politics

normal nu vreau sa 'post' niste ganduri despre guvernul....dar astazi nu pot sa ajut-mi

Headline from Wash.Post- Pain at Pumps May Be Felt at Polls: As Gas Prices Soar, Voters Want to Send a Message to Lawmakers
My thoughts - well guess they can take this time to take the money and run since they know they're not gettin' back in office next time around.

În plus m-am trezit în dimineața asta cu mult gandurile despre ....yeah immigration....love how the politicians use this to difuse the truth - cause the truth is tons and tons and tons of 'good' jobs were exported in the last 15 years or so....cheap labor in other countries - sweat shops - china - need i say more....hmmmmm just a little thought.

oh yeah and just one more thing - as the good ol' SUA distances themselves further politically, increasing hatred towards them and no longer self-sufficient....hmmmmmm

Nichita Stănescu 1933-1983

Spune-mi, dacă te-as prinde-ntr-o-zi
Si ți-as săruta talpa piciorului,
Nu-i asa că ai schiopăta puțin dupa aceea
De teamă să nu-mi strivesti sărutul?

din vol. Sensul Iubirii

Daca vrei să citesti multe vizitezi

aici

De asemenea poți să asculti si.

Easter a/k/a Paste

paste or easter is obviously celebrated at different times in differing cristian faiths all over the world - although there are not as many orthodox churches in the states (they do exist) - the date is calculated based on two different calendars....all as to do then with spring equinox and an important component is the cycles of the moon and a huge factor is that easter must fall on a sunday - which is a 19 year cycle and the lunar cycle each month is precisely 29.53059 days - new waxing to full and waning. plus the cal year gets all screwed up because a year is esentially 365.2422. (by the way it's interesting to note that march 1st is a big day here - called 1st day of spring even without the equinox - julian cal start - a nice convention for the problems with calendars days not really adding up and the variation of dates with leap year - is to use march 1st as the beginning of the calendar) so easter is calculated with an algorithm (cu Julian Calendar) - prior to 1582 easter was celebrated on the same date by all cristian faiths. a bunch of religious peeps gathered together ultimately sep. east and west and swapped calendars politics and yeah the pope - there was even some attempt to get back on the same cycle but it ain't gonna happen. and in fact easter back, way back in the day was not always celebrated on a sunday.....so now it is and yesterday was easter here and today is easter monday - another holiday. think that easter is on 2 sep sundays works well here in matters of convenience since then some places actually remain open or open late in the day again.

so all of these matters aside of calculating days - here we are with the most important celebration in the cristian faith since with out the resurrection there wouldn't be cristianity at all. (and of course there is a lot of controversy about jesus even existing - but that's not today's subject) the church incorporated the 'pagan' traditions of spring and wrapped it all up into one big celebration. bunnies, eggs, flowers - fertility, new life, etc. some with deeper meaning....so now to the celebration - from thursday church bells stop ringing until saturday - ringing again in the morning of easter sunday. lots of people go to church just before midnight on saturday night, where the priest comes out to give a blessing, distribute holy bread and provide the flame from which everyone will light their candles. gotta say i remember as a child how delicious the 'holy' bread and wine tasted - little cubes of heaven with delicious wine. i didn't actually go to this celebration here this year but as a child we would bring a basket with a bunch of stuff - traditional easter bread, salt, butter (my sister used to sculpt it into a little lamb,) horseradish, egg, some fresh mild sweetened cheese - maybe something else but that is all that i remember. in the dark of the night candles would be lit - flame passed. anyway, next year i'll check it out.

on easter when everyone would descend upon my bunica's house - each person entering would say christ is risen (reason- oops had to correct that freudian slip maybe) and you would reply he is risen indeed. this is the same here but it is said instead when you hit eggs together to 'rupt' the shell - the shell is put aside and kept until the next day when it can discarded. in ro you say -

