intelege?

excuse my rudeness.
but.
my blog is a privilege. not a right.
and i know that sounds horrible, but i wrote when i started that my posts probably wouldn't remain novel-length, and now people think that if i don't write for a day, it's either a. because i hate you or b. because i'm deathly ill. but honestly, it is as tiring to describe every single little thing that i saw/did/said/wore/ate on this as it is to do so on the phone, and i'm tired, and i'm have homework, and crap, and now on top of that i'm sick, and during the day, when i'm in class and bored, i think of all the things i'm going to write on this blog, but right after class we have lunch, and right after that we usually have an event that we're expected to attend, and right after that we have dinner, and that brings us to 8pm. That's when I start the homework, maybe, MAYBE, have a coffee with people, (but usually only in the context of our lobby-homework-parties,) and then call one of you or talk online or check my email. Soo I'm sleepy. And I'm really not doing all that much.

Snippits about everything:

I have class every day. The classes aren't that hard for me. There are only 5 people in my class. A couple people say that they don't understand everything they hear and read, whereas I usually do. But I really can't speak at all, still, and my writing is pitiful at best. (Hence the fact that the homework takes me foreverforever.) So the class as a whole averages out to a pretty good level for me.

The trip to bran/brasov was good. It rained at brasov. But I really wanted to find these tea kettles that I thought were super cool, (even though they weren't really THAT special,) and I did. So I was glad. The castle at bran was beautiful, but more for the views from the castle windows than for the castle itself. When we arrived at brasov, we went to a restaurant that had long tables set out for us, already set. The appetizer that was on the table was all beautiful, with a tomato stuffed with vinete, and some cheese, and cute stuff like that. Then soup, main course, dessert. During the meal there were all these dancers dressed up in traditional Romanian clothing dancing traditional dances from Brasov and it was crazy and ridiculous and awesome and actually quite impressive. And when they weren't dancers, there was a singer singing along with the live band. (Band was also dressed in Romanian garb.)

My friend Alida left, which makes me really sad because she was honestly so so so sweet. Her father lives in Romania, in Craiova, with her grandfather, and her grandfather was sick for a while, but has recently become more ill, so she left to go be with him.

And last but not least, today i went to the hospital. That was eventful. Alexandra, Oana's older daughter, took me in the morning. (I didn't go to class.) It's so funny, because the hospital signs are blue, with a big white H on them, like in america, and then underneath it says "Spital." Now...why would the signs here have an H on them if the romanian word for hospital starts with an S? Anyway, so I went because my stomach has been totally out of wack for the last couple days, starting with Thursday I guess. And most of the time it wasn't constant, but would be like (what I imagine) contractions are like? I dunno, every 5/10 minutes my abdomen/stomach would just tighten up like mad and it was rather painful and pretty unpleasant. And then last night I thought to check if I had a fever, and I kinda did, (100.1. eh.) and so I went to ask Oana if if I was still sick in the morning, if I could go late to class, or miss it altogether. (This was equally because I felt like shit and because I hadn't yet done my 150 word tema and really didn't want to.) Anyway, she said that because of the fever and because it had been for a couple days straight she really wanted me to go to the doctor. I knew that the fever would be gone in the morning, but I agreed and this morning, we went. The hospital was pretty funny actually. We walked to where the hospital used to be, only to find out that it had moved, and so we took a cab to the hospital. Then were 2 slightly more urgent emergencies, so they went first, and then the doctor saw me. He asked me some questions, Alexandra translated everything, (though I did understand what he was saying,) and then he gave me 3 medications for my stomach. Then he told me to go into the hallway and sit. Sooo I did. And he or the nurse would come by every 8 minutes or so to ask if I was better, and I would say that I wouldn't, and they would say "ok, sit a little longer." That went on for a good half an hour or more, and then my head started to hurt, so next time he asked if my stomach was better, i said no, but that my head was hurting. sooo he gave me something for my head. And then, all drugged up, I was told to sit. So I did that for another 15 minutes and finally i told Alexandra that we might as well just peace out cause this was stupid. So i got a prescription, which Alexandra filled for me a little later, and we left. I slept for maybe half an hour when i got back, and my stomach felt slightly better, but it's kind of moved from the bitchy contractions to just constant icky-ness. (for any friends that are reading this, i'm truly sorry to talk so long about the intricacies of my illness. for you it is too much, but for my family members it is significantly too little. best middle ground i can do.) So Oana and family are on crazy food-watch for me, and for lunch and dinner, Oana asked them to make me rice+grilled chicken, and pasta, respectively, which was super nice of her. And I've been drinking mint tea. Which I dislike, but I've been told it's the only type of tea i'm allowed to drink. The whole family is extremely sweet and nice and funny and wonderful.

Anndd now my nose is running like mad and that just started and i hopehopehope that i'm not getting a cold cause that would really suck.

Today we visited the castle at peles. Being the lazy-sick-bum that I am, Smaranda, Alexandra, Carmen, and I split a cab to the castle. (everyone else walked. ~45 min walk.) The castle was absolutely beautiful, inside and out.

