As beautiful as SLO?

It's only Spring now, and SLO was always this beautiful, at least 9/10 of the year it was this beautiful. SLO is San Luis Obispo, and that's where I went to college.
Mastacani, may be horribly hot this summer, and snow in the winter, but hey! I get to experience real seasons for the first time Ever! It's never snowed in my lifetime where I lived in

This place = perdy!

I got my package

I got my first package!! yesterday!

Okay, so Mom sent me a package a while back ago (maybe 8 days before it got here) and it had my name and Sarita's name on it.
Since it had Sarita's name on it (Sarita being the mayor's wife, my counterpart's wife, and my landlord) we had to go together to Galati to pick up the package at the train station post office.

We had a worker drive us during work to the city to get it, and at first I felt bad about that whole trip, but then less bad because we had to do some shopping for the office anyway, so it wasn't all about me.

Package contained things I was surprised made it through to Romania. My mom sent me seeds for planting, curry powder, dried Chinese herbs, which all I appreciated, but ...! I thought these things weren't allowed over!

So for the future: put my name only so I don't need her to come along to get my packages.
That's the story.

Speaking of which:
Yeh Cynthia
Centrul de Consultanta Ecologica
Judet Galati
Romania

I changed this because an organization offered to pick up packages for me. Once I get notice that I've received a package, I have 2 days to pick it up or it's sent back to where it came from.
Bless that organization's soul!

Address for packages!!!

So....I think for letters and stuff that are thin go ahead and keep sending to:

Yeh Cynthia
Centrul de Consultanta Ecologica
Mastacani Comuna
Judet Galati
Romania

I changed this because an organization offered to pick up packages for me. Once I get notice that I've received a package, I have 2 days to pick it up or it's sent back to where it came from.
Bless that organization's soul!

My mommy send me a package! yay!


p.s. I can't wait for elections to be over!!

Tiganii (Gypsies)

Well...I had a semi long adventurous day again.
I woke,
I took my laundry out to dry in the sun (noted that my semi yellowish , originally white t-shirt has semi brown and green on it too now),
so I ate lunch (pasta sauce, pasta, bread, and lots of green garlic!),
walked to the Primaria for the exercise (about a 35-40 min walk),
saw about 40 kids walk towards me to go to a "f-unc-da-ziaiy" (a carnival!?),
got picked up 1/3 of the way there by a co-worker at the Primaria,
a lady who's a teacher at the school is running to be the first female Primar (mayor) asked me to go to a function with her,
I said good bye to Lilly and the present mayor (Domnul Ivan, who is my counterpart for PC) and went with a competitor to "f-unc-da-ziaiy" (a carnival!?),
was bored with 50 kids in a room upstairs at a house waiting for 3 hours for something!,
I was at campaigning event to brainwash kids to vote a certain way, with soda, and cookies, and a priest and I learned I was at a "Foundation for Children," and I was not very happy about it,


much later....
I decided to go for a walk,
saw a lady who worked at the old folks home and walked with her (my real plan was to walk by the tiganii(gypsies) that have been calling for me to come over last time),
I saw the lady to her home and said goodbye,
while walking back down to go towards my home I walked by the tiganii and they asked me to come over and I did (I had with me my phone, 3 ron, and my keys),
I had learned from that lady that these gypsies had been there for 1 month, and that different ones came and went (this lessened the pressure I felt to get to know the gypsies),
never-the-less I went over and introduced myself and talked to them (a mom and her many kids making coffee over a fire outside their tent),

They were friendly and open and curious.
I did honestly feel nervous around them, standing there talking to them, wondering who was watching and what they thought, and the gypsies, I think, knew it too.
I was polite and cautious....I'm not sure why I was alert, but I was.
A little Romanian girl who'd befriended me ran up to us after I'd been there 10 minutes and helped with the conversation and explaining things she already knew about me. The gypsies were more introvert when she was there and they gave me space. Later I found out, even though the girl spoke to the gypsies and explained things to them politely, she didn't like them. She went there to help me (that was sweet of her). She was hesitant about telling the adults where we came back from, but she's young enough that she did tell them we were talking to the tiganii.

The gypsies in my village were curious about my age and where I was from. They tried to teach me a few phrases in Tigani (gypsie langauge), but I've forgotten them. They were curious about a few phrases in Chinese too. The mom was obviously the boss and she reminded me of an Italian mom, big, nurturing, giant heart with presence. She had lots of kids and it was like a silly question that I asked how many.