Hristos a Inviat - Adevarat a Inviat

another symbolism for the egg which has 3 parts, i learned yesterday, is the trinity. so following all of this in the afternoon i went to my first romanian easter celebration - it was awesome. where i got to 'rupt' my egg and stumble on my romanian words. i have to say it was probably the best easter i've experienced in years. hortenzia was the host and the attendees were her mom and two women who are very special to her and her mom and of course moi. so we did shots of tuica and some other stuff can't remember the name, drank homemade wine from a monestary and ate yummy foods - don't know all the names of them but ciorba, salata, lamb, pui and sarmale was served - f'ng fantastic! cause tenzie is a gourmet cook and the table and decor was perfect - i listened to wise women tell stories and fun was had by all. forte bine!!!!! bun! bun! bun! so next are some easter terms in ro and english for those who want to know....f'ng awesome that's all i can say - the evening closed when i met up with chris to pass on a 'care package' from tenzie of yummy foods for her since she had to work yesterday. we hung out in front of the orthodox church gabbing and then i strolled home watching the day change into night - gotta say it was one of the most beautiful days in my life.

Romanian and English Easter Terms

Isus Hristos = Jesus Christ
Postul Mare, Postul Patruzecimii, Postul Pastelui - lenten period
a bine post - fasting
Săptămână Mare - final week beginning with Palm Sunday
Duminica Floriilor = Palm sunday
ziua de joi a Săptămână Mari - thursday b4 easter
ziua răstignirii lui Hristos - good friday (still don't understand why if someone is being tortured and crucified it's called "good" maybe bcause the torture ended??)
Duminica Pascală = Easter Sunday
Slujba de Inviere = Easter Resurrection Mass

thanks to christine and angela (z) for some info included in this post. fetelor you rock!

Paşte Fericite

Astazi în dimineața am auzit sunet de ţingălău...deci este Paşte azi si mulți oamenii aici vor sărbători.

Ion Agârbiceanu - joi @ 19:45 poți să te uiti Duhul Aurului

sunt fericită sa vad un alt film care vă fi pe TVR Cultural joi viitor - woooohooooo - este un film cu titlu "Duhul Aurului" (RO 1974) la fel ultima filmul din săptămâna asta, este despre poveste a scris la autor Ion Agârbiceanu.....în doua parți - "Mirza" si "Lada" deci aici este timp

Joi, 27 aprilie @ 19:45
TVR Cultural

NUNTA DE PIATRĂ - wedding of stone

mai devreme am citit un post despre television - în general television este cacați si normal eu fi de acord. dar - da întotdeauna un dar - seara m-am uitat cel mai interesant film din 1972. a fost foarte frumos. în doua parți care împărțesc un element comun - un cal alb. daca poți, te rog se-uita asta. a fost broadcast pe TVR Cultural. Bun!

NUNTA DE PIATRĂ
(România, 1972)
Dramă. film format din două medii-metraje, inspirate din proza lui Ion Agârbiceanu. În „Fefeleaga”(regia Mircea Veroiu),o femeie sărmană munceşte din greu pentru a-şi întreţine fiica bolnavă, unicul copil care i-a mai rămas în viaţă. La moartea acesteia, mama vinde calul cu care căra piatră din munte, pentru a plăti înmormântarea. În „La o nuntă”(regia Dan Piţa), un soldat dezertat din armată se alătură unui muzicant tocmit să cânte la o nuntă. Mireasa, măritată împotriva voinţei ei cu un tânăr bogat, sfârşeşte prin a fugi cu frumosul muzicant, în vreme ce mirele părăsit se răzbună ucigându-l pe soldat.
Regia: Mircea Veroiu, Dan Piţa
Cu: Leopoldina Bălănuţă, Radu Boruzescu, Mircea Diaconu, Eliza Petrăchescu

plights or maybe the trials and tribulations of domesticity - baking nuca si mic 'rolls'

oh how i long to write so early in the morning in ro and sometimes i do but today a little headache - maybe sugar overload from yesterday sampling the baked goods that i made for Paşte (Easter)....while i'm not a big religious girl in fact borderline atheist who wavers back and forth - more of a fan of science to hold my beliefs together ....i digress again. ok but i love tradition!!!! tradition (sing it! you know that tune from fiddler on the roof) love that musical too and played a character in the play in scola....again i digress.

