In which she rambles

Whoa! After the half marathon on sunday we had PT for training on monday. Mmm ... This involved hanging on campus board, conditioning (pull-ups, push-ups, crunches) and yes! running 5 km ... I mean cmon! It was horrible! the whole day yesterday I literally dragged my feet and I had to go home around 4 to sleep because I could not take it anymore :) I'm back though, today is climbing training and tomorrow night after my late class I will do some stairs climbing cum heavy backpack. Yey!! For PT I did not do pull ups because I am still afraid that my elbow will pop out, but i did reasonably well for campusboard hangs and for some of the routes Alvin gave us (for one of them i couldn't even start though)... Alvin is our new training supervisor, he's kinda stiff, doesn't seem to understand our way of training and joking but i think/hope we'll break him in soon :))

Work related stuff: I have been very very busy ... I will be buying my plane ticket soon and I still haven't told my supervisor that i am leaving for one month and a half ... There's this guy that is sleeping in the lab and that snoops around desks ... I really hate that, so i'm planning a very very nasty joke for him, something in the lines of building a robot and leaving it on my desk and when he comes too close maybe the robot says something and sends an email to everybody in the lab :)) or only to me and him :) Geekish revenge, what can I say?

Also, wouldn't it be nice if fat was like dark matter? Still weighing but invisible? So we could all be slim but still weigh our god given mass? How cool is that? But then again people would not be able to hug each other :)) everybody will have an invisible boundary from which other people would bounce :))

This is a picture from one of the last routes i climbed in Romania. I'm posing such that I scare my mom (silly me). We had to do this route two times because the first time the wind blew my chalk bag away and M. wanted to go back and get it. I didn't, because I have my new colorful chalk bag that i won for boulderactive and I wanted to use it but couldn't because i was feeling remorseful towards my old one (!!), so losing the old one would have been the perfect excuse :)) I am stuck now with my old one, but it's ok, we've been through a lot together.

Army half

Just a short post because my feet are aching a bit [no, I am not writing with them, but still]. Competed in the army half marathon today (that is 21 km to you). Woke up at 3:45 am to get there around 4:30 am. Race started at 05:30 am. I never stopped, which is an improvement from my lonely runs. There were so many people running next to me that it was embarrassing to stop, so thank you all. There was this short guy that kept on sprinting then walking, sprinting and walking, what a silly way to waste energy ...

The first lady finished in about one hour and a half (according to Marian) and I finished roughly in 1h 55mins. Pretty reasonable considering I was aiming for 2hrs 30 mins. Congrats to everybody there, especially those veterans .. There was this granny-like woman that finished in front of me, respect man!

[Granny like woman ... sheesh! I think I need some food and a lot of sleep]

Before and after

You gotta love those before and after pics. They always show a [very] ugly before pic and an extremely nice after version. It's never the other way around even though it would be a more realistic approach. So, here's my before and after pic. Notice the hair man, the hair!!! My hair was a lot of trouble while climbing and mountaineering so i decided that it was time to chop! chop! It's much easier to take care of it now ... even though in the mornings I look like a punker :) I will post a picture soon :).

The story part III. The giant

Now of course it was NOT my desire to spend the following perfect days hauling equipment from base camp to Zermatt and then traveling to Chamonix, France. In Zermatt I went to the guides' office and ask if Matterhorn is climbable. As you can see from the photo it is almost completely white, which apparently means that it's not climbable, especially by novice mountaineer intermediate climber like myself (seems the problem is not getting up, even if there are around 1200 m of climbing, but getting down, because you cannot find the rappel points in the snow). This left me in tears outside the office, but let's not talk about this now ... [Did you know that Dufourspitze costs 400 euros to climb with a guide!? Not including a preparation climb which you have to do before, which is around 200 euros ... Matterhorn is around 1000 euros to climb!!]

Thus we decided that Mont Blanc (4808m, the highest in the Alps) will be doable - it being covered in snow is no biggie, unless there's avalanche risk - so we had to leave for Chamonix. Proposed route: again, start from 2300 m, go higher than the Gouter refuge (3800m), camp there and then in the same night attempt the peak. The slope is much much more steep and our backpacks were nearly as heavy because our stove was misbehaving so we had to carry water to save some time on the cooking (we had to melt snow otherwise). Plus at one point you have to cross a slope from one rocky point to another and there are rocks that fall from above, which means that you literally have to run for it and you are wearing crampons and your heavy backpack. Then it's just climbing, sometimes using ice axe but always with crampons (even though you are rock climbing).

We arrived in the camp around three. M. started building a wall to protect the tent from the fierce wind, and I started cooking! Yey!! It took me about one hour, one hour and a half to get the water boiling, and then M. around two hours to make the tea for the night ascent. Which means that, instead of eating two times (once to replenish our lost energy on that horrendous climb and once for the climb ahead) we only ate once.






We woke up around one thirty am, had some tea and some horrible cookie (too sweet) and manage to leave the tent around two. We were so drained of energy that the first slope up the Dome du gouter (4302m - we climbed it on the descent from Mont Blanc) got that horrible cookie flowing upstream, which made me really dizzy. When I saw two spanish climbers turning back though, and thought at what they must be feeling I decided that I didn't want to feel like that and moved on! Yey!!



There were a lot of people ahead of us, but because of the wind they decided to wait in the Valois refuge (4400m i think), which got us around the first ten on the summit around six o'clock!! There were some nice steep and sharp ridges to climb but after the dufourspitze one, they seemed so easy...

We spent around twenty minutes on the summit (the wind was very fierce) and then around nine we were back in the tent. We fell asleep as we were, I was wearing my harness, my sunglasses, gore-tex suit, everything except rope and boots :) We woke up around twelve and by five we were down at the train station at 2300m waiting for the train for Houches, then into a supermarket for some cheese and bread [mmmmm] then to the camping site and then to sleep!!! Whoa!!


The next day we went to visit Chamonix. I liked it much much better than Zermatt. Maybe it's the latin feeling or something ... but I just loved it. And all the equipment stores!!! Omg ... there were in Zermatt also but very expensive ... here they were quite reasonable ... mmmm ... Didn't buy anything, except some tshirts and a pair of merrell shoes that were on sale and unfortunately too small for me in the end ... alas ...