Now i'm gonna go, because despite the fact that I want to talk about how i hate taking ugly pictures of beautiful things, and I want to talk about how my balcony could redeem everything bad on the trip, and about the awkwardness of asking a guy where his wife was staying, and being told he was married to a man, and about the fact that this same guy actually fainted briefly today, and more about living with carmen, and about buying a pencil and it not coming with any lead in it, and about alllll this random crap.....well despite my desire to talk about all that, i'm tired. and i want to go upstairs and take a shower. and i want to go to bed (relatively) early because i think it'll make me feel better, andd yeah.


i love you all a LOT and i'm sorry that i'm not in contact as much as you'd all like, but it's not cause i don't want to talk to you, just because I'm lame and boring and tired. butt i miss you all a lot. and will trytrytry to write something of substance soon.

night

rush hour

today i realized that the title is incorrect.
that was sad.

there was a trip to bran. and brasov. there was a restaurant with vinete in tomatos and dancing Romanians in traditional garb. that was entertaining. i, on the other hand, just finished homework and are not entertained and had planned quite the epic blog post but have no energy to write it. (again.) but i PROMISE i will go back to being scarsdale's primary source of entertainment very very soon. promise. swear.

-lovelovelove-

lull

tired.
wake up, breakfast, class (not too hard, rather easy, should be fine), conference, (big important woman, barely understood anything, was falling asleep, oops,) nap, movie, (eh,) dinner, homework (ew,) chill, sleep!

measuring cups

i knew the laziness would come.
bulletpoints again.
hopefully the motivation will come again as well.

• slept til 1 :)
• lunch at 2
• pool!
• we had to pay 30 lei to use the hotel pool. (=$15. per day!) BUT. it was nice. the top was windows, and all the walls were painted greek style, with painted leaves hanging down from the lamps, and columns painted, and scenery painted on the sides. There was also a jacuzzi, a sauna, and a hamam. I've never been in one of those before. It was HOT so Alida and I only made it about a minute and a half, but it's basically a steam room. Hot steam rises up into a closed tiled room. It was nice. Alida described one near her home in Montpelier that she loves a lot. Anyway, so we swam, read a little by the pool, jacuzzi-ed, etc. It was fun. And it killed about 2.5 hours.
• Shower. Carmen returns from trip to Bucharest that I didn't find out about til she returned. (She just wasn't there when I got back at 4am. Unexpected. But she's quite nice. We haven't spoken much, but we're definitely respectful of each other in the room, and so far she's very easy to live with, (though admittedly i haven't seen her very much,) and hopefully she'll start coming out with us a little more often. We'll see.
  
• There was supposed to be a "cultural Romanian night." I believe it was supposed to consist of a video/presentation sort of thing and a typical Romanian dinner. There were problems with the laptop that the presentation was on, so we ended up just having the dinner. Oana said hi to make sure that everything is ok. She's being very very nice.
  
• Went out with Alida, Franz, (oh yeah. France's name is Franz. But he really does say it like France.) and this German guy who's name I don't know to get ice cream and coffee.
• We came home pretty early because we have to wake up super early tomorrow. (classes are beginning. eek. i'm actually really nervous. i have yet to get over my romanian shame and even the friends i've made here and just told me to suck it up and speak. and actually, i think there are more beginners that are worse than me than there are advanced speakers that are far better than me. But of course, the group of people I've befriended are either high intermediate or advanced. And so i'm intimidated! but my friends have inisisted that starting tomorrow we're going to speak Romanian between us. That's interesting, because they can say almost everything, if not everything that they need to say, in Romanian. I, on the other hand, most definitely cannot. So we'll see how that goes. I'm kind of annoying. Because I want it to get easier. But it has to get hard before it gets easy and I try so hard to avoid being at all embarrassed or ashamed. And without those, I'll just never speak. (And without speaking, I'll never learn.) So I do understand the detrimental nature of my retarded ashamed mindset. Especially in this setting where we're all here to learn the language. But we're only 3 days in. So I've got 3 weeks to make it happen.
• And on that note. wtf? I'm only 3 days in? I feel like I've been here forever. Jesus.

So my bulletpointed entry ended up looking a lot like a regular entry with some random dots in it. But so be it.

I'm gonna go to bed soon. I'm definitely in need of some sleep. (Am I ever not?)

-love you all. miss you all. sorry if i'm edgy on the phone. as dad pointed out to me, i need to get out of my new york mindset. stress and craziness and ten-things-at-one don't work here. things are just calm. dare i say, relaxed. I, on the other hand, don't really know the definitions of those words or how to apply them to my brain or life. but again. i'm a few days in. a lot more to go. we'll see...

nightnight.

let's twist again

it is 4am.
i am tired.
i shall bulletpoint the day, and hopefully will be awake and motivated enough tomorrow to provide elaborations.

• carmen arrived this morning at 9:30am, complete with boyfriend
• when he was there it was awkward, but all 3 of us were rarely in the same room at the same time. he also did his laundry in our sink. that was pretty awkward too. as was his lying shirtless on her bed. she seems nice though. but we haven't spoken much.
  
