A Month of Travel by Bullet Points, continued
The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.

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Part II: Romania
March 31st, Timişoara

• Friend in town: Cameron, a volunteer I met 1 time for 3 minutes who said we can keep our bags at his house
• Arrive in Timişoara at 7:30ish a.m after switching trains at 4:30 in the morning in Arad. It was not immediately apparent to me we would have to switch trains.
• Relived European Daylight Savings again by jumping ahead another hour in the time difference between Romania and Hungary which no one will tell you about.
• Miraculously I got all of our luggage aboard the second train by myself while mom was in the bathroom - thinking the train was about to pull out of the station. Memorable quotes: Mom -How did you get all the bags on the train? Me- I don't know.
• Walk to a coffee shop that is open for coffee and pastry, then cross the street with baggage and have coffee in another coffee shop this one with a bathroom. It is now time so that if we get a taxi now it will be a decent hour by the time we show up at Cameron's
• After taxi gets lost, then finds the apartment we haul baggage upstairs with Cameron's help while taxi driver continues to argue with a lady in front of the building who said she didn't know the name of the street she apparently lives on.
• Scenic walk at a brisk pace gives us the highlights and historical landmarks of Timişoara ending at Cameron's school
• Limp around the park
• Briefly shop the sparse Easter market because Easter is not for another 3 weeks in Romania
• Saw Piatia Victoriei where the Romanian Revolution began in 1989. Bullet riddled building is now a McDonald's. Guidebook said there was a plaque on McDonald's. Saw no plaque.
• Went to the church across from the Opera at Piata Victoriei and lit candles for those who died in the revolution
• Ate lunch at a cafeteria-style restaurant with Cameron. Mom's first experience with Romanian restaurants that don't have what's on the menu. Also, I order for her in Romanian.
• Cameron walks us to beautiful Piatia Unirii although it's too early for the terasas to be out yet. We see the pillar built as a memorial to the Plague and also the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church which stand across from each other
• Go to a coffee shop and order juices
• Buy postcards. I have a World Wise Schools Partnership Program classroom I write to once a month and I'm determined to send them as many postcards from my touristic ventures in Romania as possible despite the fact that I've never heard from them and don't know what grade they are in.
• Fret about how to find Cameron's apartment and retrieve baggage in time to meet him and give him back his keys. End up taking another taxi to his apartment, retrieving bags and having taxi take us to meet him at the McDonald's near his school
• Get yelled at by Cameron's neighbor in Romanian - Why are you throwing that suitcase down the stairs!? -I'm sorry! Excuse me! -Where are you from? -I'm from the United States but we lived in Budapest and now we're moving to Transylvania! -You're moving to Transylvania? -Yes, we live in Transylvania now. I think moving is the only acceptable explanation for the amount of baggage we have.
• Take yet another taxi from the meeting place with Cameron to the train station
• Meet Dan a volunteer from my group at the train station and chat with him for approximately 6 minutes.
• Board the 3:00 Rapid train for Deva. Yay! All goes well despite my temporarily misplacing the tickets while on the train. Made friends with two helpful Romanian young men eager to help us with the baggage but surprised by its mass and volume.
• 6:45 arrive in my city of DEVA! take a taxi to my apartment
• Duration of stay in Timişora: About 7 hours
• What we ate: Strudels, I had the vegetarian non pizza Romanian restaurant standby: fried cheese and french fries, and a very cheesy Greek salad on the side. Forget what mom had beside cabbage slaw. In Deva I prepared Mamaliga cu branza, the Romanian national dish - which is pollenta with cheese and fried eggs. Although we didn't eat until like 10:00 at night. It's a good thing mamaliga doesn't require much chewing because I was almost too tired to swallow and chewing was right out.

April 1 -2 Deva

• Mom slept for 13 hours
• Have coffee at best café in Deva, Café Amigo, while writing out postcards
• Repack baggage for the rest of the week - much smaller now.
• Visit the local piata and look at the flowers, fruits and vegetables for sale
• Walking tour of Deva - this is where I pay my electric bill, this is the vet's office. Walking tour includes paying the bills
• Visit my 2nd host mother in Romania. Watch and episode of Medium with her on TV in english with Romanian subtitles and have a long chat in Romanian. Mom intelge nimic.
• After visiting with my gazada I take mom to Presto for desert.
• Visited my office and met the ladies from Fundatie Mara, presented them with Austrian chocolate and gave them the update on the trip so far but had to breeze through to catch the train to Sibiu
• Duration of our stay in Deva: 2 nights and 1 day
• What we ate: Strudels, and papanasi, a desert which is a fried donut filled with apricot jam and drizzled with sour cream and berry sauce.

April 2-3 Sibiu

• Friend in town: Dan, an American who lives in Sibiu who is not a Peace Corps volunteer. Had lunch with him at an Italian place, chat him up about life, Romania, girls who've broken our hearts...just kidding
• Checked into a nice Pension
• Somehow get back to the old city center and climb the famous bell tower which seems to go upward infinitely but is a great place to take pictures of the beatiful city despite the fact that it was rainy and cloudy
• Looked at the old church
• Went out for coffee
• Walked back to the pension looking for a restaurant - found a church and asked a passing couple in Romanian where we could find a restaurant in the area. They responded - Do you speak German? -No. (Continuing in Romanian) Go back the way you came across the intersection with the roundabout to a hotel on the other side of the stadium
• Have a nice dinner at the hotel with the waiter who tries to impress us with his english
• What we ate: Fried cauliflower which I've been craving since Christmas, Romanian dumpling soup and rosemary potatoes. Mom had the same but with Chicken Kiev instead of cauliflower. We ate a lot of bread. This marks the first chicken for mom in a long time.
• Duration of our stay in Sibiu: 1 night

April 3, Cluj

• Friend in town: Iulia, a Romanian college student studying American Literature
• Travel to Cluj by bus. Bus arrives half an hour early so we get off at some random place not knowing where the bus station is. Luckily I recognize the National Theatre and we are a short walk to the center of town and then our hostel
• Check in to hostel
• Stop at University bookstore famed for large selection of books in English
• Walk to Marty's a restaurant and bar I know from the only other time I've been to Cluj
• Find the Romanian Folk Art Gallery, a store which preserves and educates about the authentic and traditional crafts. Mom breaks a dish there. We both buy a bunch of stuff - I buy a surpriza for someone....
• Meet up with Iulia and Micah, who came to Cluj just for the evening to hang out with us, have a beer
• Hike to the Cluj botanical gardens even though it's an hour before closing
• Mom has the typically Peace Corps experience of Where the hell is the bathroom?
• Pop into St Michael's church in time to catch the end of a concert going on there
• Eat traditional Romanian cabbage dinner at a little known restaurant I don't know the name of, but Iulia referred to it as the Cabbage Shop - though that's the name of it.
• Walked to the Romanian Orthodox church and insisted mom take pictures of it as well as the Catholic church
• Visited another bar in Cluj, Micah and I catch up on business
• Next morning: continue shopping for a book about Romania in english for mom. Don't find it. Take more money out of an ATM. I freak out about time and take a taxi to the bus station so we don't miss our bus. Get to the station in time but the bus is sold out so we have to wait for 1 hour
• What we ate: Salads, at Marty's - not very Romanian. Sort of expensive strudels and coffee at a bare bones café right next to Breakfast and Coffee a very swanky looking café with a GAP inside of it, Sarmale - traditional cabbage rolls served without me for me because it's Lent - first time I've ever had it at a restaurant. Mom has Varza La Cluj - a kind of Lasagna with cabbage instead of noodles and stewed tomatoes instead of red sauce, and pork. Also wicked awesome baked potatoes with cheese and cream. And gogosi - Romanian donuts which are like a chocolate, fruit or cheese filled elephant ear at Gogosa Infuriata (the angry donut - a chain)
• Duration of our stay in Cluj: 1 day and 1 night

