1st day of school

today was the first day of school. now this school does things a bit different. on the first day, all we do is have an opening ceremony and kids sit with their homeroom teachers and chat i guess.
kinda not the most fruitful day but i did get alot of work done since i stayed there for the whole day. it was great seeing the kids back and how they (especially the boys) can change over 2 months. new teachers were introduced and all that good stuff. but it started raining and that cut it short a bit - which was nice.

we also said goodbye to one of our students. over the summer one of the students in year 9 died. it was one of those totally ridiculous and senseless things. apparently he was changing a light bulb with wet hands and got electrocuted. now this is crap! and i guess faulty wiring from buildings put up with lax safety standards. some of his friends said a few words for him. they had been together since year 1 and it was really hard.

at the end of the day, i found myself thinking about how funny emotions can be. i found out about Ahmet over the summer and was shocked. I got a little choked up when the kids were talking about him (others in the audience were also crying). i later went to go and say a few words to him mom (she school presented her with a picture/plaque thingy for remembrance). she was all broken up and crying. when i went to her, she hugged and kissed me and told me that Ahmet said that i was his favorite teacher and how he would spend loads of time on the computer doing work for my classes. I told her how great he was (he really was a lovely kid) and i would miss him - i just kinda have a mental picture of his seat being empty. i taught him two subjects and he sat in the same place for each class. Now, if you'd asked me my reaction before hand, i would have said ehh, nothing much. i left the woman and i was bawling. somehow, her comment, the situation just cracked my hard outer shell.

language lessons

so i finally managed to get off my duff and resume romanian language lessons. the best thing i learned today (other good stuff too) was the correct pronunciation of lemon. its kinda like the diff between roof and roof (if pronounced more southern style as ruhf) except that lemon with the OO means oral sex. looking back, i really really like to order ice tea with lemon. sometimes they have had me repeat my order.

which brings me to when romanians learn english. it makes me wonder who their english teachers are and to damn those half-assed translators of movies.

when i first moved into this apt, the landlord (who lives next door) invited me over for a drink. its kinda like the offer you cant refuse. we had wine spritzers (very popular here) and got to talking. he informed that he was still a communist and that life was better under the regime. i tried to talk to him but realized that i'd better hold my tongue. a movie came on - something about sex and race relations on college campuses - its about 15 years old. about the time when ice cube started flexing his acting chops. he then turned the conversation to race relations in the u.s. (its amazing how people - not just this country - feel the need to discuss american race relations but ignore racism in their own countries)

now the language issue is the romanian translation of black into english. somewhere along the line they were taught that negru (black) = nigger. every time he used the word, i flinched (for obvious reasons). feeling massively uncomfortable, i attempted to explain that this is not a word used in english unless one was trying really hard to offend the person speaking to. the funny thing is that he seemed to have this mental block. i had to ask like 4 times. finally i said if it would be nice if i referred to his wife as 'bitch' whenever i spoke of her 9i felt bad syaing this because she is a nice old lady). he then paused and finally asked if it was offensive. and this was after i told him this repeatedly.

did he actually learn anything? who knows but thats me - cultural ambassador and damn me if i'm not diplomatic.

been on my mind

a friend of mine in the Romanian army was deployed to Iraq a few days ago. since he's in the army, he has to go where they tell him to. and i was just thinking how kinda shite it is that he is going to be there for the next 6 months. lots of people in the States are now against the war, but the U.S. is committed and pretty much has to stay, until the situation over there is somewhat stable, given that it was the driving force behind the whole invasion. What gets me about Daniel's situation is that no one really supports it but apparently 5 years ago the Romanian government said they would send people - probably to curry favor with the US. its seems even more senseless that he is being taken away from his family and his life put in danger.

a few months ago at Daniels birthday party, i was talking to his friends - obviously many of his friends are in the military and talk shop. These guys are career military, are officers, (Romania did away with the one years mandatory military service this year) and had served their tour in Iraq. they were talking about the situation and stuff. one of the things that struck me then that i can remember (due to my massively faulty memory which i blame on my thyroid problem), one commented on how poorly some of the American soldiers were doing. he said that he felt so bad for some of them because they were really young people and they're thrown into this situation completely outside of their experience that they are totally unprepared for. they joined the army to pay for college and they wound up in the desert psychologically unprepared.

