Another uneventful week in Lesta...

I know, I'm a tad behind schedule with this week's blog. I blame it entirely on the trifle. See, I had this craving for trifle today, so I decided to make some (which by the way on my first attempt came out pretty darn good)...and where there's trifle, there's company! But now I have a few moments (finally) to give you all a quick update on what's been going on this week.

Thursday I finally got around to attending the Sai centre for their weekly bhajans (prayers/devotional singing). The people were all so friendly and welcoming. One lady told me to just think of them as family, and all the youth girls brought me to sit with them and talked to me. It was nice to see the differences and similarities with how a non-Canadian Sai centre operates. This centre spends a great deal of time at the beginning providing updates on Swami and what activities took place at Prashanti Nilayam over Christmas and New Years - along with a slideshow of pictures taken at each event. They really try to maintain that connection between Prashanti and Sai devotees in other parts of the world.

I don't know how many of you will remember this but several summers ago in Toronto, when the SARS epidemic hit, many musicians came together to perform at what we unofficially called SARS-stock or SARSapalooza - a benefit concert to improve tourism in Toronto. Some of my favourite bands were playing: AC/DC, the Rolling Stones, the Guess Who, Sam Roberts - it was the biggest concert in Canadian history. All of my friends bought tickets, and made sure to get me one as well. Unfortunately, due to certain parties exercising their parental discretion, I was not allowed to go at the last minute. In their defense though, as parents they were just looking out for my well-being. I mean, the all-knowing media was predicting deaths, heat-strokes, trampling and massive hysteria - an overall disaster (ahh, gotta love the media). Sure, nobody actually ended up dying, and sure, the whole thing went off like clockwork...but I can't really speak (or write) from experience. My ticket sits with its stub intact in my 'memories box' while my only memories of that day are from the clips I caught on Much Music.

I don't believe in having regrets because I try to remind myself that every choice, every act, every consequence bears some kind of important meaning to your life. BUT, if there was ever a moment that I could say I regretted something, it would probably have been never going to that concert (sad but true). Anyways, there is a point to this story which I'm getting to right now. On Friday, Z reminded me that one of our favourite bands, Radiohead, will be touring the UK and other parts of Europe in the summer. So we immediately checked the tour dates and ticket prices and decided to purchase tickets for their show in Manchester at the end of June! We are so excited to go see them. British rock in general is probably what I listen to the most. Everything from the Beatles to Led Zeppelin to Coldplay, I love it all. And Radiohead is one of the most revolutionary bands to ever hit the scene (in my opinion at least). It may not be SARS-stock, but I'm healing...one concert ticket at a time...

Oh and one final bit of news: I'm going to Paris next month! Turns out February is a pretty slow time of year for travel. Especially right after Valentine's Day. So my girlfriend Nilufa and I decided to book a trip to Paris. Neither of us have ever been before - so we're both really excited to see the Louvre (which our Hotel is steps away from!), the Eiffel Tower, les champs d'elysees, etc etc. I also can't wait to go and practice my French - all these years of classes and finally I get to go to the land where it all started! I've seen the Paris of the East (Budapest) and now I get to see the real deal.

Last term there was this poster sale on campus. Z and I thought it would be a great idea to get a world map and hang it in our living room - so that we could see all the countries in Europe and check off all the places we visit throughout the year. Sometimes I just look at it though, and I am in complete awe of how vast and at the same time, how insignificant this world is. There's so many places I've never seen before, so many things I haven't experienced. My ignorance makes me feel anxious sometimes - I want to travel ceaselessly until that hunger for worldly knowledge has been completely satiated. And yet we're all so connected these days, through technology, globalization and modernity - we've become this little 'global village' as McLuhan would say. Reduced to a tiny spec within the entire universe.

Anyways, no good can come out of all this philosophical thought at 2 in the morning. Hope everything on that side of the pond is going alright for you! Until next week!