I am trying to figure out if gypsies that want to integrate into the community are easily accepted. I see darker kids that get along great with lighter skinned kids and there's zip-o segregation. I wonder if those darker kids are gypsie originated or just darker skinned Romanians.

Bias and stereotypes exist for a reason (I believe), but not everyone falls into these stereotypes and people should get the benefit-of-the-doubt before you judge them.

I don't understand this culture, but like any culture, I am willing to learn.

Oatmeal cookies

I would love to be able to make oatmeal cookies, but unfortunately it's hard to find oatmeal and brown sugar doesn't exist here = (

I've got eggs, white sugar, and I can get raisins.
I haven't looked for baking power, but it must exist here right?

I'm just saying. =p

How are movies back at home? Wanted, Iron Man, Prince Caspian, Indiana Jones...sounds good this summer.

Okay, off the computer I go.

Name days in Romania

There are holidays where it's people's names, and anyone who has that name...it's like their birthday, but "name day."


You give them a present, you call them and wish them "La Multi Ani" (I wish you many years) (Really roughly translated is: At Multiple Years).

Yesterday was: Constantin, Maica and Elena Day.

The mayor's, my counterpart's name is Constantin Ivan (I think Constantin is his middle name), so he had a small lunch party and I got him a packet of coffee and kisses on his cheeks. Here's most of us who work in the Mayor's office =)

Did I forget to mention that Romanians do the kisses on the cheeks here, left right, right left, it doesn't matter.

I think I've never mentioned either that Everyone here has a Godmother or/and Godfather and that you take their name (you are named after them when you as a baby are baptized).

The naming here does confuse me. There's not enough name days for everyone's name, but I see the advantage of having a name day. However, if people take their godparent's name when they're baptized, and you can be the godparent of more than one kid, that means a lot of people are named the same.

I think 1/3 or 1/4 of all the women I've met have been named: Mihaela. Very beautiful name, but it's way popular here.

I have 2 godmothers, and that confuses the Romanians...Good times.

Journey through the hills

After we walk past the gypsies, we are on a path through hills and...


We see people harvesting honey.






















We see sheep being herded.






We see lots of beautiful nature here in Mastacani.



I then taught the kids how to use my digital camera, and we made some beautiful pictures....=)

I usually look terrible in pictures, but I think I have to admit I looked pretty (personal opinion).

You can ask: Cynthia, exactly what have you done for Peace Corps thus far? Looking at these beautiful photos, you seem to be integrating and people of Romania look happy with you.

The answer I'd give you: I've done nothing to deserve their generosity or really to deserve this site, but I love it.

For every new person I meet, they always ask if I'm married, and when they find out that I'm single they tell me I need to or I will meet a Romanian boy and we'll get married and I can stay here.
While some people may find this kind of hassling an invasion of privacy, I see it as You Romanians are so unbias towards the Chinese and to Americans that you would openly accept me as one of you.
I find it amusing, funny, cute, and sweet.
Until it starts to interrupt my lifestyle, I'm going to keep being amused, as the people here try to hook me up.

Nature in Mastacani (and class)

This is the school I've been spending most of my time at.

I decided to stay and watch a history class here, and I think since it was one of the first warm days here, we had class outside.
I know their curriculum is more difficult than the US, so I'm assuming that the Biology and History classes can't always be this much fun. They made me a garland of flowers =)
The 7th grade and 6th grade class.

Rroma (gypsies) do live in my community

I saw darker skinned and slightly dirtier kids, in the classes, but they weren't ignored by the teachers or seriously segregated.


This Monday and Tuesday I decided to take a walk, and I saw some kids playing outside and I just said I wasn't up to anything and I just stood there and tried to talk to them.

They asked if I wanted to go into the padure (forest) [pah-duir-aiy] with them, and I said sure, so we went on this path that led from our neighborhood into some hills.


On our walk we passed gypsies living onto the side of this road (I didn't take any pictures of them). Their clothes were drying on the grass and bushes, some were taking baths naked in the river in the trees over there on the right. They lived in tents built next to parked vans on the grass. They had outside stoves, there were lots of scrap metal everywhere...
It was really awkward walking past them with my group of kids. They kept waving me over to them, but I told them I'd visit them in the future...I wasn't sure what to do.

I am here as a Peace Corps volunteer = love and accept everyone, but...I was a small shock to see people living in a community public area.
I think it's like seeing a few families living in a public park in the city, they aren't supposed to be there and the situation is awkward.

I asked people if it was okay for me to associate with the Rroma in this community and the advice is "we like the Rroma, but be careful and don't carry valuables with you."

