The Shed

Okay, so I don't have the initial pictures, but I have the final pictures of the shed.

However, I can no longer deny the world Calvin and my masterpiece, so here you are:

Shed

Frame was laid out, and filled with pea gravel- bags and bags of rocks.

Wooden panels fit over the graveled base.

Shed was partially assembled on the grass.

Shed was dragged over with the help of strong friends!

Cinder blocks used to help prop the edge of base

Replacement parts, this time non -broken, correct colored parts

The ceiling is in!!

Finishing up the shingles in the cold cold night. We saw the moon, the stars and our breath.

Windows got installed =) Fancy.

Last task: doors, and the thing broke...........

the end.

I'm in Phili!!

I didn't eat any cheese steak, but I did have pizza for dinner. The flights were fine, it was mostly sunny, puffy clouds, and decent pilots, we even got a movie and NBC sitcoms. There were interesting landscapes from the air. I saw lots of mining - looked like alien crop marks.

I took a shuttle from the airport to the hotel: Sheraton Hotel - which is pretty nice. Our shuttle driver was a really great tour guide too, he told us lots of historical and interesting facts about everything in the city!

There's lots of brick buildings and lots of refineries in this flat city. It's drizzling, but it's no colder than SJ.

I don't know why I'm so tired, because in PT it's only 7:40pm, but I am pooped.
Calvin and I stayed up last night until 12:30am working on that garden shed, and after I took my shower and packed up my stuff, it was too late to sleep.
Thanks to Rubi and Katie, I was able to stay up until my flight departed.

I was sorta of sad that Calvin would rather sleep than see me off to the airport, and I was sad that mom dropped me off and didn't short term park and hang out with me until my departure time. It was a very abrupt goodbye, which in a way was good because I was close to tears. It's scary! I'm leaving!
I'm terrible at goodbyes, so it was a good thing that I had a short farewell.

After trying to maneuver around the airports with all my 2 years worth of supplies, I admit I packed too much. Nevermind, all this stuff can be useful, it's heavy!
I was also sore from working on that shed all the day before, and not sleeping, and being sunburned too.

After I was dropped off at the hotel, 2 other girls also doing Peace Corps were on that shuttle and we got our rooms together. I met Sarah and Jackie. On that shuttle also was a gentleman named Richard. I found out Sarah was my roommate and the 3 of us went to our rooms and met up a few minutes to get dinner.

Not much happened after except we decided to hang out tomorrow and see a bit of Phili in the morning, and I got internet! and a shower!!

Going to pass out now. Night!

Time Zone difference

I looked online and the difference between Bucharest (capital of Romania) and San Jose (my hometown) is 10 hours.

I will be 10 hours ahead.

So, examples:
If you want to call me in Bucharest from 8pm-10pm, you have to call 10am-12pm in CA time.
If you want me to call you in CA from 8pm-10pm, I'll have to call from 6am-8am in Bucharest.

Remember, I will be 10 hours ahead, so add 10 hours to your day to get my time.

1 week and 1 day!

I've turned in my senior project.
I don't know if I have jury duty at this point.
I have 1 week and 1 day left.
It may be time to start packing.

My safety deposit is still not returned to me: ~$700 worth of deposit. I don't know why, and my old landlord has not called me back. I've called 3 times this last month, also nagging. I even showed up at their doorstep in SLO.

People in college owe me all kinds of stuff like books, and dvds, but I don't have the...stamina to nag them too.

If people gave back what they borrowed, without having to be reminded, I wouldn't feel like such a bad guy. Ew to them!

Jury duty denies last goodbyes

I was planning on going down to SLO for the trical party, but that was changed due to Chinese New Year plans.
Then I was going to go down to SLO because I was informed that there was a goodbye party for me and lots of my SLOw friends would be there, but now that has to change too due to jury duty.

Of all the days Monday-Friday my group number gets posted, of course my number gets saved until Friday. I can't even do jury duty because I have to leave for Romania.

My guess: the world doesn't want me to say goodbye to SLO friends now they have to come visit me in Romania to obtain "closure," I could get into a scary accident on my way back up due to exhaustion which will prevent me from going to Peace Corps, or I dunno.

If all had worked out the way I wanted life to work out: Friday, I would have driven down to SLO to attend my surprise party because I would have reported for jury duty earlier that week, Saturday, I would be at the trical party saying goodbye to all my trical friends and hanging around to get my well earned duffel bag with my name em bordered on it, and Sunday I would be with my family celebrating Chinese New Year and eating lots and lots of food and my little sister would have flown in from San Diego to be there too.

*gar* All is ruined! Oh well. moving on.

Cultural experience at the supermarket

Today I went shopping at an Asian supermarket for food supplies for Chinese New Year. It was crowded, and it was early shopping too! With buying food stuff for Chinese New Year, the food has to be as fresh as possible, so you almost have to procrastinate for some items. I bought a whole chicken, a fish, flour, oil, candy, and more, for dinner on Thursday.

On this expedition:
-someone stole my cart! (yes! I turned around, luckily lifting my purse out of the cart first, to ask a shelver if they had more corn oil in stock, and I turned back around, and my cart was gone!) I was peeved. I peered left and right and couldn't find the culprit. Later as I was wandering about with all my new groceries in arms, I found my old groceries dumped out on a shelf. *garrrr that unkind shopper!* That person ruined the spirit of Chinese New Year! I know kindness and honesty may not be the first attributes that come to mind for Chinese New Year, but we should still continue practicing them.

-I helped an old lady, and she gave me her reject chicken. *glares*
A short old Chinese lady (shorter than I) wanted a chicken, but the guy didn't understand Chinese and her head was below the top of the meat cooler, so she was hard to see. Well, I got the guy's attention and pointed out the chicken that she wanted. He lifted out the chicken, wrapped it up and gave it to us. I told the lady that that was her chicken, and she pretended to not hear me or understand me!! She saw that he was looking at her now and asked for a different chicken. I didn't even see the chicken I ended up with, because what else was I supposed to do?! I took the reject chicken.

-I later got a basket to hold my stuff, and as I was in the middle of a long line, I remembered that I needed to get one more item, so I asked the guy in front of me to watch my stuff. He shrugged like "whatever" and when I came back, was I not surprised? to see my basket shoved off to the side no longer in line?

My calm place? mommy let me buy a whole pack of Chinese New Year candy for myself. Comfort food.

People often tell me that I'm too "white," and that I need to learn to be more "Asian" especially when shopping for groceries. Mostly by my mom and sister. I'm a little scared of Romanian grocery shopping now. I hope I'm not a pushover, but I also hope I'm not too overbearing. I'm having cultural problems in the states, there's less than 2 weeks until I leave.

I can be a better Asian shopper, I think. I just need practice. In my defense, there were no Asian supermarkets in SLO.

Sitting at home

Not a whole lot going on. Semi packing items for my trip, experiencing bouts of enthusiasm of learning about Romania. I am really excited, but there's stuff at home to keep me busy, people I want to visit, and lots and lots of library books to free my imagination! I love books, in case you didn't realize this.

Buna (boon-nah) = hello
Noapte buna (no-apt-aiy boon-nah)= good night
Ma cheama Cynthia (mah ke-ham-ma ------)= My name is Cynthia


And FYI: I love getting mail =D
-Emails
-Package mail
-and mailbox mail
p.s. I'm terrible at initial mail, but I'm great at responding (so you might get mail in your box too!)