back to tradition - bunica and mama mea si copilor - yep we used to make yummy goodies that you couldn't buy in the store in the states - namely nut and poppy seed rolls (which you can buy anytime of the year here and damn they're good - and i might say eating them regularly has not made them any less delicious) we would make these yummy goodies for easter and xmas along with lots and lots of other delicious things. the recipe is called 2 hour nut roll - hahahah - yeah right .

ok so i made them yesterday - this is also the first time i have baked since i've been here. so that means i didn't have all the luxuries of my past life - such as a blender and/or a good old fashioned bolt it to the table meat grinder (which by the way i used to have and NEVER ground meat in it) the meat grinder was only to grind the nuts for these tasty treats. i still need a blender but not for this recipe, that's for another recipe and frozen margaritas. also other obstacles here like my beautiful thermal baking pans that i shipped here because damn they're fabulous - well they don't fit in my cuptor :( this i knew though since i unpacked that box (deterent to previous baking desires) and yes that's right i can only bake one tray of whatever at a time in my cuptor. well cuptorile nu au temp gauges either. so it's guess how hot i am and try to bake - there is only a little picture - well 3 to be exact 1. light me, 2. low flame, 3. high flame. so luckily i guessed correctly based on my other intermitent oven adventures....

pauza from this blog right now...trials and tribs to continued dupa scoala must run now to get educated in the limba buna....

ahhh m-am intors acasa....sunt frustrat cu procesul de învațare (nu stiu i mean learning) ok since i started this post in engleza i will complete it in english...

so i chopped and i chopped and i chopped some more until nuca were pretty much aok - mix cu some cream si zahar and voila. mic a/k/a poppy seeds needed to be cooked for a few minutes with some other stuff but i didn't do that - got a bad recipe for that -in the states used to buy them prepared for baking. so they're not as tasty. but ok - problemo with this even if they are prepared - when u eat them they get stuck in ur teeth - VERY attractive look i might add. i made the dough and what the hell i was already a baking maniac chained to the cuptor for the day so i made cookies too and that's what i needed the blender for to make the oatmeal a flour like consistency...so instead i used them whole and they taste mighty good. of course i'm pufoasa (a little fat around the waist from winter) so the intention is to give all of these tasty treats away with a few cookies and a piece or 2 of nut/poppy seed roll.

so for the good of the world i now give u buni's recipe....

ingredients

dough - u'll need a rolling pin for this stuff
1 kg/1000 gr faine - flour
200 gr unt - butter (make sure it's soft)
1 tsp sare - salt
3 tbsp zahar - sugar
2 pachete drojdie uscata - dry yeast
100-125 ml lapte cald- about 1/4 cup milk (warm)
3 oua amestecat- eggs mixed
300 gr smântână - 1 cup sour cream

how to...
dissolve yeast in warm milk
mix butter with sugar and eggs then add salt and flour to the mixture. slowly add sour cream. add yeast mixture (it should have bubbled up a little) blend - knead until this mixture 'leaves the side of the bowl'

seperate - roll out dough - thin - spread with filling - roll up and place on greased baking pan seam side down - let them rise for 1 hour then bake @350F or low icon on cuptors in ro for 35-40 minutes.
atat!

filling - nucă
a bunch of walnuts - 1 kg probabil - grind them best in one of those old fashioned metal meat grinders
smântână or cream
zahar, sugar

mix ingredients for nuca filling by sight and don't forget to sample the mixture as you go along

filling mic - poppy (the correct way to make it)
200 gr mic - poppy seed don't know the conversion cause they sell it here in 100 gr pks
100 gr smăntănâ/cream 1/3 cup
100 ml miere - honey
1/2 tsp grated fresh lemon rind - nu stiu cum spui 'rind' în romaneste

optional to grind poppy seeds in food processor or spice grinder. either way you must combine with the milk and honey and cook over low heat until thick. stir in the lemon rind. set aside to cool. oh and by the way lots of peeps like raisins and well you can add some to the filling but frankly they remind of little bugs when cooked in stuff so i say don't do it. lovely alone but in stuff - yuck.

