ha,ha, ha - yay yay yay

wow its been along time since i posted.

the student newspaper did a survey at school. and i was voted the funniest teacher. yay!!! at least i didnt get strangest teacher. and i truly like the kids (except for certain members of year 9) and theyre pretty funny themselves (in a good way).

anyhoo - yesterday was the last day of school. i was almost giddy. now for a 2 1/2 month vaycay.

not too much happening this summer. on monday i go to milan and venice for a week. then i have to do some school work as we are finally (2 years late) shifting to the new campus. will be staying in romania this summer doing a language course and traveling about a bit more, seeing the bits i havent already seen. its a relatively large country so there's lots to see.

this of course if nothing changes.

but the bestest of all - am seeing radiohead in milan. am kind of in training. will be listening to lots of radiohead so can get the words just right. have been waiting for this for more than half my life. its almost like a pilgrimage.

Bibliodyssey

this is like one of the coolest things ever. This dude(?) finds old plates and rawings from books long faded into obscurity and makes them available again and links to the full text sources. BibliOdyssey

amazing photographs

visit some amazing photographs by this photographer based in asia who was in Burma right before the cyclone

voting

just like y'all in the states, its also voting time here in bucharest. cause am all knowledgeable - all i can make out are that there are some parties - they are yellow, orange, green, and red. they must have names but am far too knowledgeable to figure that out (there are a lot of acronyms and that's hard work!). bucharest is divided into 6 sectors, each with its own mayor, and there is one for the whole city. so theres a lot of this campaigning and leaflet giving and such.

the campaign style here is a bit different. was subjected to a commercial for a yellow dude at the movies as part of the preview for Iron Man. you will also find flatbed trucks with mounted speakers driving down some of the major residential roads, blaring music and the names of their people. but the kicker is the truck also has cheerleader type people on it in short shorts and tight shirts. you know, to get the issues across so you can make an informed decision when voting.

now the only ones who approach me are members of the green party. i figure they must be desperate because, one look at me lets you know that i cant vote. but still they will give me leaflets and a gift. the leaflet, in addition to letting me know this party will free us from the communists who have been running the country despite the revolution, has on the back the football playing schedule - something useful. i also received matches, again useful stuff.
i cant help but realize though that the other colors give out lighters.

totally random

just came from a christening - was a great experience - more on that later. but at the restaurant (which was part of a hotel) where the after dunking party was held had a tv on. sound as off cause music was blaring, but there was a steven segal movie on. he is one of the greatest (if you define this to a very narrow definition) actors ever. remembered the joy i used to get as a kid watching his movies and him kicking but and providing soulful (again, with limitations) insights to the human condition. mostly i loved the fighting and that the good guys always won. he shoots alot of movies in romania (mostly cause he's like fat and cant fight anymore and they all go straight to video). so anyway, not this weekend (am going to sibiu) or next next weekend (gotta give myself time to amass them) am gonna have a weekend of culture (limited) with a marathon of steven segal movies. maybe they will pass the test of time.

on being a terrorist

a couple of weekends ago as part of my easter (orthodox) holiday (or as the person who made up my school calendar calls it, eastern easter) i spent a couple of days in the UK.

when i first got of the plane, i thought SWEET! as the line for non EU passports was only 3 people deep. but alas, my joy was not to last as my actually going thru passport control was a little long.

dude (i have a special name for him in my head) passes my passport through then proceeds to ask me questions, what am i doing there? how long will i be staying? where will i be staying? etc. now usually, an american passport holder does not receive these questions and wanting of minute accounting of ones holiday plans. before the UK, i visited some friends in the netherlands and it was a wave on through.

He's getting snotty with me and asks for proof that i will be leaving the UK (like i want to illegally enter and stay in one of the most crazy expensive countries). i give him my flight info to return home, then its more questions asking for my romanian id and activities there (surprised he didnt ask about my ovulation schedule). then i am asked to wait to the side while a supervisor comes and speaks to me.

finally we get to the meat of it. this guy never comes out and says it, but its the terrorism survey, apparently because i had some many stamps from the middle east (that part he says). am all thinking, hmmm. . my people (haitians - which is says in my passport) would not make the best terrorists since most of us carry the lateness gene.

I think he took one look at me and thought maybe i decided to find my roots in the motherland or something. i can barely practice the religion ive got, let alone, during my time in the middle east, to have converted to a religion that requires so much work of a practitioner. 1 year is like over 40 lifetimes of regular (as i define it) church attendance.

after answering a number of carefully nuanced (my buttocks!) questions i was allowed to enter the country to visit museums and buy art supplies.

Orhan Pamuk

this evening i went to a talk by Orhan Pamk, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. it was pretty good and luckily in english (with translations in Romanian). its really really hard trying to make sense of what people are saying if its anything other than everyday situations.

having sat through his discussion, i want to read something of his. maybe not the Nobel book, cause that may be too important for my little brain. he discussed nationalism and its use as propaganda to incite those lacking in education to fully make sense of the issues and preying on their fear while providing them with nothing. he also made the distinction between what we expect nationalism to be and the political manifestation or people selling their vision under the heading of but usually being devoid of any of the positive and/or definitive aspects of the culture it supposedly is saving/preserving. or maybe am putting my words in his mouth.

before i went to the presentation, one of my turkish students stated that many people in turkey hate him because he wrote about the armenian genocide. That student also stated emphatically that he was a liar that it was really the Kurds who did that. a fine example of children restating, believing, and propagating what they hear and the unlikelihood of anything changing that viewpoint

Pamuk also explained that part of his contract is to vet book covers in the countries his books are translated and published in because of the prevalence of the desire to place a mosque on all covers. given how important he is (am assuming that he is well respected in the literature world given that Nobel prize) its a little surprising that the lowest common denominator and cliches win.

release your inner pollock

'kay, this one isnt really feeding the lizard brain but it is a bit fun and a bit giddy. i realize am a bit easy to amuse but . . . so go to this site to create your own pollock-ian masterpieces. its kinda fun and will help stimulate blah blahs (yes, thats a scientific word) in your brain which will actually increase your productivity in other stuff. theres a study or something to prove or maybe hint at this. or maybe not really.

life before death

is a photo exhibit by walter schels on life and death, involving photos of people before and after death. its not macbre. really touching are what people said about their impending deaths and their reactions. all part of the human condition. see it here

hooray for NATO!!!

now you might think this is going to be a high brow entry about security, interdependence, globalization, etc., but you might also be wrong.

all i can say is that at this point in time, i am seriously loving NATO and all the work they do. you may scratch your head and say, "dece (why)?"

this week, NATO is having a conference here in bucharest. this is a wonderful opportunity for Romania, reinforcing her participation in the EU, NATO, and being an important (really) actor on the world stage. but whatever. the mayor of the whole city (there are actually 7 in total) has, in order to ensure blah blah blah, has closed down major parts of the city.

since we're an international school and kids come from all over (mostly posh areas) they cannot get to school because of road closings. this means (sadly) school is closed for the rest of the week?

it's horrible i tell you, truly horrible!