sinai is made of magic...

From top to bottom:

Raz, Shani and I enjoying one of many delightful bedouin breakfasts at the Queenswear in Birswear in Sinai in Egypt.








Next we have the beautiful beach landscape.











Followed by me excitedly identifying all the things in the water that I was/am scared of!












A dashing picture of me fighting the wind of the ghost town Tarabin.










Me and my trusty travel mate Maya...aka ruster brown, or "hey Maya" or "booooooooooooooooze"











Then there's a picture of me swimming in water so clear it turned yellow when I peed in it. (dont judge me, the bathrooms were grosser than a a bucket of vomit)








An exciting picture of me near my hutt, which I used only as a closet in which to keep my stuff and change my clothes. There's not a chance in hell I'm sleeping in a wicker basket when I can sleep under meteor showers and galaxies of stars. I say boo to the hutt. booooooooooooo...







Gratuitis breast shots...they warrant no explanation.


























Children on camels. It wouldn't be a trip to Egypt without at least one pic like that.











One of my favorites: a picture of me sprawled out in the back of the incredibly untrusty van that broke down many a times on our way to RAZA BOOGALOOM. which also happens to be the name of the alaskan rock band that maya and I are about to form. we're thinking co co rosie meets neutral milk hotel.





and then there is the epitomy of my time in Sinai, floating. floating and making fun.

Finally, pics of me and Kitten racing arabian horses around the sphinx and the pyramids...

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.

Cairo Day 3

I suppose this will have to be a tarantino, because I do not yet have the pictures from day two and I think it would really throw you to start with day one. So day three:
I woke up at 7 am to spend the first half of the day wandering around Cairo and the museum of mummies on my own. I think I tried to move my head first and then my arm maybe. It could've been my arm to turn off the alarm clock. It didn't really matter because I couldn't move any part of my body to anywhere. So I went back to sleep. I tried again at 9 and then again at 11. By the time I was actually able to move my body, and by move I don't mean that the pain decreased only that my will got stronger, so by the time I was actually able to go, it was time to meet Kitten for lunch.
We went for the local meal: macaroni, rice, spaghetti in a tomato sauce with lentils and chick peas topped off with fried onions. A carb fest as Kitten calls it. Strangely italian and american for the most genuine egyptian meal, but tasty nonetheless.
I was then passed off from Kitten to Alex, to wander around Islamic Cairo. Alex had the great fortune of letting me lead the way even though he had been living there for nearly 6 months. And I of course lead us straight into the slums. Never much for tourism, I opted to make nice with some locals who insisted on sharing their tea and cheese dip??? and cigarettes with us. really really, mamash, mamash, the poorer people are the more generous. Its amazing. Alex told our new friends stories in arabic about how we had recently been married in the states and we were waiting to have children till he came back from studying in cairo. And I subtly switched my ring from my thumb to my ring finger...not that I know which one that is... At one point they insisted I eat their cheese dip and as alex tried to excuse us from what would inevitably be our intestinal doom, I refused to mind my husband's word and dove right in. As I explained to Alex the night before, when you're traveling through the countries I've been traveling through, you come to accept diarrhea as a norm, it doesn't become a reason to literally not experience the world. (too much info. too bad, I'm the one who had to live through it). Anyways, on the occasions where I am lucky enough to meet local people who want to share their food and time with me, it is my custom to always accept. So, because I dove in, of course my 19 year old husband had to follow suit. Couldn't have him lose face in front of our new friends. (Sorry Alex)
Beyond losing our intenstinal sanctity, which I had lost so many countries back, we had a really lovely time chatting about cairo and marriage and police brutality and corruption and all other things that you would think to discuss over tea and cheese dip.
Alex and I continued to get lost until it was no longer fun to be lost because the men folk began to get a little too interested in my presence. let me rephrase, the men folk were perfect gentlemen, the boy folk however, were crossing many lines. So we journeyed on to meet our other friends for SUFI DANCING!!!!
For those of you who don't know, and for those of you who do please feel free to wiki my text, the Sufi's are a spin off (tee hee) of Islam. They maintain the same five tenants of the religion, but they have some really important and I think beautiful distinctions. They believe in an individual connection with the divine. They also believe that this connection can be reached through hot or cold energies. A famous example of this hot energy is through spinning. The Sufis have developed a form of dance based on spinning. They spin and spin and spin until they see god. or puke. but I think more often they see god. i've spun a lot in my day and definetly seen pretty colors and lights and stuff, but I don't think I've ever ever spun like these guys spin.


I don't know why but for some reason the music and the dancing really affected me. The sufi dancers and especially one musician who stole my heart, seemed to carry so much joy in their faces and their expressions and be so full of love for what they were doing that I couldnt help but laugh really loudly at inappropriate times and clap my hands like I had no understanding of social graces. It was simply joyful. And the idea that they could connect to the divine by spinning out of joyfulness, was also joyful. It was just a damn good time.


Oh, and before the Sufi dancers began their dance Kitten handed me her paw complaining of a sprained finger, that within ten minutes through reiki, I healed. neat, huh?

