Upon the suggestion of my roomate Deborah the Great

Reasons why I am better than my roomate:
1. The bus ticket lady will sell me tickets. She only yells at Deborah
2. I don't have a crush on a boy with a girl name
3. I don't have shoes shaped like an alligator
4. I can wake up in the morning
5. I go to morning prayer regularly
6. I can fix things like our shower
7. I don't wear big hoop earings

Reasons Deborah is better than me.
1. She goes to two Bible studies and I only go to one
2. She can light our gas stove properly. I just turn on the gas and from a distance throw a lighted match at the fumes.
3. She empties the garbage more than me and washes the floor more than me.
4. She knows more Romanian than me
5. She reads big-kid books like Great Expectations and I read kids novels
6. She doesn't bite her nails
7. She is nicer and gentler and kinder than me

Good Things I have learned from Deborah
1. That I actually like green peppers and onions
2. To listen to music that is not mainstream
3. How to sweep carpet

Aggressive and Careful

I have an overactive imagination. Especially when I am walking (which I do alot) I make up these big stories in my head and often they are worst case scenario's. Heres the worst case scenario from two days ago:

Nikki gets hit by a car while crossing the road to her apartment and breaks all the bones in her body.
Would she be able to fly home to recuperate?
Would one of her parents have to come here to help her recover? But neither of them have passports! They'd have to get rush passports. And I dont want my parents to come to Romania they would get scared and not be able to manage. Maybe they could send Bethany. But she would have to leave highschool for a few weeks. And after I get out of the hospital how would I get to my apartment. We live on the first floor and the elevator door is bolted shut for the first floor. Who could I get to talk to the supervisor to unbolt the elevator door so I can use it? Who speaks Romanian and could do that? Then would the rest of first floor hate me because now we would have to pay an elevator fee? I dont wan't Deborah to have to take care of me. I could get Jill Clark and Mrs. Smith to take care of me. They wouldn't mind. And if all my bones are broken I cant work - do I still get support money from the church? Thats not really fair to give me money if I am not working... But it is my salary and people get sick and miss work all the time. And how would Deborah tell my parents that I got hit by a car!!! They would flip out. How can she explain that in order to cross the road you really just have to walk out into the middle of traffic. How can she explain that I had to be agressive and careful at the same time? Who would teach sixth grade? No one is going to want to come teach in Romania for just three months. Who would supply teach? What would my students do without me. I'm a fun teacher I dont want them to have to do boring lessons. Would I still have to plan lessons for the substitute teacher? I dont want to plan super fun lessons and then not get to do them with my students? How far do I have to heal before I can get back to Canada? And what about Karmyns wedding. Its the first wedding I ever get to be a part of. And I practically hooked them up. I want to wear the pretty dress. I dont care what people will tell me going down the aisle in a wheel chair will be no fun. Especially if I have to walk back down the aisle with Ben's brother who already is 4 feet taller than me. I want to dance at her wedding. Maybe when I start physio therapy (I hope I dont have that creepy physio-thearapist I had in highschool) I can tell her/him that I am determined to be able to walk by June 10 for a wedding. THEN I can let everyone think I am still stuckin the wheel chair but when it comes time for me to go down the aisle I can 'miraculously' stand up and walk down the aisle. I might need canes though. Maybe I can paint them the same color as the dress and tape flowers and ribbons to them so they look nice. I might fall over in the middle of the ceremony though. That would be embarrassing. But I'll dance to at least some of the songs.

I think thats all the rambling I did. BUT just incase you were ever wondering - those are the things I would have to think about if I ever did get hit by a car and break all the bones in my body.

There is a woman on the street that our school is on who has a really cute dog.
I like it.
Then today I found out its name is Nikki.

I'm a hypocrite

In regards to the previous post about dogs.

On Sunday I was making my way home from an afternoon with friends when a dirty little mut pup came up to me. This dog was probably only about 3 or 4 weeks old and was very.... cute. I'll admit that I was taken with the pup and I bent down and petted it.

But it didn't end there.

The pup had a shoelace tied around his neck and as much as I hate the street dogs I didn't feel good about letting this pup wander the streets of Bucharest with a string tied around its neck. So I untied the string. Then it followed me almost all the way to the subway jumping against my legs, falling over and just being really really cute. Eventually it stopped and left me alone.

So I dont totally hate dogs.

Doggies

Romania has alot of dogs. Not nice house or yard dogs, but just DOGS. Dogs that are everwhere. There actually is a pack of twenty wild street dogs that live across the road from me in an abandoned lot. I've often wondered why Romania has so many street dogs and why nothing is done about them. There are two answers.

