montreal

monday i joined elise to two yoga classes she teaches. they were very calm, restorative hatha practices, which was quite nice for where i was at. still challenging enough.

the second class was held at a wonderful little place called essentiellement sol. it is a natural food store and deli with a healing arts center above. brilliant! i was intoduced to patrick, who i will call the 'shopkeeper', i decided to hang out there after the yoga class, and stayed to wait out a heavy downpour. i bought a cup of mate. patrick bought a friendship bracelt! we chatted a bit. he had good music playing and would sing along much of the time. he asked if i had ever received this healing light treatment before and asked if i would let him perform it on me. it is like reiki, and focusses on the pineal gland. shortly after receiving this treatment i thought to ask patrick if we could have a song circle in the space upstairs. he responded in the positive and we decided it would take place upon my return on the 28th.

i found these folks somehow... who do song circles somewhere in the U.S. wonder if i will have a chance to join them on my way.

we passed by one sweet looking community garden while riding to yoga class, and i have found information online about many other gardens, but i was not able to visit any of them this day.

elise had the idea to make pizza and bought some organic spelt flour so i would eat it too. she had to be out in the evening, so she asked for my help preparing it. at first i was kind of a jerk and started to shoot down her idea, before i realized what a kind gesture she was making. in the end the pizza came out amazingly (reminded me of how my mom used to make it) and i also made some other food to balance out the meal to my liking. we shared it with another awesome couchsurfer from france who was there for the night.
after dinner elise and i did a little salsa dancing and i played a little mbira as promised.