Wednesday at the Mansion

Its funny how you can acclimatize to anything. After just a few short days here, I won't say that I'm used to India, but I'm getting there.
I was able get things rolling easily with a 4.5hr taxi ride ($50) from the Bangalore airport to my guest house in Mysore where I was given a key and left basically on my own, hungry and a little bit overwhelmed by the insanity I had witnessed on the highway. At one point my cabbie decided to defy everyone else in the city and drove about 1/4 of a mile down a one way 3-lane highway, in the wrong direction. A moment of terror followed confusion as I wondered why there was no one else going our way. Then I started laughing hysterically at the absurdity of the situation and the cabbies determination to make his short-cut work out. Although relieved of the fear of imminent death/hospitalization after only 1hr in country, I was a bit disheartened when we finally came upon a a delivery truck blocking two lanes and were forced to make quite the awkward turn around. This brazen display was my first inkling that in India the culture in many respects is anything goes if you can get away with it. There are however hilariously ludicrous rules and faux pas' such as: singles dating (any relationship outside of arranged marriages), kissing in public, the exposed ankle of the human female, eating beef, and to my chagrin the use of the left hand.
Yesterday Ethan and I moved into our apartment at the Rashinkar Mansion which will hopefully be my permanent residence for the duration of my stay in Mysore. We've got all of the amenities in one place that I've never even experienced in my various residences in the West. Internet, TV (awful Indian programming), furnished kitchen, washing machine (shared by the whole building, but whatever), a guard, hot water (big plus), flushing western toilets, and a kitchen sink (I have lived for a year without one of these). So needless to say its very nice, especially for India. I started to feel a bit like I was missing out on some of the cultural experience being in such a nice place, but I got over that feeling when I killed three kitten sized cockroaches in my bedroom. How's that for culture!
Off to rent a motorcycle then to the first practice with my new yoga guru, Bharath. Namaste ya'll!