Re-entering the Blogosphere

Sapte mane! This is my new favourite Romanian greeting, it means 'Kiss your hand' and apparently it has the ability to make Romanian mothers swoon.

Its been a while since I have blogged and I thought it was about time I got my nerd on. Its been a very good week indeed. Last weekend involved a very trendy band with a ridiculous name, 'We Have Band'. Despite being electro-ish,very NME and not normally my cup of tea, I actually thought they were very good. There are three members, two guys and a girl whose only job was to shake maracas, like a prettier version of Bez. Heres a clip:

uk.youtube.com/watch?v=LCet7l4-VgU

The video has been made on a budget of 4 to 5 pounds, 5.50 at most and is rubbish, but the song is good. I'm looking forward to being able to out-indie people, "Don't you know We Have Band? I saw them in a club in Bucharest, don't you know." Mmmm, pretentious. Maybe I could go to Po Na Na and be embraced like a brother, I could belong! Somehow I doubt I ever will.

This is Dan Fagg (stop giggling), a true Manc, who hates United, spends his working days looking at technical diagrams of toilet cubicles and is an all round good apple. He's also a co-owner of the a grey hound with a hundred percent record; go on, put your mortgage on her. After the band, he began talking to a "chunky" (not my description) Swede and her Romanian friend. He convinced them both back to his flat. We started to play what Dan calls as musical tennis. The Swede put on Britney Spears, Dan put on some indie, I played my noise, a good time was being had, until the Romanian girl stepped up and put on some really depressing acoustic business, you know the sort, some guy with dreadlocks crying. I'll stick to emo crying thank you very much. It killed the mood a bit. Dan tried his best with the Swede, but alas to no result. I've also just played him at Brian Lara cricket, my joy at scuttling him for 120 odd was soon subdued as I battled to a valiant 84 all out. Had a nice drink on Sunday with a work friend in a cafe that was owned by a famous Romanian actor. The whole place is a vanity project, pictures of him cover every inch of wall space and other big players on the Romanian theater scene have wrote messages saying how wonderful he is.

I was introduced to Dan (and most other people I know here) by Saira, who I am very grateful too and I thought I should say. In writing as well!

The official observation went pretty well despite my best efforts to mess it up. I left the plan I had worked on for hours on the desk at school. The CD didn't work so I had to read out the script with the person who was supposed to be observing me. Despite this I managed to get rated as 'Very Good' which I was delighted with. I spent the day strutting around like the prettiest girl at the dance. However, the very next lesson I was brought straight back to earth as I drew on a white board in what turned out to be a permanent marker. Now Petrom's conference room will have a line diagram of the Present Perfect Tense forever with them. They never did say thank you.

Now I have bored you for a while, let me know how you are getting on, which is much more important and interesting.

much love x

It Turns Out TEFL is a Job

I was up at 6 this morning, as I am every morning (check me out). I left the house at 7, I got home at half past nine. Lessons were finished by 10.00 so the rest of the day was solid, unadulterated lesson planning. This is mainly, but not solely, due to my formal observation tomorrow, which is drawing close. I'm nervous as I don't know what the standards are. The observer is an English lady called Serina. She is a big fan of getting the students up and making them move around. So my students are in for a shock when they arrive and are told that there are various slips of coloured paper stuck around the room for them to find. I'll be glad when it's all over. Thanks to being in the office until late, I think at least a few people, now think I'm a sad workaholic who avoids going home as he would only sit around in his underwear, eating shit and dreaming of another full day in the office. Which I suppose from the workaholic and dreaming stuff isn't to far from the truth.

Staying late has its advantages. I got to see Robert which is always a joy. With in minutes he was mouthing obscenity about various female members of staff and was throughly enjoying telling me how weak English swear words were. He was a former teacher at the school and he is returning solely to teach one student, a friend of his. Robert claims the only reason his friend wants him as a teacher is so he can tell Robert to 'suck it'.

Weekend was good. Involved something called a bucket bong, which involves (unsurprisingly) a bucket half filled with water and a 2l bottle of water with the base cut off. The science behind it was incredible. Played some poker, did shockingly badly, didn't win a single hand.

Had some more Romanian lessons (more coming later) and its going ok. It has made me worry about my memory, It's unbelievable how quickly I can forget something.

I hope everything is rosey with you. I'm off to watch Obama's inauguration day, you can't help but feel inspired.

love love love

One More of Lifes Little Dreams Fulfilled

What's that you're holding Mark? I'm surprised you can't guess but well, I tell you. It is my business card. Yeah, you heard. Having my social class rise this quickly over the space of one afternoon has been frankly dizzying.

Bucharest has had a bit of snow. The surrounding area is deeply snowed in and tv even claimed its been -30C in some parts, though pollution has ensured we have missed the worst of it. Lessons have been fine. I managed to include charlton legend, Carl Leaburn (my blog profile picture is of big Carl) into one lesson, this will mark the humble start of missionary work. I get officially observed next week which I'm actually pretty scared about. Been out a few times. One night ended in a bloody mess when a friend, who will remain nameless, managed while dancing on a table to teenage kicks to slice up his hand on a number of glasses, rock and f*cking roll. Met a colleague of mine to go to the cinema. We met by a statue. She was curious who the statue was for. Unfortunately the name was covered by a wreath, so she attempted to pull it back to read it. The wreath didn't move so when attempting to move it, she came away holding the centre of the wreath in her hand. After quickly discarding it, we made a quick get away. Can't the war dead rest in peace?

This is the sort of tomfoolery that the citizens of Bucharest indulge in to celebrate christmas.
uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uz9QN9zP24Q

I hope everything in your worlds are happy and dandy.

i dragoste tu x

Back In Bucharest

After a lovely Christmas break I have made my return to Bucharest and it's nice to be back. The flight was uneventful but you can normally rely on a Bucharest taxi driver to liven up your day. He was a massive guy who didn't speak as much English as he thought, since starting this job I know how he feels. He shouted abuse about his ex-wife, the hussy now lives in Italy, and then asked me if I liked "wesslink". He knew I was confused when I just laughed and said 'yes, very nice'. Turns out he meant wrestling. He demonstrated what he meant by, pointing to his cauliflower ears and then by flexing his arms and insisting that I felt his muscles. He repeated this at every red light we stopped at. I tried to stop this but he was very insistent. I made a joke about how small my arms are and he just looked at me with contempt. I might have to go and beef up and then hang around the airport. After establishing that he could destroy me at will he virtually threw me out of the door.

Went to meet a few people in the evening which was good, ended up being out much later than I thought, and with the early start for the flight, it meant being awake for 24 hours which I paid for on Sunday.

Slipped back into work without to much difficulty. On Monday it was great to see people again, though it was clear that mentally we were all still on holiday. I've learnt that Romanian Christmas isn't too far separated from ours, it also involves eating an obscene amount, though its all boiled and wrapped in vine leaves, apparently. Its warmer here than at home and the Russians haven't cut off my gas so happy days indeed. This is just a quick post as my internet connection has died, so forgive me if it takes longer to reply to any message. I'm back in the internet cafe, they have switched the music from gangster rap to mtv. Songs are released a bit later here than at home, Katy Perry is still kissing girls, but don't worry its innnaaaaaccceeennnnntttttt.

Happy new year