wrapping it all up

Over the past few weeks in Israel I've had many the adventure. This internet shop is freezing cold so I will take you through a quick survey course:
I have taken a delicious food tour with my aunt and uncle from cheese farms to chocolate monastaries.
I got trashed with my cousin Yuli.
I went to an Israeli trance rave party out in the nature where I watched people dance like crazy and got high by accident by washing my hands with a bottle of water that was laced with LSD...good times...
I finally met my cousin Sharon and visited him where he lives in a settlement in the west bank. I drove out to the judah desert with him and my uncle to get a lesson on shoooting both m16's and glock 19's. (see my cousin sharon is a bit of a badass, special units, fbi and all that anti terrorism combat fighting type of shit). and I found out that I have a little bit of skill for sniper shooting as I was able to hit a beer bottle from over 15 m with a glock 19 on my first try. something people apparently train for years to be able to do.
I cut off my mohawk and died my hair blue black. and then bleached it white.
I broke up with my Israeli boyfriend and started dating someone that I met through him. and you know with the amount of drama that surrounded the whole exchange I really feel like that choice was one of the tame ones.
I visited my aunt roni where she does restoration work for pottery from the bronze and iron age and I pet all the ancient things with my face. Stuff that is always always behind glass cases I got to pick up and pet with my face.
I ate a steak.
I worked. making sure that the world of educational childrens games and math textbooks are safe for children. very important work. very important. more importantly I got to know my cousin Ifat, my boss, who was always such a pleasure to gossip with first thing in the morning and then again around lunch time and then agian maybe five other times in a day cause the girl likes the gossip.
My friend Chloe visited me from tel aviv and she and I went wading through ancient water systems and caves in pitch blackness that made us giggle like schoool girls, from the City of David and...I've discovered that I can handle my liquors. a lot of them.

It's been quite the exciting trip and its not that I intended on ending it in a state of debauchery but I'm having fun. Lot's of it. and where I may have held reservations before I've learned that its often worth it to dive right into life and living and to seek wakefullness in our days AND our nights. I'm sure I will gain balance with this when i return to the states and won't find myself battling gravity and its wily ways every single night as I do here. But for the time being, I say "rock."

cairo day 1 and 2

I feel dumb that I haven't been able to get these stories up on this here blog. They all seem so ancient now but before they come myth let me try and put words to keys and keys to eyes of all y'all so when I return to the states in three days and you say "what did you see! what did you do?" I can reply with "mayamolseestheworld." really much quicker.

So I came home from work one day and my crazy religous roommate had company. This girl has been such a mystery to me over the weeks that I lived with her. Acting as if she was some kind of pure polyanna that she can't let a boy see her arms or her legs and yet screaming about how much she needs to get sexed in ways that made even me embarassed. I was hooked though. She was absurd and I was hoooked. So when I came home that day and she and her even crazier friend Karan invited me to come to Cairo with them the next day I said "why the hell not." Mind you I had three parties, a few dates and work to reschedule. But when life hands you an oppotunity to visit a magical place where you have wonderful friends and to get there with outlandish freaks, how can you say no??

So I woke up at the crack of dawn and met up with two very hung over religous girls who had spent the entirety of the night before getting trashed and flirting with guys that would marry them long before they would ever touch them. About 15 minutes in I began to reconsider my choice. These girls were crude. there was no poly or anna. Just rude and crude. Americans of the worst order. Screaming about arabs in not such nice ways, insisting on singing "let my people go" for most of the long long ride to egypt, and in general just thinking the worst of people in very loud ways. not exactly my style.

So after 18 hours in a small van with these characters, we made it to Cairo and I got in a cab and booked it. I went to go meet up with my friend Kitten from Petra who was studying at the University of Cairo. She lived in a dorm that was on an island that resembled Paris in the middle of the Nile river. How dope is that... It was about 2 in the morning and there was a party already under way where my other friend Alex from Petra was waiting for us. I don't know why but it really felt like coming home. The party was blasting hip hop and the people there were so brilliantly diverse and it made me instantly more comfortable. Good times were hard with friends and beer. but the times were short becuase kitten and I had decided to wake up by 8 in the morning the next day to head out to giza to ride horses around the pyramids and the sphinx. still something I cant believe I've done...

The morning came and even though I was tired and grumpy I knew I was about to do one of the coolest things I could ever imagine. I took a walk through the neighborhood and picked up Kitten and off we went. Now, Kitten grew up in texas, which pretty muchg means that she grew up on horses. So we were going to a stable where she was pretty much a regular and when she says give us two fast horses they gave us two fast horses. And the two of us were off into the desert with dunes to my left and the freaking pyramids to my right. Now, I've done some riding in my day but basically its all been english, in which all the control lies in the thighs. I've done some western where most of the control is int eh knobby thing that you can hold on to. Apparently arabic riding is neither of these two. and before I could really get my barings and fully understand how one stays on an arabic horse we were galloping. I have never galloped before. trot, canter yes yes. gallop, hell no. and not only was my horse galloping but he was also leaping over dunes of sand. I dont think its necessary for me to tell you all that I have never jumped horses before.

I was sure I was going to die. I was sure of it. My adrenaline was rushing and every single muscle in my body was working to keep me on that horse. With my thighs, with my hands with my neck even, I think I might've even be working harder than the horse. As we ran past these amazing works of ancient history I finally let go of my fears and accepted that I may die and that if I did, really really, its not sucha bad way to go. I think I got a little too relaxed cause at one point I also let go of the strrups and the reins and freaked out while I flopped around on the horse like billy crystal from city slickers.

The day was amazing. Amazing. There are pictures but I haven't gotten them yet...But I have to tell you that afterwards I was done. Literally done. I couldnt move my body I has bruises even on the inside of my palms. I didnt know you could bruise the palm of your hands...For a solid two weeks I was sore. but it was well worth it. well worth it.

I've ridden fast arabian horses through the dunes and pyramids of giza. Thats dope.