• Had an intro meeting with Oana, the director of the University, a Romanian teacher from a Korean University, and a professor. They spoke a bunch. There was some lecturing. Honestly, I was kinda falling alsleep.
  
• Took a one-hour nap
  
• took the romanian placement test. that was brutal. i've never written before and the whole thing was writing. THAT was exciting to see. it was like physics all over again.
• i got put in the 3rd level out of 4. I don't know how I feel about that. The 2 people I know in the level before me are a little worse than me, but the 2 people I know in the same level are much better. so i'm either gonna work my ass off and try to rid myself of my shame, or take it slightly easy but hopefully get my fundamentals well? i'm going to talk to oana tomorrow. i'm sure she knows what she's doing though. she definitely knows my level, and she knows the other students' levels, and we have a day or two to change. so whatever.
  
• Went out for a drink with Christian, (Austrian guy who's been living in Romania for 2 years) and Karim, to recover from painful placement test, though both of them are far better than me, soo it was more me who was doing the coping
  
• Ate dinner
  
• Got ready & went out.
• Drinks at a cafe, maybe 11 of us. It was cold, but we sat outside anyway. Then dancinngg at a club. Lots of money down the drain. But cheaper than NY. And good exchange rate. Can't complain.

Shower + Sleep time

Miss. Love. Gnight!

redemption song

ok well i have to redeem the unhappiness of this afternoon's post with a happy summary of the evening. mom: again, sorry about the phone. you're not getting the best end of me today. :( sorry.

so after the blog entry I took a short nap, went for a walk, and read a little, and spoke to my mom on the phone. Then I called Oana to ask if I could go over and give her the gifts. And I did. And then I asked her when/where dinner was, and she said that we would go downstairs and she could show me, and then asked if I had met the spanish girl. I told her no, and that I didn't think she had arrived. She told me that she must have arrived, because she (Oana) had called my room looking for me, (probably while I was out taking the walk,) and that this girl, Carmen, had picked up the phone. Then she asked quizzically if I hadn't noticed any luggage in the room? Now I'm usually a pretty perceptive person, so surprised myself, I told her no. So before we went downstairs, I stopped by my room to get my bag and looked if I had somehow missed a big suitcase sitting in the room. But there was no luggage in the room. So I said that to Oana when I came back out, and so the two of us went to the lobby and asked if this girl had requested to change rooms or something. But the woman at the desk just said that she had arrived, that they had put her in my room, and that they had told her that she had a roommate, and that was all. Soo that was particularly curious. BUT this is when the story gets good. So these 2 girls that i know are part of the program are standing there putting their passports and stuff in the hotel safe. (PS. mom/dad: should i do that? and if so, should i also put $$?) Anndd I had heard them say that they were in room 519. (I'm in 520.) It appears that only one of them speaks Romanian well, so between them they speak English. Annywayy, so I go up to the one in Romanian, and ask, in hesitant/shitty Romanian, if they're in room 519, and tell them that I'm in 520. I only did that because when Oana had showed me the restaurant area where we were eating, it was completely empty, annnddd i really wanted eating buddies. Annndd I had successfully found some! So that was good. One girl, Alida, was from France, and the other, Dalia, was from Turkey. And the 3 of us ate together. And Dalia had met 2 other people from Turkey, that were sitting at another people, and so the 2 people from Turkey came over when they were finished to tell us that they were going out for drinks, and asked us if we wanted to come. Soooo we went. And it was the 2 turkish guys, two girls from greece, this guy karim from luxembourg, (he was the one in the van with me, who's been learning since March,) the two girls I ate with, (Alida and Dalia,) this guy from the Netherlands named France. (ironic as that sounds, i'm quite sure that's right.) And that was actually quite fun. It was mellow, and the conversation wasn't really exciting, but it was cool, because I was mainly talking with France, Karim, and Alida, (that sounds weird..), and they all speak French, and speak Romanian pretty well, and speak English pretty well. (I'm inferior to everyone in French, probably to everyone in Romanian, but perhaps not to France, and well...at least I'm winning in English....but they speak English well too!) I'm really outdone with the languages. But anyway, so all 3 languages were getting thrown around, having one conversation in French and another in Romanian, then a few in English, and there was usually a da thrown around in the French conversation, and a yes in the Romanian, and it was really cool. Though I was still really intimidated and said like 2 words in french, and very little in Romanian. I know I shouldn't be intimidated, and that they're just students like me, but they're so superior at all the languages! it's insane! and here i come, flouncing along with my ridiculous american accent, i just feel a bit like a joke. I know I should get over it. I'm trying. But it's hard. Shameless-ness doesn't come very easily.

BUT the night overall was fun. And hearing all the difference languages was pretty awesome. Very L'auberge Espagnol - esque. And at the very least, I'm thrilled to have breakfast buddies for tomorrow morning, and hopefully meal buddies from now on. On the other hand, this was only like 11 people, and I'm curious as to what the other 20 are up to?

