Dear All,
Just a quick note to let you know I've arrived safely at Gampo Abbey.
I had three days in Halifax to recover from the jet lag and start adjusting to Canadian culture before heading up to Cape Breton.
Canada is like England but different. Same wheelie bins - different plugs!
The weather was kind to me - only -3c on arrival. It waited a day to drop to -10c. This is cold - but not as bad as you might think. A shop keeper warned me that Halifax is like the tropics compared to Cape Breton - a bit of an exaggeration, but it is colder up here.
The drive in was beautiful, very white (they really know what snow is) and lots of trees (this country is huge). The bay of St. Lawrence is frozen big style - it looks like the Arctic! I saw a guy on the way in who was riding on it on a quad bike!
The Abbey has a 3 day open period following the rains retreat which has just finished. This means I have 3 unstructured days to "arrive" before the program proper gets under way. We have a 10 day silent retreat from Saturday.
People here are very friendly, lots of new and difficult Tibetan names to learn - you thought Pali/Sanskrit was hard? The set up here is quite un-FWBO (no surprise there) and that feels a little odd, I also feel very English. I'm sure I'll adjust.
Love to All,
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