hysterical...well, his nephew was one of our first lifts. It's so small town here. Then, outside of Bantry, we got a lift from a man in his sixties, on his way to Skibbereen. Yes, Mom and Aunt Nancy, I made it to good ole Skibs. It was an adorable place, much bigger than Castletownebere, but for some reason I thought it was on the sea. We went to an Art show that really had a vague resemblance to Art and had a pint in one of the local pubs. But, the interesting part is that, on our way back to Castletowne, we got a lift from the same bloke, Chris, that brought us to Skibs. And for the next 4 HOURS he became our tour guide. He drove us all over Mizen head and Sheep's head peninsula's and basically abducted us (sarcasm). We kept saying that we really wanted to get back, but he was so bored and starving for company that he just kept driving. We started to doubt that we'd ever get back. But alas, he finally let us go and we got one last lift from the most interesting people I've ever met in my life...Gypsies. Or as they're called over here, Travelers. They smoked with the windows closed, spoke loudly and with the strongest accents ever and told stories of their 17 brothers and sisters. They asked us a million questions about the "settled world" and asked me if NY and America were two different places. They even offered us some swigs out of their communal bottle of Coke. It was amazing. They drove us all the way back to Castletownebere, where we decided to have a pint to go over the days events. I think we may hitch again somewhere tomorrow. It's fun.

On to more important info. I just realized that it's been so long since I've put a blog up, that I haven't told you when I'm coming back. My flight lands on August 7. I'm comin' home. Get ready America, you are about to be reMartzified!

I'm actually leaving DZB on Monday and going to Dublin to housesit for a friend, with Polly. That's for 2 weeks and then we're going to look for another Volunteer opportunity for my last 2 weeks here. We're looking at some conservation work in Killarney National Park, but who knows where we'll end up. I swear I could circle the Globe just by meeting and talking to people at DZB, but I am afraid I have run out o' money. Next time.

I miss and Love you-Reebs