Zuna Yoga YTT Starts

First Day arrived on 4th of june 2016 at noon.

What a change !!! Out of a fantastic holiday with my husband with a lot of impressions and nice moments only with the two of us,  the many different places, which we saw, discovered and shared all these impressions together for the last two weeks. We were leaving eachother this first Saturday in june, he went back to our home, and my Yoga journey goes on here @Bali. The whole scenery changed, the languages ​​as well and suddently iam surrounded with a lot of different nationalities and people from all over the World - sharing the love for Yoga. BAM!!all on one place called Azadi Retreat in Ubud / Gianyar. The only few things at this moment what feels familar was the interaction with the staff - the Balinese staff which i answer back with my few new learned words, which  I had picked up more and more over the past two weeks, this felt at ease, crazy isn't  it?

I must say that the farewell to Michiel felt quite difficult for me, and I had trouble adjusting to this new situation and to enjoy the new experience and what’s are coming next and what I've been waiting for, for so long, hoped and dreamed ... my Yoga Teacher Training in Bali. This feeling was also at dinner when I had a moment to myself, in the long line for the evening buffet were three girls together were chatting excitedly. I took my time and stood in the door opening & looking outside and I thought of my wonderful trip with my husband and I knew he was on a plane right now. I glanced up at the sky, looking for a plane, but what I mostly saw was the beautiful sunset going over the rice fields called The Sawa's combined with the sounds of Nature, the huge palm trees at the other site of the Retreat , all hidden in the evening fog and the unknown - whats upcoming next made it even more mystical for me.

But let me start at the beginning: I welcome I received by the local people who work at Azadi Retreat was warm. The Retreat itself was set up by couple: A woman from New Zealand and her husband, originally from India, who are also present here. There were only two other girls and quite a young guy, and yes they were here for the yoga teachers training, just arrived this morning. We introduced ourselves, talked a bit and this was pleasant. Everyone was very friendly! After that I went to see if my room was available, and they said that my room had just been prepared, which was fun, and exciting of course. I went passed a big and wide pool a few steps down, everything was clean and bright and had a wide appeal because of the spacious setup. I did not have to walk far to my room, just a few minutes and I was there. A young lady was already in the room, my roommate for the three weeks. The rooms are kindly like bungalows, which reminded me immediately of the homes of Arta nadi ... That was fine, the woman introduced herself: Patricia from Brasil. Smiling but reserved and quiet. The first impression she made was that she was waiting for me to come to her; a bit insecure, but eventually asked me which side of the room I wanted to lay: I choose the right side, next to the sliding door which led to the small patio. Great, that feels really good. We chatted a little bit and it was quite easy and relaxed.

After that we walked around the Azadi and went to explore the grounds together. Downstairs we came to the yoga shala, a big open space one side closed by plants, the other side overlooking the rice fields open en clear view and the third site had a real nice view into some palmtree's  full of nature and sounds from a river which was down that little valley. Marvelous and beautiful, I thought. 

The next two hours were consisting of getting to know everyone who was arriving, on after the other. Ending up with quite large group of 30 participants and from so many different countries, unbelievable. I am the only Dutch participant and I'm the only one here called Jeanette. Funnily there are a lot of the same names ... And than at 4pm, there was the real beginning of our first day - the Opening Circle, the large introduction session, between staff, teachers and participants. So in total we are 27 women, young ladies and 3 men, a Balinese staff, the crew and of course the 4 teachers are here as well. After the small introduction everyone had prepared a fun fact about themself, for me it went like this; I am Jeanette, the German girl, with the French name and a Dutch passport and an accent in almost every language. I have a real Dutch surname, which I got from my husband and translated into English is means sugar belly ...Furthermore we got the facts, the rules, the do's and the don'ts, the Daily schedule and all practical stuff. After this part we had a nice vegetarian (of course) dinner with the whole group and from now on officially vegetarians!

It's 21: 45 o'clock when I turned off the light, and the alarm is set for 5 o’clock, early morning wake up ... so if I'm very curious and excited for my first full YTT day. It's time, the journey has started !!!!