am not doing so well with this procrastination thing. am a lazy procrastination addict. every so often, i think about what i could accomplish if i actually did things on time. i sigh and go back to doing nothing.
have found this website www.stickk.com which helps you by charging you for not meeting your goals. but i keep procrastinating on registering.
this is vicious.
gorganzola.
i have changed my mind about the stinky cheeses. okay, only that one. am still reserving judgement about the rest.
My niece, Zana, is attending the inauguration. She was invited to attend before the candidates started stumping and now she gets to be part of something that I am sure she will remember for the rest of her life. Her keynote speakers are Collin Powell and Al Gore. Pretty freakin' amazing. Am pretty sure I didn't do anything this awesome when I was 13 (though state Latin competition ranks up there).
The inauguration precipitated a conversation today with a coworker - (I don’t know why people insist on speaking with me when I've my headphones on. ITS A SIGN PEOPLE!!! I don't want to speak with you.) She asked me if I was very excited about the whole thing (inauguration). I responded by saying that am a little removed from the whole situation and excitement since I was not there. Then she said something along the lines its about time considering how racist the country is and how badly it had treated its black population.
I get comments like this all the time. I also hate the concept that he was elected because it’s time, as if it's some sort of vindication for past wrongs. It denigrates the whole process and assumes that his primary qualification is the color of his skin. I personally hate to be seen as a one dimensional person and as if any one of my characteristics is the sum of who/what I am.
The other thing that annoys me about all of this is that it often comes from people completely blind to the racism imbedded in their societies. Also, dude when was the last time you lived in the US let alone were a black person in the US to judge. I stated that racism is something that can be found in every country and not just in the US against blacks. I mentioned that I've experienced it here in Romania. She counters with I like you and I would hug you and blah blah blah. I mention that the Turkish students and other kids have told me what they encounter in the streets. She counters with it's what they do not because they are darker and/or look foreign. I say what about the Gypsy population. She counters with they are really bad people and pretty much commit all the crime in Romania though she doesn't want them all dead. Trying to end this conversation so I can go do my grocery shopping, I say maybe as an outsider, I may not understand all the nuance of the Gypsy situation. She says that that's true.
But, alas, she is able to discuss racism in the US though there is NO racism in Romania (except against those who deserve it of course)
aint happening yet. dont know what it is but i really dont want to be back here. or its rough getting used to bucharest again. and am pretty over my job. not for any one reason but just am done. am still teaching, organizing things, and still really like the kids but the joy of teaching is gone. now its a job and once it gets to that point, i think i gotta get out. luckily i only have to worry about feeding cats and they can eat almost anything (if they get hungry enough) .
i guess i had such a great time over the holidays. it was way too short. plus there was the flight and luggage fiasco. Air France took a week to get my luggage to me. its not like its a long flight from paris to bucharest or that there arent a few flights a day. then i got crazy sick. on saturday i pulled something in my back and had to spend the weekend on the couch twinging everything i breathed.
yikes. also its the three year thing. i almost can't hack a place after a certain length of time. i think bucharest is almost past its best by date.
next post will be more positive
feeling better. as added punishement for leaving my family, i had a horrible flu. fever, lung-hacking cough, and what felt like hammer blows to the head whenever i coughed, stood up, etc. on top of that fun, i was also dizzy whenever my head rose from my pillow.
sadness because there was no one to take care of me. it really sucks that cats dont have opposable thumbs and dont take direction well. i poured the tea down my throat but then it all had to come out and i swear i got up every 5 minutes to pee.
hadnt been this ill in a while. i had some trippy fever dreams. count yourselves lucky i wasnt so good with the phone dialling thing at this time.
but am ready to post. promised nancy that i would start now and go back through the year with the things that i meant to post but didnt. it begins soon.
i want to say hella-hellaciousness
had a marvelous visit at home with friends, family, and shopping. i return to bucharest. or i tried and the airline gods were punishing me. there were delays in boston. bad enough ay? no, the airline, though on my ticket confirmed vegetarian food, had nothing to offer me so i starved on the flight. then there were delays in paris. then when i finally got to bucharest, they lost my luggage.
i did meet a nice dude though at the airport whose luggage was also lost and we shared a taxi. but i dont think that makes up for the 32 hours of travel. most of which was spent in the airport watching the delay time be pushed further and further back.
but am home with kitties. they greeted me at the door.