Oh! So. We came home from dinner, and I carefully walked into the room wondering whether or not I was going to find this supposed Spanish roommate. But alas! She was not there. So I gave Oana a call to let her know, and she was like, "well i can't do anything at this point," and I was trying to tell her that I didn't want, let alone expect, her to do anything, I just thought I had some kind of obligation to let her know that one of the students was missing. So I get a room to myself tonight. :) Oana said that maybe she knew someone in the area and was staying with them, but I'm hoping that she knew someone in the hotel and is staying with them, and that i'll get a single room without the extra money. But I probably just jinxed it by saying that. But whatever, at least I get to sleep and shower in peace for one more night. wooooo.

So today redeemed itself. I'm still kind of homesick. Which as my mother pointed out, is weird. I went to france for the past 2 summers and have gone away for extended time before, and wasn't homesick at all. I think it has to do with the fact that this is more foreign, (can a country be more foreign?) or that I just don't know how to say anything or do anything or talk to anyone, etc. But I suppose things will be alright.

hope I didn't leave anything out. email me pleeasseeee. lotsalove.

her majesty

so it's 1:30pm and i've made it to the lobby of the hotel in Sinaia, and i'm just sitting here hoping that my computer battery doesn't explode or something, because the converter is buzzing, and while that scares me lots, (and is probably bad? can someone please tell me if that is very bad?) i really wanted to use the computer soo here i am.

i woke up at 7 to pack up my stuff, eat breakfast, and catch the "bus" out of Bucharest. (bus is in quotations because it ended up not being a bus, it was a van. A van packed with 11 people. but i'll get to that.) First of all, mom: sorry if i was a bitch on the phone this morning. i was actually ridiculously happy to hear your voice, i just don't do well at 7am, (as you very well know,) plus the jetlag = a mean me. supersorry.

Anyway.
Trip to Sinaia:
So I woke up, ate breakfast, got myself and my stuff ready, and left with my grandfather. We took a cab to the university where the "bus" was leaving from. We got there early, but Oana, my mother's friend through whom I got involved in the program, was already there, and so were a few other participants. Apparently a van of people had actually already left, and we were the second van leaving from Bucharest. By the time we left, there was me, 3 asian kids, another guy, and 5 adults. (plus the driver plus me = 11 people.) Bucharest and Sinaia are 180km (~112miles) apart, so the trip shouldn't have taken too long. But there was a ton of traffic getting out of Bucharest, which apparently was to be expected, and then bits of traffic here and there, and so the trip took between 2 and a half and 3 hours overall. Closer to 2 and a half I think. The van was HOT. it was hot and stuffy and sweaty, and i'm sorry to be a snob, but it really was. The asian kids fell asleep, and I don't know how good their Romanian is, but I'm relatively certain that they understood, because at some point Oana was speaking to them in Romanian. Oana also spoke to me in Romanian, but was constantly correcting me, and I was just reminded of how my Romanian sucks ass. Which was a really sad change from Bucharest, where I got lots of false-confidence from the fact that my grandparents never corrected me. I mostly understood when she was speaking, but not always. And mom/dad: I still really dislike her husband. He didn't come in the van with us, I think he's coming tonight, but I had a conversation with him and he was as annoying and unpleasant as the first time that I met him. (And stop thinking that I'm judging him too harshly for 2 5-minute conversations, because maybe I am, but it's not that hard to tell that he's got his nose a little too far in the air.) Anyway, so the asian guys didn't talk much, but the 4th student's Romanian was really good. And he's only been speaking since MARCH. So i was totally put to shame by him. It was just really overwhelming to be put back in that situation where I was the american idiot, and I know that I'm here to learn and I should just get over it and lalala, but I was frustrated. And every time someone spoke to me in english, i was so torn between being embarassed that they had to in the first place, and being so relieved to hear it. And I wanted to come home. And when I told Oana that I definitely overpacked, she was like, "well the program is long! you'll be there a long time!" And instead of being relieved that someone had actually just justified the ridiculous amount that I packed, I just mentally freaked out thinking that i AM going to be here a long time, and I haven't even been here for 3 days, and I just want to be home. Why is this even that important to me? To get in touch with my roots? To learn a language that barely anybody speaks? I don't know. I knew this was going to happen, that I was going to get here and question why the fuck i even did this, and I think it always happens to anyone that does something like this, and I know that it's going to pass quickly. (Or I guess I hope that it's going to pass quickly.) But gaah. Everyone/everything is intimidating. and difficult. Everything is difficult. I have yet to identify how to get a bottle of water, (though I concede that I haven't really put in such an effort yet...) and I'm probably destroying every electronic that I plug into this damn converter, and gyah. I know i'm being ridiculous. and a bit of a wimp. but 3 and a half week is a damn long time. and i'm not really sure what i'm doing here. errff.
aright. enough with the whining.

positive stuff:
the mountains are beautiful. and the hotel is quite beautiful. and the room has a balcony, and the view from the balcony is absolutely stunning. seriously breathtaking. i couldn't believe my eyes. I'm so angry that I didn't bring my usb cord so that I could load pix onto the blog. but there are all these kind of beat-up but awesome looking houses, against a background of these huugee green mountains, and it just looks gorgeous

random stuff:
moni: they played boney m in the elevator! there a brown girl in the ring, tralalalala.....
everyone else: they also played enrique iglesias...?
pomo: charmin is still america's best luxury.

tomorrow we have to take a placement test. cmu already gave me 3 of those. grrrr.
oh, speaking of cmu: you guys know how I can't even explain what information systems is in English? take a guess as to how well I can explain it in Romanian.