eat when warm to produce a mild but fabulous tummy ache :)

deci ce fac când preitenii mei au nevoie ajutor dar nu îi va intreba?

sper ca persona asta va citi asta.....

stii ca eu sunt aici pentru tine. 'nuff a spus!

cults

"Message by Prime Minister to the cults that celebrate the Easter Holiday on Sunday, April 16th 2006" este 'headline' pe gov.ro site-ul pentru Paşte care sărbătoreşte de 'cults.' țară asta este aproximativ 90% ortodox. inca, cred ca este foarte interesant să foloseste cuvântul 'cults.'

am citit toate ziua deci acum nu am energie sa scriu..

în loc de un articol pentru tine....

86% of Americans Don't Want....click here to find out :)

more on the floor of de blog

okey dokey click below now :)

moral compass entry some good reading

go abe "government of the people by the people for the people, shall not perish from the earth"

yeah this is old school stuff but i think abe's sentiment applies to the current war in DC regarding immigration .... well for me i think romania is the land of opportunity and america can't quite figure out why you'd want to be there exactly unless your peeps are being persecuted...so that said i give you abe's gettysburg address...

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that "all men are created equal"

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it, as a final resting place for those who died here, that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow, this ground -- The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; while it can never forget what they did here.

It is rather for us, the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that, from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here, gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people by the people for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

niste oamenii îi se intreba 'de ce?' aici sunt 6 motivi dece...mult mai tarziu

some people wonder and ask why? think that's from a famous kennedy quote something like that anyway but i was thinking of these words because one of my friends here doesn't quite get it. so in my groggy haze i decided to write some of my reasons while drinking coffee - yeah and also i'm into the whole 'you create your own reality thing' in general and find lists are helpful tools to create your reality.

be careful how you interpret reality because it is like that...e heller quote
fii grijuliu cum interpretezi realitate pentru ca este la fel ca asta....e heller traducere in ro

I. creative inspiration comes easier here for me. it just did all on it's own. i paint and draw a lot here and have lots of creative ideas.

II. i love old world tradition blended with high tech. while surfing the net i hear the rooster crow and the horse hoffs pounding on the pavement nearby. by the way technology is cheaper here too .....unlike SUA cand prietenii suna, doar ei platesc....bieniteles este invers cand eu sun apoi doar eu platesc...foarte bun!!!!!

III. love the closeness of families here. ce pot sa spun despre asta? este evident!

IV. love the fun traditions like the days to celebrate spring and women and more

march 1 and 8. the first is considered the first day of spring and small gifts of flowers or little charm like things are given. the 8th celebrates femeie kinda like valentines day. other nifty traditions - when a couple is married, the groom's friends steal the bride for an hour or so and bring her to a cafe to rest if even for only a little while. - in decembrie the feast of st nick children put out there shoes all polished and nice where they can receive either a switch to be beaten with if your a bad girl or boy or maybe u'll get a little present like these kind of candy cane looking thingys. hmmmm my favorite thing is coming up where young men wander the streets and spray femeie with parfum if they like them...oh yeah and well it's near easter here - this sunday and next depending on wether or not u follow the pope....

V. bani - i wanted to live in an affordable city and now i do. i love the city life - prefer asta - BA DA - nu îmi place the country life. so, since i grew up in the ny metro area well probably with few exceptions - any city would outside of the area would be more affordable. but here even though real estate prices are going crazy because of the impending entry into the eu and the autostrada coming that will run through the entire country - my rent here is considered VERY expensive for the city BUT it is still 1/3 of what i paid in SUA and YES my apartment there was considered a very affordable good deal. now that i am here, i will move to an even more affordable apt when my lease is up saving even more money. cause if u live here well u make a romanian salary which is less then an american salary that is if u work for someone else....dar anything is possible here.

