Christmas Vacation

A wonderful, wintery week in Dresden


Decorating an outside Christmas tree. Putting lights up with a stick is NOT a simple task.


Dancing New Years away with colleagues and friends from Vama.

2nd graders

in conclusion.

Romania is looking at 5 more years of Basescu and an even lower opinion of their country's political system after the conclusion of the recent elections.
Supporters on both sides speculate about vote-stealings, which would theoretically even out the two parties, if both groups stole an equal number of votes. The Economist even commented that the "The campaign was exceptionally dirty." As Christmas approaches and my fellow teachers are more concerned about the extra week of unpaid vacation they are receiving as a "gift" from the government's struggling budget, talk has died down about the election results.
And life keeps happening.

and the next president will be...

Today is the second and final day for Romanian voters to decide their president for the next five years.
The first day of voting narrowed the pool of candidates (many) to two, and today was the decision day.The two candidates are
Basescu, who has been the president for the last five years
Geoana, formerly the foreign minister, and who many believe will bring stability

At 9 o'clock tonight, the exit polls from across the country were counted up and televised. I sat in the living room with Gabi and Ciprian.
One station said Geoana had 51.4%, while Basescu had 48.6% percent.
Another said they both had 50%.
Milica thinks Basescu doesn't have a chance anymore.
ne vedem.

stellar musings

On Saturday I was at the Planetarium in Suceava.
The presenter at the planetarium was a short, merry, bald-on-top man, who wore a wrinkly sweater over his hunched shoulders. After explaining the north star and constellations, he rotated the night sky above us and projected the twelve zodiak constellations one at a time. Taur (bull) Gemini (twins) Rac (crab/cnacer) Leo (Lion)...
The bull connects three stars in a sort of "A" triangle...The crab's pincher's loom in the planetarium sky.
The astrologists who superimposed these images in the night sky were creative in "earthizing" the far-away suns.
How would I "earthize" the stars? I thought.
Maybe, from the 19th of April to the 20th of May, the great cul-de-sac in the sky. From the 20th of May to the 21st of June, you can see the the encased i-pod rising from the setting sun. And from the 21st of June to the 22nd of July, you can see some summer of 69.

Your husband will be...

Saturday was Saint Andrew day here, Sfantul Andrei. There is a tradition for the evening of Sfantul Andrei. A tradition in line with MASH and pulling petals out of flowers.
Mamitza told me about it tonight. On the night of Sfantul Andrei, you must go to the well with a saint's candle from Easter. If you hold that candle over the night-blackened well water, you might see your future husband on the water. But if you see a coffin, you will die before you become married. Mamitza's mother saw a coffin. If you don't see your future husband in the water, you still have a chance to escape from old-maidenhood. You can pray in each of the four corners of a room and then go to bed and you will dream of your future husband. Mamitza dreamt of her future husband this way.
You can also make dough, roll it out and cut it into four squares. Put jam on top of the four squares and close up the dough to make a triangle. Then you boil the triangle in water. I'm sure this sweetcake has an english name but I don't know it. So you do all this work, and then you put the finished products in a circle and give each cake a name of a perspective husband. Next, call your cat over and whatever sweetcake he chooses will be your husband. Mamitza did it when she was 9 years old. But her cat was a scrounger and wasn't hungry by the time Mamitza had finished putting the named sweetcakes in a circle and refused to choose one. Persnickety cats.

voting

This evening me and my work-out buddies were doing "the cobra" and talking about our weekend plans.
me: You want to hike over the mountain between Vama and Gura Humorlui Monastir on Sunday?
S: Sunday? no no. Sunday is voting day!
D: You should come by and see how we do voting in Romania. This room is actually the voting room.
me: How late is the voting open?
D: Until 10 or 11 at night, I think. Either way, people are here until late. haha. Maybe what happened last year will happen again. Remember when those two old ladies came in.
S: hahaha
D: These two old ladies came in and one of them is beginning to become senile. And they went together to vote so that the one could help the other. And the whole room could hear them deciding who to vote for, because the beginning-to-be-senile one talks really loud.
(I realize at this point that I know these two ladies. They're my neighbors)
S: If you're lucky you can come when they are here. haha.