i'm black. and i'm white. and i'm black and i'm white, yeah yeah yeah

woke up late, then met david at the sub kuch. hung out with daniel in his room for a while before walking for what seemed like foreeeeeeeever to the flea market in yaffo. it was a very windy day. blowing in my face, my hair away from my eyes. we found the flea market and found lots of cool stuff, some of it even for free. also, remember the guy that yelled at me and tore my photos for making a face at 5 sheckels? well, firstly he asked me a question in hebrew and didn't even recognize me. secondly, david grimaced himself at some high price and the guy totally shoved him and yelled at him also. david wasn't phased at all. that, coupled with the fact that the guy seemed to yell at everyone and is just mad at life in general made me feel better. after getting alot of really great stuff, then finding a sweet suitcase in a tiny alley, we walked all the way back to the sub kuch. ate a really yummy dinner there and met up with eran and lior, plus a new guy (daniel) that picked al and i up and drove us (with dog in my lap---'sichor', also named 'tina' by alice and i) to their place right off the beach near natanya. its the most beautiful place, from which we took a beautiful walk to the cliff which overlooks the water. it was chilly but gorgeous. i was comfortable in a sweater (from the flea market) and jeans. i took a lot of really cool photos. got some nice compliments from daniel, saying he liked the way i see the world. this guy is really cool also, a composer that lives and studies on a kibbutz near the south. he invited us to come visit, so i think we will on the way to visit adva in eilat. most of the night we just played song after song, all alternating bass, guitar, and african drum. it was just amazing. i completely zoned out, just figuring out bass lines and singing harmonies. that's my favorite thing i've done since i've been here i think. we walked back out to the cliff before having a bit of veggie dinner at the apartment downstairs near the back. after dinner, we all talked and played more music, laughing and joking. lior made up some ridiculous songs about michael jackson the lyrics of which are in the title of this blog. lior had a eran and daniel ask alice and i questions about love and things. daniel asked me the last time i had my heart broken. the first thing i thought was when my parents got divorced. and after he found out that i wrote music, he asked me to play my favorite song that i've written. so i played 'history of ficton'. i think it went pretty well. we talked a little more before pairing up in beds... i love coming here. all the people are so funny and sweet and talented. it's really great.

the next morning, we woke up and hung out, walking to the cliff, just alice, eran, and i. i told eran how much i liked coming out here and how much alli and i both just genuinely enjoyed all of he and his friends and we just love it. he agreed. i felt really at peace watching the water. just sat there for a second. daniel and lior came and brought the dogs. afterwards, eran walekd al and i to show us the fallout shelter that theyare in the process of converting into a studio/practice space. so fucking cool. they're soundproofing and stuff. really amazing. we walked back to the house and played more music before walking to the cliff at sunset. got some beautiful photos. watched a really stupid movie called 'discworld' or something about an alien world on the back of a turtle. anyway, got really bored with that. daniel said goodbye and we got his number. he's a joke. wow. but for some reason i'd gotten shy and forgot how to talk to people. but i don't know what happened. it's one of my strengths. weird. batted a ball around with our hands for a while before eating some delicious yam soup with cream, crackers, and bread that gingy's girlfriend made. really yummy. lior made up a quiz game for alice and i to learn hebrew. there were buzzers. alice won by reading the word for 'chicken'. oh well. we all went back upstairs and lior taught alice and i a song in hebrew. it goes like so:

ve he morida oti al aberkaim sheli
ci lo amarti la clum
ma od efshar kvar le hagid
lalalalalalala

i want to learn the rest. really cool. we were all suppose to walk to the nearby hotel so we could check out the view, but while we were waiting, we started to play soccer with a flattened bottle cap on the side street. i was wearing ballet flats. as i went to kick the cap, i felt my foot begin to slide on the smooth cement and i knew i was going down. i just landed on my elbow and immediately almost peed myself laughing. i wasn't the only one either, all three of the others were dying laughing as well. we ended up waiting forever, so we just walked back to the house and watched a live arctic monkeys dvd. boys are really weird. roni was there. sweet guy, but wow... i ran away to another room with alice, who saved me. got my back tickled and passed out after lots of laughing and talking.

we wake up late (to a yelling lior and a confused eran) and miss ulpan, have coffee and cookies with eran and he walks us to the sheruit station to natanya. about 3 sheruits later (and an annoyed phone call from naama because we missed ulpan), we make it back to ramla just in time for my photography class. i pick up the cameras, and a book. alli decides to come with me, so to save time we catch a cab to nave yonatan (school). i meet dana, who introduces me to the girls. i get the all in the classroom. all sweet girls by the way, very lively. i start by trying to get them all to pick a photo in the one book (i need more books) that they either like or dislike and tell me why. about half or more actually did this. the one that sticks out in my mind is the girl that liked the photo of the hindenburg blowing up. she thought it looked cool and beautiful. i liked that. then i gave out cameras and the kids got to just go ape shit with them mostly taking photos of each other and this one girl who was essentially a little model, attention-fiend. but rightfully so, she's adorable. so i feel it went very well and dana told me that the girls loved the class and can't wait to come again next week. i want to print out some of their photos to show them what they did. maybe a mini-critique.

after teaching, alice and i got some pizza from boaz pizza by the apartment, then stopped by to see the roomates there. watched some TV, chilled out a bit, then walked back to the house to hang out before bed. sometimes i wonder what it would be like if i was here by myself. not as much fun? would i be better friends with people? am i co-dependent on this one? or do we just really get along well? who knows... watched darjeeling limited with al. its amazing how much wes anderson pays attention to the tiniest details. makes for great movies. al and i talked about love, and the difference between self-love and being selfish. i will strive to be less selfish. it made me think about josh and how i don't know if i'll ever be that close to someone again. i talked to jo about what she does when she feels bad and she gave me some good advice. then i went to bed.

woke up early for the volcani center today, and hung with rachael on the bus. we talked about westlide of course. she's a really great girl. probably my fave. really funny. we teach each other words. its great. we spent all day pulling weeds, raking, talking with the kids and filming them. i allowed a couple of the kids to take photos with my camera. i just showed them basic things on the camera, like shutter speed and how it makes the photo bright or dark. and the focus button. and they did the rest. really paid attention to what they were doing. and i wondered if they will maybe take this idea of a skill and developing it after being introduced for the first time today. that'd be really great. i think my whole time would be worth it here if that happened with even one kid.

came home and hung out for a while. made mac and cheese, waiting for a meeting with zvi and naama about some drama that is going on with the program and some people that are leaving early. basically he wanted to know what we thought could improve about the program so that we are all on the same page. some people complained that they didn't like kadima because the kids don't like them and they feel useless there. alli and i both spoke up because of what sivan said to us the other day about our simple presence there making a difference. so i expressed that we make more of an impact than we know, and it may seem like these kids don't like us and that can be scary, but they're used to terrible circumstances and the fact that we are adults that don't treat them like shit, matters to them. i actually got kind of emotional talking about this, and my voice was shaking. so i think the point was well received. anyway, we finished the meeting and all hung out together. i asked naama where i could print the kids' photos... gave jade some photos i took from the nature party, then chilled with alon and alice. called marissa and talked to my mom. gammy's infection is going away thankfully and she keeps asking mom when i'm coming home, to which my mom has no response, to which gammy becomes indignant about me coming home, to which i don't know what the fuck to do. now i'm going to sleep. we have ulpan tomorrow and the tv station. i can't wait to edit the footage that we got the other day. then, at night, eran's band is playing in tel aviv. it's going to be great. THEN! moustache party on thursday. so fucking sweet. goodnight.

love,

sally