Instead of being down here, I really should be upstairs enjoying the couple hours I have before my roommate arrives. But writing in the blog makes me feel like i'm talking to you guys, which makes me happy, so I came down instead. My roommate is going to be a Spanish girl about my age. I'm calling the fact that she's Spanish major karma, since I chose not to take it in school and just gave like 3 people a speech on how the Spanish new yorkers should learn English. (wow i look like a nationalistic asshole in this post.) But I hope that she's cool. I haven't actually met anyone from the program besides the people that were in that van with me, (there are 30 students in the program I think,) so hopefully I'll meet some people tomorrow. There's nothing happening today since people are arriving at all different times from train stations and airports and such, and then tomorrow there's a meeting with the director of the University, (and the placement test is tomorrow,) and then classes begin on Monday. (We have Sunday off.) So it should be a quiet couple of days. Which is good.

adapter update:
it also got really hot. I'm going to assume that that's a bad thing. Maybe I'm doing this wrong. I put my plug into the big ivory adapter and then put that one into the little beige adapter because the big one didn't fit in the plug. And then I plugged that whole combo in. (that's only going to make sense to my dad, so dad, this is all directed at you.) Am I doing something wrong?

Aright. well venting was good. thankkss for putting up with that.
i'm gonna see if I can get some lunch. Oana mentioned that she was going to invite me to have lunch with her, since the first meal provided by the hotel is tonight, but I haven't seen her in a while, so I don't know what's going on. Maybe she looked for me in my room? I don't know.
I'll update tonight maybe; I'll definitely be online tonight.

This post was messy. boo. Perhaps I shall clean it up tonight.

-lots of missing. lots of love.-

Strada Ion Campineanu

Sec. 1 Nr. 1 Sc. A Et. 5

An address to which my short visit is about to end. Though that's not to say it wasn't without its fair share of craziness, because it most definitely was. I'm pretty exhausted, but it was a tossup between which I felt like doing less, blog or pack, and packing won, so I'm gonna give this a shot.

non-exciting day activities:
woke up at 8:30 and got out of bed. had slept ehhh. then everyone exclaimed that they couldn't believe I was up so early, asked why I was up so early, asked if I was up so early because I hadn't slept well, and told me I should probably go back to sleep. That was an interesting change from home. (dad, these people really gave birth to you?) Anyway, then I seriously passed out until 11:15. Those 3 hours were fabuulouss.
Then we had breakfast.
Then we left for the park (we took the subway, then the bus)
Then we had lunch at a restaurant that I believe was called City Grill?
(mommy: I had 2 mititei, fries, and a pepsi)
Then we took the bus home. That brings us to crazy event number 1.

Bus Adventure:
Soo there we are, sitting nicely on the bus. I'm not really sure how the ticket business works here. I have a lot of admiration for the nyc public transportation system, because whatever it lacks in cleanliness it makes up for in overall amazingness, both with area covered and ease of use (i think?) and such. But anyway, so I'm not really sure where a ticket is supposed to be given and when. Both my grandparents have a card that lets them ride for free. They had bought me 2 tickets on the way there, and at some point, apparently the first one got punched on the way there. So we're riding on the way back and this woman, all official and dressed in blue with this little machine that looks like a portable credit card machine? With a little screen and numbers and such, comes around and asks for our tickets. My grandmother gets out her pass, and then motions to the woman that my grandfather has my ticket. The woman then goes up to my grandfather, who yells back to my grandmother that my grandmother has the ticket, and there's some yelling across the bus. This occurance is far from unusual for my grandparents. (Though actually occured significantly less than I originally anticipated.) Anyway, conclusion was that my grandmother had the pass. She then gave it to this woman. The woman starts going at me in rapid-fire Romanian that my ticket isn't valid, and that we have to pay a fee for having this outdated ticket. I have little more than a vague idea of the wtf is going on, but I kind of nod along, and my grandmother tells this woman that I don't understand Romanian. The woman proceeds to say lots of crap about how my ticket isn't valid and how we need to pay a fee. She then tries to tell me in English. Her english blows, (Stop thinking that I'm not one to talk, she ends up being a bitch, so I'm allowed to be one too,) and the only part that makes sense is that my ticket isn't valid and that I need to give her 50 lei. )50 lei = appox. $25. In any normal situation, that would set of huge alarms for me. But, (and I recognize that this is a very bad thing,) when I'm in a situation where I don't even have the remotest idea of what's normal, I throw my common sense knowledge out the window a little bit, assuming that it no longer applies. It didn't help that rather than show any sign that this is wrong or bizarre, my grandparents are bickering over who is going to give her the 50 lei. Had I been more skeptical, or had THEY appeared more skeptical, I would have waited longer, rather than try to remove the attention of half the bus from my arguing grandparents. Then she started asking me for my passport. Now I didn't have it, but even so, there was little chance in hell that I was handing it to this random bus woman. So I reached into my wallet and gave her the 50 lei which she literally snatched out of my hand. So that was a lil suspicious. THEN, then a bunch of people started yelling. (People that weren't my grandparents.) 2 or 3 women and a guy started screaming at this woman, wtf was she doing, why did she just snatch the money from my hand, and things of the sort. (My romanian kind of kicked in by this point and I recognized that I had done something retarded and this woman was not legit at all.) So these 4 or 5 people start screaming at her to give my money back, which believe it or not, she does. Then this guy in red, who looked kind of sketchy and had one eye that was fogged up/messed up, and who normally would have freaked the hell out of me, (but who I was currently very grateful to for getting my money back), i think told me to stick near him as he got off at the stop. My grandparents and I were also gonna make a run for it and get off at that stop, even though we normally would have had a few more to go. So I was standing near this guy and holding my grandmother's hand and the doors open and then guy snaps at me to stay there, while he and the faker bitch got off the bus. And he said to wait there until the bus left and he was gonna watch to make sure the annoying woman got off and left. (At least I think that's what he said...) So that was a little crazy. And then after that, I no longer had a ticket, cause that horrendous woman had taken it. But that didn't end up being a problem somehow. Which brings me back to my overall lack of understanding for the bus system here. But anyway, I gained a HUGE amount of respect for the public voice here, (for lack of a better word,) because all these people had really jumped on this woman for giving my grandparents and me shit. Especially after seeing that video that was circulating about the metal hospital where that woman was dying and so many people were just chilling in the waiting room. I know this is a TOTALLY different situation, and I can't imagine how it would have played out in New York since thankfully, it hasn't in my presence, but regardless, it was quite the epic scene.