I am still trying to integrate in the Romanian community, but I will give everyone a fair chance with no bias, so I plan on going to sit and talking with the Rroma here in the near future. Their lifestyle is interesting and very unknown to me.

Fresh milk from a cow

Today I pasteurized my own milk.

A lady at the school gave me a stickler of milk from her cow, and I took it home and today I boiled it. About 3 people told me to boil it first, and I'd been warned by PC about it too. No boil = diarrhea =p *and for the lactose intolerant person that I am, that would be double worse. I'm not totally intolerant, just partially.

Oh-my-gosh, waiting for milk to boil is way more stressful (and exciting) than waiting for water to boil.

p.s. I get a toilet, I got ride a horse drawn cart, and I get fresh milk and eggs and veggies!
I'm not in the most exotic place in the world, but this place is beautiful and serene and I like it. It's only week 2 1/2 ...really? It's felt waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay longer, but I'm still liking this place.

I rode my 1st Caruti (horse drawn cart) today!!!

I was walking to school for my first tutoring lesson with Domna Mihaela (the Professor of Romanian for kids in 5th grade to 8th).

[Kids from 1st class to 4th class are primary classes, kids from 5th - 8th are in gymnasium]
-I know I didn't spell these exactly correct, but if you want to know more about the Romanian Education system...sadly I think it's better than the American...me not being a professional teacher. From my view, they're style looks more productive, more efficient, more modern than ours.

Kids in primary classes have class 8-12, and kids in gymnasium have class 12-5:30, and it's scientifically known that kids at the gymnasium age learn better in the afternoons.

I sat in on a 7th grade class today and they were learning about Moles, and balancing chemical equations, and stuff I learned in 10th grade Honors chemistry.

Anyway, I was walking and I had flowers to put in the teachers office, it's a special type of pansy that grows only in this region of Romania and I think they're BEAUTIFUL!

They're like the California Poppy which is specific to California in region, but the flower above, called Bajor, is a very nice deep red, and I like deep red. They only grow in the sunny meadow-ish forests around here, not in the community.

I figured they'd look better at the school than in my house, and they teachers are super friendly and welcoming there.
I go there and bug them just about every day, and they haven't started to exclude me from their conversations (I really can't understand most of it right now, and it's even harder to understand when you're eavesdropping), but sometimes they see me trying and they translate for me =)
I hope this relationship lasts, cause I like them at this school.

Anyway, 15 minutes in, I was thinking about...maybe getting a ride from someone I knew in town who drives or *I was hoping pretty hard* that a horse drawn cart would give me a ride.

A mom with her son saw me!!!! and offered me a ride! and I said "DA!"
These carts have brakes, and they stopped and I got on while she said "incet, incet" [uhn-chet, uhn-chet] (slowly, slowly), and she offered me a spot on the bench with them and off we went!!

I still had to walk the last 10 minutes to get to my lesson, but it was fun! Here's my pictures and this boy is in the 7th class at one of the schools.

Here's how a cart looks from afar.

More tutoring tomorrow...I can't remember the last time I've had a personal 1 on 1 tutor for anything. I do hope I learn faster....
I have 3 teachers helping me now = )
Boy am I lucky and they have patience too and 1 teacher invited me to spend a weekend at her place in Galati, which was lots of fun and it felt like hanging out with a person my age in an apartment in the city in the US. (More to come on this experience, but it's late now).

And a drink to: more caroti rides in the future! Poor whipped horses though, but that's their job here. Probably not all people, but I do see some of it done, but mostly to scare the horse into going straight or faster.

Animals of Mastacani

I think this is the prettiest bug. It was shiny and dark red. I found it in a lady's shoe.





Here is a cow, they travel by streets too in Mastacani.








Here are baby chickens.






Here are donkey pulling a cart, they are so slow compared to horses and they smell.




Here are horse taking a break in the shade during market day (every Sunday morning). I see them all the time, but there are LOTS of them on market day. I feel tense every time a car weaves through the carts, because the carts are slower, but there's only 1 lane in each direction!



Here you're got turkey, and baby turkey.





Here you have a curled up, non-venomous Romanian snake, and there's a video down below.




Here you've got cats, most of them live outdoors in the country. They're hug-able and they keep pests away and the have their space.





Here you've got the cockatils, and they look exactly like the types in the US (these belong to my neighbor, as well as the cats).





Here is her parakeet (he looks like my bird Shifty!!! But he's not as cute, and I'm not being bias).