April 4-6 Baia Mare

• Friend in town: Todd, volunteer in my group who was busy and we didn't originally plan on spending so many days in Baia Mare but he was very helpful in finding us a pension with an all purple room
• Slept hardily on the three hour bus ride, my mom tells me I missed beautiful scenery but I may be back in Mara Mures county sometime...
• Walked around to Piatia Revolutiei, did a little second hand shopping during a spontaneous power failure
• Walked through the large park. Saw a guy that was at least 7 feet tall. Todd tells us he's an American who plays basket ball in Baia Mare
• Ate at a very slow restaurant in Piatai Liberatti
• Photographed churches around St. Stephen's tower
• Walked through the piata, by which I mean the one where they sell vegetables
• Visited the Village Museum with old buildings from around the Mara Mures region preserved on display including the wooden church from 1630 which we didn't get to see right away because it was Sunday and services were going on inside but it was full so people were standing around outside following the service
• Visited the Ethnographic Museum which typically displays traditional folk art and crafts from the rural area surrounding Baia Mare but is now under new management and temporarily closed except for a visiting exhibit of wax figures of celebrities ranging from Christ to Osama bin Laden and Bill Gates. We were planning on seeing the ethnographic museum for its typical offerings but were particularly encouraged to go to the Special Exhibit by the proprietor of the Village Museum as we didn't have correct change to pay our entrance to the Village Museum until we saw the Wax Exhibit first.
• Bought a coffee and an apple from McDonald's so we could use the bathroom then realized their bathroom wasn't actually locked
• Visited the unique Baia Mare art museum with its particularly interesting textile exhibit and also paintings of the city of Baia Mare during every season
• Got on the train to Deva at 5:00 - arrived in Deva at 1:30a.m. with a two hour Layover in Dej. Hiked to a truck stop where I ate french fries and mom tried Mici - little sausages - for the first time.
• What we ate: Omelets at our piata with french fries in them - what great idea! I had mamaliga with sour cream and cheese, mom had a salad made mostly out of ham, at a Medieval themed Romanian restaurant she had a kepbob and fries while I had onion soup and natural potatoes and fried cheese - thank goodness I didn't also order the corn! Beer, and a desert I can remember the name of that was like a plum paste with sand in it.
• Duration of our stay in Baia Mare: 3 days, two nights

April 5, Sighet - Day Trip -

• Took a bus to Sighet for the day Saturday, worried about getting the last bus back to Baia Mare at the end of the day
• Toured the Memorial to the Victims of Communism and the Resistance which is in a former prison from the Communist period. A very unique museum which offers a lot of resources in english, but it is a lot of reading. I'm told its the closest thing Romania has to a Museum of Communism at the moment.
• Toured the Sighet Ethnographic museum where the masks for the Winter Festival Dec.27th our stored when it's not festival time. Also an impressive display of traditional weaving and embroidery done on leather
• Photographed a Romanian Holocaust Memorial - a rare display
• Debated visiting Elie Weisel's childhood house, Although it was supposed to be closed according to guidebook, the woman at the museum told us it was open and wouldn't sell us the two page english booklet about it when we could just go there.
• Instead we hiked to the River Izei which is the northern boarder between Romania and Ukraine
• Bought way too many snacks for the bus on the way back to Baia Mare - no time to eat in Sighet!

April 7-8 Deva

• Walked through the old city center where the prettier buildings are like the Mayor's office and the post office, visited the large park
• Had breakfast at the place I've been told has the best "pancakes" in town - really they're crepes
• Had dinner at the insanely popular traditional Romanian food restaurant in town that's in a converted garage and has only 4 tables
• Took the maxi taxi to the nearby town of Hunedoara and photographed their castle even though they wouldn't let us in the castle because it's closed
• Had a beer at a bar that appeared next to the castle since I was last there in December
• Went back to café Amigo for coffee and wrote out postcards again. Brought our own strudel in again only this time it was from the good strudel place that was closed the last time.
• Searched out some Hunedoara postcards
• Went Romania souvenier shopping at the grocery store
• Repacked all the baggage that was going home to the USA
• Climbed up to the Deva Citadel, built in 1269. Didn't even die on the hike up, and took the telecabina down
• Ate a desert and coffee at the good desert place at the bottom of the hill
• Immediately left the desert place and walked to the sandwich place and ate lunch because mom wanted a sandwich
• Hurried to get the train to the village of Baru Mare because I'm always nervous we're going to miss the train. had time to buy drinks before getting on the train. Managed to wrestle all the baggage on to the Personel train. Unfortnately was trapped on the hot sunny side of the train.
• What we ate in Deva: Mamaliga at La Biatul for me, Pork Cutlet with French fries for mom, At the Sandwich place: chicken wings with sauce and cabbage slaw and french fries and lipie (flat bread so you can make you own sandwiches, but mom for some reason doesn't like sandwiches with cabbage and french fries) a personal pizza for me. Mom had a cheese and apple crepe at the pancake place, I had a spinach and mushroom crepe which would have been great if it wasn't drowned in garlic mayo. I had a desert that was like rasberry fluff on a pie crust, and mom had some kind of pie cookie thing that are usually purchased by the kilo because the woman kind of freaked out when I ordered 1. Coffees. Strudel.
• Duration of stay in Deva this time: 1 night and almost 2 days, leaving on Tuesday at 3:40

April 8-10 Baru Mare

• Friends in town: Dru, another volunteer in my group and her roommate Sara. Volunteers in closest proximity to me and the babysitters of my cat
• Jumped off the personel train at the Halta - where the train stops when there's no train station at the little villages, and it doesn't stop long - and dragged the baggage down the rocky hill with the dirt road. Enlisted the help of the neighbor to carry the baggae up the three flights of stairs to the apartment.
• Visited my precious kitten, Bella, who'd been with Dru and Sara since March 15th
• Hiked to the hotel with Sara's counterpart Miss Anna a teacher at the school
• Patronized both of Baru's two restaruants the hotel, and the cafe which serves mici and fries
• Memorable quotes: Mom- Do they have something normal like spaghetti? I want spaghetti. And I want a sandwhich. I want a spaghetti sandwich. Also: Mom- I need air! Me- You can't have any air, it's Romania. There's no air on trains.
• Visited both Casas (orphanages) House of Hope, and House of Joy where Dru works
• Visited Sara's school and did a day of activities (games) with the 5a and 8a classes (the higher classes of 5th and 8th graders)
• Slept on the floor - totally Peace Corps though my cat slept on my mom
• Took a nature hike to the hill but not all the way up
• Hiked toward the Strei valley in the dark. Met a very accomodating woman shepard who wanted to do everything possible to help us get a good picture of the sheep when mom showed in a in interest in photographing them
• Encountered a lot of people in the village who wanted to know who we were, where we were going and why
• Mom napped while I went to adult excercise class - but I didn't try to hard
• Dragged luggage back up the rocky hill on the dirt road and wrestled it on to the Personel train. This took 3 of us.
• What we ate: Mici. Fries. Mom tried ciorba de burta (tripe soup - insanely popular Romanian dish), I had sarmale de post (for Lent) again and bread, and bean ciorba. Don't remember what else...
• Duration of stay in Baru Mare: 2 and 3/4 days

April 10 Petrosani

• Friend in town: Karla, a very busy volunteer in my group who has 3 organizations. I was hoping we'd get to do more in Petrosani like job-shadow Karla, but because she was busy with donors and we were tired we decided not to come to Petrosani until 6:30pm
• Mom saw the Petrosani bridge over the train tracks and refused to try to get the baggage up the stairs so we got a taxi to Karla's
• Taxi driver didn't understand Karla's address so he asked me to call her and put her on the phone
• Went out for dinner and desert at Bella's in Petrosani
• Hung out with Karla in her Peace Corps famous apartment for 1 person. It's famous because it's little more than 1 room and a married couple of Peace Corps volunteers once lived there for two years.
• Demonstrated that volunteers can talk about anything openly no matter how disgusting...
• Got on the midnight train first class to Bucuresti
• What we ate: ice cream, pizza with anchovies, four cheese pizza and cake. At some point on the trip my mom started drinking Coke which I'd never known her to do before. it was always strictly Pepsi...
• Duration of stay in Petrosani: Sadly only 6 hours

April 11 Bucuresti, Romania's Capital. Home to 4 million people and 2.5 million registered cars