1. Bridget Bordeaux. This woman, a french actress is an animal rights activist and whenever Romania wants to do a round up of the stray dogs (who are not nice and are quite dangerous) she butts her long stuck-up french nose in and advocates for the rights of these mangy dogs. These mangy dogs that bite people and poop all over the sidewalk.

2. Communism. When Ceaucescu (the former Communist leader of Romania) was in power, he tore down pretty much the entire city to make way for the more effective 'blok' appartments. People were forced out of their homes and were forced to leave their house pets stranded. They were angry about this, but fought back by continuing to feed the dogs that roamed around their neighbourhood. NOW whenever there is a threat of 'purging' the street dog population, people take the frighteningly scary dogs into thir homes to protect them. When the threat has passed, after the dogs have ruined their homes, torn apart their furniture, pooped on every surface possible and bitten at least three visitors, they release the dogs to the streets once again.

You may be thinking 'woah Nikki they are just dogs calm down. I thought you liked dogs. I like dogs I'm on that Bridget-whats-her-face's side. We should protect animals. One of the mandates God gave us was to care for the animals he created."

I cannot describe to you my strong sentiments about the wild dogs living on the streets here. Their sheer size and number is enough to make anyone afraid of them and last week one of these dogs killed a man! These dogs bite and this dog bit a man who was walking down a busy street in Bucharest. The dog bit the wrong spot and the man bled to death. Should these dogs be allowed to roam the street? I dont think so.

Today three of these street dogs - three of the many I walk past every day, tried to attack me. Unluckily I did not have my pepper spray with me. Luckily I knew that if I pretended to bend down to pick up a rock to throw at them they would get scared and run away. I also yelled at them pretty loudly too. But it was still scary to see three big mangy dogs tearing down the street after me.

What do you think? Are you on the 'Bridget Bordeauxian team' or a 'Nikki-get-rid-of-the-dogs team"?

Different Childhoods.

Last night I had a crash course in the differences between an Canadian/American childhood in the 90's and an Eastern European childhood.

It was Deborahs birthday yesterday and so in celebration some Romanian friends from church invited themselves over for the evening. While we were talking my friend Chip told me the following story.

"When I was eleven, you know, right after the revolution my friend and I would collect the stray bullets that were all over the street and then we would throw them in the fire. And of course they would... Explode. Once we threw one in the fire and it exploded and it shot my friend in the leg!!!! hahahaha. That was so funny. We were so stupid."

My response.

"Thats crazy! Did he have to go to the hospital? I just used to pretend my bike was a horse I never did anything crazy like that!"

Deborahs response.

"Of course you didn't! Did you grow up during a revolution? You never had stray bullets on the street to play with!"

I knew that growing up in two different countries under two different governments we would have different experiences, but this was the first time I actually realized that we REALLY DID have totally different childhoods.

I miss The Chief

and

La'Shownda

The New Love of my Life

I have a new love. Not that Sully has been replaced by any means... I've just added a new love.

Decorating Shows and Magazines.

Anything that has to do with decorating.

Anything that starts with "800 ways to use a _______ " (coffeefilter, old veggie bag, coaster, egg shell etc.)

Anything that takes wierd things like stones and soap and makes the most beautiful centerpiece ever seen.

Anything that uses regular household items to make the most awesome headboard ever.

Anything that takes old junk, refinishes it, and/or turns it into something else. Like a coffeetable into a chandelier - I saw it, it was amazing.

Hanging with Jim Carrey

The last month or so has been a really hard month for me. I have been missing the sunshine which affects my Vitamin D levels, which we know affects our moods. Basically I have been having a rough time finding joy and beauty in life. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for me.

Every once in a while though, something will make me laugh. Hysterically. I had a good laugh last night - for about five hours, and I am feeling much better about myself, life, work and living in Romania.

Deborah and I threw a surprise birthday part for a friend from church. A friend that we really only have hung out with outside of church once - so it was a great surprise when Deborah and I - of all people, organized and executed a fairly large surprise 21st birthday party. We had a lovely dinner and played games all night. We were very lucky that one of the people that was invited - someone we never met, was the Romanian Jim Carry. Just think about hanging out with Jim Carrey for 6 hours.... he seriously was. I laughed and laughed and laughed and afterwards all I could say was 'wow! that was alot of hilarity. I'm tired. wow!" Games are a great way to bring people together - especially groups of people where different languages are being spoken. It was funny though too because everyones talking at once, in English and Romanian and sometimes you dont know whats going on, but from expressions and tone of voice you can guess.

I had a good night. I love making new friends. I love funny people. I love my roomate. I love parties. I love games. I love being hospitable and welcoming people to my home.