Similarities between Romanians and Chinese

Every year,..the weekend after Easter (Orthadox Easter), the Romanians celebrate for the dead by eating and they stick a candle in plates of the same food they eat for lunch for the dead.
I'm not sure if the food we ate were traditional foods:
Sarmaluta (small bundles of savory grounded meat, wrapped in grape leaves and grilled).
Rice with sugar and lemon and orange peel.
Snizle (I think it's German originated? and it's pork in batter, deep fried.
Chicken boiled in oil with carrots, potatoes, salt, cabbage, and some spices.

In Chinese culture we do a similar thing in the spring, where we take prepared food: boiled eggs, deep fried salted pork, a whole chicken, alcohol, sugar can, chinese bread, and fireworks and we put the food over the grave (to symbolize offering the spirit or essence of the food to our ancestors), and then we eat the food and we explode the firecrackers (to ward off bad spirits) and we burn fake money and fake cloth (so the essence of the material can go to the ancestors).

I don't think there's a day to celebrate ancestors in the US holiday calendar, and if there is I've never heard of it or celebrated it.

I am slacking...eye candy for now

Here's some pictures I took. Explanations to be posted, hopefully soon.

Adventurous Day#2

An unexpected adventurous day. It's so full of stuff and sights that I can't write it all down, and I have to wake up early tomorrow so I don't want to stay up too late.

My day involved:
-seeing 15 people standing in the back of a truck drive
-going in the same direction as a herd of cows on the streets and I felt like we were on the streets of Spain
-playing red-rover with kids at a school
-eating snacks for 2 different kids' birthdays
-walking 1/2 km in the wrong direction to find bread, and this was my second trip, I tried once last night, and the shop is seriously, no joke my neighbor on the other side
-talking with a lady across the street and her husband who's pretty passionate about politics and she gave me a whole bag of veggies: garlic, onion, lettuce, pasley, etc...
-I went and visited an old folks home cause they're sort of my neighbor, and it was a fun to see the old peoples' faces when they saw me and I said "Buna Seara" (good evening) to them.
-I jumped in a car with 5 other people and ended up sitting in a political speech where my mayor (he's my mayor, he's my counterpart, and really I don't know much about the other dudes running, I want my guy to win, but as a foreigner, I have to act semi neutral about it) was talking. I tried to look composed and attentive, when I was hungry (I was...enticed to come as I was going home to dinner) and cold.
-I fed my left overs to cats and dogs of my neighbor (that's what we do with left overs here). Secretly I saved pieces of meat just for them cause they're soooooo cute and friendly! Even though they live outside and the dog is permanently chained.
-I tried to time how long it would take me to walk over 2km from my house to the Primaria (mayor's office where I will work 1 or 2 days a week), and people kept trying to give me rides. It was a nice day (I took lots of pictures), and I was saying hi to all the old people standing outside their homes, and I even stopped a few times to carry a conversation. After the Mayor passed me twice, I didn't argue and I got a ride the last half. I am going to guess it takes me 45 minutes to walk to work.

That was my day.
Tomorrow I am going to Chirafti #2 to listen to a Romanian class during an "inspection" by the government, and then to Mastacani #1 for a tutoring test run with a teacher there.

There are 4 primary schools in Mastacani comuna: Chirafti #1 and #2, Mastacani#1 and #3. Mastacani #2 is a gardanita [gar-den-eeezha] (kindergarden).

I also saw an engineer dressed in business clothes, with a briefcase hope into a horse drawn cart. That was funny.

Favorite Food things I miss

Did I mention besides there not being marshmallows (wow, I always thought it was marshmEllows!), there's no Oreas here!

I Love oreas! I can eat a whole costco sized box in a day! And costco apple pies MmMmm!
There's also no chocolate chip cookies! and I haven't seen any oatmeal cookies! because it's actually semi difficult to find oatmeal too!
And I haven't seen any brown sugar to make these oatmeal cookies!


They do have pringles though and cream savers, and a ridiculous variety of salami, mustard, ketchup, and chocolate.
There's sweet mustard, spicy, salty, dark, light, etc...

No one has to send me these things, I mean I eat enough as it is, and it's only my 1st week still at my site. I'm just saying there's stuff I miss.
In terms of Chinese snacks I miss...yeah, they don't exist here. Dried squid, grass jelly, mochi ice cream, red bean paste I'm probably not going to find it.
Maybe in the near future though, I mean, I did see 5 Asian boys wander through town, so there's gotta be Chinese junk food coming too.