• Friends in town: Carol from my group is in Bucuresti at the moment, and Silvana a friend from another group - as well as all the Peace Corps staff at the office.
• It's not that I slept on the overnight train to Bucuresti, it's more like I just lost time
• Bought a ridiculously expensive muffin at the McDonald's at the train station so we could use the bathroom because this bathroom is locked and where else are you going to find muffin in Romania?
• Wrestled all the freaking luggage throught the Bucuresti metro system to Flowers B&B then checked in to the Peace Corps office for coffee and couch
• Chatted briefly with Ken Goodson, Peace Corps Romania Country director - also known as "everybody's boss" after arriving sweaty and tired and some would crabby at PC office around 8 a.m.
• Mom gets some well-deserved sleep on the couch in the Volunteer lounge while I go on a two hour walk to pick up an order of postcards placed by the GAD committee. This is my BL leave for the day
• But I shouldn't have race-walked for two hours worrying we wouldn't have time to be tourists in Bucuresti because after that walking experience I couldn't walk right for about two days
• Went back to the B&B to check in where the luggage was carried upstairs to the second floor by two adult men under duress, although one sang "Hi Ho" from Disney's Snow White while doing so
• Had lunch at the nice place I discovered close to the PC office which is not too expensive for Bucuresti
• Bought mom her book about Romania in english on my way back from my walk
• Went to the Museum of the Romanian pesant and left after about 45 minutes for my dentist appointment - made arrangements to meet mom in the park after the museum closed
• Took the metro then walked to my dentist appointment, had teeth cleaned while I sat in a chair and I'm sure fell asleep a few times for seconds at a time
• Met back up with mom and took metro to Piata Unirii to look for the People's Palace - 2nd largest building used for administrative purposes in the world. Built by Ceausescu - well, he didn't build it personally
• Mememorable quotes: Mom-Oh there it is. Do we have to go up to it? Me- Yes, we have to go up and take a picture. How else are you going to know you've been to Bucuresti?
• Went back to the little restaraunt close to the Peace Corps office and to our Bed and Breakfast for dinner
• Made it back to the B&B in time to watch Brokeback Mountain on Romanian TV but once I smelled myself, decided it was more important to shower
• Packed mom's suitcase and carried it down the stairs with the help of B&B staff the night before so that we wouldn't have to drag it down the steps at 4:45 am.
• What we ate: baked vegetables with garlic and oil, bread, tomatoe soup, creamy vegetable rice, baked potatoe with cheese and sour cream, mom had a salad and chicken schnitzel? And imported German beer.

April 12 Homeward bound

• 5am taxi to the airport
• Mom's luggage officially weighs 44 kilos
• I have to say goodbye and grab a taxi at 5:45 so I can get my 6:30 am train back to Deva
• Arrive in Deva around 2:15 in the afternoon after drooling a big pool of drool on my sleeve and sleeping with my mouth open on the train
• Mom travels on three planes and a bus for 24 hours arriving at home at 11:30 pm local time - 5am sunday Romania time.

You made it this far! You can see my pictures at www.picasaweb/google.com/theonlylunchbox

but you might want to wait til later because I'll send a personal email invitation when I've finished captioning the pictures.

A Month of Travel by Bullet Points
The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.

I'll try to keep it to the highlights, but it's in the details where the fun is.

Part I: Europe
March 17, Munich Germany (The First time)

• Flew from Bucharest, and got myself to the hotel
• Met up with my mom who looked drastically different (at first) after a year
• Packed my backpack with all the summer clothes she brought me (5 pants plus 13 shirts
• Duration of our stay: one night
• What we ate: I ate coffee and beer and some noodle stir fry my mom brought me from the city. The breakfast at the hotel was indescribable but I'll go out there and try absa-fan-tac-ular as shot at it.

March 18, Nurnbuerg Germany

• Shopped the Easter market, bought postcards, gingerbread and spices
• Climbed the hill to the castle
• Duration of our stay: a couple of hours
• What we ate: A pretzel as big as my head, a cup of tea/coffee
• Life Goals accomplished: Have now been somewhere in Germany that's not Munich or Dachau

March 18-19, Prague Czech Republic (the First time)

• Got lost trying to find old town center, drank wine in a basement club advertising jazz but hosting a folk music band instead
• Memorable Quotes from our cab driver: The St. Charles bridge was built in the 14th century. In the 14th century, your country was only Indians and bison.
• Toured the city of Prague
• Toured Prague Castle and the accompanying Cathedral where we saw the final resting place of St. John Nepomunk (?) after which my grandma's church and my mom's elementary school was named.
• Visited Easter market
• Took pictures of the city square from the clock tower
• Bought the book The Good Soldier from Kafka’s bookstore
• Enjoyed an evening performance of traditional Czech dancing and singing with the Moravian bagpipes, a Slovakian shepard’s whistle the size of an Esuzaphone, and the Dulcimer table - in addition to the violin.
• Tried to engage other tour-goers in teaching our tour guide a third song in english, Take Me Out to the Ball Game - but no takers
• Walked across a significant bridge while snow and hail blew in my face - photographed St. Charles bridge obscured by show and hail
• Memorable quotes from Mihaela, Czech tour guide: In front of tower is ditch with water, Around the corner is a statue of a naked boy so in 25 minutes I meet you at Naked Boy. Over there is Museum of Communism but I can't tell you if its any good because I live 26 years with communism and I've had quite enough.
• Made plans for second trip to Prague
• Duration of stay: 2 nights

March 20 - 21 Vienna Austria

• Toured the city in the afternoon to snow accompanied by thunder
• Mom bought for me an emergency scarf to cover my head which was later lost in Prague (I think in the bathroom of the Museum of Communism)
• Attended a concert of classical music including some ballet and some opera singing in some beautiful Palace featuring the "Emperor's staircase" and drank a glass of champange
• Heard a lot about the Hapsburgs, viewed their "winter palace" from the outside
• Had coffee in a Viennese café (this is the thing to do since Vienna has over 300 coffee shops
• Watched the horses of the famous Spanish Riding School cross the street for morning exercise, but didn’t attend morning exercise for €12
• Emailed family about trip so far from an internet café with very expensive Schwepp’s bitter lemon but 1 hour of net time for €1 plus the cost of a drink
• Duration of stay: 1 night
• What we ate: Mom ate schnitzel twice. I ate Viennese Zacher Torte, a famous Austrian chocolate cake.

March 21-23 Budapest Hungary (the First time)

• Walked around Pest trying to find a fancy restaurant, found a cheaper restaurant that didn’t require a reservation instead, discovered mom left her wallet at the hotel, prayed they’d accept my credit card in Hungary which they did but had no cash to pay for service or tip the musicians
• Learned two words of Hungaraian which are Egészségedre! (cheers) and Köszönöm (thank you)
• Chatted with our Budapest tour guide who was born in Romania and speaks 9 languages
• Toured Budapest by bus and walking, but mostly by bus in the rain and saw the Hero’s Square
• Had coffee in a café at the top of castle hill
• Spent a cold rainy afternoon in Hungarian Baths heated by natural hot springs
• Intended to go back and tip our waiter but instead spent the money at a wonderful outdoor market featuring the work of local artists and great food.
• Bought gifts for friends, handmade soap, and a pretty shirt. Mom bought wreaths that smell exactly like the delicious hot wine at the market, and some linen placemats.
• Learned that 1,000 Hungarian florintz is equal to two cups of coffee
• What we ate: Hungarian goulash (mine with beans, picked the meat out), Shom-loss cake – don’t know how to spell it, but it’s fantastic, langos a kind of fried bread covered with oil, garlic and cheese, fried potatoes at the outdoor Art Market, Hot wine, mom had a kabob.
• Duration of stay: Two nights

March 23rd Somewhere in the Austrian Alps

• Visited the huge and beautiful Melk Abby
• Photographed the Austrian countryside
• Stayed the night at Pension Schwaighofen
• Planned to get up early and walk around in the snow and look for deer, slept in and saw the deer anyway in the morning before the bus left.
• Ate dinner with two ladies from the country Bahrain, and had a nice chat
• Drank beer
• Duration of stay: 1 night