The story part II. In which I get burned

On tuesday on a window of good weather we decided to go up towards Dufourspitze. We were walking pretty good and settling in our rhythm as a team, the weather was stupendous, there was just one problem: because of the heavy snows from the past few days, we had no tracks. None! Nada! Zip! Zilch! And it's not like you have signs showing you the way or some special rock that does not get covered by snow or something ... So instead of taking a right and going up what seemed a hill full of crevasses and cornices we took a left and proceeded up an easier (ok, ok, lazy also) slope. We realized we were up a cornice when the snow under M. went "whoop", so M had to come back really fast and we had to get out of there. At least we knew that was the wrong way ...

Our nightly ritual had become getting up at two am in the morning, sticking our heads out of the tent and assessing the weather. This happened also on the night of tuesday to wednesday. Weather was better but still foggy, so we resumed sleep. In the morning the weather was super nice, so we decided to hurry up with breakfast and go up Gorner glacier for some crevasse surfing and some training.

When we came back to the tent we saw four teams coming down from the direction of Dufourspitze. "Shit!" I say to meself, "they have climbed it!". The four teams were british, japanese, hungarian, and polish. M. talks to the british and finds out that the snow was too big and they got tired of breaking it so they gave up. I spoke to the polish team and they told me that they got lost (was it by following our tracks? :D) and that the weather was foggy and when they got just below the first ridge (Doufourspitze just bellow the summit has one 70 degrees ice and snow slope, one ridge, one 60 degrees iced snow slope, another ridge and then a climb up the summit block) they saw an avalanche and decided to retreat.

Excited as I was, not even talks about avalanches, big snow and all that could turn me back now ... I knew we were going to climb that night and that was that!! We woke up around two am, ate, dressed and at first wanted to wait for other teams to go first (it's easier to follow somebody's tracks) but since nobody was coming (we could see no lights from down below) we decided to go for it. It was my first time climbing at night and it took a while for my body to get used to it... Initially there was some low alpine clouds but when we got above them the weather was flawless. My right leg fell into a small crevasse but other than that everything was ok. I saw the most amazing sunrise of my life: Matterhorn and Liskam** were all red, everything else was dark blue and orange ... Amazing!! (no picture of course)

Just as we were going up the corniced slope we did not want to go up two days before, a very strong wind whose first customers for the day we were, started to blow. My feet started to freeze (note to self: salomon blue boots - don't know the model - are not fit for high altitudes) and then my hands (could put windstopper gloves on) and then M. started to feel very very very cold on his back. Reason?! The day before when we were walking up the glacier he unzipped the ventilation zippers on his gore-tex and forgot them open!! We had to stop for him to take out his harness, gore-tex, put a polartec on, put the gore-tex back on, harness on, gloves on and so on... I froze to death in the process ...

So we started going up the iced 70 degrees slope. At one point i wanted to take M's photo but the battery had frozen so i put another one inside the d200 but it was frozen also. Took one and put it just under my chin thinking i could warm it up (but I lost it on the summit, i think it fell in Italy). Instead M. took this photo of me*. After this slope we got up to the first ridge. This is where I forgot about the wind, the cold, and about putting sunscreen on our faces.

Now you see, because of the heavy snows in the last days, the ridge, instead of being your ordinary, garden like variety of rocky, granite, ridge on which you can easily scramble, we had your not so nice granite rocky ridge covered with a lot of snow (puffy snow, that is). Which means that when you are stepping on it you cannot tell whether you are stepping on the rock or into immortality, and you only have 1000 m or so on your right and on your left to fall upon. It's true that it's snowed up and you don't realize that you are this high, the only hint being that you can see people down there almost one inch height. So, instead of both of us going at the same time through the ridge, M. had to go first with me sort of belaying him [by sticking my ice axe into the snow, a crab in there and belaying from it]. Needless to say that M weighs around 30 more kgs than me which meant that if he fell my belay station was useless. It did not help that he said: "Claudia, if you want us to live, when I fall you jump on the other side of the ridge". I am a clumsy person by nature and every move I do is thoroughly rehearsed, so chances of me jumping on the right side of the ridge were very slim. So instead I would analyze (I was way beyond the point when I was thinking "omg we're going to die, omg i don't want to die, we also have to come back this way, there's no escalator at the summit, shit shit shit") the possible directions of fall and put myself behind boulders: if he were to fall, i would hit the boulder and hopefully be able to hold him. This is how we went through the second ridge also. Other teams (japanese and british) were pilling up behind us, but none wanted to go first, leaving to us the honor of being first on the summit.

Yey!!! I was so so so happy and relieved to be on the summit! I nearly hugged the japanese, and the british team (one british guy and his guide), I told the guide congratulations :)) The guide also complimented us [gulp]

And the view, ah the view!!


The first picture is of the japanese team descending, you can see Matterhorn on the left, Dent Blanche (the white one) and Weissorn (all are piramides). The next picture is of Nordend which we thought we could do that night, but we were so shacked after the 8 hours ascent and the 4 hours descent that we couldn't do anything more ... So Nordend with its ridge remains a dream. This is another picture of the japanese descending, and these are the british (guide and client).

Now, remember my previous picture where my face was burnt? This is where it happened... We forgot to put sunscreen, the wind was blowing, the sun was so strong, plus it got reflected from the snow ... Plus my nose was runny and I couldn't blow my nose because it hurt, so because of the wind blowing all the mucus froze on my nose [groce, you did not want to know this] leaving my nose and cheek encrusted [if you wish ... yuck!!!]

*will upload picture when i get home
**Liskam is the big wall behind me in the picture with me holding the flag next to the summit cross. It has a climbable 1000 m ice wall - the route is rougly where my left fist is :)

The story part I. I get there but I am not lucky

Two hours after I'd arrived in Bucharest I was at my place packing things for the trip to the Alps. Very happy to see my mom and my dog but anxious to get everything out of Marian's backpack and put all my climbing gear in. At that time I was still missing ice axe and crampons, but M. was bringing them down. By the way, M. was already on his way to my place for us to get going. I think it took us about four hours to leave my place. Everything was nice and packed in the car and off we went. We left my place around 6 pm, managed to get out of Bucharest around 8 pm and get to the border by 3 am, which is quite a long time if you know how M. drives. I slept in the car almost all the way to the border, but was fresh by 5 am when we got to Budapest. I drove on the autobahn until Stralzburg and M. took over and drove till Tasch. Our destination was Zermatt, but cars are not allowed there so we camped in Tasch (actually in Randa, which is close to Tasch, but nevermind).