VI. spirituality is evident here. 'nuff said.

daca fac un examen pentru DNA - ya think they'll really destroy the info?

DNA print

me gots lots of wrath, lust, pride, gluttony...

and i think too much time on my hands to be taking this quiz - hmm is this the reason that timpul passes mai rapide? damn! life seems to be moving so swiftly but alas i have enough time to take silly quizzes and gloat that i have more wrath then the chick who posted this quiz on her blog which by the way is all about her wrath. na na na na naaaaaa naaaaaaa!

Greed:	Medium
Gluttony:	High
Wrath:	Very High
Sloth:	Medium
Envy:	Low
Lust:	Very High
Pride:	High

Discover Your Sins - Click Here

chris cu inalt barbat serbeasca

a striking difference for chris was that barbați in serbia are tall...at least taller then barbați in general in romania. so here she is with a strikingly tall barbat who was so tall he decided to sit for the pix.

mai multi în beograd

dizdar's tower built to last 1404-1427

sunt americanca si nu intotdeauna fac sa spun asta cu mândrie

oops in my previous entry concerning immigration - i rambled a little and failed to mention the native americans and referred to americans as blue bloods - woops! well i can say though that part of my emotions concerning this issue are stirred by continually reading random quotes by people like Brit Hume among others and their blatant disregard for humanity. here's a little excerpt from a NY Times article on the immigration rallies....
--------
Brit Hume, the news anchor on Fox News, described the marchers, particularly those carrying Mexican flags, as "a repellent spectacle."
--------
another quote i read the other day was from a guy whose parents were immigrants from poland and he's first generation i think american - maybe even born in poland and came here as a child - really can't remember exactly but he said something like - 'immigrants are a real problem, we have to do something about them.'
_________
ire and anger is what gets sparked in me when i hear these random statements...back it up - say something - say anything - pretend you have a logical reason to make this statement - what is your reasoning?

when i attended the university i took a class called the 'american experience' this was b4 there was a PBS series with the same title. the class was mandatory for all students regardless of their major. most of the students in my class as i recall were born in the states and were american citizens and most had either parents or grandparents who immigrated to the USA a few were immigrants themselves. we talked about what it means to be an 'american,' read and analyzed 10 non-fiction novels and wrote papers, etc. the thing that i discovered in this class was my lack of cultural community - as a child i experienced this sense of culture and community when visiting my grandparents at easter and in the summer, but after my grandparents were gone so was my sense of family and belonging - we were no longer bound to this community. we lived several hundred miles away from our last link to the immigrant community and i didn't identify with mass consumerism, baseball, apple pies and chevorlet - yeah i played sports as a kid and having an older brother i played baseball - it was fun - but i didn't like apple pie and well didn't drive a chevy - i digress again :)

what is it to be american? it's likely that if you are an 'american' you are an immigrant or the descendent of one who left their culture and life behind to follow some kind of dream of freedom, maybe to escape an unjust government or some other injustice in their country. hoping for a better life. all in the name of freedom. now much of the world is 'free' and this isn't such a big issue now for many. besides if you're there are you really free? i'm not sure that anyone is free in the USA anyway anymore. in fact, i think they have less freedoms now then ever before. in the name of security and the market economy - there is no longer a level of privacy granted to it's citizens. if you want to be a real american - invest in the stock market in iris scanning technology, tracking chips, etc. any kind of technology that will track you, your purchases and your actions - invest - you'll make a mint.

