In Toulouse for the night - Weds., May 21

 

Room in hostel

 

In the hostel here around the corner from the airport shuttle which I'll catch to Blagnor around 10:30 am for my 2:30 flight to Istanbul. The woman at the desk just let me use her computer to print out my boarding pass. My roommates are two college students from Montreal who biked here from Paris (10 days!) and are headed to Barcelona tomorrow! They were napping all afternoon and now headed out to fix their bikes. The back rack broke off! Would you believe their family vacations in Wellfleet! Camping at the Audubon Sanctuary? But not this year as they will spend the summer biking around Europe.

Guess I'll write about my day here, Judy, and you could just use it for the entry! I got all packed up last night as we had to leave around 8 am to drive a long way over to New Hamlet (someone told me the community is 75% women and 25% men! So men and Thay live in Upper Hamlet, and the sisters live in Lower Hamlet which is a walkable mile or so, and New Hamlet which is quite a drive, maybe 20 minutes. ) There was a big bus to take most of the people over, but Doug got a car as we were headed to Marmande to take me to the train after Thay's talk. He needed a driver as his MA license expired and he is in the process of getting a French license which will also be good in the US. But it's a very difficult test which 4 multiple choice answers for each question, and sometimes 2 or 3 answers are all correct. If you only pick ONE correct one, you get the question. Phap Dan, a German monk, former psychiatrist in lay life, is helping one of the Vietnamese brothers get ready and trying to allow him to take it in English, rather than French. Doug liked that idea!

I had never been to New Hamlet. Thay just had his 1,000,000 LIKE on Facebook, so when they visited Facebook headquarters last fall in CA on the US tour, they asked him if he would do video answers to some of the questions that people have posted there. He wasn't due to give a talk at this retreat that is going on, but did this Q and A. Sr. Dedication had culled through the 1,000+ questions to find some that could be applied to lots of people. So she and Doug sat on chairs next to Thay to read him the questions. I never know in advance when Doug is going to pop up in front and present something!! He seems to be everywhere! In fact after the session, when the walking meditation, which was supposed to be led by Thay but all of a sudden Sr. Annabelle was leading it! She's been with Thay since the 80s I think! Anyway all of a sudden a sister came over to Doug and he went running off to see Thay. He has another project he wants Doug to do! He just got back from coordinating pretty much single-handedly the 3 week Spanish tour in Madrid and BCN! I had hoped he'd get a break! I didn't even ask what the project was!

I got to see Sr. True Dedication, who didn't go to Spain and had had a wonderful visit from her younger brother. Her family was not too happy when she decided to ordain so she said it's great when family comes and can really understand more of what her life is like! Anyway, we laughed about her Star Wars acting stint. I told her I thought her costume was great until she turned around and I said to Doug, "Is she wearing a curtain?" sure enough!

Finally Doug came and we headed off with Br. Dan driving us. He had picked us up there on Monday when we arrived at PV. We got to Marmande in time to buy my ticket and cross the street to an Afro-Caribe restaurant and order wonderful fruit smoothies and vegetable curry. But of course we didn't have time to eat it so the restaurant would keep it warm while they carried my bags down and up the stairs to Track 1 and even loaded me onto the train! Of course, I always get weepy when I leave Doug but he puts up with it! I got great hugs from both of them and they hopped off just as the train started to move! BTW, he told me he had spoken on the phone with Pep, one of the main organizers of the Spanish retreats. Pep had given me great hugs but speaks no English. He wanted Doug to tell me I was great to have along, that I always seemed to show up where I was supposed to and not rely as an added burden to the organizers. That was a lovely thing to say!!

I got off, with a couple of delays where the train just stopped for ten minutes or so in the middle of nowhere, with no explanation, the train in Toulouse, got a map from the info place, and trudged maybe 30 minutes to this hostel. An Asian guy just came in at 9:30 to take the last top bunk. The bikers did some cooking in the room (never been in a hostel where there is a fridge and stovetop and a sink right in the room - coffee maker and microwave!) I'm not cleaning up! I grabbed some chicken and fries and salad on the way here, since I didn't eat lunch except for the smoothie.

I did walk over to a little cafe and had a dessert and glass of red wine, and stopped in Carrefours, a French market chain that I'd only been in in China! I needed some deodorant. The little travel one I had was really irritating my skin (gee, it's probably 10 years old!).

So,all set for Istanbul and the last leg of my adventure begins tomorrow!