2012 Mayan Calender resets... Lets all Celebrate!!

[Pureupto99percent]

Hi, my name is Tabitha. My husband and I have been planning on going to the 2012 Burning Man ever since we met (five years ago). The Mayan Calender: It's not the end but the beginning of a (hopefully) new and beautiful era... it's important to us to ring it in properly, with a BURN!! Lets wash ourselves in the ashes and dust of yesteryear and follow our dreams forward. Neither one of us have been to Burning Man. We wanted 2012 to be our first and most symbolic burn. So any advice on how to start a camp and on making and transporting an interactive art structure (we're thinking hand carved wooden and stone Mayan Pyramid Teeter Totters, to be burned) would be great!! Hopefully we'll all be able to meet someday and share a story or two... until then, please take of yourself and I'll do the same.

Any advice and stories of experiences ("I wish I knew then what I know now about Burning Man my first time") will be greatly appreciated!! HUGS!

[Savannah]

Hi Tabitha! Welcome to the board . . .

You might like the Cryptofishist's thread:

How to Start a Theme Camp
http://eplaya.burningman.org/viewtopic. ... 88&t=37493

I trust you've read a few of the Survival Guides in the past few years during the dreaming and scheming? Despite all the drama in the 2011 Tickets thread, the old-timers don't want the newbies dead.

[Pureupto99percent]

Hi Savanna!
Yeah we've totally read up on all the survival guides! They're great! I'm totally looking for personal "awe shit, I should have brought that" moments or feelings and things to expect so we can be wise and learn from others. Education is key to a great time! We gave ourselves a full year to truly immerse ourselves in stocking up and planning out both on expectations and unidentified needs... It's so great to hear someone say that newbies are still welcome by the true burners who wish to share the love and experience! I'll definitely check out the thread you linked, thank you. We just decided today to try to start a camp to help us with the structure and meal planning along with the other many fun social benefits (no, we don't swing but don't mind if others do) of living in a camp. We're so excited that our Burn is almost less than a year away! iiiieeeee!

[Savannah]

The Q&A Tips and Tricks forum underneath this one is fabulous to figure out first-timer advice . . . just looking at the list of topics will help you figure out what you don't know, and give you some areas to focus on. (Seasoned burners can be flummoxed when people ask for advice because there are so many topics on which to give advice that it's impossible to start. It's as if someone asked "What advice do I need to live in Mongolia?" . . . One must be more specific!)

People are pretty nice here if a person has obviously made an attempt to research an answer before asking, and if one realizes that we're all just hobbyists and Burners ourselves, socializing and bickering, & hoping to see other people who are radically self-reliant & who would make good neighbors.

Here's a great all-purpose tip though: the Search function on this site is less than perfect. But Bob gave me a tip so simple I kick myself: use Google for searches and tack on the word "eplaya". Searches like:

goggles eplaya
food eplaya
contact lenses eplaya

will find you threads fastest.

[illy dilly]

Tabitha, Welcome to ePlaya!
If you've already started preparing for 2012 you're gonna be fine! You're also gonna be what some of us call "Covert Virgins" those are the folks that when you ask "How many burns have you been too" they say "O this is my first" and your jaw hits the floor.

I have two tips,
First, wash your dishes really well with clean water
Second, Make sure that you can spend god awful amounts of time in close traveling quarters with your travel companions.

Other than that, you're gonna need to be more specific.