who am i? when people would ask me what nationality are you i would answer 'i'm american' - almost all of the time this answer was negated - 'no' they would say - 'where is your family from?' - 'ohhhhhh you mean what is my family heritage? i'm a mutt' - diluted european with bunici who were from 3 european countries. this question was asked by my peers and colleagues to form some kind of bond i think - maybe i was one of their clan? well i wasn't part of clan. usually in fact i didn't know anyone with my common heritage in my hoody. so maybe that's why i came back to a part of the world near to my ancestors? here when someone asks me my nationality i say just what i am - 'sunt americanca'

immigration

my feelings are intensly overwhelming when it comes to this issue and frankly i'm not sure i can put my emotions aside and write something reasonable....the first reasonable question i can ask is... 'what the fuck?' all of my grandparents were immigrants and now i'm an immigrant to another country... don't think they would've left hadn't it been for war and strife - almost too bad they did leave really. how many people are blue bloods in the US really now....how many?

oh the easy way - some of the half assed comments i read recently about this issue try to focus america's problems on the immigrant population....of course - blame the immigrants for fundamental structural problems with education, crime, poverty, the economy - mass waste consumerism where the population produces the most pollution, uses more resources then is ultimately sustainable...where the US will start wars to protect their interest in petroleum production...okey i'm getting too emotional so i'll just shut up for now and post some links....

ORGS and REFS

ACLU

IARC

NNIRR

Build Freedom

NEWS - click on this link

FEEDS

and type in the word immigration in the search bar on the right on the feed page and you can view a slew of articles on this issue

just another of the articles listed in the feeds.....

ny times article today

slideshow link

and full text of another article - would post the link but somehow couldn't do it without being signed out so...

Immigration rallies sweep US
By Karen Jacobs 2 hours, 3 minutes ago
ATLANTA (Reuters) - Thousands of people wearing white and waving American flags poured into the streets of Atlanta on Monday demanding dignity and rights for millions of illegal immigrants in the United States.

Shouts of "Si se puede!," Spanish for "Yes, we can!" reverberated through the wave of protesters stirred to action by legislation that would turn them into felons and fence off the U.S. border with Mexico.

Among a sea of white T-shirts, some read "We are not criminals." Banners declared "We have a dream," echoing civil rights leader Martin Luther King.

Sweeping across the country from California to Maine, the protests, vigils and marches have snowballed into one of the biggest Hispanic movements since the 1960s when farm workers united under Cesar Chavez.

The demonstrations arrive at the doorstep of the U.S. Congress later on Monday when more than 100,000 are expected to gather in the shadow of Capitol Hill where lawmakers have been unable to agree on legislation giving illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.

In New York, organizers are expecting 15,000 to 20,000 for a "We are America" rally at City Hall. In Phoenix, the estimate is about 100,000. In Portland, Maine, a state where Hispanics make up less than 1 percent of the population, advocates were hoping for several hundred.

"We're all coming together," said Hector Yturralde, president of the Arizona Hispanic Community Forum. "We have one main cause. As you can see, it is a powerful one."

Events were planned for 94 cities and towns across the United States. Groups are also planning work walkouts, product boycotts and other measures. Some will target lawmakers, including Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, the Tennessee Republican who has supported measures that emphasize law enforcement over citizenship.

Congress went home last week for a two-week break gridlocked on a compromise plan to reform immigration law and give millions of illegal immigrants a shot at citizenship.

Failure to push through a Senate bill, which would create a temporary worker program as proposed by President George W. Bush -- but opposed by many in his own Republican Party -- could derail major changes in immigration laws for this year.

The immigration debate has been complicated by November's congressional elections in which Democrats are threatening to seize control of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Republicans are split. The party is nervous about losing Hispanic votes that Bush and his political team have worked hard to recruit but also skittish about being seen as soft on border control and security.

Many conservatives worry that allowing millions of undocumented, mostly Mexican immigrants to qualify for residency would lead to charges of having voted for amnesty.

After a failed test vote in the Senate last week, the bill's main backers, Arizona Republican John McCain and Massachusetts Democrat Edward Kennedy, vowed not to give up.

"I think we'll get an immigration law," Kennedy told Reuters in an interview shortly before he was to address one of dozens of large protests nationwide. "The issue is not going away."

Any Senate bill would have to be merged with a much more stringent House bill that lacks a guest-worker program, defines all of an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants as felons, erect a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border and punish Americans who try to help undocumented workers.