So the original plan that was supposed to happen when we got home was that we were going to chill for a little while, I was going to call the airport about my bag, and then my grandfather and I were going to go to a movie. So we got back to the apartment, and my grandfather didn't come upstairs with us, because he went out to buy water and pepsi. soo my grandmother and I go upstairs, and we've arrived at adventure number 2.

The Quasi-Break-In Adventure
So my grandmother and I arrive at the door, and she notices some scratches on the door, (it's made of wood,) underneath the lock and on the side wall thing that the door closes onto. She also can't open the door. The locks turn, but the door is jammed somehow. She says she thinks that someone tried to break into the house. I'm skeptical at first, assuming that the scratches were probably there and she just didn't see them. The door kinda messes with my skepticism. Then my grandfather comes and confirms that the scratches are new, he also can't open the door, it's bad. My grandmothers counsin, (i think cousin) lives downstairs, so we went to stay in her house while my grandfather called the police. I find out that there were several almost-break-ins and a couple actual break-ins recently in this building. There were some phone calls in other apartments where there was no one on the other end, and people think that it was the thief calling to see if anyone was home. Another theory is that it's actually someone in the building that knows people and is kind of keeping track of when they leave the house. Because we were only out for a couple hours. Just today, an apartment was broken into on my grandmother's cousin's floor, and one room was turned upside down and a bunch of things were taken, though the other room I believe was left untouched. Also, last month, some students were staying in an apartment, and their apartment got broken into, but nothing was taken, so that was suspicious. So my grandmother is a little worried at this point, but we come to the conclusion, (and the police and my dad said the same thing,) that if the locks were still shut, it's extremely unlikely that the apartment was broken into. Why/how would theives lock the door from the outside when they left? Anyway, so I stay downstairs for most of the action, but the police came and my grandfather brought them upstairs, and then a locksmith came and repaired the lock. While the locksmith was repairing we came upstairs. My grandfather was pretty upset that we missed out on the movie, though my grandmother and i kept trying to tell him that this was unexpected and WAY more important. But yeah, so that whole fiasco took a while, but fortunately, they didn't get in for whatever reason, and nothing was taken.

As for the rest of the night:
It was about 6:30 by this point. While the locksmith was here, the airport called to say that my bag was coming at some point after 8. We decided that my grandmother would stay at home to wait for them, and my grandfather and I ate dinner, and then went to the movie. The movie was American, in English with Romanian subtitles. It was a movie about Goya, the artist, and had Javier Bardem and Natalie Portman in it. It was unbelievably ridiculously horrifying and scarring. That's not to say it wasn't good. It was quite good. It was just traumatizing as all hell. There was a lot of death and torturring, and some crazy people, and Natalie Portman gets raped, (not to mention that watching a semi-naked Natalie Portman get raped isn't ideal grandfather-granddaughter quality time,) anndd I'm not easily freaked out but jeeeeez i have no desire to see that again. Then we came home. (We went both ways with the Metro.) The Metro station is right around the corner from my grandparents house, which is extremely convenient. The fact that my grandfather says the code to the door every time we come home in order to make sure that I remember how to get in, (even I'm leaving tomorrow morning,) is probably less than ideal considering today's events, but what can you do. Then I took a stellar showing that (surprisingly? not surprisingly? am I just a huge snob?) had very hot water annndd had my very own shampoo, conditioner, body wash, AND loofa, which may not sound so exciting except that they were from my very own overpacked suitcase!! Oh yes. Don't hold back your excitement. My suitcase DID arrive, complete with all the clothes that I blatantly did not need. I know. I was very relieved too. (I mean, I really was relieved to see it, because need all the clothes or not, I didn't want to leave without the suitcase, and worse, I didn't want it to be completely gone. So though it's going to be a huge pain to carry it tomorrow, I am more than happy to have it.)