The weather was extraordinary, as you can see from these two pics. Of course, knowing my luck, it was bound to get shitty. The plan was as follows: Dufourspitze, Nordend, Liskam, Weisshorn, and Matterhorn. The last three are listed as AD (assez difficile - sort of difficult), while the first two are listed as PD (peu difficile - a little difficult) - this of course changes depending on the weather.

The next day we were supposed to meet some guys from the Arad branch of the Explorer club at the basecamp at 3100m on the Gorner glacier. Now, there is a refuge on the Gorner glacier at 2900m called Monte Rosa Hutte, but one night there costs around 50 euro, so the practice for most east europeans is to haul all the camp gear (tent, sleeping bags, mattresses, stoves, food, cutlery) to 3100 m and camp there. Basically, while going up and down the slopes that lead to Monte Rosa and our camp, you can tell by the size of the backpacks who comes from eastern europe and who doesn't. Guess where do I come from? :)

You can actually tell from the picture that the weather was turning shitty. You have to trust me on this: behind that rock you can see Matterhorn on a clear day! The guys from Arad were already attempting Dufourspitze. I think they were very silly to rush it. Normally what you do when you first reach the mountain (so you are not acclimatized) is go up to the 3100 m camp, rest there, the next day in the morning walk a bit higher on the slopes then at night attempt the peak.
[Why do you start your climb at night? To ensure that the snow bridges over the crevasses are frozen. If you start your climb during the day you stand a very good chance of finding them bridgeless and thus difficult to cross.] So the guys from Arad rushed it and attempted and climbed Dufourspitze from the first day they got there, which was good because the weather forecast was nasty for the next 5 days, but bad because it left many of them deadly beat [one of them nearly had a stroke because after they got down to Zermatt he drank two or three beers. Sheesh!!!!]

So the weather was turning bad and we were looking at five days stuck in the tent. We roughly had food for 5 days, but what to do with the boredom? Needless to say that stuck in the tent means STUCK IN THE TENT, just go out to go toilet and that's it!! For entertainment we had M.'s ipod, the D200 camera and it's manual plus a book with all the 4000m alpine peaks. Ironically, I spent 5 days reading about peaks that I never got a chance to climb. Everyday we would get about 2 hrs of good weather which allowed us to walk around, walk up towards Dufourspitze, up on the Gorner glacier, etc. In one of those hikes (when i say walk, i generally mean walk up on at least 50 degress slopes) the weather was pretty good but there were no tracks (because of the heavy snow fall on the previous night) so we lost the way to Dufouspitze: instead of going right and up a slope, between some seracs, we went left and nearly stumbled on a cornice. We had to return to the tent because the weather was returning to normal (i.e foggy with high chances of snow). The forecast i got from Marian's text messages was confirming what we saw: 60% chances of rain, 40,30,10,0,0!! (the last zeroes were on sunday and monday, this was tuesday, alas!)
You can imagine my happiness when the clouds lifted for the first time and I could see all those huge mountains surrounding the plateau!! It was amazing!! I felt so small and yet so happy and content! I always get this feeling when I see big rock walls, can you imagine now that I saw 2 thousand meter rock and snow and ice walls? mmmm
This is me looking professional. Dufourspitze is those rocks somewhere in the backround, roughly 4-6 hours from where I am standing. The amazing thing is that everything looks so close but it's damn far once you start walking towards it.
And of course ... being snowed in is always a pleasure, but not when you have 7 days left and you haven't climbed anything.

I know ...

I've been bad and promised the Alps story but I have barely managed to shake off the bloody jet lag, so please please please forgives me. I have uploaded the pictures here (in case you're bursting with curiosity). You can deduce from the pictures that we've climbed Mont Blanc and Dufourspitze and that I was badly burned (see portrait). Circumstances of aforementioned burn and climbs will be related in detail tomorrow. Over and out.

PS. In this picture I am not crying but laughing at my reflection in the lens.
PS2. Getting sun/snow burned is definitely one of the most effective peeling therapies: my zits were gone! (they're back now, though ...)

Honey, I'm home!!!

ok boyz and girlz, I just returned!!! I have been computer free and internet free for the past month! It has been great! Watch this space for amazing stories (so modest I am!!)

Bbyez!!!

Ladies and gentlemen, I happily announce that you and the whole Internet will be rid of me until the 20th of July. Take care, climb and surf safe, love thyself and all that!
I hope to see you all alive and well on the 20th!!!

A lot of things

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy it's been so long since I have blogged! This is probably going to be my second last post for the following weeks. So, first things first. I have done so much shopping this past week that it's going to last me (i hope) for the next months, when I need to save, save save!!!

I have bought: 2 handbags for my mom (one was not appropriate for wear in winter, apparently the handles have to be long), 1 perfume for mom (on sale) because I got desperate that I wouldn't find a good handbag, 1 rheumatic oil for grandma, 2 pairs of slippers for grandma and grandpa (very good for wearing around the yard), for grandma still have to buy chocolates from Amsterdam, a lot of Nikon D200 related accessories for M., one pair of base layer gloves for me, one sun hat for me, and a perfume on sale. Speaking of the D200, it's AMAZING!!! The design, the versatility and the way you can see that they have really thought about things makes my D70 (aka Bobby) seem like amateur work compared to M's D200 (aka Mr. Tan - yes, I name my cameras!)

Mr. Tan and Bobby are going back to Romania with us, which is going to be Thursday, 5th of July, 23:00. And Mr. Tan is going with M and I to the Alps. Omg omg omg I am finally going to the Alps!!!! The plan is making my mom want to kill me, but nevertheless. So, I arrive in Bucharest Friday, 13:20. And I am leaving for the alps on the same day, around 18:00. Which gives us around 4 hrs to: get home from the airport, pack, eat (omg it's been so long since I've enjoyed mom's cooking), hug, kiss, calm Bingo (my dog), fetch M. from where he is going to be, and leave for Switzerland. It's pretty tight, but it usually is with me. I still have to buy: 1 40l backpack and 1 pair of windstopper gloves. Or is it polartec gloves? I have no idea, must check.

Speaking of the Alps. Yes!! I am going! Finally! I am not at all trained though!! Yey! I spoke to M. yesterday and he mentioned Dufourspitze (4634m) for warm-up, Weisshorn (4504 m), and another one I can't remember, and last but not least, if the weather is good, if we are fit, the Matterhorn. I hope these mountains will take pity on my wretched soul and allow me to reach the top. I hope I am fit enough for that, too.

