Finally I got everything packed and am on my way to India! The flight on Etihad Air connects me from LAX through Abu Dhabi and on to Delhi India. The flight took off an hour late at 5 pm, so I was a little worried because I had a short connection, but everything worked out fine.

The airplane was completely full with a lot of young families and business people,I was so thankful to have my noise reduction headphones since there were many screaming babies- and I mean screaming😳!

I was so happy to be relatively healthy after having the flu the past week. It would have been really challenging to deal with the chaos of the flight, if I still felt bad.

So the first leg of the flight was 15 hrs long. It was good that it was a late afternoon flight so I was able to be in a half sleep for much of this flight. I was glad that I had taught my yoga classes in the morning and moved my body because it was not very comfortable to be seated for so long. I was thinking how aweful it must be to travel if you are bigger or even average size.

The flight was pretty turbulent at times so we had to stay seated and I had to deep breathe and try not to panic.I was telling myself I was very brave to be flying like this alone. But I have to say,I just think of my mom saying, if it’s my time, it’s my time. So that fateful way of thinking can calm me down. I felt sad to not be traveling with Wayne and experiencing this trip together, but then again, it scares me sometimes to travel together if something were to happen...next time though, we will definitely be traveling together❤️.

I kept wondering about Quinn’s interview at the Iovine and Young academy at USC and hoping all goes well. Also Wayne was doing a lot of soul searching and job research, so I was hoping the next couple of weeks would bring on some sort of change and inspiration for him.

Anyway, we arrived safely, I made the connection and after many long lines was on the next leg of my trip. It was a smaller plane and this time many older people were traveling. I felt like I was the only American and there were just a handful of Caucasians. I might have been the only Japanese American. Coincidently I was seated next to a woman who also had a 17 and 21 year old. So we had a lot to share. She was an India doctor of internal medicine living in Abu Dhabi and commuting back to her husband and daughter in India. Sadly her mother in law had just passed away, so she was going back to be with her husband. We talked of our age and how we are losing more people due to disease and age. I felt as if we had so much in common and although we live such different lives, really live a similar life trying to be happy and grow our families well. Her husband was also a doctor but worked in Delhi. So that is quite different to only see your husband and daughter every 2 months! (I feel very blessed to have the lifestyle we’ve been born into and love the choices we have made together Wayne!) Her son lived with her in Abu Dhabi and it was the first time she was leaving him alone since he couldn’t come with her. We talked for a long time and when it was time to deplane, she gave me a gift of chocolate and welcomed me to India. 🙏

As I was checking through customs I met Jenny Wu, a yogini from Shanghai. She was on her way to Rishikesh to stay in an ashram and study iyengar for a couple of weeks. She was a pleasure to talk to and I think maybe someday I will meet her again in Shanghai or India!

It was a little scary looking for my ride once I had retrieved my luggage. It took me a half hour to finally find Jesh who was with Yoga International and waiting for me. It was an hour drive to the LaLit hotel in Delhi, and once we arrived around 4am \240Sat Feb 17 th Delhi time, Jesh set me up in my room. I was very relieved to have made it safely and was looking forward to getting some sleep.