Can life really move so fast that you've no time to reflect, no time to ground yourself by sharing with others and no time to realize that so many of your fantasies could be dreaming themselves into existence?

Well 5 weeks and 4 countries have passed since I've had the time to reflect in any organized, recorded fashion and even think about weaving my experiences into the cyber realm. So I left off in India having quite the life changing experience in the ashram. In an instant I was transported back to the first world where the atmosphere of Rome-ance sings through the monolithic architecture and fancies candlelight dinning on the streets of a once high-civilization. From saris to Gucci, from $2 a night to $30, and from water cuts to endlessly flowing fountains of potable water on every street corner, it seems the dream of upscale civilization has been revived through the euro. A clean city (relatively) with historic sites everywhere and a haven for couples, allowed an opportunity for me to catch up with Keynes (a friend from the ashram) at a pool at a 4 star hotel for a day, meet up with Gonzalo a best friend from high school (a Spanish exchange student whom I haven't seen in 8 years) who is living the dream as a photographer/web desinger for a freestyle bicycle magazine, and connect with my third travel buddy on this greatest of journeys, Sharon, of Gaian Mind-Pennsylvania whom I connected with in Turkey. Back to a diet of only pasta, pizza, and the occasional chinese, after a week in Rome we set off for the Sonica festival near a lake in a small, quaint village in northern Italy.

When I volunteered to "help work at the Sonica festival" I didnt realize I would actually be "working" the festival. Thanks to Sharon I ended up getting staffed to help sort all the artists out in the artists camp. That meant that myself and one other girl worked nearly 24 hours a day with short nap breaks, but did allow me the opportunity to meet nearly all of the artists including Peter Digital (Digital Structures) Atmos, Bamboo Forest, Etnica, Freq, Polaris, Psynema, Space Cat, Wizzy Noise, Zen Mechanics, Phuture Primitive, the entire Ultimae Records crew from France including my heroes Aes Dana, Solar Fields, and Carbon Based Lifeforms, and the masters Merv (Eat Static) and Olli Wisdom (Space Tribe) who were some of the chillest artists ever. Gina, who I'd been travelling India with showed up with Debbie, whom we met in Dharamsala, and Prometheus who was part of our American Turkey-tour crew from Colorado making quite a reunion. I also saw faces of some I'd met in Cape Town, Turkey, and Goa India. The festival was high energy and except for being brought down by a thunderstorm a few hours before scheduled ending, went off fairly smoothly.

Then we wisped off to Barcelona for 4 days on our way to the Boom festival, the largest and most organized trance movement in the world. Spain was quite the surreal experience, moreso like a dream as our adventures all revolved around honoring great artists. We arrived to Gerona and stayed in the heart of the stoney old town before hitting the Salvidor Dali museum (who would've been quite the hit at Burning Man) in Figueras. We went to Cap de Cruz for sundowners on the northeastern most point of Spain then to La Rambla in the heart of Barcelona to visit a friend of Sharon's. The next day was dedicated to the brilliant architect and artist Antoni Gaudi, and was spent in a futuristic crystal-geometry church still under construction, apartments with a rooftop alien futurescape, and Guell Park - an organic fantasy world where middle earth meets the underworld. A day on the beach followed, and the ocean was much more enjoyable than the thick chlorinated pool water with the consistency of liquid detergent that they passed as tap water in that city.

Then off to Lisbon, Portugal to prepare for the Boom and my baggage, yes everything I owned excpet for my camera and Nalgene bottle (what else do you really need as an American) was lost at the airport. So for three days we hung out at a campground in the city that bordered a large natural park which was quite nice with a stretching canopy of pines and swimming pool. After visiting the extremely uneventful town center and still no luggage we headed to Boom and I had two days to re-prepare my entire yoga workshop by memory with no notes or references. On day 4 I was notified my luggage had been found and was probably sitting in the airport the entire time. We spent 9 hours returning to the airport and retrieving my goods to return to Boom re-energized and fully equipped for some trancin'. The cue for entry at Boom held some trance-goers up for 15 hours! but we managed to breeze in since I was involved with workshops. The festival itself was completely amazing and certainly the most organized and incredible trance festival I've ever attended. After years of reading about Boom I finally got to witness the magic that drives the movement. Aside from a perfect location nestled in a valley in the rolling hilled Portuguese countryside on a lake, and a massive stage, was the Liminal Village. This was the counterpart to the music which was a structure (of many beautifully crafted bamboo architectural structures) where information exchange occurred in the platform of workshops, lectures/discussions, and movies focusing on sustainable living on an idividual and global scale. This was the element that completely transformed the event from a party to an educational tool providing people with practical techniques for immediate change wtihin their lives. Un-believable! I was completely honored to participate in this exchange.

I got to meet many of the speakers/visionaries that have written multiple books on human consciousness and evolutionary philosophies such as Daniel Pinchbeck. I also met one of the great masters of Goa Trance, Dick Trevor (Green Nuns of the Revolution) who had probably the most mind blowing set the entire week. Tom (DJ Green from my home family in Colorado) met me there and we shared some amazing experiences over the next week and a half. I also ran into Zay, from Kansas (Interfuse) which was quite a treat and allowed for an international bonding experience we'll never forget.

After a week in the heat slipping between the dance floor and the lake, we picked up an Austrian girl and headed to Utopia, the Boom afterparty which was probably the most amazing trance gathering I've been to over the past 8 months. Located at a campground nestled alongside a river, with a large swimming hole, shady trees, moss and ferns, and the thickest vibe ever composed of all the old Goa heads, we danced until our bodies just couldn't take it. Most were then headed off to Morocco for another week long festival Rhythms of Peace, but Sharon and I are slowly heading to Hungary for our last festival Ozora, located outside of Budapest. We arrived in London 2 days ago to catch up with a few friends and are currently staying with Seb (Shakta) and Natasha (Kaia Project) and leave tomorrow for Hungary. Almost all of our luggage was lost again when we arrived in London and was just found by an extreme synchronicity today...except for my didgeridoo.

It was been full-on high gear and extremely hectic over the past 5 weeks, but things are beginning to wrap up as just a few days ago I officially purchased my tickets for my return home. I will be returning to the states on August 24th to NYC and then making my way back to Arkansas to arrive around Sept 1st. After the Ozora festival this weekend we will be going through Sweden for about 24 hours to have a barbeque with Beat Bizzare and potentially Son Kite, then off to Lyon, France to spend a couple days with Vincent and Sunny (Aes Dana and wife, the label heads and currently my absolute favorite musician).

So what can I say, this past month has let me meet many of my greatest muses and given me experiences that have filled my life with so much magic and inspiration I can't even begin to express in words.