I ran half a marathon on Sunday!! Yey! I hope I hope I am trained! Enough for now, I should be starting to pack. Laters!

There must be a reason ...

why I'm so sleepy. Let's see: could it be that I've spent my nights (till 1am generally) watching Wimbledon? Or the fact that I have been overdoing it with my training? I haven't eaten as many fruits as I normally do? Hm ...

1. Watching Wimbledon
I normally am a very early riser: I wake up around 6 am by myself. Of course, this means that by 10-11 I am in bed, snoring. [Gee ... I hope I don't snore!] For the past week I have been going to bed around 12-1 am.

2. Overdoing with training
Haven't done anything unusual, but I do remember failing to hydrate and eat after my 17 km on Sunday.

3. Not eating enough fruit
Ok, fruits and veggies are my thing!! I must eat them or else I feel heavy and tired. I ate 1 chocolate yesterday - I don't eat chocolate or anything sweet except once every few months when I suddenly need sugar. So there, I ate one chocolate. And one bag of jelly fruits. And one (three) slices of pizza last night. Ok ok, I got it!

That's it, I am going home to recharge my batteries. Training programme for today: climb (17-1900), run (19:00), tennis (20:00). I need to sleep.

Breakthrough

Ladies and gentlemen, yesterday I finally registered a breakthrough with my climbing. Yey!! Now, I know this is not much, but but but see for yourselves:

Last time: climbed till tile 14 on the 6a+ route; subsequent tries got me to tile ... 4
Yesterday: climbed till tile 24; subsequent tries got me to tile ... 30 !

Last time: after two tries I was pumped. And even though i love pump, this one was kind of ugly, because whenever I wanted to return to climbing my fingers would freeze (it's in the mind, I know)
Yesterday: I was still good to go for climbing but I had to go running with a friend! And I had forgotten my sensor at home, so that run was not counted. The things I do for friendship ... yesterday's run would have gotten me my 300th km. Ah well... today is also a good day for ... HIKING!!

I keep daydreaming about how my alps trip is going to be and how my subsequent around the country with mom in the car will be! Although initially I planned for the two of us to take a really long trip around the country, I think I will take mom climbing. Yupii!! Still have to talk to M about that, because he will be the one providing accommodations. Over and out, resuming daydreaming.

How to get a day off

Based on my oh so optimistic training schedule, on Saturday I was supposed to do 10 pull-ups (assisted, of course, now i cannot even do one by meself), one session of conditioning and also hiking in the morning. All sounds nice and dandy, I was even content with having to jog to school and start from there, since I had left my backpack there. What I didn't count on was spending the evening with my flatmates at a cafe owned by a dear friend of ours, playing darts till midnight!! Whoa!! Can you imagine how many hikes I went on the next morning? Maybe about 5-10 snoozes on the right side, and 15 on my left side... After all the guilt and self bashing, I decided to run in the evening. What I didn't count on (again) was that Saturday was shopping day!! Yay!! I never knew that shopping can be so exhausting (to the bank account and to oneself)!!! When we were having dinner around seven I finally declared Saturday a day off:) and enjoyed it to the max with a good book and a very nice sleep.

I made up for it yesterday, when, after a light shopping session, I ran. Yup, I ran. 17.5 km, which is my personal best! I would have made it 20 something but around 8 km the sidewalk started to get running unfriendly - it was full of houses and their driveways were interrupting - so I had to turn back. This new formula of running until you reach half way and then turning back is much better than doing two rounds of a given length, which is at most 5 km. Plus i run near the botanical gardens and some jungle formations, so it's a bit more cooling and not so crowded. And I managed to run at a constant pace of 5min/km, which is not tiring at all compared to my usual 4:20-4:30/km. Feeling good about myself, I leave you to work.

Excited!!

In exactly 2 weeks I will be on my way home!!! How cool is that?! I can tell you how cool it is: it's so cool I can't focus on my work and I'm losing patience with everybody around me. Also I keep making plans of what to buy for whom: for mom another bag (tell you the bag incident below), for grandma rheumatic oil or similar plus candies from Amsterdam, for grandpa maybe a bottle of wine, for M. camera plus lense (from his money, of course).

For mom i need to make a list with all my mountaineering equipment that needs to be checked and found for me tot take to the alps - the reason for this is twofold: first, they might not be in order, so I would need to find replacements, and secondly, do you know how it is when your mom decides to go through your stuff and arrange it? And then when you try to find something YOU CAN'T FIND IT because she put it somewhere ELSE?!! This has left me with a serious issue with finding things: whenever i lose something i ask marian to search for it because otherwise I get very very nervous.

So yeah, the dog incident. My dog, whose name is Bingo, is a very smart and loving dachshund (yeah i know). He knows what mom's patterns for going out are: he knows when she is going to the market, to work or anywhere else where she could take him but she won't. Now this last part is of course cause for revenge - if my mom leaves the house to go anywhere (except work or market) without first taking him to the park, it's showtime!!! In his young days he used to have a fetish for the cable of the cable tv (used to chew it at two ends then take it out from behind the furniture and leave it in the middle of the room). Then of course it was the period of looking into the oven, or the sink (helped by the cat), or even destroying plants. Now, in his old age, he is content with only pulling bags from the clothes hanger and chewing them (not much, just enough to ruin them). And it so happens that he destroyed one of the bags that my mom bought from here when she was here this past new year's.

Kinabalu!

You know the one important thing that was NOT on my list but was absolutely important? A book! (and no, lonely planet does not count!) Anyhow, here's the story ...

Took the air asia flight from Johor Bahru (07:21) (to get to the JB airport, i took the bus from kotaraya terminal). I met an english girl called Miranda who was headed for Sabah and Sarawak for this month (going to climb kinabalu on the 26th - go girl!!), afterwards meeting some friends in australia, going to new zealand and then for THREE months in South America, whoa!!! We got to Kota Kinabalu on time and managed to board a bus (no 16) that apparently goes from town to the air asia terminal (not listed in the lonely planet guide book, good to know). In town, Miranda and i part and i head for the bus station and board a cab/4wd to Ranau that drops me off at the park gates (15RM).