"I think (House) Republicans touched a very raw nerve," Kennedy said. "It (the bill) touched the heart and soul of so many of these individuals ... enhancing their sense of fear and uncertainty."

Bush called the huge demonstrations a sign of the issue's importance.

"I think we need to understand that we're a nation of immigrants," he said in response to questions after a speech in Washington.

The protests were greeted with dismay by critics who said the U.S. government should not encourage "a culture where America's laws are optional."

"These are immigrants who are here illegally," said Susan Wysoki, spokeswoman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform. "They are demanding that they be given rights U.S. citizens have when their first act was to break the law by coming into this country illegally."
------------end of text

look out america because there's a whole other world out there - build a wall along the borders and isolate urself further - you already have enemies around the world - why not make some more?

real truth article

and there's more - even other alt eu nations want to keep a lid on immigration and make romanians and bulgarians suffer through a waiting period...where now so many will work for less illegally - the brain power might infiltrate their system and show others weaknesses...hmmmm

UK wary of Bulgaria and Romania workers

carnivale - mi-e frica!

scratch and sniff - don't do it :) although this would be the best way to sum up the WC experience in timisoara - which we'll lead into this poveste now....

it was a long day of getting ready and studying limba româna. no nap for me :( but the excitement was high. our train left cluj at 22:25 in the evening and our train arrived in timisoara just before 5 am. approx 2.5 hrs of sleep. don't mind little sleep - in fact - love the night. adventure was certain and began while we waited on the platform for the train. our first site on this trip was the barbat jerking off on the train next to us on the platform. well well well - what can i say about that? we both noticed him at the same moment and looked at each other and burst into laughter. turning away wondering what would happen next? our train arrived and we found our seats and the whistles announded our departure...a sign to get settled for the long journey ahead.

settling in with no one else in our wagon we yammered on about everything. armed with our apa minerale, bananas and chocolate...there are many stops on the train and after a few stops an older woman joined us - she was probably 75 years old (not really sure because i can never tell how old anyone really is at all) after a while the guy who checks the tickets came by to check and bătrână did not have all of the proper papers as a pensioner and did not have any money to pay. her fate was to be put off the train at the next stop in the rain in the middle of the night after a 5 minute ordeal of the om demanding more information which she couldn't produce or money to pay the fare. so they left the car to continue the conversation. while she was put near the exit to wait for the next stop, we found him and along with another romanian woman on the train we paid her fair and she was allowed to return to our car. she didn't know that we paid for her. so that made it even more beautiful to see her smiling face as she showed us her ticket. her smile was like an angel glowing a halo of luminos light. she no longer showed her years only her inner beauty which streamed out of her. (by the way almost don't like mentioning our deed because it is not boasting but part of the story of the journey....so that said we continued on) she would reach her destination safe and sound. we were happy too knowing that she would be warm and could sleep peacefully in the car with us...we continued on until we arrived in timisoara around 5 am.

so what is worse the toilet on the train? or the WC in the station? lack of sleep makes either choice easier certainly. damn i had to go and so did chris. lugging our baggage, we headed toward the acrid smell. well it was as if we had arrived at the entrance of a carnival when we walked to the WC - a glass booth with turnstiles on either side and a sleeping man who was probably in his 30's or early 40's - feet up, he was the guardian who would take money 10,000 lei each (quite expensive i think) to give us TP and move the bar past the turnstile that would allow us to witness a site that most would prefer to avoid. this repugnant smell unfortunately would stay on my pumas until i could get them home and soak them in hot water and a supersonic cleaner. most WC in romania in my experience are not bad at all. i look at going to the bathroom in a public place as an opportunity to work my quads - squat and work those muscles. nici o problema but this was only a surprise to me since we were in the gara of one of the largest cities in romania. in all the other places who cares..you expect this a little more hard core but here a small surprise. so for those of you who haven't had this experience i will try to describe it....

