You Can't Alway Get What You Want....

But if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need. The Rolling Stones obviously knew what they were singing about there. Since moving to Europe, I now understand why people nearly kill themselves, and risk everything they have to get to the U.S. It's not for our "freedoms" - most emmigrants never vote, they could care less about politics. No, what they love about the U.S. is they fact that they can make un-godly amounts of money, own a "Big" house, a new car, have more than enough food, cheap utlitlies, and the convenience of Wal-Mart.

See here, you can't find everything at one place - you have to literally WALK all over the city to get everything on your list. The cost of living is almost the exact same amount of your monthly income, thereby making it impossible to make a better life. House and apartments are tiny and cramped. Even the "BIG" houses here are small compared to what you find in the older average 1500 sq.ft. house back home. Yeah, my thoughts exactly. At least that is how it is in Romania. Water and electricity is outrageous. Don't think about leaving water running even when bathing. You get in the tub, turn the water on, hose down, turn water off. Lather up, wash good! Turn water on, rinse, turn water off, get out!

Romania is one of those countries that didn't fare well post communism. Economically it has NEVER recovered, and the fall was 20 years ago Dec. 1st of this year. There are still horse drawn carts that are used, even in the larger cities you can even see warning signs posted next to speed limit and other traffic signs. See the photo at the top of the blog.

You can buy fresh cheese, meaning, no preservatives, chemicals, colorants, etc. You can get fresh meat, from animals that were not fed chemicals. Fresh eggs, bread, sour cream yogurt, etc., etc. That is the wonderful thing about this country. The bad thing is that there is zero common sense, manners or customer service here. When standing in the checkout lane at the market, you will get pushed with the buggy of the person behind you. Or if they don't have a buggy they stand right on top of you, and when the person in front of you moves half a step, you better moved, cause that person behind you is going to push you. It irritates the mess out me, and in these circumstances it works out well that I have a language barrier, cause otherwise I think I'd loose my Christianity! One of my pet peeves - invading personal space. The cashiers are rude, people walking on the street are rude. If you buy the wrong size of something - oh well you are stuck with it! Don't get me started on the Post Office - that is a whole other can of worms.

The people of Romania have a giving nature when they know you, or find out your an "AMERICANO", however the 40+ years of living under a dictator made them hard, cynical and un-trusting, and the fact that the Roma, a.k.a. Gypsies are constantly ripping people off, stealing, etc. doesn't help matters either.

There will be many more posts about my ex-pat life in Romania soon. All in all, this is a BEAUTIFUL country, with much promise, and a lot of good hearted people. Like anything, the country and people of Romania just need a little TLC to help restore them to their former beauty!

Conspiracy Theories

Okay, it must be stated, I am said Conspiracy Theorist the media warns you about. I have my doubts about the truth given us regarding 9/11 and other terrible events. I believe that the media is controlled by an elite group of people, who are power and money hungry, and will do whatever they want to keep society "in line". Lord Acton said "Power Corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely". I don't believe truer words were ever spoken.

There are several excellent "movies" out, that uncover what most of us have been led to believe. You can them on YouTube. One of them is called "The Obama Deception". It does a lot more than just attack Obama, it goes further back, it attacks Bush as well, probably not as much as most people would like, but you can't get everything you want in one place - which gives me an idea for my next blog.... but I digress. The other movie is called Zeigeist. Now about Zeigeist, I will say that I don't believe a word of what they say in regards to Christianity. Most of us know that Christ wasn't born on Dec. 25th, that Constantin instituted that to bring in the pagans so they would quit causing problems for the Roman Catholic church. And that too is a thought for another blog.

One thing that is interesting to note, is that in the Romanian newspapers, 2 weeks prior to 9/11, they printed that ALL U.S. Embassies would be closed on 9/11/01. I know this for a fact, because my husband saw it in the paper [Romanian]. And yes, I am one of those who believe that we are in fact in the last days that the birth pangs Christ spoke of are getting stronger, and if I understand the scriptures correctly, all that needs to happen is for the Anti-Christ to set himself up in the reconstructed Temple and declare himself God and the Tribulation begins. For all the pre-trib rapture believers out there, I will provide scripture and pose questions to you in regards to that, as I am more of a mid, towards the end of the trib believer. Again, for another post.

The "Joys" of Marriage

I hear what almost sounds like a chain-saw going off. My first thought is "MAN it's late" - it's 11 p.m. here. But alas, it is not the annoying neighbors who are constantly working on their antiquated pre-communist era home, nor is it the ones who live above me, that for some odd reason only fight in the pre-dawn hours of the morning, who I can't understand what they are saying. Which I must say, the language barrier actually helps in this instance! hehehehe!

But, no, the sound is coming from my beloved husband. He is passed out after a hard day of work, both physically and mentally! His current "boss" is this insane old woman who doesn't know what she wants, and doesn't want to pay for anything. N-E-Way, so there he is, the love of my life, chopping logs, and occasionally talking to said logs!