There, after paying the park fees (15rm - entrance, 7 rm-insurance, 100rm - climbing permit, 80rm - guide), I went to change my reservation from the hostel at Timpohon gate to the one at Mesilau gate, because i wanted to do the Mesilau trail instead of the Timpohon one. It's 2km longer, but it's much much nicer, wilder and not crowded at all!!! At the resort reception, Surprise!! Apparently i had not made a reservation not even for the timpohon hostel - i had reservation for the Laban Rata (lodge at 3300m) but not for this one - but they have free space at mesilau! So no need to argue there. I buy a shuttle ticket for the Mesilau gate, but end up in one of the staff's car who was going there and dropping me off! Some australian guy also give me tea, noodles and some gloves: no, I was not begging for them, he just wanted to get rid of them and also was happy to ensure that i got to the top!

At the Mesilau gate i had a lovely lunch/dinner and walked around a bit. I started the trail next day at 8:10am. Did i tell you there were female guides? Yes, I had seen one the previous day at the Timpohon gate, and what do you know, she chose to guide me! The first thing she told me was "slow and steady". Well, I steady but I not slow! The trail is magnificent, much nicer than the Timpohon one which I descended on. You can see the Kinabalu ridge, bonsai trees, pitcher plants, and it's not so wide as the one descending to Timpohon.
We met with a german botanist on the way who was so absolutely excited that you have [insert name here] forest here, and that higher there's [insert forest name here] forest, and that this place is full of white orchids (saw three on the other trail) and rhododendrons and pitcher plants (pictured)! Yey!

Managed to get to Laban Rata in roughly 4hrs and 5 minutes (yes, i counted, it was important, ok?). And i got there first (i overcame an english couple that had left from timpohon gate) - arrived at 12:15 but check-in was only at 1. My guide decided that it will be ok if we leave at 3am instead of the 2-2:30 am period, and i was left by myself until that time. I took pictures, ate lots and lots of raspberries (a bit more on the sour side, but good!!!), played with the squirrels, cooked some noodles in my hut (I was all alone there, as in timpohon also). There were only large groups that stayed together so i could not interact with anybody. Went to bed, and at 2:50 started to descend to laban rata (my hut was higher) to get my guide (Rumia). Of course i was passing everybody that was going up!! So Rumia and I were the last to leave. After passing some guys that were stopping to rest, i ended up behind two english guys. Now, I would not have minded the misogynistic comments ("some bimbo turning back", "yeah, well, what do you expect", etc), but the part when one of them farted and didn't say sorry really got the best of me.



So I started to pass by everybody, with Rumia following behind. Around 3500 you get to this plateau (30-40 degrees inclined) with many false peaks. This is where i lost Rumia and overtook the last 10 people that were ahead of me (except the english couple, who was first on the peak). I walked ok, constant but with heavy breath, but one sip of water cured it. I got to Low's peak and froze my ass off with the English couple till sunrise. Beautiful pictures! Rumia later told me that she could have walked as fast as me but didn't want to freeze on the summit. Smart!!


Got down and started descending to timpohon. Managed a whopping 2 hrs and 30 minutes till the gate but was left with incredible pain in my calves and thigh muscles that lasted for 2-3 days (I'm ok now). Got to KK (a guy driving a pirate taxi took me from the bus stop opposite the park to kk for 15 rm) and then to the airport (bus no 16) and was left to kill my boredom (remember, NO BOOK?!) for 6 hours till my flight.


Things will be ok in the alps i think, i just need to get back my strength in my arms (especially my left arm) - i have started doing pull-ups and climbing. CLIMBING SUCKS!!! I now need special novice routes: whatever routes the girls are doing, i get big jugs and extra foothold, just for me!!

Flickr pictures here. Picasa ones (350) here.

Kinabalu list

Yup! The time has come for me to go kinabalu! Yupii!!!! I will be leaving on tuesday and coming back on thursday. It's about time i made a list of things to take. What better place to keep it up than in your blog, you might say... So here goes nothing!
[Draft]
- leftover cereal bars - give you energy - check
- torchlight - check
- sunglasses - check
- polartec jacket - check
- gore-tex jacket (in case it rains) - check
- 1 pair trekking pants, long (for the last stretch) - check
- 1 pair short trekking pants for the first parts - check
- 2-3 changes underwear - check
- 1 dry fit tshirt (first part) - check
- 1 cotton tshirt (Second part) - check
- pink cap :) (can be easily spotted)
- 2 changes socks (1 pair short, 1 pair long) - check
- lonely planet guide
- ipod - check
- bobby (that's my camera) - must charge!
- moneyz (unfortunately) - check
- passport + green card - check
- phone
- watterbottle - check
- elbow guard - check

If you feel that i've forgotten anything, pls comment!

You hear and see a lot of things ...

at conferences. I saw an inspiring thing and I heard the silliest, stupidest thing all in just one day!

First, I saw a blind professor giving a computer science talk. It was amazing! I didn't even realize he was blind until I heard the reader that read him what was on the next slide. You don't even realize how complicated things can get, like for example he could not integrate a video in his slides (must insert then change property - or is it drag'n'drop in powerpoint ?) and he had to alt+tab (reader aided) to a directory and open the movie from there. Or, when glitches happened like an empty slide he would have to go back and forth a few slides just to get back on track. It was so inspiring to see somebody deal so well with a thing like that, not giving up and continuing to do what (I suppose) he loves. Needless to say he was very smart and funny.

[Warning! Geekish comment coming!!]

And yes, girls and boyz, Microsoft is planning to take over the High Performance Computing (HPC) market!!! Their spear is the Windows 2003 Cluster shit something. Motivation? As given by some general manager something or other at Microsoft, and I quote: "we want to hide ssh calls from the user. they don't want to learn so we are totally hiding it from them". Wtf?! "We offer complete integration with Microsoft products, like Excel (is Excel HPC!??!!? sheesh!!) and Active directory". Brrrr! Anyhow, it gave me a good laugh and it was a great end to the day. Go M$, go!

FS = 0, E = -5, T = -15 => FSET = -20

Whoa! I'm so so tired after the Pumpfest competition this weekend! I still don't know exactly what the results were cause I had to leave to see the pirates. I know that San is second for the intermediate women (FINALLY! Welcome to open, girl!) and that probably Edwin (the new boss) is first for intermediate men. Whoa! I guess we're good, man!

I haven't posted anything lately because these days I have to attend a conference. Today it was in my plan to stay @home and sort out the 400 pics from Pumpfest and go to the conference later (around 11), but my supervisor wanted us to leave together from school at 08:30. Yup. Which means that i have to wake up at seven and come to school. Yey!! So here i am fast blogging.

