Here is Spring!! Out I go to the garden

So...these aren't my chicks. They're cute, but they're not mine yet. You see, farmers (people with chickens) can wake up early and they buy all the chicks. Me..I was raised and born in a city, and I came out of college studying bio-chemistry.
My point is, let's hope I get some chicks Wednesday =) Cause they're smelly and fluffy and I want to see eggs made and then steal them from the confused mom chickens. Then make soup.

Here are some flowers of Spring-time in Ro-mania. They're called Snowballs..more or less. They ssmell nice and they're cute. My counterpart (I'm sure it was him) put one in my hoodie at the office cause I guess he really couldn't help himself. AND here on the right is my garden. I got to til that soil, then put seeds in! My grandma did gardening, and I've heard rumors that my mom is trying it out too, BUT this is my garden and I've not really eaten vegetables all Winter cause they're A.) WAY expensive, b.) imported from different countries so they're not all that tasty, c.) and c.) the only stuff I could buy consistantly and locally were carrots, potatoes, and onions.
This running into backyard, and yanking food out of ground, then washing and then eating it = so much better when it's harder to get.

I've put in seeds for: red peppers, carrots, beans, radishes, lettice, dill, basil, onion and garlic.
Oh, I also received about 120 white corn seeds from another volunteer who has connections. So I prepared myself a cornmaze. It needs about 74 days and I started it on Thursday of last week, so hopefully I'll have corn and a maze on: July 20th, 2009.

Then I also tried to build a chicken home for when my chicks get bigger. (=/, I'm still debating cause raising chicks can be a responsibility...and I have to work and travel and not be home)
We'll have to see. Hopefully they'll learn to take care of themselves by the time I go on my next trip.

Here's some weird looking purple flowers that bloomed about 1 1/2 months ago. Flowers bloom at different times here; weird.

Okay: GAME = FIND THE LETTICE
So, my little patch of lettice has baby lettices too small to make a real salad, but I keep spotting random things of lettice. So, can you guys find them?
It's like seeing Waldo when you don't suspect him. Anyway, that's how my salad is being made for now.
That'll teach them to now grow where they're supposed to!

Lacking pictures of me, but here's a fun tradition to share

I've observed that there has a been a lack of pictures of me recently. I like being in them, but it makes it harder to take them. I'll work on this matter.
Anyway, so this was a few weeks back, on a weekday.
My neighbor's daughter told me that evening that it was tradition on that day that we go find a special type of flower and see if we have luck for the coming year.
So we and her sister with scissor [far-fetcher] (I think that was a name of a poke-mon) went around the area and found these spiky desert like plants, that apparently come from Ireland (someone told me).
We found 5 perfect ones (daughter #1 was the judge), and we prep-ed them together: we cut the spikes on the stem and we trimmed the top off.
The point was to leave it outside on the window sill of your bedroom and if it grew back (the portion we cutt off) then we would have luck the coming year.
On the leaf was the before.
On the dried leaf was the after! =) *knock on wood* *don't count my chickens before they're hatched* But, it looked like I was going to have good luck!
Neighbors had growth too, but mine grew really nicely =)

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.

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.