ground control to major tom

so the last four days have been really surreal and amazing. basically i've stayed up until 8 in the morning at least doing really cool things at cool places and meeting interesting and sweet people. and then i sleep until i work. and then i do it all over. and i just got back from a trance party/festival/nature gathering thing. it was nuts. since my schedule has been so fucked, here's my story for the last 4 days...

10.17.08 (friday)
made mac and cheese
changed my own guitar strings
headed to florentine, then decided to actually go to sab kuch milega, so got lost on the way
supposed to meet scott (guy that does film stuff from philly that ofir got us in contact with)
ATE INDIAN FOOD! amazing...
alli and i had a nice chat about life, past, our film, and left us feeling very centered
thought about what would happen if instead of channelling doubt, i switched energy into creative outlets instead
saw john o (australian guy), then napping david (german guy) ---both roomates at the subkcuh
went upstairs. saw meital and british couple (on their honeymoon travelling for a whole year!)
ATE AGAIN
scott came, watched the new indiana jones on roof and he gave me advice to keep organized notes of times when filming to make editing easier
downstairs, saw ariel (alice's friiiiiiiiend), went upstairs, downstairs found alice and ariel, upstairs, downstairs carried alli to the gallery to sleep, talked to david about oscar wilde, being german
hung out in gallery with sleeping alli, ariel, tomer (bartender),
power went out
alli woke up
down to the bar again
looking at photos of john o's travel (japan, china, mongolia, vietnam)
i notice i should start taking photos of every day things that seem normal to me, but not to everyone, because that's what i'll want to see
they started playing radiohead at the bar
(all radiohead, my dream), i go to the couches to lay down
we just sit and talk and listen to radiohead and REM, john o tells me sleazy stories
we end up sleeping there
wake up to radiohead, comfy on a cushion, smell of fresh indian food cooking (not too shabby)
nufar offers me coffee and we talk about travelling and life, while david reads oscar wilde
then we meet rusty, from germany and the states
talks about the berlin wall falling being a mistake by a reporter and i want to go to germany (east berlin is where to go, says rusty)
finally the buffet opens, then i eat AGAIN and we leave, jump on a sheruit and get home. i'm going to sleep, alli is watching superbad for the 50th time.

10.18.08 (saturday)
i decided i'd be free tonight, not worry about perceptions of me. just do what i felt.
it was an all girls night, ray ray and buffy came out.
took a sheruit to tel aviv, then walked to sub kuch milega (indian restaurant... this will be a regular haunt, so get familiar)
chilled at bar saw ran (dreamy bartender)
tried to blow smoke rings and make the butthole face
mlai kofta (ate it. don't know what the fuck it is, but it was delicious)
ben al (best LA/tel aviv gay guy i've ever met)
went upstairs to one of the apartments there
downstairs to chill, then back upstairs where daniel and chico handed me a guitar and we all played songs together. alice and buff were there, buffy made videos of us playing. very cool. they're on facebook.
in normal fashion, we were still there for sunrise, so we all went up on the roof and told stories while the sun came up. very nice start to the day.
sheruit, then walk home.


10.19.2008 (sunday)
woke up after sleeping all day, went to work. talked to izy (jade's non-boyfriend boyfriend) about how we were going to get to the free spirit festival the next day (nature trance dance hippie love drinking all day all night camping festival on kineret lake), that we were told about by one of our co-workers, yuval. we figured out that it would be easiest if we took a cab from ramla after work to the city petah tikva and then spend the night, taking a bus in the morning to tiberius, which is where the lake and party are. so we did that and hopped on the bus the in morning in petah tikva. wouldn't you know it, but just as i'm laying my head down to rest, jade all of a sudden says, "hey! it's yuval!" i almost didn't believe it, but yuval (dreamy) and two friends (dreamy friends) hopped on the bus too. very strange. so we all drove out there together. once we arrived, the gates wouldn't open until 7-ish, and we got there at 4PM. so we waited. with izy's friends who we just meet there and yuval's friends (guy and liel--who i call eyes because he has the most incredible eyes i've ever seen). we finally get in and set up camp, just chilling out to trance beats, then a band starts playing. people are just coming in and setting up tents all night so by the time 9 rolls around, there's more and more tents everywhere. basically the point of this festival is to get drunk and dance all night long and then all day. for two whole days. we're only staying for one, so we are just relaxing for the beginning of the night, hanging with izy's friends. we take a little nap, have a burger and then decide to meet yuval and guy and eyes at their tent. they invite us to go dancing in the hug pit set up with a huuuuuuuge tarp ceiling in front of a huuuuuuuge stage. and it's midnight and dark and the lights are going crazy and the band is dancing, and i'm forgetting that i exist because i'm just jumping around like an idiot, feeling the beat and trying to keep my flip flops on because i didn't realize we were going dancing straight after meeting yuval. so we dance for about an hour or two and then grab water and relax more. we pretty much repeat this whole routine all night, relax, drink, walk around, dance, take photos, take a nap, eat a little, go buy more stuff, see yuval and his friends dancing again, all set again the breathtaking backdrop of the kineret lake and a never ceasing pulse of the trance rhythms. seriously all night and all day. after about 2 hours of sleep at 6 this morning, and after my third two hour stint on the dance floor, i decided to go take a dip in the pool under the WATER SLIDES!!! because we're in a water park. that's right. it woke me up and i felt better, so i laid out a little to dry off, and then al and jade and izy and i just danced more, meeting this two crazy guys, inon and idan, that kept playing volleyball and giving us pancakes and water. i took a lot of photos today and last night. it was really incredible. and to top it all off, this singer started to perform not long before we left. i forget his name, but he sang the theme song for al and 's birthright trip and we had even seen him on tel aviv beach while we were here in february! his band was very cool, and we got to listen to him as we walked down to the shrinking banks of the kineret so jade could wash her feet off. i've honestly never been so sore and tired, and i've never danced so much in my life. but it was beautiful and i had a lot of fun. we said goodbye to yuvie and his friends and headed to the tiberius bus station to catch a sheruit (much faster) to tel aviv, so we could take a sheruit back home. all i wanted was to take a shower, but we were hungry once we got to the tel aviv bus station, so al i i grabbed something and i passed out on the ride home. just got here. i took a shower and feel like a new woman, but i'm wiped the fuck out. i'm probably not making sense. but i love everyone. photos everywhere. ulpan tomorrow.

goodnight.

love,

sally