I am so happy to announce you that last week i ran around 40 km. I did not run this weekend because of pumpfest and this absolutely atrocious muscle ache in my thighs due to my 60 plus knee bents done on the spur of the moment (i haven't been doing those in about six years or so). On monday i hiked my hill five times and for the third and fourth time i managed to slowly run half of it (carrying my 17kg backpack). For the fifth time i ran nearly 75% percent of it. How cool is that?! Yesterday did my 10 km then played tennis. Tennis was bad ... I sucked at it before stopping to play and now i suck even more. Nevermind, practice will resume on thursday.

And I have been saving the best for last! Ladies and gentlemen ... I have resumed climbing! I say, I have resumed climbing! Taking into consideration yap's, kesheng's and teck chew's advices (given at various moments in time), I am taking it very very very slowly. As in I have climbed for 15 minutes both on monday and on tuesday. It's very little, but but but but it's sooo goood ... And so difficult on my ego! Because, needless to say, I am so lousy at it like I've never been before. I have lost my confidence, I keep worrying "what if i fall". And that's the good part of it. The bad part is that finger strength (FS) = 0, E(ndurance) = "never knew there is such thing", T(echnique) = - infinity. I have to endure my humiliation and stick to it.

Gotta go!

LATER EDIT: of course i hit "publish post" and ran for it, only to find upon returning 9 hours later that the blogger interface said "your request cannot be processed, please try again later". Sheesh!!

IR iz philosopher

There is a word that really disturbs me when I hear it: "expat". I resent being called an expat because it has such an aggressive meaning, at least for me. I think this is because you can divide it into "ex-pat", where "pat" is the first part of a romanian word meaning country (or latin word for that matter, "patria" = lat., country). My country has not disowned me and I have certainly not renounced my citizenship to my country. I don't feel less of a romanian or more of a singaporean by living in Singapore. What does living abroad make you? Confused, at least! Do you carry a part of your country with you wherever you go? If yes, how do you carry it? Is it in language? In habits and upbringing? In friends and community?

If it's in language, then I am totally losing it. I am starting to feel that when I start to talk or write in Romanian it's like I am recovering from a stroke or similar. My thoughts are starting to form themselves in a mixture of english and romanian that is disturbing me when I start to talk in either language. Maybe it's because of all the books in English that I have been reading. Maybe it's because I haven't had an intelligent conversation with my romanian peers (Marian excluded) for months. Maybe it's because I should be keeping this blog in romanian (or start a new one?). I still have to figure it out.

As for friends, gimme a break! It's almost useless trying to keep in touch with all my friends from back home, so I limit myself to a few, and then only through YM. As for friends here, I suppose acquaintances is more of a better word. Friends as in you-can-wake-me-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-no-matter-what-
pat-on-the-back-kick-in-the-ass are very hard to come by. Most people in the romanian community*, or at least with those I have come to know, unfortunately generally occupy themselves with gossiping about others. It's hard to make friends when gossip is your only subject: you run out of gossip material, you cannot confide because you know you end up as gossip material, and it's so puerile it's annoying!! So you're left with acquaintances, maybe go to a movie sometimes, out to dinner, maybe sometimes shopping (though very seldom - I think it's more comfortable to shop with friends) and stuff like that.

Community is out of the question, by the above reason. I think a defining trait of romanians is that most of them are more preoccupied with what others are doing (or with how badly the others are doing) to take a good look at themselves.

Maybe you are a citizen of your country no matter where you go by your habits and upbringing. By the food you eat, by what you think is polite or impolite, by the way you greet people or the way you give presents. Who knows? Maybe you're a citizen of your country by the way you remember your country long after you've left it. I remember the smell of silver fir trees and snow on a very cold winter morning, on a balcony in a house overlooking a troubled river, in Lacu Rosu, Romania.

*[As for making asian friends, it's hard enough to be an ang moh here, let alone one that always speaks her mind, and can be thought, by some local standards, well ... nuts. Nevertheless, I have found more compassion and friendliness in my asian friends than in my romanian acquaintances here]

Whew

The good news is that I passed the QE! Yey! Unexpected, after the total fuck up with the virtual memory, but still very well received. I found out that the guy that made up the questions for the architecture part is an assistant professor who does research in 3D graphics. That explains the virtual memory part, but it does not explain them not bothering to check if it's in the reference book or not. As I've said before, it's wonderful to be reminded you're at the bottom of the food chain. It's a ... refreshing feeling ...

Kinabalu is coming in 12 days! I decided to rent a car since the park is about 80 km from the airport. This will also help me for the Alps trip since we'll both (M. and I) be driving and I haven't driven a car in a year or so. The Autobahn is a very scary concept for me right now

I must focus on my training. This week is the last week of climbing rest I am giving myself. It's been almost two months already since I injured my elbow and I can't stand not climbing anymore. I must focus on running, hiking, but also climbing with weights.

My head ...

did not stop pounding all day yesterday from lack of sleep from the other night and because i watched the whole season 2 and half of season 3 of grey's anatomy. You gotta love a good soap opera sometimes.

The lack of sleep is due to the fact that in a unexpected act of friendliness from my part I asked most of the grad students in my lab at my home over night to watch the UEFA Champions League (Marian just disowned me) final. (I sometimes get these attacks which i later regret dearly) Yey ... not so yey because it started around 3 am and ended around 5 am. The guys arrived around 11 pm. I made them watch climbing videos (cs graduate students => chances of them actually playing a sport close to zero) and they seemed impressed - at least by the deep water soloing. Besides that, they played [drums in the background] Monopoly (!!!) and seemed to be pretty entertained by it.

I am trying now to get back to work but I am in a very dreamy state.

I never learn ...

Not to take so many pictures - I put up the Rockmaster 2007 pictures. What I really hate about me taking pictures is that I always take a huge amount of them, and then it takes me two hours (in this case) to sort them out!

To check the gas tank every once in a while - I took advantage of my flat mates out of town and decided to cook last night, and of course that I ran out of gas right after I put the meat in the pot to fry! Lucky me! Marian called the gas company this morning (providing fire for his woman to cook the food! :) ) and they were there almost instantly to change it. Resumed cooking and the food was Oll Korrect. (I didn't eat any of it, because I had to rush to school)

Not to try anything stupid while injured - Like doing a pull-up on the rim of the lab door, which resulted in PAIN PAIN PAIN for me. IR iz stupid.