Treated like Royalty

Lunch: They, the mayor and his wife, asked where my lunch was and I said since I was stuck in Galati I didn't have time to make one, but I'd bring one tomorrow.
The wife whips out a table cloth, female coworkers clear off a desk in front of a computer, mayor's wife dishes out 3 pieces of grilled chicken onto a porcelain plate that came out from somewhere, Leno cuts me fresh bread, Nina from another office comes out with a plate of salt, the mayor's wife washes and cuts radishes, a fork and a knife is set before me with a folded napkin and a moistened hand towel, there is another knife for cutting more bread off the loaf, and the mayor's wife gives me 4 finger deserts that she just got as a gift from a bakery. It was great team work right there and it took maybe 6 minutes to put together, and inside I was giggling cause it was a little ridiculous, in the kindest way possible.
I felt like a pampered princess...I am not a princess, I understand I am a guest, but are all guest treated like this?
BATHROOM:
Here I experience those stereotype Peace Corps moments you see in pictures, and you can all imagine:
I wanted to use the restroom at the Primaria for the first time, I knew it was a hole in the ground type, but I had to go. I asked someone where it was, and I was handed a roll of paper and escorted around the building to the outhouse.
A group of kids ...I guess were I don't know why they were there, but the were just outside the mayor's office and they saw us and they surrounded me and asked me questions.
I needed to use the restroom and there's 3 stalls facing the open, and no small corner wall or curtains.
There were about 20 kids that were just surrounding me....so I told my escort: her name is Mihaela and she works at the librarian at the Primaria, that I didn't want to go anymore.
It was cute, but yeah...I just had to hold it in until I got home.

Too: fun/semicrazy/potential scary adventure, not to share

So, I know I just slapped on a whole bunch of stuff on this blog over the weekend, due to the fact that I have internet and I can sit in front of the computer for longer periods of time.

But I had an adventure this weekend, and really I can't not blog it. There are lots of things I want to blog about, like culture differences and odd things I see and then how I react to them, like the fact that my physician in Mastacani I saw walking around in a fuzzy white bathrobe in front of the Mayor's office on Friday.

I wasn't that weirded out, I think I'm desensitized from ...college? but I do remember thinking *she is such a valued professional in this little village, like the mayor, who wears a leather jacket and jeans and tennis shoes all the time, she can wander around in a bathrobe and it's okay.*
People get casual in the US too, I mean, a few years back, kids all wore pjs to school, and some still do.

I later remembered that I was told Lots of doctors do that here, or at least it's actually part of the doctor dress code here!!
And while at first, it's odd and kinda creepy, it does make sense later because hospitals here aren't the perfect temp all the time like the US, and these places do get very very cold, so doctors have got to stay warm.

Another thing I find "different" is that the first questions people will straight out ask you/me are: how old are you? how much do you make? do you have a husband? boyfriend? no, not one in the states, one in Romania? why not?

It's just slightly different because these aren't usual things strangers ask in the US, not in CA at least.

Okay: Now STORY

Saturday was normal: I woke, cooked, ate, and cleaned a lot. Oh, I was invited to Luciana's house for lunch. Her whole family from all over, even from Italy were back and they invited me to eat with them. It was fun, there were happy kids, and there were lots of smiles and they were very welcoming. I left about 2 because I told them I had things to do.
The mayor's wife just asked me to keep this place clean, so I wanted to make time to do it all. Dusted, vacuumed, glass, wood, rug, etc...I wanted Sunday free too.
My plans for Sunday: wake up, go to the piata, go to Galati and just chat with Emily and Nils and maybe an older PVC Marie (who's in Group 21 and leaving in less than 2 months, she's also in CED and she lives in Galati), and then go home, use the internet and go to bed.
What REALLY happened:




I woke up late, went to the piata (I saw LOTS of horse drawn carts, there's patches of trees, and there's the piata on Sundays) and talked to random people and introduced myself, but the piata was closing and I was brave enough to go there by myself, but it would have been better to have a friend with me the first time and to introduce me to people, I bought bananas, and on my way back to my apartment I stopped by Luciana's house to ask her for logistics about Galati: which maxi taxi to take, how much does it cost, how to get around town, etc, etc..
She then invited me to lunch, and her dad, and it's fried fish with lemon and pepper...so I had to stay =) and one of her brother's family was still there too, so I got to share the whole thing with them: why I'm here, how I got in, where I'm from, is hollywood there, etc... That was cool.

