Pre-burn

Tomorrow I'm getting in a van and driving for two straight days to the Burning Man festival in Black Rock, Nevada. Burning Man is a 50,000 people week-long party/alternative art festival/community/nudist camp/mutant vehicle racecourse/spiritual awakening held in the middle of a desert, with temperatures regularly reaching above 40 during the day and below freezing at night. You have to bring everything you need for a week, including 7 litres of water a day, every single bit of food, every last splash of facepaint. There is no commerce there - nothing can be bought or sold. There are frequent dust storms where you can't breath, can't see and everything is covered in a fine powder dust for months afterwards.

I have spent the last part of this week, and a hefty chunk of my time in Vancouver, preparing for it. I'm sick of shopping, and I wouldn't have the faintest clue about anything touristy here. But I have a camel costume. I have German volkslieder to unleash upon the unsuspecting public. I have a guitar that I got off Craigslist for a song. I have rebar stakes two feet long to stop the tent blowing off into the distance. I have a bike that consists of mostly replaced parts following my 3 hour stint in the community repair shop yesterday. And in between everything I've caught up with Kate, my ex housie, for lovely times. She feels like home in the midst of this chaos.

So I'll write again in a week and let you know if I came out alive. Until then, mes amis!