Itai Pearl - South

Exams are mostly over and I still have a bit of a semester break so over the past few weeks I've been taking weekly bus trips to Beer Sheva. During the semester, I would take the Saturday night bus which always had a contagious sense of bitterness filled with soldiers and students mourning the end of their weekend and the shocking realization that tomorrow a new week begins. But now I've been taking middle-of-the-week trips at noontime and I've really grown to like them- watching the scenery on road 6 go from fields of green suddenly to yellow, not to mention that it's a direct line- perfect for napping and listening without interruption to new music. The trips are also one of the only times in which I feel completely guilt-free for not studying and they give me time to think and just space out. Lately, I've been thinking a lot about life in Beer Sheva-how I really like the modest down-to-earth vibe, not to mention the whole student scene but no matter how many weekends I spend here I can't really feel at home and know that this is just a temporary spot but I'm completely okay with it and try to enjoy it while I can. Still, I can't help but wonder where I'll head after graduation. Continuing to an MA here is always an option but there are others too. I can't see myself moving back home although there is the temptation of living next to the city and I doubt I'll be able to live so cheaply and comfortably anywhere else. Only once in a while do I get that I live in a desert and usually it's because of the sandstorms and freezing nights. The South Itai Pearl describes exists but it's not the South I feel I live in even though one of the bars in the clip is a favorite hangout of mine. He describes the South as where everything is slower and more laid back, like the American South. Maybe it's Beer Sheva, and maybe it's the student life but when I think of life in the South I think of chaos, in-your-face attitude, and the constant feeling that you aren't in the center and it's not always a good thing. But then I think about Friday afternoons-eating at the hummus place or just walking around and even though there's a magic Friday afternoon feeling all over the country, in Beer Sheva it feels so much more different than in the big cities in the center-less shopping, more cooking and resting. Maybe Friday afternoons are what define the true nature of a place. Anyway, Itai Pearl reminded me of the magic in the South and even if it's less visible in Beer Sheva and more in say, Sde Boker, it's still there glimmering in the hazy heat. (wow, didn't mean to write so much, too much free time!)

Call it withdrawal, call it running away/I wanted something a bit different, call it whatever you call it/I'm going down south/into the spaces of gravel/into the last of the heavens beating in the hearts of the desert

Into a sun still in attention to nowhere, that all of its thorns are flowers/to a country that all of its residents are all/its wanderers are guests/I'm going down south/to the sand castles/to save my soul, look for me when the bomb will fall

It's not out of an agenda, it's not really a plan/I don't have the knowledge, but I do have a car/I'm going down south/to spaces of yellow/to the only place where I think will be good for me

http://itayp.startlogic.com/