March 24 Salzburg, Austria and Munich

• Found a store selling handmade wooden crafts that I had been to four years ago in 2002, but they were closed
• Walked around the main shopping street perusing Austrian goods including a Christmas store.
• Considered buying a nutcracker but the wooden crafts store was closed.
• Stood in front of Mozart’s birthplace
• Took the funicular train up the mountain to the fortress
• Photographed Salzburg covered in snow from the fortress
• Breezed through the fortress museum – wishing we could have stayed longer
• Stopped at a museum of marionette puppetry on the way to the bus – fascinated, bought a book and postcards
• Duration of stay: 4 hours, about
• What we ate: Had coffee and strudel at a café in a hotel, mom has a wurst and beer at the outdoor food market

March 24 Munich Germany (the second time)

• Walked to the metro station
• Accidentally took the metro to the airport
• Got on the right metro line and went to the train station, bought our train tickets for Prague
  Walked to the Hoffbrauhaus, Remembered how to get there after was last there in 2002.
• Ate dinner at the Hoffbrauhaus including each of us drinking 1.5 liters of beer.
• Got back on the metro however our train going to the hotel had stopped running for some reason.
• Ended up back at the airport after waiting around in the snow at the metro stop before the airport which was a parking lot with no taxi cabs.
• Spent €30 on a taxi cab from the airport to the hotel.
• Learned that Munich can somehow justify charging €8 for a ride on their metro!
• Walked into the hotel at 1:30 am and requested a 6:00am wake up call
• Memorable quotes: Mom: Ok, we'll take a Taxi? Das es goot? Laura: Das es damn goot!
• What we ate: I ate spatzel for the first time, and I remember a pretzel. Other things I’m sure but I can’t remember them right now…
• Duration of stay: 1 night
  

March 25 - 28 Prague Czech Republic (the Second time)

• Took a cab to the metro station
• Mom had to get more cash at an ATM after the taxi the night before
• Took very slow metro to the train station
• Arrived at the train station with 8 minutes until our train departed not knowing where to go
• Boarded train with baggage with 0 minutes to spare
• Learned through perception that the train was not going all the way to Prague although the railway worker refused to help us find someone to explain the situation in anything other than Czech or German
• Got off train in Pilszen, waited for a new train which was going all the way to Prague
• Arrived in Prague 1 hour and 45 minutes late from the expected time of arrival
• Went to a bar with a sex shop in it and the internet to send a message to the people who we thought were going to meet us that we would wait in the train station until 8:30 and after that find our own accommodation and get in touch later
• Went home with an old lady who ran a pension out of her apartment with a door like a vault.
• Shared a room just the two of us as opposed to the hostel which had 1 room for 5 people and shared a bathroom with another person. Had free cups of tea. Used spare clothing as a towel
• Read email the next morning and realized we’d arrived in Prague a day earlier than we told the relatives we would. Went back to train station to check luggage in lockers and went out to lunch.
• Met the family (Steven and his cousin Michael) at the train station and checked into a hotel
• Visited the church with the stature the Infant of Prague
• Saw the famous John Lennon wall although Lennon’s portrait no longer there
• Tasted famous Czech beers, Pilsner from Pilszen, Czech Republic and Budweiser, not related to American Budweiser.
• Went to the National Museum in St. Wenceslas square
• Toured the Jewish Quarter, museums and synagogues
• Shopped in the Old Town center, bought a garnet ring to wear on my middle finger that one day will hopefully one day be an heirloom for my children
• Realized the exchange rate to dollars was not quite what I thought it was
• Fretted and remained confused about the exchange rate for the rest of the day
• Bought gifts for friends at the Easter Market in Old Town square – mom bought Moravian painted eggs
• Visited the Museum of Communism solo while mom and Michael went shopping for books
• Missed going to the Czech ethnographic museum – will have to do that next time
• What we ate: mom had stew just like her grandmother used to make. I had potatoes au gratin with broccoli in St. Wenceslas Square that replaced that baked potato in Belfast as The Best Potato I’ve Ever Eaten and Kuba which is baked barley with mushrooms and garlic – very tasty but if I eat a meal without potatoes in it I get agitated!
• Duration of stay: three nights (surprise!)
  

March 28-29 Vlčnov Czech Republic

• Took a bus to a town where we were greeted by Eva (Steven’s sister) and her father.
• Learned that 30 years and 1 month earlier Eva’s father met my uncle Rick at the same bus station
• Had a coffee and walked around this old town where the bus station was
• Went to Eva’s mother and father’s house and chatted with the relatives
• Learned the Eva's mother, Donna's grandfather is my grandmother's cousin
• Met Eva’s son Jacob who is almost one?
• Did shots of slivovitza – twice distilled plum brandy which sounds like palinka to me
• Walked around the village in the morning, saw the little houses used as wine cellars
• Stopped in a little shop and were gifted with souvenirs of Vlčnov
• Visited and took pictures of the village church. My great-grandmother’s house is behind the church but it started to rain so we didn’t see it
• Looked at old photographs and learned about the Ride of the Kings tradition in the village at the end of May – maybe I’ll be back next year!
  

March 29- 30 Budapest (the Second time)

• Eva and her husband give us a ride to Budapest and help us get our baggage to the hostel and get us checked in
• I can add Slovakia to the list of countries I’ve been to because we ate lunch there
• We realized Europe’s largest synagogue is actually quite close to our hostel so we could take pictures of it without even coming back the next day
• Did a dry run of locating the train station we would need the next night and bought our train tickets for Timisoara the next night
• Walked the city of Pest, discovered where and when we had to be to buy our tickets to tour Parliament the next day, ate ill-fated dinner at the Italian restaurant
• Were first in line to buy our tickets to tour parliament at 7:35 a.m. The doors open at 8 a.m.
• Moved our baggage out of our room and checked out of the hostel
• Toured the beautiful Hungarian Parliament building
• Photographed the historical Hungarian crown, scepter and orb
• Bought tickets for a boat ride on the Danube and in the meantime ate strudels at the fabulous Art market which was still going on – bought my apron and some fabulous postcards
• Didn’t find the open-air market but I think we were close to it but I didn’t know how to get there
• Took a boat ride tour of Buda and Pest from the Danube (the only way to see Budapest – is from a boat. You have to do it!)
• Had a guided tour around on Margaret island in the Danube between the two cities, and had an ice cream
• Walked across the Chain Bridge
• Took the funicular train to the top of castle hill
• Bought a lot of paprika
• Thought we were out of money so we got more from an ATM, later mom found 200,000 florintz in her wallet
• Photographed fisherman’s bastion and Matthias church at sunset
• Went BACK to the art market one more time so I could support a cool woman artist who made this necklace, got there just before the market closed and I was glad I could support her work. Wish I had given the lady a hug or taken my picture with her. Sie la vie!
• Found the restaurant recommended by our hostel at which we had a 10% discount
• Duration of our stay: More than 24 hours, but we only slept 1 night at the hostel
• What we ate: more langos with garlic and cheese, strudels, fried camembert cheese with fruit and rice, stuffed mushrooms with cheese and ham
• Experienced European Daylight Savings and jumped ahead 1 hour when we got on the train
• Collected our massive baggage and went to the train station for our 11:30pm overnight train to Timişoara, Romania

Out of Office Response
Disclaimer: The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.

Hey all - I had high hopes for being more regular with updating my blog but this past week - well past two weeks have been very busy, although busy and productive. After meeting a new group of people I see as potential project partners just last week, I did a lot of devloping of ideas and research only to discover the way I had originally envisioned the idea just can't happen in time - before June.

And after some soul searching I realized it's not all my fault. Even if I weren't leaving for four weeks of traveling I don't think the project could have happened the way we orginally pictured it. So it's back to the drawing board - we have a new idea already and when I return in April I have a grant to write.

All that said, later today I'm leaving on vacation. Well, today I'm leaving to take Bella - her toys, over 10 pounds of cat litter and two pizzas on the train to the villiage where Bella will be staying while I go meet my mom in Germany on Monday. (See below for a list of ridiculous things I've found myself traveling with and cat.)

