and everybody hurts sometimes

yesterday was a really good day. we went to ulpan and learned the past tense of certain verbs. i think my hebrew is rudimentary at best, but i practice all the time, so i think its coming along. after ulpan, al and i walked home to chill out before going to the tv station to start editing the segment that we've been taping for the tv show.

goddamnit i just deleted everything i wrote. that's what i get for falling asleep while typing...

SO BASICALLY,

we played with the film, splitting it into clips. we left and i walked home to get ready, while alice went to kadima for her soccer thing. i showered and got a visit from imanuel, really cool guy. showed him some stuff oh photoshop and my online flickr portfolio. it was nice to hear some encouraging words from him. al got home, we got ready in great spirits and walked to the sheruit station to grab a way to tel aviv to see our natanya friends' band (zelohashuv-- which means, appropriately, 'its not important'). saw jen standing outside the piercing place on the way, where she had just gotten her nose peirced and eric was now getting a gnarly tattoo. we said hi and continued on. listened to antony and the johnsons on my ipod. alice really liked them. it put us in a beautiful mood. we walked to the bloom bar in record time, because al found a shortcut. we said hi to everyone, just as excited as we could be, drinking our guinnesses and laughing and talking. our boys went on and i was simply beaming. so happy to see live music, especially theirs, since we've been spending so much time with them behind the scenes so to speak. lior even broke a string, but gingy eased the progression with some killer face percussing. alice and i filmed and took photos, which i'm sure they were happy about. it was a wonderful show. afterwards, we helped the boys with their gear and had a little filming sesh on king george. then we booked it to the sub kuch to hang out. basically all we did was play guitar and chill out in daniel's room, but it was lovely. i learned a couple of songs on the guitar. unfortunately, or fortunately, we missed the sheruit at 3 so we had to wait until 5 to go home. it was worth it. once we got to the sheruit, there was a really creepy, sketchy guy with a giant suitcase. after a scare in tel aviv this morning, al got really creeped out, so we took a cab instead. i realize this is cryptic, but i have reasons. i had tried to explain the man to the security guard at the bus station, but he didn't speak english. i hope everything is ok.

we got home at 6:30AM, passed out for an hour and woke up to teach at sharet. i was completely devastated. basically sleeping with my eyes open. but we had a really great day at all of our volunteer placements. we played pictionary and read stories with the kids at sharet. i'm really enjoying being there. i feel like we actually help. i went with al to teach english at nave yonatan. the kids there didn't really give a shit, and one kept hitting on us. kind of a shithead, but we deflected his advances with grace. rachael was there, and i had my ipod, so i thought that since she shared her westlife with me, i'd share my own music with her. she didn't really seem to like it, and told me so. the best criticism is the honest kind. we settled on michael jackson instead. anyway, after that, we were scheduled for this daycare center for children whose parents don't know how to raise them. when we walked in, it was very sad. i could feel it. but i sat down and played with the kids. i fed one and kept trying to communicate with my eyes and limited hebrew. i thought it was going pretty well, after the first moment i sat down and one kid just started bawling at me and ran away and proceeded to keep crying until he got used to me. once it was almost time to leave, al walked in and immediately started playing with the kids. she lit up the entire room and made them all smile. they gravitated towards her. and in that moment, instead of being jealous that i couldn't do that, i realized that i'm here to learn. i may be the wrongest person that's ever lived, but i can learn from her. and i do, everyday.

we came back home and hung out with peeps before chilling back in each others' beds, just talking about why we're here. why its right and why its different. we both feel differently about our reasons, partially because we're in two stages of life. i've already done the college thing and she's just beginning with all those expecations on her. i'm exploring and she's trying to find herself and her interests. i realized that i'm still not in my comfort zone, which is why i keep feeling the pull of home and comfortable places and people. but i'm glad. because that means i'm stll pushing myself to experience things and create. we wrote improv collaborative poetry that we'll turn into music. then we went to bed.

this morning, we slept through the elderly center, which sucks. we needed sleep, i guess. upon waing, i checked my facebook and there was a link posted on my page from my very good friend and amazing artist andrew tolentino. it was an interview that he gave to the KERA blog about art conspiracy and his art. in it, he named some of his personal art conspirators. he named somebody's darling, halcyon night, cara, and corey. he also named me. i was so happy that i called him even though it's 3 AM in dallas. we had a lovely conversation. i don't know what i did to deserve someone so encouraging that believes in what i'm doing so much, but whatever it is makes me feel like a better person. afterwards, alice and i picked outfits for the party tonight and went to sharet to play soccer. we worked mostly with the girls donig drills. i learned how to pass better, shoot better, etc. afterwards, al and i parted ways and i walked home on shuffle. bob dylan sure is good. he reminds me of keegan, or vice versa. bill frisell is pretty great too.

anyway, on the walk home i saw this old couple standing outside their house, under their amazing tree. i wanted to take their photo the other day, but i didn't. today, i just caught the man's eye and made a motion like, "can i take your photo?" i didn't really see his answer but once i finally untangled my camera from my bag, he and his wife were posed and ready. i shot a few and then went over to speak with them. i forgot the woman's name, but the man is named chaim. she spoke with me for a while once i told her what i was donig here. she explained to me that she taught people from all over the world. she was alive during the holocaust. her languages come from her heart, she says. and that her goal is for me to never see the things her eyes have seen, that she still sees when she closes her eyes at night. things she knew when she was "under the earth", during hitler's time. she was very sweet. i think i'll visit her again.

later, i'll go with naama to attempt to get sponsorships from studios to print the photos that the kids take so that i can show them. apparently the photo class i did was such a hit, that they are making another time that i can come and teach. some girls even cried because they couldn't do it. andrew gave me some ideas about what to teach them. about cropping, and stuff. or something. i also just got done reading the dalphos blog, which consists of brian harkin, brandom thibodeaux, allison v. smith, and matt nager, four amazing photographer friends of mine from dallas. just really inspiring. they are currently working as photojournalists. seeing their work makes me gravitate towards becoming that. so good.

so now, i'll chill out and work on photos and maybe practice guitar a little before going with naama. then, moustache development. then, buffy's birthday breakfast-for-dinner dinner. then MOUSTACHE PARTYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY> woo.

love,

sally