BUDDHIST MEDITATION RETREAT May 11th

It all began Saturday morning May 12th after I'd accepted an invitation to join a Buddhist meditation treat just hoping for a few days of rest and learning. I got that and much more as I soon learned we'd be going to the woods and staying in cabins while listening to lectures about the teachings of Buddha and meditating. Here is the picture of the River Nistru which is the locale of the retreat. and next is a picture of our teacher, Petya who shared his knowledge and his personality with us. He was taken into the police station on Friday night with the rest of the "campers" for failure to register a religious gathering... I missed all of that commotion darn it.. as I was at the Internation Women's Club Night of Art. Anyway...
There were about 15 of us staying in 6 little cabins with a couple of decks and a couple of hot showers and a nice view of the River and woods. The weather was beautiful making it easy to enjoy the beautiful outdoors!!!
We took long walks in the woods,

hung out at the "beach" played alot of cards and other games, ate together, learned together, meditated together, played together and generally got to know each other much better by the time the weekend was through!

Here's Ryan with a dandelion - she worked hard to make sure everyone was happy and comfortable. And we were!!!


Here Petya cooks our frigarui for our last great feast and Angela and I pose with the vegetarian version...
and the group responsible for all the great food and organization of it... especially Masha lower left... also Rok, Adam Andy Petya and Angela

Sunday morning as we went for an excursion to the beach, we (me, Nina, Jake and Jessica) got a few good laughs when we saw the babas on the beach... one one liner after another ensued.

After packing it all up we headed back to Chisinau where we stayed one more night at Adam's Apartment and had our final meditation.. what better way to end it all than with a strawberry hookah!!!