I woke: Snow Surprise! and last day of school!!

Tuesday morning I awoke to snow. It was snowing; soft bits of dust.

All over...

That morning, was the beginning of a long but festive day.
The day before, I went and saw a class give a Christmas presentation to their parents. They dressed in the appropriate Christmas apparel and presented about the history of Christmas in Romania and sang carols.

Then I went to another school and saw more caroling, and dancing goats dancing to the beat of a drum...and they were tall and were made of trash bags...or they can be made of hay.

The next day! That LAST DAY OF SCHOOL! (okay, not my last day, but the kids')
I saw little kindergartners sing and dance!! So cute! and they had to say a poem too but some can't speak well yet, so it was way cute. P.S. That little girl is a goat, and she was a sad sad little goat who wanted out of the costume. Awww. I give her credit for keeping it on (a brave face) until the very end.



Then scary Santa was bashing on the window from outside and came in to give all the kiddies their gift from Santa. In Romania, there's Saint Nicolas who comes and leaves a gift in your boot on the 6th of December, and then there's Santa Clause who comes and leaves a gift under the Christmas tree on the night of the 24th. Ergo, you need a Christmas tree. In general, people here have sobas/ceramic stoves or a heating unit in apartments (no chimneys).

Those were the small kindergartners ages: 3-4.
THEN: I went to Mastacani and I watched 8th graders read an epic poem about Christmas, and I took lots of pictures. More like I gave "trained" students my camera so I could be in the pictures =)


Muahahahah

Then we were playing in the snow =)

I don't even know if the kids had class...maybe it was recess, maybe not, but oh well, I'm not their teacher.


See! Not the photographer! I'm being photographed!


When it got too cold: Run to the Soba! Warmth warmth!

Pictures pictures with all. What would we do without my digital camera?
,

Kapow! In the head! But I still love the kids.

To top it all off:
The teacher's van slid backwards when at the intersection to the highway.

Instead of lending then a hand, I decided to take pictures. Watching teachers and school principles push a van is funny. I'm terrible.

Let the good times begin! -11C tonight! But there's snow!! Hurray!

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!