THEN i ate some grapes and now here i am! Staying up way later than I should, since I need to wake up at 7 tomorrow to leave at 8 to take the 8:30 bus to Sinaia. So I'm going to pack and pass out. I don't think I can set my cell phone alarm because I don't think it knows the time anymore, so let's hope they're able to wake me up tomorrow...

random stuff:
yes. my grandfather does have those eyeglasses with the sunglasses that flip up. and yes. he does wear them up almost all the time. and yes. we ARE the coolest people walking around Romania.
marion: HAH. I get to be in a country with a good exchange rate! hhaaaaahhhh. :) but i love you. and miss you. and can't wait to hear about all the euros you spent on ice cream and non-alcoholic drinks...!
moni: he hasn't worn a tie, so i haven't gotten to see him tuck it in. :( though btw, romanian guys aren't ass bad eye candy as i thought they would be. they are sketchy as all fuck. but they aren't that ugly! arrggg i miss you.
and finally: my Romanian has been holding me quite well, and I'm as surprised as I am proud. Granted, if my grandmother didn't speak any english, (my grandfather doesn't really,) we'd be in a more difficult situation. But I've been speaking almost entirely (shitty) Romanian, and it's gotten me by with the two of them, and my understanding is definitely good enough so that at least they don't have to speak any English, and I'm glad I had these couple days to adjust to the language before heading over to the program. I still read like a toddler and talk like an idiot, but the fact that I can put together what I want to say, (most of the time,) is good. Though, before I toot my own horn too much, when people say things to me in public, I'm almost always lost. My grandparents speak realtively slowly and extremely loudly, so as far as Romanian goes, I've got it kinda easy. I definitely don't pick up on everything that's said to me in public places, aka movie theater, restaurant, crazy bus woman, etc. buttt i'm not doing all that bad, so I'm relieved.

but anyways, i miss everyone a ton. so those two misses were redundant.
email me! LStreja@gmail.com! or comment! i miss social interaction! i thrive on it! tell me about your scandalous lives! i care! for realsies!

-lots of love-

edit:
sunburn update!
i couldn't leave this entry without one. because i KNOW that everyone wants to know that both my nose and my eyebrow are peeling. and i didn't want to leave you guys feeling empty, unfulfilled, or unable to sleep because you didn't know the exact details of my sunburn. well now you'll know. my face is less red, despite the ugly peeling on right side of face. (yes. right side. just like my right arm was red when my left arm wasn't. and the right side of my stomach was darker than the left.) annd my stomach's still red, but my arms aren't really. and nothing is peeling besides my face. (cause why would something like my stomach, that doesn't show 24/7, peel? that would be fortunate or something. jeez.

-again. lots of loving. and missing. bye!-

when two substances collide

so i've been semi-functional for a good 31 hours or so, so i'm going to use that as an excuse for all incomprehensability, stupidity, and for the dumb color scheme. just a head's up.

soo the blog idea is an 100% ripoff from my other sister Myra, who has used them in the past and is currently recording her Africa craziness on a blog which i'm currently having some trouble linking to. but please know that i'm not writing my blog because I think my Romania travels will be nearly as epic as her trip to Rwanda. I'm just writing it because I'm lazy, and this way, I don't have to write emails to each of you lovely people with day-to-day summaries. THIS way, if you care, you can read it, and all I have to write in your personal emails are dangerously detailed questions about your scandalous lives! woooo.


though I don't know how long this blog thing is gonna keep up because I haven't even started talking about my day and i'm already a little tired of it. but i'll give it a shot.

So what's the title of the blog mean? I think it means White July. Why would I pick a title for a blog for which I have to say "I think" before stating what it means? Because it was written on my plane from Paris to Romania. I didn't realize planes had quasi-profound names too. Maybe my plane thought it was a boat. (Fortunately it kept that confusion to the name-calling.)