We'll be spending 10 days touring Austria, the Czech Republic and Hungary - then mom and I have a weekend trip to catch up with some distant family in the Czech Republic, a day in Budapest and then we're on the train to Timisoara to spend two whilrwind weeks traveling in Romania.

We will be back in Deva for two days - or at least 1 day + 12 hours so maybe I'll have a chance to send you some updates.

In the meantime Kwarou is still sick with the blinking monitor I sent him to the US to be repaired for last time (Damn that company that begins with the first letter of Hal, and the second word begins with the first letter in Pig). But since Kwarou is a good computer and he's mostly well behaved i may just to decide to ignore the problem since it hasn't been too big a deal so far. I haven't yet decided what to do - so you may not be hearing from me as often as I'd like.

In the meantime Big Birthday wishes going out to all the people who may or may not read this while I'm on my trip. Happy Birthday Sam! Happy Birthday Andy! Happy Birthday Brent! Happy Birthday Matt Herzberg volunteer coordinator at Camp Victor. I will do my best to send you all postcards from where I am on your special day! Even though I'm pretty sure Brent and Matt don't even read my blog!

Take care, y'all. And cross your fingers Kwarou is in good enough shape I can post a lot of pictures when I return!

List of ridiculous things I find myself traveling with
1 a cat in a cardboard box inside a shopping bag before I had the carrying cage. She was surprisingly good when small enough to lay on the floor of the box. She slept all through her first maxi taxi ride.

2 a cat in her travel cage and in my other hand a pumpkin pie which has lost its aluminum foil

3 a bag of clothes, a computer, a two liter bottle of hyperconcentrated coffee and a pumpkin

4 a cat, all her necessary cat equipment and a wreath center peice (this was easier than I thought it would be because even though she wanted to eat the wreath when we were home, when it was on the luggage rack she didn't much care.)

5 a cat, a two liter bottle of scwhepps biter lemon, a liter of milk, and my knitting

6 and now a cat, three weeks of cat food, one 10 pound bag of litter of litter attached to the outside of my bag (and about half that inside the bag), four outfits for me for me, two pizzas to eat tonight in the village and a bag of books to drop off in Bucharest at the Peace Corps office.

What will it be next? keep reading to find out....

Grab Bag
Disclaimer: The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.

Here is a grab bag of pictures I've been waiting to post. Starting with New Year's Eve...

Volunteers from France, Belgium and Argentina who also live in Deva.

Having a party, that's right that's Taco Dip and homemade tortilla chips. The chocolate chip cookies weren't bad either. Obviously those empty wine bottles are just candle holders. (really, they are.)

Music and dancing...

and a concert, sort of thing in front of the Casa Cultural.

A rocket a guy lit here on the security fence. I'm sure he didn't mean for it to go right towards the stage. The guy operating the sound board appreciated it none too much.

Not bad for an almost totally random show of fireworks...

Ringing in the new year

with our dance moves.

Can-can 2008 be the year we hope it will be? (ok, that was lame even for me.)

Jan 1st 2008 we hiked up to the citadel despite some seriously inconvenient frost.

This is my "Join the Peace Corps" photo.

Deva after our second snow fall. I really want to take a nice picture like this where you can see our "Hollywood" style Deva sign.

Oh, poor baby. Bella convelesces on a hot water bottle in a pillowcase.

And still looks cute despite having to survive the agonies of the funnel collar.

After a full recovery she quickly resumes getting into mischief.

On a trip to the village Baru Mare, Laura experiments with soya tacos.

Further proof that Peace Corps volunteers will go to any lengths to find "Mexican" food.

My friend Dru and I in Hateg, outside Pizzeria El Sombrero. The pizza is good.

The Return of Kwarou
Disclaimer: The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.

As of today I've had Kwarou, my beloved laptop back in my possession for two weeks - and I still haven't updated my blog. I have been busy. Other peace corps volunteers in my class that I talk to say that they've been busy. I feel like around March of your second year you suddenly become busier than ever before.

And then I remember that it's not March yet.

Well, I am planning a rather intense vacation for March and the beginning of April, but until then I want to recommit myself to blogging about serious things having to do with my experience, my projects and Romanian culture - less about movies and internet videos and things my cat does. That, after all is what facebook is for.

I would write a serious post right now, except I'm busy today. I'm cleaning my apartment. Due to my suggestion Deva is hosting the next Gender and Development Committee meeting this weekend and I have six people staying with me. I handled the hostel reservations for the committee (mostly) by myself in Romanian and made a dinner reservation for 20 at a local restaurant and invited my "French" friends from New Years to hang out with a bunch of Americans and Romanians over pizza tomorrow night. (I call them French because they all speak French, but truthfully one is Belgian and one is Argentine.) And I'm baking cinnamon rolls Saturday morning.

So this weekend is pretty busy too - like my last three weekends, but I promise you a serious post on the outcome of my project proposal which will be voted on by the committee on Saturday.

Thanks for sticking with me. I promise to try and make it more interesting or at least relevant from now on.

The Little Black Dress
Disclaimer: The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.

I have been fantasizing about a little black dress. I don't usually fantasize about clothes. I choose my outfits carefully and try to look nice and professional but I don't go out of my way to find clothes that don't choose to come to me. I don't enjoy shopping. I haven't bought many clothes here in Romania and I don't intend to go hunting for my little black dress. I'm just going to wait for it to spring fully realized from my imagination.

It's a dress with skirt like a pencil skirt, but short. Maybe just above the knee (making it the shortest skirt I've ever worn) with a slit up the left side to the place on the thigh where one would wear a garder. The top is sheer black material that you could see through so I could wear a red lacy bra under it. The kind of bra I've never worn outside of my imagination because lace itches, it really does. But the bodice of the dress is cut like this black shirt I have at home that I got at JC Penny's with a scoop neck and what Sam said was a flattering cut on me around the bust. I can't really describe it any better and I don't have picture. If it's possible to mix that cut with some panels in the bodice of the dress - that would be nice to give me some nice verticle lines, but I don't know if those two designs can be combined.

If not I would take the sheer bodice with the flattering cut and cover the whole thing with fishnet going down to where the skirt begins above my hips and cut on a bias away from the slit in the skirt. The dress would have long fishnet sleeves that end at the wrist. Or maybe long sleeves of black lace if there are panels and no fishnet over the front.

It's the kind of dress that I would wear to the Rocky Horror Picture Show. For this dress I would tint my hair redder with henna a month after the last time I tinted it. I would wear this black dress with the reddest lipstick and too much black eyeliner. If I had my makeup kit I would put ALL the highlight on my face like I did with my Ben Nye beginner's kit from Theater 146 when I saw Rocky Horror in Milwaukee. I would get some severe garnet earings. For this dress my black men's sketchers or my flat doc martins wouldn't do. With proper fishnet stockings (with back seams) i would have to wear some clumpy high healed boots (because all of physics is against me balancing on stillhettos). I would forgoe proper back support and donn the healed boots that not only make me look taller but make my legs look longer, and therefore they should only come to above the ankle and should lace up the front in away that suggests bondage. (You ever zip up some boots? I have and I find as soon I walk they find a way to come unzipped.)

I was so pleased with my fantasy dress that I drew a picture, but right now no amount of shaking the picture at the machine in front of me will get the picture into the computer.

The picture brings me to an interesting question. Why am I thinking about a fantasy little black dress? Is it because I've been working hard and I think I need to treat myself? Oh, don't get me wrong I treat myself all the time with cups of coffee, Schwepp's Bitter Lemon and spaghetti with meat(less) balls. Believe me when I was alone in the dark last week there was a day (or two) when I needed a candy bar.) However the fact that I can tell you I want to wear a dress like this and that I ate a bag of sweet buscuits for breakfast in the same post does say something. (That and you don't know what sweet busicuits are.)

But I don't ever treat myself with clothes. Maybe I feel like rewarding myself in a more lasting and tangible way. I hearing a story about some Peace Corps volunteers who had returned fro service in Nicaragua and a friend was really surprised that they hadn't rejected materialism - in fact they wanted to buy stuff more than ever! But I can't buy this dress even if I had the money because it doesn't really exist.