Luciana, my self appointed bodyguard, was actually heading to Galati too, and while I wanted to be independent, I saw wisdom with going with her the first time. After talking over lunch, we decided to meet at 2:30 to leave for Galati by maxi taxi (so I could see how it was done). When I get home, my neighbor sees me and her daughters (about 14 and 16) and they are BBQing chicken and they want me to try some soup, cheese, chicken with this sauce, and mamaliga, so....I was in their kitchen, but I told them I had to meet Luciana and I wasn't hungry, they gave it all to me in plates, and they helped carry it to my apt so I could eat it later.
At 2:30 Luciana is by my door and we go to Galati by car (oh well), and then I get dropped off where Marie and Emily and Nils tell me go to.
Marie is having a luncheon with people from their church (disclaimer: all this stuff is my own personal experience/opinions and not reflection of peace corps and such) (When you're in Peace Corps you can't have kids during service and you cannot preach your religion...or convert other volunteers. It's actually really nice to know that PC is protecting you, because some people can be pushy about that kind of stuff), anyway, they had a ...Hawaiian poured salad? (rice, with milk and butter sauce, pineapples, green onion, flaked coconut, and chicken), a giant salad and Mormon taramisu (the same but without the rum and the coffee, because Mormons are discouraged from eating those kind of things).

Me, sister Bryson, Elder Bryson, Emily, Nils, Brent, Marie

Basically I had 3 lunches that day.
Anyway, after that lunch, which was fun and I had a great time talking to Sister and Elder Bryson and Brent, and EmilyNils, and Marie, Marie took Emily and Nils to the right maxitaxi to get home, and then she took me to get a hair dryer in the city, and we went to get me a maxi taxi. .....

For some reason...taxis end early on Sundays, we're not actually sure there were any going out to the villages on Sunday.
After standing there for over 45 mins, until 7:30pm, we gave up and this decision was made:
I would stay overnight at Marie's, even though she had no mattress (which I really don't care about), and I would try to take a taxi home Monday morning before I had work at 8am.

I could have called my bodyguard and I'm sure either she or my counterpart of someone would have come and gotten me...but on a scale of 1-10 (10 being worried or scared) I was 2.
I don't know, I trusted Marie (even thought I only really met her that day) but she's a PCV, and if I was late for work people would understand that there's no schedule What-so-ever for maxi taxi's here (maxi taxis are large vans that drive back and forth between locations, kind of like the vans at Poly that took you directly home), and I joined Peace Corps....what else should I have expected.

After we gave up on the maxi taxi deal, we were planning on how to get me to work the next morning, and I remembered that Brent (the guy I met during lunch) said that he'd driven by my yellow bloc before, and that he drove past my place at the same time I usually started walking to work. Perfect!!!! So Marie got Brent's number, and called him up, and asked for a favor, and we got me a ride for the next day. ALL solved!

After all the logistics were done, we chill-laxed and Marie showed me all of Galati basically, we met up with 3 of here friends later and we were introduced to the Danube River.

1 of those friends was someone from the US and as much of a tourist as I was: as seen by the pictures below. There's me, the tourist, and Marie =D


I look like Spider Girl. *you hear theme song for spider man*

Who needs alcohol do to silly and dumb things?

There were mosquitoes at Marie's place, but I donned a pair of rented pants, washed my face, covered myself with mosquito repellent, and went to bed (oddly, there's no mosquitoes in my apt, but 5 I saw at here place!!!) I do have netting over my windows.
Oh and we pillow talked (that's what girls, and cool boys do) and I called my mom to wish her "Happy Mother's day," using Marie's stuff! That generous Marie!

We both, not morning people, woke up at 6:15am! and I got my ride to Mastacani.
Yay for Brent!!!
Yay for Marie!! She said repeatedly that she felt bad about me not getting a ride back, she feels responsible because she's the older and wiser Volunteer and she let me down, NOT SO!
I didn't ask people what time the taxi's started and ended, so it was my responsibility to ask those things.
Anyway, it was actually really fun. I am tired, but my day was great on the whole! On top of feeding me, giving me stuff for sleeping with, gave me a tooth brush!, and letting me use her laptop and Mess credits to call my family! Marie gave me like 9 books too!!! What a Gal! Iubiesc reading!! ( I love reading!)

I got make up on, and the right shoes, and my nice trench coat on before work. I ate ice cream, and cookies, and .....I am treated like a princess.

Look who else I saw in Galati o_O
I had to take pictures for proof:

I am not a spy! (I am just a talented stalker with a point-shoot canon camera).