flights:
the flights weren't overwhelmingly exciting. no amazing seat buddies. on the way to paris there was some lame guy that watched romantic comedies and was reading a james bond book. the guy on the way to Romania was actually really nice, and we had an entire conversation in french which i was tres proud of, despite the fact that a large part of it was me just nodding and giggling at things that he said that I blantantly didn't pick up on. But whatever, I said things in french that were responded to in french and that's more than enough for me. But I was actually passed out for most of that flight, so that relationship didn't get very far. The flight to Paris was long, though I was able to sleep a little which was good. AirFrance had good movies, and if I wasn't so out of it, I probably would have watched more of them, but I watched 21 which I wanted to see soo that was good I suppose. The movie was quite bad. But the whole card counting thing was cool. yayy smart people? Umm, the food was pretty bad. I mean it might not of been, but my body was just confused. I was served dinner, breakfast, and then lunch over the course of 10 hours when I'd normally be fast asleep. Which was weird, so I didn't eat a whole lot. Though Marion, you should know that the AirFrance stewardesses were surprisingly unbitchy. I think it's cause most of them were men. Anyway, the highlight of the flying definitely came after I landed. See, I've never gotten to experience first-hand the pleasure of having your luggage lost. But now I have! yayy life experiences? It's not so much lost as it is still in Paris despite my having made my way over here. But I'm not all that surprised, because I barely had time to make it from one plane to the next, so it doesn't seem all that unreasonable that my luggage didn't make it either. It's hypothetically being brought to this house tomorrow night. Let's hope that pulls through, cause I 'really don't want to make my way over to Sinaia without it...

wow i really don't have the energy to do this. arg.
first night:
tonight wasn't all that crazy. there was a car ride back from the airport. there was traffic. there was a little bit of gift giving, and then there was a walk, then dinner, and now here we are. my grandparents have this great bay-window esque thing, that's just this huge window that opens to a courtyard-y part of a street, and it's really nice out and the sky was all pretty and it's lovelyy. and walking around was nice. We walked around on what my parents/grandparents call the Bucharest equivalent of 5th avenue. Which is funny, because sometimes, that makes total sense, and you see massive hotels next to Swarovski and Guess stores. But then just...sprinkled randomly in between those will be sex shops, and small gift stores. Not a ton of them, and the street really is beautiful, but it's just entertaining to imagine walking down 5th ave and see SEX written in red neon lights. But I think the hardest thing to get used to, at least for the 2 days that i'm here with my grandparents, is just slowing my mind down. Anyone that's spent more than 10 minutes with me has likely gotten a glimpse into my overhyped talks-faster-than-she-thinks personality, and even on no sleep, i have a lot of trouble turning that off. So while I stand and listen to my grandfather thoroughly explain to me the intricacies of the tv remote, and the air condition remote, and random details of every building we pass, it's hard to get that why-aren't-i-moving-and-doing-ten-things-at-once attitude out of my head. kinda like when you're shivering but you're trying not to let your teeth chatter so you clench your jaw? i know that's a very random example. but that's what it reminds me off. the other weird thing is that I find myself falling back into my france i-can't-talk-to-anyone mellowness. And I don't know if that's going to continue once I get to the actual program, but I"d assume it inevitably will for at least a few days. And I know that's ok, and not having everyone to tell every detail of my life to is not that big a deal, but..you know...i like talking. lol. and I keep thinking about all these things as I pass buildings and see and do things, and I want to tell people about them, even if i would normally just send a text saying "listen to this example of what an idiot i am." And I haven't been gone that long, so this is very exaggerated, but it doesn't take me long to go into social interaction withdrawl. and I want to just be sitting at slave and talking to you people because i MISS talking to you people, and it's been a while for some of you. though others of you it's only been a day. though that's WEIRD cause it feels like a long time. I was on the plane, and I was thinking back onto the morning and getting my nails done and i couldn't actually believe that it had only been a number of hours before.

blah. i'm tired. and wish you guys would come online. cmon it's 3:30 there. like any of you have actual lives and are doing anything. pssh.

random stuff:
moni: I listened to frenchy, i'm faking while the first plane was taking off. it was really good take off music. then i realized that the album is called in case we die. that kinda sucked.
fran: I listened to you enjoy myself while the first plane was landing. quality landing music. both cause it's good, and cause I got so distracted trying to figure out wtf he was saying, that I forgot to pay attention to that crazy moment when you actually hit the ground. which i'm counting as a good thing.
mom: they confiscated my clinique eye makeup remover! At CDG, they took out my carry on and this woman took out EVERY SINGLE LIQUID and moved it into a ziplock bag. It was annoying. And then she took away the makeup remover because it was 125mL instead of 100. Cause she sucks. And then she asked me quizzically what the Skintimate was. And I told her it was shaving cream. And she shrugged and put it in the ziplock. Annoyinnngggg.


anyway, my dad told me on the phone that there's going to be this horrible moment my first night at 3am when I can't sleep. so i'm hypothetically going to be online in a few hours, and ideally, so will you fabulous people. but all the same, I'm gonna send the link out in emails with ps.'s asking about your lives.

anything else?
i have yet to have coffee here. unacceptable. i had some hot chocolate in the Paris CDG airport. It was bad. I burnt myself bad. And then spent like 20 minutes in the line ot check in for the Romania flight because I kept switching lines to try to get faster and then my line would get someone that needed extraextraextra help. karma's a bitch.

i think i'm out for now.
maybe i shouldn't email this out to people in case I never write in it again?
or perhaps emailing it will be enough motivation to write.
hmm.
eh. well. potential apologies in advance.
miss you all.