Acim Village

I’ve finally managed to put together a little page of souvenirs from our May 2011 visit to Temecula. I’ll just provide a quick little background here so the photos make a little sense. As I mentioned, our digital camera decided to stop functioning the morning of the day we were to leave L.A. for Temecula, hence the abundance of photos before leaving and the great absence after while at the Foundation. Was there some hidden message in this? Maybe, since Zafu who offered to take some pictures of us was bothered by an unusual problem with her camera, and Annie, on the last day just before leaving, did not have access to her camera but borrowed her daughter’s, which then ran out of battery! Strange… Anyway, Jean managed to take some of us and then she lent us her camera for an afternoon, which was really nice. Then we bought a cheapie throw-away but only on the last day (till then we were sure we would be able to get ours fixed).

So, the movement through time is this:
Picture of us on departure from Toulouse airport – the big beginning!
Arrival some (many) hours later in L.A. and a smiling Annie who greets us at the airport with a bouquet of tulips!
A few colorful photos of random and wonderful Americana as we first visited Hollywood right after arrival, followed by a great breakfast the next morning prepared by our magical host, Annie (great espresso coffee – the best we were going to have all week – plus fruit galore and apple strudelly thingies).
That first day Annie took us on a whirlwind tour of all that L.A. had to offer, starting with the great Hollywood sign (in the background behind the famous movie couple), then down to the city to check out the stars’ handprints cast in concrete (this is the closest Pat is ever going to get to George Clooney, I’m afraid), then a photo of a famous threesome in front of a vase of famous celery (?), then yours truly being dressed up as a pirate, a delicious looking shop of soaps, an amazing traffic jam as only the Californians know how to do them (at one time we counted 15 lanes of jammed traffic!), then finally, ahh, the coast and the beach at Santa Monica.
We managed to get in a lovely meal at a typically American restaurant that evening (the ‘Hamburger Hamlet’, no less) where we were four together with Annie’s husband, Mark (the real stud in the photo). (Those are completely non-alcoholic beers and Martinis in the photo).
Yes, that was all in the first twenty-four hours, and I didn’t even mention the Farmer’s Market we visited, too.
The next day was Saturday and what better way to kick things off than with breakfast at a real diner with Formica table-tops, chrome counter tops, Wurlitzer record players (at each table!) and sublime real authentic American coffee (um…), muffins and pancakes!

Okay, now things change speed a little. Later that morning we headed off to pick up our rental car at the airport and then set off for the sunny south and Temecula. Having successfully negotiated the perils and tribulations of the L.A. freeway system (no mean feat), we arrived in great shape for the Saturday seminar and our first meeting with Ken. We were not disappointed. There was a lot of hugging and hair smooshing and general coziness and shared love all around. We don’t have any photos of the Foundation yet as we only managed to take some on the last day with our throw-away camera that we have yet to have developed.
The first photo I’ve included of that time is the one of our evening spent with Zafu on Monday. She was a most gracious host and shared with us an abundance of love and little gifts all to our great delight. We left after a wonderful evening of shared stories and perceptions, and a big hug. One of her gifts to us was a beautiful little Chinese box containing a sparkling blue dot – she said it was just waiting for her as she looked down one day in a parking lot next to her car. Funny.
We also met our own Jean from the Village on the first day – Ken literally pushed her in our laps! We got on great right away and managed to meet up twice during the week. You should know that she is a very loving soul and student dedicated to the Love in all of us. Then finally I’ve rounded out the photos with the one Jean took of us with the Maestro himself.