A lot of things going on

To continue my cooking spree, I tried Spanakorizo. It was absolutely delicious, the combination of lemon and spinach is truly something. Even though I must admit I put a bit too much of rice, which actually makes this dish Orizospanak :)

I went to Rockmaster 2007 this weekend and was so impressed by our guys and gals' performance that I decided to go climbing yesterday! How cool is that?! Well, I tell ya! It's NOT COOL!!! I should have waited another week as I promised! Sheesh! I never learn! I didn't feel any pain at first (except from my ego that is), but then my elbow started to go numb so I left the gym. As for ego pain, well, my endurance is GONE, I am afraid to lock on my left arm, I am scared of doing anything lest I injure my arm ... So there! Finger strength is reasonable though. Will resume climbing in one week, it's a promise. I was going to join the next competition (Pumpfest) but now I am not so sure about it.

Yesterday Marian was supposed to have a presentation of his research review and two professors from his committee were supposed to come, but guess what?! One of them forgot! And he was a junior staff also! So we stood there with our supervisor and the other professor and talked and talked and in the end decided to reschedule. The junior staff then wrote ample emails with his sincere apologies, including one to Marian alone. I mean how forgetful and indolent can you get?!! I am so sending a "gentle reminder" for my presentation. Sheesh!!

Our flat-mates are off to a Cambodia trip so we can actually soil and mess up the kitchen. Yay!! [It's so embarassing, after we cook and clean up, she comes and cleans again after us] I would have loved to go too, but I am saving moneys, remember?

Code name: Tom Yum

I cooked Tom Yum Kung and Pla (to satisfy both marian and myself, i took the shrimps while he handled the fish) on friday, after this recipe. For desert I tried a Mango (banana for marian) sticky rice, from here.



The tom yum was missing some more chillies as it turned out, but it was great!!! I like it clearer, as you can see. After we ate there was still a glass of soup left so i added some more chillies and drank it. It was amazing!! Pictures here. Also i was missing some lime leaves, but i improvised and used the limes' peel. I know i was wrong, but i couldn't find the leaves, alas!



For the sticky rice, the other fruit next to the mango is a durian. I love durians, and i had heard that they go well with sticky rice so I had to try it. It's great! The durian was kinda dry, it's not their season now i guess. As for the sticky rice, don't cook more thinking you're going to resuscitate it later, it does not work this way, the rice will get very dry! So sad!

Equal

I remember telling you that when i was feeling depressed i got me an emo haircut. Actually, i don't know about its emo-ess, what i do know is that it is short and the hair on my left side is longer than the hair on right side. All nice and dandy, exactly how i wanted it, since i don't like my hair to have an equal cut.

There was just one problem with this haircut: whenever i ran i would see my shadow in front of me (running at night). And I would see somebody with more hair on the left side than on the right side bobbing up and down, up and down, longer/spikier tail on the left side, up and down, up and down ...

So last night I had marian chop it off for me! It's still longer on the left side (marian is no hairdresser and neither am i) but I cannot see it when I run! Hooray!!

PS. I bet it looks funny from behind though.

Dear all,

It has been nearly a year since yours truly has had even the slightest drop of alcohol. Up until monday night, when i took three mouthfuls of Bailey's (cream of whiskey i think) which are still giving me serious hangovers. Why, oh why is that? Lots of small things have happened in these past days, so forgive me if this post sounds like a grocery list.

Inspired by the guy to whose birthday party i went (the guy i dun like) who cooked, i attempted something myself. I love cooking by the way, but i refrain from it because it drives my non-inhouse-cooking-only-eat-in-town-don't-mess-up-the-stove-or-kitchen flatmates crazy. So, while perusing the internet yesterday, i found a link (on a ruby on rails website of all places) to a blog of a greek girl who has a lot of greek recipes! And what do you know?! Lots of food that i know from back home is greek! To make a long story short, i decided to do these (had some left over cheese and flour). The only problem is that i had corn flour and not wheat flour, so I had to rush to FairPrice to get wheat flour (don't attempt to use corn flour!!). And I am so happy to announce you that i think i found some toilet paper made out of recycled paper! So cool! I have been looking for it for a while, since i really don't like to think that a tree has been cut down for me to [pardon my french] rub my ass. I didn't get a thorough look at it because i was in a hurry to get home, it was already tenish and i had to talk to my dad.

Which I did! (After four months or so of silence on his part) He seems to be his old cherry self, enjoying his life with his new found (one year younger than me) love. All is good. Life goes on.

Last but not least, when my paycheck arrives, I will cook: Tom Yam Kai or Tom Yam Pa (chicken or fish - whichever marian decides), a sour and spicy thai soup that i absolutely love!! (i adore the seafood one, but marian doesn't like seafood, alas!) And as desert i will attempt a "Mango sticky rice", picture here. ETA: friday evening, i promise to put up pictures. The greek tiganites that i cooked were so absolutely delicious that i wolfed them down [*slurp].

Pequeno vals

Oh boy oh boy oh boy! First, i must try to change the reservation from the 12th of december to the 6th-7th - chances of finding available seats: close to zero.

Secondly, I must go into town and buy a present for somebody i don't like (and more importantly, sombebody who has done me harm in the past - which i try not to forget ... but i always do - "dog personality, i have!") - it seems i am the only one who knows where to buy tents (other than the 20$ ones) in singapore.

Thirdly, I went to the Rockmaster climbing competition on sunday, to support the girls. And the intermediate routes were HARD man!!! I don't think i could get as far as our girls ... and now i am in open!!!! And injured!!! Whoa!! I will go for the next competition (2-3 June), but only for the singlet. I will try to start to climb next monday (one week from now) - of course i will stop at the first sign of pain, i promise!

Last but not least, youtube the title, it's a nice song, enjoy!

Mastercard moment

1. Plane ticket to Buenos Aires: 2900 SGD (1450 Euro)


2. Plane ticket from Buenos Aires to Santiago: unknown 80USD without tax, return


3. Number of stops: 4 - Kuala Lumpur, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Buenos Aires


4. Number of days spent travelling in and out: approximately 3 per trip


5. Me with a stupid grin on my face holding the reservation slip: PRICELESS!!!

P.S Please excuse the dark circles under my eyez: IR is very tiredz. Also excuse the strong color of my t-shirt: IR wants to wakes up everybodyz in the labz!

