Saturday, November 25, 2006

This was what a Saturday should always be like. I woke up leisurely at 8:30 (because I’d gone to bed the night before at 9:30). I took a shower, read a little and then found out that language lessons had been cancelled. Melissa’s computer wouldn’t turn on, so we all prayed, and it turned on! Yay! Church is true! I didn’t get an email back from Campus Lane, but I got emails back from 2 other places. One was the Avenues and that one isn’t going to work out and the other was an apartment at Omni, which was probably my seconds choice and which sounds like it could totally work out! I think I’ll wait and try and see if the Campus Lane one works out (because that’s really where my heart lies) and if not, I’ll just go ahead and take the Omni one. I’m not too worried about it being taken before I act, because the girl is going on her honeymoon like, tomorrow and will be gone for like a week. Around 11 Shannon and I went off to run errands for her. She needed to go to Podul first to talk to Abbi. On the way we were both just in the best of moods! The morning had been leisurely, we’d gotten out of the apartment by exactly the time we’d wanted to, the day was gorgeous and everything was looking promising! I made the observation that it was one of those times that everything in your life looks as if it’s going right! Like, I had hopes of getting the best apartment ever, I had hopes of getting glasses and of having a great day and just having everything work out great. I knew that chances were not everything would work out the way I wanted it to, but the great thing about that moment was that nothing hadn’t worked out yet. It was all still intact and life just looked wonderful! I told that to Shannon and was like, “you know what, I could not get the apartment and I could not get my glasses, etc., but right now, I don’t know that I won’t, so I’m just going to take this moment and milk it for all it’s work, because these moments don’t usually last.” It was great. After Podul we went to Hala. While we were getting groceries we heard some kids singing and it sounded live and like it was coming from right upstairs, so we decided to go check in out. By the time we got there the concert was over, but there were kids eeeeverywhere. It was seriously such a happy moment. There we were, standing in this mall with Christmas decorations, freshly hung, all around us with hoards of laughing, screaming kids running all around us. I took some pictures. I’ve definitely learned more about true joy and true pain here than I ever have before. I’m so glad I came! Well, when we got home, Megan and Jess were already back and I took a nap for a little while and then the three of us went over to the Palat to see another one of the museums. We decided to go to the Art History one and I actually really liked it! I think I may even want to go back! I really wish that all of my homework wasn’t on the computer, because one of my favorite things to do is to take my homework and go somewhere special to work on it. And I’d love to be able to just go to that art gallery and sit there and do my homework surrounded by it all. First we looked through all of the international art. I was very impressed, because they had both a Reubens and a Vernet! I was so surprised to see the Vernet, because he is one of my favorite artists and I just totally was not expecting for him to have this random painting here in Iasi! I quite enjoyed that section and wrote down a bunch of paintings that I really liked in my notebook. At the end of the hall they had a section will copies of Greek and Roman sculpture. It was set up like this. If you’re standing there starting at it, there the Dying Gaulle in front of you, athletes on your right and left and then in continues on in a circle, with different gods making up the circle, including the Venus de Milo, and then right in the middle of the circle was the head of Zeus. Pretty cool. They also had a Romanian section. Some of it I didn’t care much for, but there were a few artists who I just looooved. I wrote them down and I hope I can find some of their stuff online or something. Lastly, they had a special exhibition, which opened yesterday, of a Romanian artist named Corneliu Baba who I just looooved. Like, he seriously has to be at least one of my favorite artists! His work is just so stark are real and INTERESTING! Like, every piece I turned to I’d just love. Well, on our way out we ran into Marina and Bri who’d just finished with the Archeology museum. Then I got home, took another nap (J) and then Shannon and I walked to Gima. It was quite the enjoyable walk actually. We talked about music and then when we’d just crossed the street at the foot of the hill we walk up to go to the hospital, we saw this gorgeous pink sunset right above this pink building and it was just so beautiful. We both tried our best to capture it with our cameras, but the lighting was just so that we couldn’t get the coloring quite right. It was either the pink building or the pink sky, but not both L. As we were there snapping shots, a cute old man walked by said something we didn’t understand, pointed up at the sky with his cane and smile and I just tried to say “da” that happiest I could! I could tell he must have been saying something about how beautiful it was and I was so glad that he appreciated it too and wasn’t just annoyed that we were taking pictures. Once we got to Iulius Mall we went looking for a heated blanket. We had great fun looking, but