Our hosts, Can Malta, owner of Yogashala, and his excellent girlfriend, Sada.

We were jet lagged but happy.

Finishing up with Turkish tea. Don't you love this traditional cup and saucer?

Nudgie at the Ottoman palace called the Topkapi Palace. It looks a little like the Disney castle to me. I know, I know, a provincial reference but...I am an American after all.

The man who wrote Midnight at the Oasis finally gets to visit The Harem.

Isn't it beautiful? Check out that ceiling.

Now it's time for yoga!!! This is Yogashala -- very cool, beautifully designed and well equipped studio. It has been a true delight to teach here.

Here is the lovely Mey Elbi, OM yoga TT graduate. She took OM yoga TT 10 years ago and now is a full-time yoga teacher in Istanbul, which is her home. We miss her at OM but it has been great to spend the weekend with her and her students.

I know, I know, I know...it's so wrong what with that amazing Turkish coffee right here and all. But Sada took me here and I liked it. It was fun to see the Turkish Starbucks after so recently being in the Japanese Starbucks. Here they have huge sandwiches and big, fattening luscious desserts.

Saturday night dinner with our Danish buddies, Soham and Simon. Soham owns Hamsa Studio in Copenhagen where we will be teaching in two weeks. He told us the workshops are already sold out!

Then, somehow the whole YBBM weekend workshop was over. It was Sunday afternoon and Mey took us all to have fish lunch by the Bosphorus.

In 5th grade I did a report on Istanbul and I've been dreaming of coming to this magical place and to the Bosphorus, ever since. And you know what? It is magical, indeed.

This is the down ramp from the balcony of the Aya Sofia. When you walk on this you really get the sense that we are talking centuries, here folks, not decades, but centuries!

On the way there is this magic wishing column. You put your thumb in and turn your hand in a total circle. I don't know what it means but I like this picture.

When I saw these workers outside the cathedral I got the sense that this has been going on for hundreds of year. Since the 1400s when the place was built there have always been workers here doing rebuilding, maintenance, restoration.

Now we are off to see the Blue Mosque.

It's a short walk across the park, which is lovely, especially since we are here during the Tulip Festival.

Street food -- chestnuts and roasted corn. Also, a traditional drink called Salep which, I think, is barley and honey and I don't know what else. David thought it was too sweet. I loved it and found it comforting, sort of like liquid oatmeal.

This is a real working mosque. Visitors are kept on the edge and inside are real worshippers. It is huge and beautiful and peaceful. I wore a scarf and if ladies are in short skirts, they must wrap a cloth around their waist to cover their legs.

Blue mosaic tiles. Heavenly.

Nudgie puts his shoes on and ready for the next stop....

the Hammam! The famous Turkish baths. We were vigorously scrubbed, soaped up and shampooed. Them nicely oil massaged and showered, emerging soft and fresh like babies. I love the raw cotton scarves they wrapped us up in and the olive oil soap. This Hammam has been here since 1584.

Then we visited the Yogashala Teacher Training anatomy class taught by Ken the Rolfer from New Jersey by way of Goa. He knows his stuff, for sure. Here he is demonstrating the rotation available in one of the students who is super flexy and Can, the owner of Yogashala who has a torn meniscus.

Arts and crafts and yoga and sutras...the Bodhisattvas are busy at work.

Kumi says to Yukari -- Let's keep moving!

Smile team is rehearsing.

Nadeshko team practices their teaching and hands-on work.

Kumi is an accupunturist and she is helping out Chama's toe.

Now it is time for yoga. Kyoko begins Socrates team's class wearing her OM yoga t-shirt since she is a little bit nervous.

Here is Yo in her OM yoga t-shirt, teaching us how to use blocks in Danurasana.

This is it -- a very interesting and effective way to use blocks and belts for partner work in Danurasana.

At the end of a long but very good day of OM yoga TT, I asked Chama and Kazumi if they would join me for dinner the next night to celebrate the graduation. They saluted and said, Yes, Teacher!

Here were the wonderful yogis and yoginis at the class!

This was one of the yoginis in attendance and I asked her if I could take her picture because I thought her curled bangs were so cute.

This is the glamorous Sarah Trelease, OM yoga ambassador to Lululemon. Wearing sunglasses as all ambassadresses should!

Leroy and I are a sandwich between Naomi and Kyoko. They are OM yoga teacher training students in my program in Tokyo. They are here at the OM yoga mothership and are taking 2-5 classes a day! Strong girls! What a treat to see them and share practice together at OM yoga NYC,

Another delightful surprise -- Lizzie Lasater! She is the daughter of my dear friend and beloved yoga teacher, Judith Hanson Lasater. Lizzie is finishing up her last semester in architecture at Columbia and popped in for a class between returning from a month in India and going back to school. She said she needed some good grounding and knew she could get that at OM yoga!

Getting twisted help unknot our energy body. Not to mention the detox bennies.

With a big group you just have to get up on the little platform thing so everybody can see you but I am always afraid I will fall off! Maybe some yoga teachers are more stationary than me, but my sequencing is spatially oriented and there is not enough room on this box. Whatever. It works okay for baddhakonasana.

When you lift your arms does your neck vanish? Does your chest sink? Is it super effortful? Then open them out into a V for vinyasa!

This is Jill, one of the many smart and groovy YBBM yogis and yoginis this weekend.

This is Kripalu's new yoga room which is gorgeous. Lots and lots of props, too! Thanks, Kripalu.

This is the view from our room up on the top of the hill. Barren winter beauty.

Lisa, Nudgie, me, Shelton and Debbie. We all shared our backgrounds which were vastly different. Amazing -- yoga brings us all together!

Back row: Lisa, Curtis, Dave, Tanika, Dave, Amanda; Front row: Theresa, Debbie, me trying to look scholarly and Donna

Other than being a butt shot (sorry about that, this is pretty good example of Ardha Uttanasana. My fingers are on the ground, like a spider. Fingers in line with toe tips. Yes, you can move them forward while you are learning but this is where you are going.

Or like this. If you don't have blocks, you can do it like this. I had them do this if they couldn't straighten their legs because we were working on jumping directly into chadarunga.

Moving through spine through curling and arching, as if it was a walking meditation up and down each vertebrae.

Mindfulness of toe, of alignment, of how the foot sets up the rest of the body. I always start adjustments from the ground up.