funnily enough, though i had thought about it and sorta gotten involved (in the UAE, i have my yr 9s run a charity and one class decided to send materials to a school in Iraq and we had an Iraqi speaker come and explain everyday peoples livesat this time) plus crazy inflation in the UAE since many Iraqi refugees came (but only the ones with money/connections to get out). it really struck me this time. He's leaving behind a pregnant wife and will miss the birth of his first child and i still wonder for what?

off the soap box - next post will be travel stuff.

Bucharest, Romania (pt 2)

ah. . . more of bucharest. before wwII and all the bombing, bucharest used to be known as little paris (i really hate when cities get named after other cities as if they dont have their own identity) because of the nod to classical architecture and stuff. have to admit that it did look nice from the photos i've seen.

which brings us to blvd Unirii and piata Unirii (you can pretty much find one in EVERY romanian town. i wonder whether they were named during communism or after the revolution). Ceausescu really really wanted bucharest to be on par with the other great european cities to do this he and his crazy wife went on many building projects (see previous post prt 1). one of which was blvd unirii. so they tore down what was there and built up some new stuff. due to his megalomania (to be fair he did seem really proud of what romania had to offer) he wanted to be BETTER than paris so the made unirii blvd longer and wider than

Champs-Elysee and it has lots of fountains.

during this summer some nutter artist from austria convinced the mayor of bucharest to let him add dye to the fountains. on an exceedingly warm summer day there was an magazine shoot taking place. enjoy the documentation of the day.

Bucharest, Romania (pt 1)

Bucharest is a bit surprising for a european capital city (i know i should have written about it sometime in the past year). When i got here i was all like "um. . . where's the capital part?" there are no skyscrapers and very very very few modern steel and glass buildings. but hey romania has pretty much been on the edge of every empire it was part of. there are loads and loads of small churches and communist block apts. Bucharest didnt fare so well in WWII and then there were earthquakes, and then there was crazy crazy Ceausescu so much of the previous grandeur was lost. much of it is very ugly but there are pockets of loveliness. so we went around and saw some stuff.

Here is the parliament of the people. Ceausescu destroyed 18% of the city at the time to build the second largest building in the world (after the pentagon). Romania has a slightly smaller population (22 mil) than the u.s. so i guess i can see why he needed something so big. actually he was executed before the building was completed so they dont know what he actually intended to do with it. since the end of communism the gov't been working to fix it but apparently it takes much longer to build monuments without the blatant theft and labor that communism allowed. but you have this amazing view of Unirii (unity) blvd. we took a tour and after over one hour, we were told we had seen 2% of the building. Inside was all marble and carvings and pretty awesome craftsmanship. and all the materials are native to romania. we saw a chandelier that weighs 5 tons and had 3 million (!!!) light bulbs. i think it may suck to be a maintenance man there. today its used for conferences and stuff (my school had our international day there).

we went to this balcony near the top facing a plaza and i had dreams of dictatorships and addressing an adoring crowd (or forced to be adoring due to the threat of being shot down). apparently both michael jackson (understandable cause hes crazy) and bill clinton visited bucharest, stood on my balcony, and addressed the crowds as budapest. again bucharest is like the red-headed stepchild of europe.

endings and beginnings

this is a totally dorky post so bear with me!

have been remiss in posting as the holiday ended a while ago. but its been difficult dealing with the 100+ degree heat with no a.c. it seemed like even blinking made me sweat.

kelly left a few days ago and it was awesome having her visit so youre welcome should you feel a yen for bucharest. we had a great time traveling. i saw things in bucharest that i hadnt gotten around to visiting and i totally loved moldova. i recommend it if you happen to be in this neck of the woods and looking for a non touristy place with beautiful scenery and lovely people.

one of the last things that kelly and i did was get me a kitty. YAY!!! been meaning to do it but never did plus the new apt is way more conducive to pet owning. her name is Ziggy (Stardust). i know, i kinda feel bad about it but what can you do? the name just stuck. her hobbies/likes include: napping (gotta admit i join her in those), purring, eating (she purrs and kneads as she eats), kneading my hair (she totally seems to dig the 'fro), head diving my face in the early hours of the morning so i can pet her, scolding me to pet her or if am away for any time.

here's a pic - she looks a little mean but it could be cause she's a cat. she's all marshmallow though.