As I said before I think I look nice here wearing the hand me ups I've received but I don't often feel like I look like myself. But this dress doesn't look like me either.
I've stated in an earlier blog post (23-10-07) the emmense cultural and personal importance of Rocky Horror (which to my horror I may have to miss the second time it's performed in Translyvania due to a meeting I can't miss.)

I'm not claiming to understand the game, and nor have I become a player, but reflecting on the changes I've gone through here in Romania, and reflecting on the fact that I actually feel like wearing something I described above, it might have something to do with this: "I feel realeased/ bad times decesed/ my confidence had increased/ reality is here/ the game has been disbanded/ my mind has been expanded..."

Someday I'll have a dress like this. To wear to the premire of the stage production of The Rocky Horror Show when I've directed it. Perhaps I'll also wear it to every rehearsal.

I drink it with milk and sugar but this is so true....
Disclaimer: The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.


***You Are a Soy Latte***
At your best, you are: free spirited, down to earth, and relaxed
At your worst, you are: dogmatic and picky
You drink coffee when: you need a pick me up, and green tea isn't cutting it
Your caffeine addiction level: medium
What Kind of Coffee Are You?http://www.blogthings.com/whatkindofcoffeeareyouquiz/

Alone in the Dark
Disclaimer: The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.

Sometimes so much is wrong at once that it's funny.

We all know Bella is recovering from her operation and unhappily trying to get into as much mischief as possible in spite of her funnel collar. My computer is far far away - so no movies or Internet at home for me. Last week my telephone decided to go berserk so if I call someone it likes to spontaneously hang up on me. I've been to two stores that offer "service" (phone fixing) that have told me they can't help me. My last resort is to once again try a new battery (which I already tried but the phone wouldn't turn on with the new battery) from a different store on Thursday (when they'll have the battery I need).

Just when you say to yourself "sigh", the lights go out.

Sunday afternoon I blew a fuse. Something I thought I could deal with yesterday but after I replaced the fuse I found out there's an electrical problem in my apartment. The TV and the refrigerator still work, but no lights - which is difficult because it still gets very dark by 5:00 . Too dark to read or knit. Luckily I still have the TV or I'd be crazy by now. And my neighbor found some other woman in our building to lend me a lamp. Eating by candle light is romantic. Cooking and showering by candle light - not so much.

This ordeal has sapped me of all desire to do anything productive, and yet I've been drinking coffee and watching Animal Planet until 2 a.m more nights in a row than I care to remember.

I called the landlord from my office today and we'll see if he fixes it when he comes over this afternoon between two and five. So in a little while I'm going home and going back to bed before something else can go wrong.

Oh Cruel Humanity!
Disclaimer: The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.

I took Bella in to be spayed on Wednesday. When I picked her up at the vet's she was asleep on her feet in her carrier - tongue hanging out. When I let her out of the cage she insisted on staggering around the apartment like a drunk person. She was determined to continue her usual movements around the apartment - jumping on and off furniture and following me around - just a little slower. Impressive when I'd heard from a friend that her cat recovering from surgery was unable to walk. Eventually I had to insist that she settle down and sleep by locking her in her cage.

Thursday I caught her trying trying to rip out her stitches so I marched her back to the vet and made them put the funnel collar on her. Apparently most of the time Romanian animals don't try to rip out their stitches because stitches don't automatically come with a funnel collar. I initially asked the vet about it and he was like They usually don't need one, but do you want a collar? and I said yes, but I had to take her back there for them to put it on her anyway because I couldn't figure out how to make it stay.

By now she's forgotten all about the surgery and is just utterly miserable because of the funnel collar. I'm sure she thinks the vet and I put the collar on her just to torture her.

She has to leave it on for seven more days from today. One thing I understood that the vet said was "intestines" which makes me think I did the right thing and not ripping out her stitches is at the Important end of the spectrum rather than the - oh leave her alone end of the spectrum. After a very messy process of experimentation I discovered the easiest feeding method for her is pieces of dried food soaked in water set on top of an upside down bowl. Drinking is harder but at least she's getting some water through her soaked food.

So we're struggling through. By now she's used to the collar but it's hard to watch her not be able to do normal things like play. She also can't clean herself (not that she's not clean) which must be terrible for her since she's usually bathing before and after every nap - so 12 times a day.

It was strange though - last night all the stray cats in the neighborhood got together somewhere near my building and decided to have a screaming contest while I watched the HBO movie The Laramie Project. Bella was asleep on my lap and missed the whole thing but it was decidedly eerie.

Even with her funnel collar and her tortured expression she still looks cute and I would post a picture here but the office computer doesn't have the same photo software I do.

In other news Kwarou is being repaired and will be shipped to me in Romania in early February due to a screw up on HP's end - instead of being delivered to me in Romania for free and now. Also, my cell phone is broken so I can't really communicate with anyone except through borrowed Internet in the office - so if you'd like to get in touch with me, there's postcards, smoke signals and telepathy. Or you could just email - but I haven't been getting all of my messages.

The Stars Have the Farthest To Fall
Disclaimer: The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps, although this post has nothing to do with the Peace Corps.

I was in high school when Princess Diana died. My best friend Jessica slept over Saturday night and on Sunday morning we went to church. I remember walking through the church parking lot on this spring morning and Jessica said "the world usually looks different after someone dies, but it today it still looks the same." The news was so new I didn't know what she was talking about.

The world doesn't look different today, either.

Last night at 12:45 I was in bed and I got a text message that Heath Ledger was found dead. I couldn't believe it. He was 28. A year older than me. I knew he had a two year old baby, but I didn't know he and his wife had split up. I feel sad, that it's such a loss of a young life and a talented person. He was the youngest ever actor to be nominated for Best Actor (male) in the Academy Awards.*

Of course, it's sad when it happens to anyone, not just someone famous. Sadly, it's kind of the same as Kassie Dallmann who I always liked and respected; a terrible tragedy. Kassie's death is no less tragic than a celebrity's but it's strange how it feels more real with someone I've never met, but have on DVD. I was thinking how am I going to watch Brokeback Mountain or the Brother's Grimm again. It won't be the same now. And I was so looking forward to Dark Knight Returns - looking forward to it on a perverse fantatic kind of level. I still want to see it and think it will be good, but it will be like watching James Dean where you know that more brilliant work could have come from this person, and now it won't.

I was laying in bed last night thinking about how when I was a kid I would play war and I always had invisible friends who were wounded, on the brink of death or dying. For a while I think I romanticised death, that whole Life fast, die young, leave a beautiful corpse kind of thing - which is fine until everyone forgets you.

I won't forget you Heath Ledger.

*that's because an eight or nine year old girl won Best Actress once.

The Worrier is Unfortunately Vindicated
Disclaimer: The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps. I'm not saying this is necessarily a bad thing with the trains, I'm just saying...

I'll say at the beginning that this story has a happy ending...

I spent the weekend in the villiage again. On the whole it was a great weekend. A bunch of volunteers got together. We got to watch a movie and have a knitting night and on Saturday we went to two schools to adjudicate the middle school and high school english monologue contests - watching students perform their original english monologues. It was fun. Then we made tacos. As I said, it was a great weekend, with great food and great company.

Except I left my kitten alone. For the second weekend in a row. Last weekend I was in the villiage coaching the villiage students for the monologue contest and when I came home on sunday after leaving Friday afternoon I found that Bella had done a number on the kitchen. This time I did a better job kitten - proofing the apartment. No dishes in the dishrack, nothing on the stove that could be knocked down, no way to knock over the empty trash can and fresh sticky tape on the kitchen windowsill. Still, it was hard for me to leave her for the second weekend in a row. Circumstances led me to reconsider this decision and I almost at the last minute decided to take her with me but since we would be A) knitting, and B) gone from the villiage all day Saturday and she'd be alone in someone else's apartment anyway I thought Why disturb her with a two hour train ride. This second-guessing though caused me to spend most of the time on the train picturining terrible situations that could occur as a result of my decison to leave her alone. Throughout the weekend I was given to muttering "I hope Bella is ok." My concern was always quickly met with a "She's fine."