Last nite, I went to the Anteneul and saw the Belcea (string) Quartet. The program included Haydn - pretty good, Beethoven - pretty awesome. Then came the break. Afterwards, it became pretty clear that I should have left. They finished with Brahms - mmm okay but my bladder was feeling a little nervous. I was doing all the clapping and stuff and the players left the stage and came back on. Okay, so I clap some more. Then, THEY SAT DOWN AGAIN!. This aint a rock concert! What's up with the encore!. To top it all, they encored with Mozart - torturous. Another 20 minutes of listening to a composure that either annoys or bores me or both. All in all it was really good though.
After dinner, we hooked up with some friends at a club/bar called control. it was a refreshing change from the Russian club that another one of my friends likes so much - no circle dancing, no bad, and i do mean BAD techno, and no half naked girls dancing on the pole on the bar (last time they were all festive, looking like Santa's hookers). This was an alterna club - lots of music from bands with nerdy/emaciated white boys talking about feelings and stuff. I must say that I enjoyed it - I do listen to alot of this stuff at home. The music was pretty much anything that was Indie today. and Indie of yesteryore. I do not understand the love of the Smiths quite so much. Much of the music came out before these kids were even born - totally making me feel old.
This club brought back fond memories of old wave nights when I was a youngun'. The dance floor was crowded with people looking like were in the midst of epileptic seizures, rhythm was not a word that many had a passing acquaintance with. It was kinda cool, people dancing, not worried about being sexy to catch the eye of . . . crawled home about 4am.
so tonite. . . was a friend's birthday. met some new people, re-met some old ones. some (including me) are dancing, having a good time.
am dancing with this one dude, been sending the vibes all night long and previously. things are looking kinda okay. well. . . song is playing, he's at my back. He leans in (he's very tall which is pretty rare in Romania) to whisper (in reality, yell as the music is blaring and beverages have been imbibed) sweet nothings in my ear. He says, "I play bass so I have rhythm like a nigger". Wow, the brakes go on so fast I have whiplash.
The sad thing is that he had no idea he said something wrong. 'Though he tries to wrap his head around it after I explain, it didn't take.
doubly sad, he had no rhythm.
yeah i know its been a crazy long time since updating but here goes.
had a week of holiday. meant to go to turkey, but too lazy. meant to go to bulgaria, but too lazy. i had just about enough energy to stay at home and hang out in my bed. sometimes i moved to the couch. and as a real show of strength, i left my house 3 times in 9 days. time well spent - okay just read and read. theres a bit more to it but thats the gist.
tonite i had another parents evening. really like the kids i teach and it was kinda nice to see the parents. i said something positive about each one. parents really like to hear that you like their kids. but . . . i was 4 hours without a break. my bladder was wanting a divorce afterwards
Friday, i went to the Underworld concert. it was really really good. they make super good dance music and was able to sing and dance and dance and make a friend. its a little disconcerting when the people hitting on you are so young. esp. when i think back and realize he could have been my student a few years ago. i forgot my camera but the concert people got me (look exotic here) here is a pic with me and caroline and greg trying to act like he doesnt know us. the show was in an airplane hanger, with awesome lights, and it was coooold but warmed up once we got to dance.
as said did all my voting before. one of the most interesting things to me about htis election has been how many people here have been involved in it. my neighbor asked me last year about whether i would support obama over clinton. my homeroom students who are 12/13 years old were all talking about it. asking me how i felt and who did i vote for. some were just like, "obama won, mccain sucks". people were congratulating me on the victory and how things would be better and different now. one wanted to go and have a celebration beer (though i think that was just hte excuse for the beer) of course when people were disparaging bush, i never said anything, kinda like you can talk crap about your family but no one else can. i dont think that people talked this much about the elections here earlier this year. kinda stresses how involved the world is with the US even if her people dont think about the rest of the world much.