found no blanket. I wish I’d known how nice the mall was before! It really was just as nice as a mall at home and I can’t say that about much of anything here! You could also get so many things so easily! Like, there was a store with school supplies and one with toys and one with books and one like bed bath and beyond and everything! It was amazing to me, because before that I’d always found it sooo hard to find all these ordinary things. We’ll have to pass the tip onto the next group. We also ended up getting shaworma from the food court and sharing a soda. See, they had this adooorable little cokes in these little glass classic bottles with straws. It made us happy. Finally we went to Gima and I got stuff for the peach cobbler I’m making for our Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow and stuff that I plan to take home with me. We took a taxi home and then couldn’t get in, so we sat on the step to wait for someone to open the door to the building. While we were sitting there we starting talking about the taxi ride and Romanian driving and the fact that it’s rude to wear a seat belt. Well, Shannon got offended at something I said, and it surprised me, because I wasn’t meaning to be offensive and I said so. Well, since Shannon and I have this whole friendship thing well enough worked out, we didn’t get in an argument, but instead had another session of psychoanalyzing Sheri. It was fascinating! Really, we have deconstructed so much about me since being here and I love it! Listen to this. We’ve decided that my personality and my mind do not go together! Let me explain. See, my mind is incredibly logical and analytical and causes me to be great at math and great at debating and such things. I am so logical and analytical that I analyze everything and just feel the need to be logical about even the tiniest of things. It’s a part of me and I hate it and love it at the same time. On the other hand, my personality is a combination of free spirited adventurism. I’m incredibly curious and enthusiastic, artistic and carefree. This is not the case with most people. Most people that are very logical and analytical are very strict and square in everything they do and they fit a certain type. They may debate all the time, but since this is their personality, people expect it of them and it doesn’t tend to be much of a problem. Most people that are very carefree and free spirited do not tend to be intensely logical. They are artsy and more concerned with emotion than logic. That is not to say they are not intelligent, no, they are just two different kinds of intelligent. They rarely get in arguments either because, well, they just don’t feel the need to argue things, or if they do it is only because one of those really analytical people forced them into it. This combination of the two makes me one conflicted person – something I’ve always known but that I’ve never known the “why” of. In everything I do I have these two sides of me pulling me opposite directions. For example, while one part of me will whole heartedly want to just spend a day doing whatever in the world comes into my mind, the other part of me has this intense desire to make a list, or a schedule, and follow it religiously. As a result, I am rarely satisfied. That also explains why I want to be a writer and yet am so much more skilled at something like math, though I have no desire to go into math. Now let me explain why that makes it so that I tend to get in arguments with people over stupid things. See, the analytical side of my mind makes me very observant and causes me to ponder a lot of things. A lot of the time, I’ll bring up something I’m pondering about and get in a discussion about it with the person I am with. If they disagree, that’s fine with me, but I’m so logical that I feel the need to debate it from a strictly logical standpoint. I am not upset, I’m just going through the motions. Usually at the beginning of these discussions, the person I’m talking with is totally fine and has no problem with anything. At some point, however, it turns into a debate. They usually don’t notice the transition, but they generally notice at some point that somehow we’ve arrived at a debate. One of the reasons that they don’t notice the debate until we’re right in the middle of it is because I’m so carefree and curious that it resembles the other side of my personality because it sounds like I’m just being curious. Well, anyway, at some point all of a sudden the fact that we’re in a debate suddenly hits them and they become disoriented. People aren’t used to having to deal with the two different kinds of people at the same time and so they don’t know what to do. If I were just the carefree kind of person, the conversation wouldn’t be offensive, because it wouldn’t be taken as serious or important or what have you. If I were just the logical kind of person, it would be expected and non threatening, but when it’s a mix of the two people don’t know what it is or how to react and yeah. Yeah, I’m sure it makes a whole lot more sense to me. But seriously, what a cool thing to figure out! Yeah, I’ve always known I was different. Anyway, so later in the night I cooked my peach cobbler for tomorrow. Shannon was in the room cooking too and she introduced me to one of her favorite bands, “Indigo Girls” who I’d heard of but never listened to and who I think I really like. While I was listening, Marina and Abbi came over to use the phone and I chatted a little with them and used the computer!