imagine a stench of urine and cacați emenating from probably 40 holes in the ground where you can deposit your bodily waste. a group latrine with doors that don't close and really at some point you don't care because you don't want to touch anything there anyway. for guys not so bad for girls well.... so ok i'm not going to describe it any further since well... i love romania and it's not a pretty topic. chris was a saviour with her anti-bacterial travel size cleanser. so we have an hour to kill b4 boarding the train for belgrade -

so off to the cafe in the gara to drink some espresso. the cafe was filled with barbați only and one female server. many were roma i think and almost all of them were drinking some form of alcholic beverage.....

lack of sleep for me so i will continue this poveste later......

sculpture în cemetar în beograd

on the way home aseara

o vedere frumose - bine ați venit!

i can only say when we arrived home, i was happy happy joy joy - iubesc românia foarte multa!

timisoara will have to wait :( but belgrad here we come :)

the train ride is just toooooo long so we've minimized the trip - still we will be gone for 4 days - leave tonight instead around 2230 arriving in timisoara at 500 then an hour wait and the train to belgrad arriving somewhere around 930 yikes.... so we'll have friday, saturday and most of sunday - departing sunday night and arriving in cluj monday morning around 430 sooooo monday will be recovery day. if we depart on monday then tuesday is ruined and well we both have a lot a lot a lot of work to do...so the next trip will be strictly timisoara and that will be i hope in a few weeks.

out of the darkness

recently i read a blog by a romanian journalist (http://stadiumsaint.blogspot.com/)....ok she was upset about the washington post article and the headline was OUT OF THE DARKNESS....well just a thought - the youngest people who are new to the industry - if i remember correctly this is a specific job that someone has - doubtful the actual writer of the article selected the headline - poate dar nu cred....thinking maybe the writer is an avid listener of hip hop ...maybe not but here's the lyrics of a song that i know...

'critics say go to hell, i go yeah...stupid mother fuckers, i'm already there....OUT OF THE DARKNESS....people fear what they don't understand...'

aight weekend placut...nu suntem acolo inca nu dar...

wooohoooo....mergem la belgrade si timisoara....hai să mergem americani :) relief dupa o săptămână lungă.....excursie asta recompens deoarece am completat acte si alți lucurile wooooohooooo

ce trebuie să m-aduc cu mine?

vitamin, geanta, mobil cu charger, camera cu charger/2 batteries
batiste (2) , hârtie igienică :) pentru trenul, carțe sau reviste sau amindoua, bluj (2), pantofi (2), bluza/T (3), desuuri a/k/a gucies (4), sosete (4), hoodie (1), jachete (1), paste de dinți, perie de dinți, perie de par, cosmetice, cremă, săpon, prosop mic

trebuie să cumpar?

batiste (2)
hârtie igienică :) pentru trenul
fructa si semințe si biscuiți
apa minerale

la banca?
schimb dolar....pot să cumpar serbian currency? sau doar euro? hmmmmm nu stiu ...voi afla în dimineața.

dawgs of ro

caini se joacă si somn...

Istvan and Zoloft

so please forgive me z for not remembering or knowing exactly how to spell ur hungarian name - well it's hard enough sometimes when u meet a bunch of people to remember their names and well although now we've met again ....well imi pare rau.

dallas - mic sat de roma

am mers 'dallas' astazi. m-am intalnit alți oamenii care lucrez pentru organizație ca ajutor alți oameni. voi sa fac un mural cu copilor acolo. sper ca fac o imagine ca vă fi ceva îl vă aduce aminte (pe ei) deci azi a fost foarte bine. am vazut mulți copii care au zambit - foarte frumos :) un sfersit cand noi vor pleca un copil frumos a spus nume lui si el dă mâna mea si a spus 'imi pare bine' .....foarte draguți.

ca si ne am plimbat spre 'dallas' - muzica a fost performați (?) masine merg în mare viteză, în timp ce, oaie pasc pe deal, cai, câini si oameni au fost împrejur. eu doar am vrut sa ma uit si ascult....foarte interesant.