Last Friday was my travel day, and it went without a hitch. After over eleven years in California, I can safely declare that I’m a Californian. Walking out of San Diego Airport, I felt a rush of familiarity – the air, the sunlight – that I never felt going back to New Jersey for visits. The New Jersey part of me died a long time ago, if it even ever existed.

It was just a pain getting from San Diego Airport to the monastery by public transportation. Almost three hours, taking three buses just to get to Escondido. In Escondido, I ate my last meal on the outside at a Mexican eatery – so good after four months of crap East Coast idea of Mexican food – then I called a cab to take me to the foot of the mountain of the monastery. I admit I was trying to keep the cab fare down, I have a habit-attachment to money, but climbing the road up to the monastery was meant to be a symbolic gesture – difficult and on my own feet. It’s over a mile and several hundred feet of climbing. Of course, halfway up I was thinking how stupid that was and I should’ve just cabbed it up.

Just my luck, I arrived on the first day of a retreat and there were tons of people already at the monastery. It was a bit of an unwelcome shock, but I got through it. The first monk I recognized was Brother T*i, an older, white American monk, who I don’t think recognized me from last year. He was in a van and offered to drive me up the last uphill to the monks’ hamlet, but I waved him on, and immediately regretted it as I trudged up that last incline.

I left my pack in the tea room and headed down to the dining hall where the first monk I met who recognized me was Brother L*i, a British monk, who arrived from Plum Village last year during my visit. After dinner I found Brother H*i, an Australian monk, who has been my contact at Deer Park leading up to this visit, and he got me settled into a guestroom. The retreat ended yesterday and just about everybody left; just a few stragglers still around.

Today was the monastery’s “lazy day” with no scheduled plans. I went on a hike with Brother L*i and David, who was a long term guest last year when I was visiting. We took a path up a ravine to the ridge east of the monastery and it involved some light rock climbing. I’m hoping to get to know the surrounding area pretty well.