מלכת הפלקט - מיליון פעם

This is my favorite song at the moment, the band is called: "Malkat Ha Plakat", and the song is called: "Million Paam" (=a million times). The CD didn't come out yet, and I can't wait to put my hands on it when it does!!! Can't stop listening to this song...
Enjoy!!!

8 more days

I still have about a week here, before I go back to Germany. It doesn't feel like it though- it's probably gonna go so fast. Don't have much to tell now, nothing special happening. Meeting friends, running some errands, didn't go to the dentist (I'm just human you know- and what human likes the dentist???), watching lots of "Coupling" the excellent British show on TV (VOD = video on demand) is a bliss. It's so hot here in Israel now, it feels like my brain is melting and it's impossible to think. I slept with the fan on tonight and was still hot. Don't worry- next week I'll be complaining about it being too cold in Germany. Typically me.

What was I thinking?

It's been more than a month since I left Germany, and now I miss him more than ever. After living together, seeing each other every day for 8 months (except 10 days in x-mass), I don't really know why I was thinking to stay here for so long. But on the other hand- I wish he was here rather than wish I was there. Not that I don't wanna go- but I did need this time here, if not only to get sick of being here, then at least to "Lematzot" we say in Hebrew- to "utilize something to it's fullest" (as the dictionary translated). Not talking to him a lot in the last few days (he's not home for the weekend- meeting friends in Sweden), or to tell the truth - in the last month there were about 2 weeks that we couldn't really talk a lot- made me miss him even more. It's so weird! Before I fall asleep I think how weird it is to not be with your boyfriend for so long after living with him for 8 months. I don't know, I guess it happens, and it's not that weird but now I can't convince myself that it's normal. I know that it's me that chose to be here for so long, but it doesn't help me feel any better about it. In less than 2 weeks from now I'll be there- hopefully I'll feel better.

Today I feel:

Exposed

Lots of things on my mind. I've been "writing" this post in my head so many times in the last few days. Before I fell asleep, in the car, while having my walk on the beach (have been walking on the beach for 40 minutes each, 3 times a week lately- sweat is a good thing sometimes- makes you feel cleaner afterwards). It always had this title. Exposed. Because I feel this way. Exposed. Some things happened this week that I must admit I don't feel like talking about them, but I just wanted to share the way I feel. Exposed. It kinda feels like there's a battle between my head and my heart. My heart wants to say it all. Expose. My head, well that's a different story. My head knows that Internet can be really great sometimes- but also really bad. Or rather ppl can make bad use of it. And my head reminds me that my life is made of little pieces that include other ppl's stories. My head tell me that without these ppl- my story would definitely not be the same. A lot less interesting to be exact. My head tells me to consider these ppl when writing something everybody is invited to read. And in this case- my heart actually signed the peace offer and said: I agree. My heart and my head agree that ppl should not be offended by what's written here, and that ppl who are important to me should be able to veto having them mentioned here. So I'm asking you guys to let me know how you feel about me writing about you here.
I decided to open this blog for my friends. So they know what's going on with me when I'm not around. After a while I told my parents that I'm writing a blog, coz I felt that it's the right thing to do. I still feel it's right. I've seen ppl entering my blog from all kinds of places. Who knows who really reads it though, but I'll say it one more time (I'm pretty sure I've said before): the reason I keep writing this blog is not the reason I opened it for mainly. I write it to let it all out. I write coz I like writing. No. I love writing. I've been writing since I learned how to connect letters into words. I was one of the favorite pupils in our "creative writing" class in school, in the 5th grade. The teacher, who is a writer, chose me and a few others from the school to invite us into her home and teach us a class in the afternoons with the same name. It was my favorite class in the whole wide world. I've attended a million classes and activities in my life. Ballet. Ceramics. Tennis. Swimming. Tap dancing. Scouts. Piano lessons. But the creative writing was my absolute favorite. When I was in the 7th grade, after a year and a half of creative writing the class stopped. The teacher's son, who was in the army at the time, got crushed by a truck in the worst accident that ever happened at the corner of my street. She couldn't give the classes anymore. She was so sad. We were so sad for her. She was, and still is a great person. I met her a few more times in life, in all of these times it was a coincidence, and we both were very happy to see each other. I was shocked she recognized me the first time it happened.
So why am I sharing this? Coz I wanted you guys to know that writing is not something I do only for you. Or just to be able to share a story. I do it- coz after I write I feel so much better. I feel lighter. I feel like a huge bag of stones is off of me. Sometimes my writing is more like a story, telling you whats new- and I believe that telling my story is a bit like therapy. and sometimes it's just my thoughts and feelings. Which obviously is like therapy. Some ppl do sports obsessively, some ppl read the newspaper and listen to the news all day, some ppl watch TV shows for hours, some ppl read books (well so do I) etc. I write.
I do hope that ppl reading my blog read it coz they enjoy it.
Or at least coz it's interesting for them in some level.
I'm writing this blog- for me.