Things started to go downhill Sunday when I got on the Personel train. Personel trains are the cheapest and slowest because they stop at all the little villiages. They are a great inexpensive way to get around. Usually. I suddenly discovered that the price of a ticket had more than doubled since my outgoing trip on Friday. Usually the return ticket is just a touch more expensive since I have to purchase it on the train from the Controler and sometimes they try to charge you a tax for not having a ticket or finding the Controler right away and explaining your need to purchase a ticket. This wasn't that. This was three Controlers showing me a chart with kilometers on it and explaining in a very official way that my ticket was more than double the usual price - if I moved to second class because I had accidentally sat in the first class seats on the Personel train. Feeling like I didn't have a let to stand on with an arguement I gave them more than half of my money and insisted I didn't have any more. I did. But I was only 1 leu short of the price they were telling me was the new cost of a ticket.

Then I had to go to the bathroom. It was my goal to never go to the bathroom on the Personel train for as long as I am in Romania. But I had two cups of tea that morning and another hour to go on the train. All I will say is even on the nicer trains if you find soap, water and toliet paper all in the same place at the same time you should take a picture because you won't see it very often. usually people become acustomed to traveling with their own toliet paper but for some reason I've been flirting with irresponsibility lately. All I will say is It wasn't pretty, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Then the nightmare sencario: coming home to a kitten who's been alone for two whole days makes the walk between the station and my apartment forever. I literally can't get there fast enough. Right as I'm turning the last corner who do I run into but my neighbor who immiedately begins telling me "you left your kitchen window open and your cat got out."
"Really? Where is she? I didn't leave the window open. It was closed when I left."
"The window was open and the cat got out"

There followed a lot of shouting and a lot of stuff that I didn't understand. What I grasped was this - my kitchen window, which doesn't have a screen, and doesn't close completely came open. Bella went out on the little landing above the door to the apartment building. I have let her go out there twice and always I'm watching her like a hawk. She can't jump to the ground or to a tree from there - but that doesn't mean she won't try. The worst she could do would be to cross the landing get into someone else's window box and possibly if the window is open - get into their kitchen.
Which is what she did.

I was saying Will you help me? Do you know where she is? No. Is she in that woman's kitchen? No. Apparently after breaking and entering Bella was identified as my cat, turned out into the hallway with chicken and milk and bread provided in front of my door. She went to the bottom of the stairwell and crawled under a big electrical box and when my neighbor urged me to look for her there I called her and she came running. Stupid cat! Moreover - stupid window that I can't close.

My neighbor followed me into my apartment admonishing me for leaving the window open even after I explained that I didnt' and it doesn't stay closed. Theives could break in to your apartment, she said. Why is your backpack so big? What's in it? -Clothes and blankets. -Blankets? Why blankets? You went to Baru Mare? -Yes my collegues there don't have extra beds so I had to sleep on the floor? - You have blankets? - Yes, for sleeping on the floor. At this point my neighbor crossed herself because there is a belief in Romania that walking on the cold floor barefoot or without slippers will make you sterile. Sitting on the floor will make you sterile, and sitting on something cold or washing with cold water will give you an infection.

I don't know if my neighbor is as much as master of non sequiturs as she seems or it's my lack of understanding, but I think she is. She kept talking to me about I don't know what but eventually she left after I gave her a hug. Greatful just to have found my cat again - after fearing the worst.

So now Bella home and fine except that I had to leave my apartment today and she was eyeing the pigeons on the landing this morning. So we'll see.

On the plus side she didn't leave last night when I went to see the movie Stardust that's playing in Deva for the weekend. Maybe it was the culumination of a lot of stress, but you know I'm prone to have big reactions to things when I'm in movie theatres. When Robert DeNiro the gay pirate captain is outed to his crew and they respond by making him tea and saying "We already knew. And you'll always be our captain." I burst into tears.

2007 End of the Year Survey!
Disclaimer: The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.

I've been working on this post for a while and I saved it to my stick so I could post from the office when I actually have internet access - so take the time to read it PULL-EASE!!
Coming soon - Photos of New Years Eve in Deva!

In 2007...
Did you do something you thought you would never do?

I don’t know. I never thought I’d do anything like Carpathian Challenge and I set a goal to do it in summer of 2009. I thought I’d never learn a foreign language and be as good as I am with Romanian. I’m not great but I’m pretty proud of myself because I almost didn’t join the Peace Corps because I didn’t think I could learn another language. I certainly never thought I’d speak on the phone in Romanian or give a speech in Romanian to 75 people.

Did you keep any New Year's Resolutions?

Not New Year’s Resolutions. Last year I think I resolved to play more drinking games and, sadly, I have not honored that once in 2007. I’ve been resolving to keep a better journal for the last four years, but I have kept to my personal goal of doing yoga every morning and training exercises for Carpathian Challenge. Not very intense training exercises but exercises nonetheless.

Did anyone close to you give birth?

No one so close to me I can think of it right now, so no.

Did anyone close to you die?

My Grandma Rogers

Did you visit any countries?

Just Romania.
And the international airport in Frankfurt, Germany but I’d been there before.

What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?

More projects and people willing to work on them with me. More knowledge of how to speak Romanian. Maybe more structured time. More communication with friends from home that I miss.

Will any date from 2007 stay etched in your memory forever?

Maybe the day we were sworn in as Peace Corps volunteers. In May.

What was your biggest achievement of 2007?

I ate a raw onion like an apple. No I didn’t really do that. I just wish I did. I have gotten really good and chopping onions though. These Transylvanian onions used to make me cry all the time and now they barely make me tear up. As I write this, I have just accomplished an entire bottle of wine by myself but that’s not really an achievement. I want to say that at our in-service training conference Mihaela said of the Peace Corps volunteers that the fact that someone would leave their country and come to work in Romania for two years makes her believe that humanity can’t be as bad as she thought it was. This is my biggest accomplishment so far but since I accomplished it just by coming here and by doing nothing else, I will say that at Special Olympics I gave an impromptu speech in Romanian in front of 75 parents. This is the thing I’ll say I’m most proud of.

What was your biggest failure?

Not making more Romanian friends or not speaking Romanian well enough to engage the people who might be my friends. I’m pretty OK alone in my apartment and I’m fantastic in my apartment with my cat, so it hasn’t really hit me that I need to get out more.

Also I could be a lot better and finding out more about what’s going on with my primary organization and what their needs are.

Did you suffer illness or injury?

My worst illness was when I had no symptoms other than my lymph nodes swelling up painfully, becoming hard and making me fear that I had cancer and that I'd get sent home and I'd have to orphan my cat. Other than that I haven’t been any sicker than the cold I got in January when visiting my friends in NYC. My worst injury probably happened at the Habitat for Humanity blitz build. I don’t remember any injuries but I remember bruises.

What was the best thing you bought in '07?

Kwarou my laptop computer, but technically I bought it in December I think and it arrived in January, I’m not sure. I would say my kitten but I didn’t buy her she was given to me, so I’ll say the second best thing was a share of a cow from Heifer International.

Did your behavior change over the year?

Definitely. I think I’m more confident. I’m able to present my opinions, more subtly – or maybe I just think so. I also stopped eating lunch and I’m able to get up at a consistently early time in the morning whether or not I have any plans for the day. I’m better at structuring my time and holding myself responsible for things. I think I’m more positive and maybe a little more inspired. I definitely don’t let things get to me as much.

Where did you spend most of your money?

In the piaţa and the pet supply store. Definitely the piaţa here and in Ploieşti. And the grocery stores.

Are you happier than this time last year?

I don’t know if I’m happier. I’m more fufilled, less expectant. At this time last year I knew I would be doing something like this in 2007. I just didn’t know what it would be like.

What song will remind you of 2007?

It Comes Around by Justin Timberlake. Maybe also Feelin’ Good by Michael Bublé.

What do you wish you would have done more of?