Targoviste, Romania

This is the former princely court where such greats like Vlad Tepes (Dracula) ruled. its basically a ruin now and we were the only ones there when we went.

we took a maxi-taxi to get there (cross b/t bus and taxi) and had no idea where we were when arrived. i started talking to a girl on the bus asking for directions. she was really sweet (recently completed here university degree) and offered us a ride. we walked to where she was meeting her father and off we were!! sadly Kelly broke their car. it was working fine for an old communist car from the 80s (there was also a lot of bread in the back) but it stopped in the road. the dad tried to get it started but no dice. so we wound up helping to push it across a few lanes of traffic to a side street. the heart was in the right place and i feel really sorry for them that kelly's mojo did not agree with that of their car.

we had some pastries then walked on - now that we knew where things were. we saw an old monastery that htey were making repairs to and went in but no one spoke to us. i think in may have been because we were wearing no sleeved shirts.

mid travel update

currently sitting in an internet cafe in Moldova. we spent a ew days traveling around and visiting postcard perfect places in romania and then endured a ginourmously long bus journey to moldova - it was supposed to be shorter but am thinking the drivers took the scenic route. some of the roads were like driveways. the countryside of both romania and moldova is incredibly rural. people still have outhouses and such but its full of both cultivated and uncultivated gentle rolling hills. you look out the window and see the yellow heads of sunflower seeds dotting the landscape or the grape vines. i saw one of the most beautiful sunrises ever as i watched the sun rise over the hills, diffused through the clouds. it looked like the the clouds were touching the hills with the sun, in all its glory, rising and burning through it. as anti-mush as i am, my heart sung - its indescribable

today i went on a wine tour. gotta say it was the first time in my life i was drunk before noon (well having not begun the night before). had some kick-ass wine though.

holiday

for the next couple of weeks, i will be traveling around romania and moldova with a friend, kelly.
this week we've been hanging out in bucharest and i've been showing her many many famous buildings. okay some are famous only because i said so, but really whose to know?

come and visit and i will make up many somewhat believable stories especially for you. so i have back log of pics from this week - got an excuse as i only got internet last night. will try to post as i travel and finish when i get back. hopefully.

it may be a while so . . . la revedere

3rd times the charm

this time my absence was not due to massive laziness but cause i was moving for the 3rd time in a year. i absolutely hate moving but i seem to do it alot. this time i have moved to what i think is one of the nicest parts of bucharest. its a nice leafy neighborhood - for bucharest - sandwiched between two parks. the apt is bigger and cleaner. thats the totally horrible thing of living as i do. as i try to remain light on the furniture (but am totally into accumulating other rubish), i have to move into furnished apts and sometimes those are scary!

plus in this apt, the landlord is really nice and super helpful. he lives next door and am a little scared that he and his wife will want to adopt me. i have privacy issues but its one of those weird cultural things that is really really hard to explain. i relate it to a cultural thing but its really a me weirdness.

so on my floor are 3 other apts. my landlord and his wife and the other apts have little old ladies in them. as soon as i was moving in, they came checking me out. the landlord told me they knew everything that was going on and were better than guard dogs. dont know whether to be really afraid or feel safe.

the other day i met one in the elevator and we had a 'talk' which consists of me stumbling through the romanian i know and trying really hard to decode the mile a minute talk. the conversation included her trying to figure out which languages i speak, exchange of names, etc. she also said something about visiting. i couldnt figure out if i was being invited to her house or if she was gonna be dropping by to party. but she ended the conversation with a smile, something unintelligible, and a pinch of my nose. am okay with this if it means she will be stopping by with cakes or something but not if its a hookup with her grandson. i seriously need to learn more romanian.