27

That's it. Yesterday I turned 27. Was a normal birthday, lunch with mom and my sis and aunt and Goni (had a really good burger!!!), and went out with my friends at night (drank a whole bottle of wine almost by myself...) and got the nicest present from Rob: tickets to the Arctic Monkeys concert!!! it's gonna be in Dresden and we're gonna go together!!! I was so touched... He wanted to give me something that I wouldn't have to carry back and forth between Germany and Israel- that's brilliant!!! I loved loved loved it, and I can't wait to go...

***

Have a ticket to Germany: July 5th, dad gave me miles to use, so I only had to pay for the taxes (which are pretty much, but a lot less than a whole ticket...) so it saves me a lot of money...
Everybody keeps asking me how I feel about going there, if I can't wait, or I kinda wanna stay here a bit more, and I must say, and that's what I answer: I can't wait. I'm gonna be back in Israel on August 20th, and I hope Rob gets a ticket to come here soon after that, we're planning on spending September here.

***

Charles and Ana left on Tuesday, I went to say bye and spent the whole day in Tel-Aviv with them. Was obviously so much fun! Beach, rest, restaurant... Hope to see them again soon, wouldn't mind doing that in Spain! ;-)

From the New York Times

Pictures from Sinai

I can't help it- I must put some pictures here- coz I think you all should see what everybody's missing out on... I know I know, the Egyptians aren't really being very safe, but I assure you that I felt very safe on the deserted beach we were on. The owners and the workers there made me feel like nothing can happen to me there. I can say that they have leaned something from the terror attacks there. Maybe the government of Egypt didn't, but the ppl who lose their living coz of it did. At least a bit.

So here are a few pictures. Taken in Heaven.

The view from my hut's window.

Imagine seeing this every morning when you wake up.

A walk on the beach.

The silence, the tranquility.

A fox, a camel and a dead hog

Charles called on Friday night. He said they were in Jerusalem for 2 days, and asked if I wanted to come meet them on Saturday in Tel-Aviv. I agreed happily, and the next day I drove off. I met them at Charles's cousin's house- a really nice renovated apartment in a very popular area in TLV. It's very rare to find a good apartment there, so I asked for details and was told that her parents bought it for her. Lucky girl! Immanuel, Charles's cousin is a really nice and interesting person. She came to Israel alone, from France, at the early age of 17.5, studied here in uni later on, and now works for the french edition of The Jerusalem Post. Impressing.
It was so great to see Ana and Charles in Israel! Well, just seeing them was great... We all went to the beach, and cramped up on the TLV beach like the rest of the Tel-Avivian species. I really don't like Tel-Aviv, the only nice thing it has is shopping... We made plans for the next few days, and so it happened that on Sunday they took the train to Haifa, we toured around the city for a couple of hours, and in the evening we took the car to the Kineret (The Galilee sea). We put up 2 tents (one for me and one for the happy couple) and played cards (lost a "7"- the good finder will be rewarded - coz these are really nice cards), drank some beers and generally had lots of fun together. I really missed Rob on that situation, but they were such nice company that it made these feelings became a bit more subtle. On Monday morning we woke up and went straight to the lake- to swim. That day we travelled all over the Gollan heights with the car, and in the evening we went to the Kineret again to camp for the night. The next day we stopped in a winery in Kibbutz Amiad to Charles and Ana's request, and were really surprised to find out that they only make liqueurs from all kinds of fruit and other ingredients. They let us taste some and I ended up buying a really good dark chocolate liqueur... Yami!!!
After that we went to eat Humus in Akko, and wonder the old city and market, and then we went to Rosh Hanikra, to see the grotts, made by the sea. The view there is always really amazing... After that we went to my moms, for a shower and dinner before the bus to Eilat at 23:30. It took us 5.5 hours on that bus (was really fast!) and we arrived to the little oasis that sits on the red sea. We took a taxi to the Taba terminal border cross with Sinai. We arrived a bit too early for our ride on the other side- so we watched the sun rise over the red mountains of Jordan. We crossed the border and Charles and Ana saw the difference between Israel and Egypt: new and advanced vs. old and conservative, Efficiency vs. laziness and taxi drivers brotherhood. Our ride got there and we drove to the beach. It was (and still is) hard for me to accept the tranquility and silence while knowing that this society is such a men's society. There's hardly any women around (they're all home with the kids) and they are all business men with lots of kindness and serious faces (I know, it sounds ironic- but it's true). Sinai is so empty these days that Charles and Ana who fell in love with it, got really upset. The Bedouins there just told them that that's the way it is, and when tourism is so slow they just look for other business opportunities, and that as long as they have their health they feel rich. My European friends had a hard time accepting that, but in the end I think they almost did.
I left Sinai this morning, after 2 days, knowing that I really should go back soon- it's just so beautiful there... And so relaxed and quiet. Ana said something that really made me think: on a normal day anywhere else (and especially in China- where we all came from lately) you see hundreds or even more ppl a day. In Sinai you tend to see about 5 ppl a day... It's amazing what it does to you. After the first day- when you get used to it- and all your thoughts have settled and stopped bothering your brain- you hear the silence. And it's great. And so peaceful...
Pictures soon...

Oh! and the title is what it is coz it's all animals we saw when traveling (well we saw much more)