Afterwards, we walked to the main night bazaar and enjoyed some egyptian falafal/fava bean sandwiches and carried on to buy heaps of crap like coffee mugs with mummies on them and little wooden sphinxes and other such nickernackers that you imagine you can only ever get in cairo and therefore must buy there. Its okay, cause they cost next to nothing, but still highly unnecessary and mainly enjoyable only because haggling is like a national past time and it gives you a chance to interact with people and have a little fun.
We eventually settled in a restaurant called Fishawi's for some hookah and some crazy drink that tasted like liquified rice pudding, only chunky, so maybe not so liquified. Fishawi's has been open, non stop, day and night for over 200 years. Isn't that a fun fact. Really if you think about its pretty freaking amazing. They have not closed for even an hour in over 200 years. No holidays, no wars, no need to clean or renovate. So it was more than interesting to sit in a place that had such a unique history and soak in the atmosphere as i tried to soak up my pudding.
We got back by arund 1am and I had to be up for my bus by 5:20am, so my friends made the executive decision that I was not going to sleep. Alex and I wandered off to a loungy bar where the matre di served us fancy bottles of beer while they played very eclectic tunes of the breakfast club and sweet dreams. We then wandered the streets discussing politics and ex's while we searched for sugary things which we found procured and brought back to the dorms in mass quantities. And the hours passed in these ways, talking and getting high on sugar. It was lovely. Lovely.
Eventually the witching hour came and I rode off into the sunrise to get back on a bus that would inevitably take ALLL day, my body still aching but my heart nice and full. three cheers for cairo. and my sweet sweet friends.

I'M IN CAIRO!!!!!!!

and thats in Africa. and thats really really coool.

will write more later, off to go ride horsies around the pyramids while I pretend that I am Cleopatra and have flashbacks to making crazy golden face masks at the age of 8.

so much love for all of you and this crazy adventure.
maya

Its official, I'm coming home!

June 9th I will be leaving Israel and heading back to San Francisco, making my trip around the world literally complete. If you are in San Francisco please schedule me in and drop me a line cause I want to see all y'all. I wont have my cellphone with me so just email me or leave a comment on my blog with your phone numbers because I also dont have any of that info.

And for those of you in NY, thats where I'm heading right after, so just sit tight cause it will only be a matter of days, a week maybe, till I jump from one side of the country back to the other.

I like the life I've made for myself here, but really really really I love all of you, my family and friends, and miss you sooooooooo soooooooo much, that its almost like I'm counting down the days till I get to hug and laugh with you all again, and especially for the new babies in my life, boy oh boy can I not wait to hold you's!

So much love and a special shout out to my MAMA!! Happy Mama's Day! Thank you for being so loving and supportive, it makes me all warm and giggly in my heart.

I"ve been outdone.

It turns out that Simone is a much better blogger than I. Phenomenal. I also think it is in part because her trip is beginning and mine is ending that I no longer have the energy to tell such a good tale. SO in the meantime, here is her blog addy: www.simonesafricanadventure.blogspot.com, its also a link on my blog under "Simone-A"

Do not be alarmed, her african adventure begins in israel and she has all of our stories, more or less, beautifully written with details and everything.

Sorry again for my shabby blog of late. The truth is my trip has changed, yet again, and I am not so much travelling these days but trying to settle into Israel and have somewhat of a local experience. I have a job (as of yesterday, as a professional children's games player), an apartment (living with a religous jew which should be interesting to say the least) and an Israeli boy (that I call my boyfriend because words aren't adequate for most things in life.)

I'm not sure how many stories there will be in the upcoming month, but it can't hurt to check in every now and again cause I"ve made some crazy new friends-some american, some british, some israeli even, and they provoke me to do crazy things that are sometimes noteworthy enough to write about on say, a blog... maybe... maybe...like roam around the bat-infested city of tel aviv through dark alleys looking for a reaggea (sp?) party full of people who are wonderfully imposssible to classify because here in israel people arent really interested in being a "skater kid" or a "rasta kid" or a "punk kid" they just sort of mix it all up in their own weird little ways and refer to themselves by their own incredibly difficult to pronounce names that almost inevitably refers to some story in the bible or some location in israel. Such is life. Did I tell you all about the safari?? I can't remember...

In other news, I have learned the difference between break beats, reaggea beats and techno beats, and that I have trouble dancing to two out of the three--there goes my 'I'm such a good dancer I could dance to anything' theory (turns out I dont know how to have a seizure on the dance floor). What else? Being an American and a kid at heart has qualified me for an incredibly high paying job (by israeli standards) where I am "quality control" for computer games for children. I knew my ability to jump up and down would prove more useful than a BA...Talk about being a kid, almost all of my new friends are 19-21. Which is slightly disconcerting but kind of fun in a carefree reminescent sort of way. They are amazing people and there age by no means denotes their maturity...and yet there is still a difference in where we are in "the life." What to do...

That's all I can think of for now. Hope that satisfies those who were curious, if not tooooooo bad.

so much love and overgrown mohawks,
maya