Made plans for vacation or for visits from friends. Now I feel a lot of pressure to have awesome vacations but I can’t really plan them till I know when and if people are coming to visit. And I wish I’d spent more time with my friends before I left but considering I left in February I think I did pretty good. I should also have spent more time studying Romanian.

What do you wish you would have done less of?

I always wish I had done less worrying about money. I wish I spent less time worrying in general. I wish I spent less time discussing weight and clothing or less time listening to other people talking about what they eat and what size they wear because I really don’t care.

What did/will you do for Christmas '07?

I’m visited Micah and his friend and his host family in Ocna Mureş. We baked cookies, ate huge breakfasts and watched movies – most importantly the Muppet Christmas Carol. It was a great time!

Did you fall in love in 2007?

No, not exactly.

Did you get your heart broken in 2007?

No, not exactly.

Favorite TV program of '07?

The West Wing and Jack and Bobby because it was on TV for a while in Romania or else The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, as always.

Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

Yes. I have reawakened a hatred for this guy I went to college with. I don’t remember his name. I think it was Eric? He was president of the campus Republicans in 2000 and he made these comments about Edward James Olmos when he came to speak at our campus. Clearly he couldn’t understand or try to understand the viewpoint of someone who isn’t white. Edward James Olmos for crying out loud! You listen to him and listen good! But that’s not why I hate him. I hate him because he was trying to date my roommate and coming on really strong. He just “decided” that they were going to go on a walk together one day so she got out of the room to be away when he called to make plans because she didn’t like him. But I stayed in the room and he called an woke me up from a nap and he was really rude that my roommate wasn’t there so he couldn’t do whatever he wanted like all things must come to him, Mr. White Male Privilege. What a dick. He didn’t even say sorry for waking me up! Anyway, that-guy-whose-name-I-don’t-remember is a jerk. I just remembered him one day and remembered I have hatred in my heart for him.

What was the best book you read and/or movie you saw?

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and I’ve seen many good movies in 2007 but the number of movies I saw in 2007 that I hadn’t already seen before 2007 is very few. So the best new movies I saw in 2007 were The Simpson’s Movie and the Battlestar Galatica miniseries.

What was your greatest discovery?

Not everyone makes it a goal to watch the entire Lord of the Rings extended edition trilogy once a year and that Americans love to eat and talk about eating Mexican food where ever they are in the world – you introduce two Americans who don’t know each other – they start taking about Mexican food. I also discovered what a huge difference having a pet makes. I lived alone before and didn’t think it was stressful to live just me alone in an apartment and in Romania wasn’t any different. And then I brought home my kitten and it is such a huge change for the better to have someone waiting for you when you get home. I don’t know how I ever got along without her.

What did you do on your birthday and how old were you?

The day I turned 27 I watched Lord of the Rings with two friends who came to visit me and found out my computer hard drive didn’t have to be wiped and rebuilt. We ate my favorite homemade pizza and Schwepp’s Bitter Lemon. The next day we visited Hunedoara castle, went out to lunch, watched The Princess Bride with my colleges from work, made another delicious pizza and served it with yellow cake and homemade icing – then stayed up late talking. It was a great birthday!

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Two things that would have made my year immeasurably more satisfying would be 1) a complete and effortless understanding of Romanian language and grammar and 2) on at least two occasions – waterproof boots!!! Oh, I don’t need waterproof boots, huh? Well you walk around in Reşitia for a week with wet socks. Now (although it’s January) the ground is covered with icy slush and guess what? My boots have holes in them! So there’s nowhere I can go without getting freezing cold wet feet!

How would you describe your personal fashion concept of 2007?

Dru’s hand-me-ups. As she loses weight she passes her clothes on to me. I’ve gotten more than six pairs of pants and some nice skirts – a lot of cool outfits this way and it saves me the trouble of shopping for clothing my size in Romania. Her clothes are all really nice and I appreciate it and everything, but sometimes I feel like I’m dressed like Dru and not like Laura. You know, it would be like (if we were the same size) I gave all my clothes to Sam and that’s all she had to wear. Sam has her own style and it’s not the same as Laura’s style. But most of the time it works out.

Who are you most thankful that you met?

Probably Micah because I have a feeling if we didn’t meet in Peace Corps we would have met some other way since we have so much in common. Probably not literally true that we would have met some other way but it "feels" true. Truthiness.

Who did you wish you did not meet?

That guy in the park in Ploiesti who was masturbating but I didn’t really meet him, he was just standing there looking at me. Other than that, maybe the one rather rude older gentleman but I don’t want to say too much.

Who was your best friend?

My best friends have been Bella the cat and Micah, other than that Andy and Nicole as always.

Who was your enemy?

My enemy was the Dark Lord, He Who Must Not Be Named

Who do you miss?

I miss my family, “The Family” and Harry, Ron and Hermione. Sorry, but it won’t be the same now, after 2007, guys.

Who will you never forget?

I’ll never forget my first gazda Lumi, gazda sister Tina and my second gazda mother Miluta. I’ll never forget Scott Bruner and Jason even though they went home. They’re cool guys I’m glad I met them. And I’ll never forget those who gave their lives in the final battle against the Dark Lord.

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007

I learned you can spend a lot of time wishing someone pain and not be happy when they get it – in fact when they get it you can still be utterly miserable for them. Seems self evident but when it happens to you it takes you by surprise.

What will you always remember about 2007

PST in Ploiesti, being sworn in as a Peace Corps volunteer, my flight to Romania, meeting my new friends, learning to speak Romanian and my first Christmas without my family. I’m sure there’s plenty of other things that I’ll always remember but I’ve forgotten them right now.

Aspirations for 2008...

What do you want to do in '08 that you couldn't in '07?

Successful projects! Training for Carpathian Challenge ’09! GLOW Camp! I feel like I’m in a position to finally get started. Maybe I could eventually become really busy…but I’ve felt that way before. Either way I’m eager to get going!

Any resolutions?

I’ve resolved not to add honey to my green tea, anymore. Well, this morning I forgot and added it, but I’m trying not to add honey to my green tea. Notice I didn’t say anything about not adding honey to my black tea, my chai tea, my cinnamon apple spice tea, my chamomile tea, or my medicinal teas – because honey is really good for medicinal teas, especially for a cough. In general I think honey is just good for you because it’s a natural sugar, but maybe not with the amount of tea that I drink.

What will be different about 2008 than 2007?

I already have four new friends – two from France and 1 from Belgium and 1 from Argentina, and I feel like I’m finally making the connections for projects to start happening! Let’s hope so!

Anything you want to change about yourself for 2008?

I want to worry less – about money, about what people think, about the future. I want to focus on myself and what I want and do what I need to to make it happen. For now.

Do you want to make more friends in 2008?

Ba Da. As my great role model Chi Chi Rodriguez said “no one is so rich they can afford to throw away a friend.” Chi Chi Rodriguez? Anyone? Anyone?

Almost Perfect Christmas Photos

Disclaimer: The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.

Here are some pictures from Christmas! For videos see two posts below but here are some pictures of things I didn't get video of - and I didn't get as much video of myself and my friends speaking Romanian because at dinner on Christmas my batteries died.

Micah giving cookies to our carolers.

A shining aray of gift plates - look at all the baking we did!

Micah gets his coat on!

Iulia tastes a chocolate covered pretzel.

Have a drink of tuica!

or palinka (twice distilled plum brandy)

Christmas trees are different in Romania because I don't think they are farmed for Christmas. Also I see many people carrying their tree home under their arm. This is a huge tree for a little Romanian apartment and very beautiful. It was the first year I haven't had a Christmas tree and neither did Micah.

Micah got a Romanian book from his friend and former tutor Iulia.

There was a scarf and a new hat under the tree for me even though I'd met Iulia once before and I'd never met her parents!

Visiting Micah's gazda bunicia (grandmother). We delievered a plate of goodies and caroled and then sampled more Romanian holiday treats.

Plates of tasty treats and a bottle of a sweet cherry juice from the orchard.

Christmas day a strange parade passed by the apartment with people in colorful animal costumes and beating the drums. They walked around the bloc apartments in a loop a couple times.

Another volunteer, Jesse, came over for Christmas day and we had dinner (and cookies) with Micah's host family.