Geeks `R Us

Finally moving my desktop to Feisty Fawn today, when i noticed an interesting library name. And I quote from the Ubuntu web site:

"libsexy is a collection of GTK+ widgets that extend the functionality of such standard widgets as GtkEntry and GtkLabel by subclassing them and working around the limitations of the widgets."

You kinky developers, you!!

Today isn't the day

... when I go to get my tickets because Marian played football last night and his left calf muscle is not feeling oll korrect. I am fantasizing about posting a picture with me holding the reservation slip in my hand here on this blog.

In other news, I am keeping up with my training (but that's already old news). It's getting harder and harder to wake up in the morning at 6 and go on my hike after i've ran the previous night. So I'm thinking of running and hiking in alternate days (i.e one day do nothing in the morning but run at night and the next day hike in the morning plus light conditioning at night).

I am trying to get my life in order after the exam and also cope with not climbing. Even though not climbing is only for one month, it seems like a lifetime for me. My evenings are now empty (used to climb on alternate days) and all my dreams now are climbing related (they're more nightmares than dreams).

For aconcagua, i need to learn spanish! Yey!! [Senoras et senors, who left their mobile phone on snooze in the lab!??!?! It's driving the rest of us loco loco!!!] I wonder if there are any podcasts with "learn to speak spanish" - i can listen to them on my hikes (running is out of the question though - can you imagine me running and going "unos, dos, tres"?)

Just saw the funniest thing: this yellow humming bird had a go at my window! After deciding it was not tasty enough he went on the balcony rail and started removing the paint that was chipping away! Way to go birdie!!

LATER EDIT: 7 hours later and the humming bird is back!! It's the same one i think, at least he has the same behavior. I wonder if he'll be interested in a flower or something :)

Ramblings

Seems like ages since I've written here! Well, a lot has happened!

First, my exam went better than last time but i'm still not satisfied. It seems that the professors which make up the questions have a really dark sense of humor, or else I don't know how i could explain only virtual memory questions for Computer Architecture (virtual memory has only 8 pages in the computer architecture book, as opposed to, let's say, cache with a whooping 200 pages), volatile memory questions for databases (wtf?) and a question that included the term "exponential backoff" (as in CSMA/CD, as in networks) for the operating systems question. And, as with last time, there's still no possibility of feedback. why? Because they don't care, that's why. Enough with the ranting though ...

Since i cannot climb i've been avoiding all climbing related blogs, posts and emails. This means that i'm not reading any of the climbing blogs out there, i am not reading the team emails and i am not writing any team emails (not that anybody would answer my emails anyhow) It gives me a sick satisfaction to turn my back on everyone, even though virtually.

I restarted my training, I ran a total of 31 km last week, a total of 12 this week + 8 km in walking up hill with my trusty (and heavy) backpack. Yesterday was a killer! My body has forgotten how it feels to carry something heavy and was rebelling yesterday, that's why today IR is taking a day off. I plan on starting a mild conditioning process, probably doing pullups with my good hand, leg raises and body tension.

Aconcagua related news, tomorrow i'm going for plane tickets (again). I found an itinerary on Zuji: Singapore-Frankfurt-Sao Paolo (Brazil)-Santiago de Chile ... It only takes me 2 days (2 DAYS!!!!) to get there and 2 days (2 DAYS!!!!) back. I hope the agency will be able to find a better route (especially now that i know the airport codes and i can help them! - I think they were searching for another airport in santiago .. that's why they didn't find anything) ... Tomorrow is the day anyhow!

Happie Labour Day!!!

How I celebrate Labour Day? Through working!!! Yey!!! There are a lot of small things that i need to catch up on. Also a lot of small things that I need to talk about.

Today I am resting my fingers, since they feel now as they used to feel after 5 days of climbing in Railay. That's because i was soo scared that i would end up with absolutely no finger strength that i went up and bought this really tough silicone thing that i squeeze. I bought the hardest one and now it's almost like a very very soft rubber (yup! i squeezed a lot!) I know it won't help in the end but it's got a very high psychological factor!

when i was a very very young girl my mom had this looong blue skirt that she used to wear. I remember how i tried to wear it a lot of times, but either it was too long (short legs) or i didn't fit into it (too fat). When my mom came here she left it for me. And now it fits! (I still have shorter legs than mom, but i am wearing heels) Yey!!! how cool is that?

I am catching up on my running also! Boy have i been a busy bee! I ran 11 km on saturday, 8 on sunday and 6 yesterday! I hope i can squeeze something in today also, but i think my heels will be the end of my running streak! Anyhow, i was last night number 85054 in the world! can you imagine that? My time of 22 minutes and something seconds for 5k is also among the fastest in singapore (for girls that is!)

Enough bragging, back to work!

Just silence

Climber I am, Golfer's elbow I have

Yup. The pain has a name!!! And a way to cure it: ABSOLUTELY no climbing for 6 to 8 weeks (from the day I last climbed, not from the day of injury -- i asked!)*. He insisted that i do not climb (probably saw through me) and said that if i do climb it will get much worse. So... no climbing ... I am watching my hard earned calluses turn into girly skin again and i hate it. I am reading all the team 's emails about meetings and climbs and all that and i feel so depressed and excluded in some way. I feel so frustrated by the fact that i know it's going to be hell to get back in the shape i used to be and no amount of running, finger strength training or anything is going to help me.

I feel bad about whining also. So yeah. The first part of the qe went well. Still have computer architecture to pass, then i'm out of the woods.

*I am going to the Tampin bouldering trip though (in 4 weeks time). Even if there are no easy boulders, i will be the team photographer

It's quote time!!!

I know i've promised silence until friday, but i'm supposed to return this tomorrow, so i'm adding in some quotes from "A Man Without a Country", K. Vonnegut

"Foreigners love us for our jazz. And they don't hate us for our purported liberty and justice for all. They hate us for our arrogance."

"[...] as a result of a shamelessly rigged election in Florida [...] we now present ourselves to the rest of the world as proud, grinning, jug-jawed, pitiless war-lovers with appallingly powerful weaponry - who stand unopposed. In case you haven't noticed, we are now as feared and hated all over the world as the Nazis once were."

"There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution, and i don't know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president. This was true even in high school. Only clearly disturbed people wanted to be class president."

"True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country."

[wrt the president's state of the union]"what George Bernard Shaw said about this planet: [...] I don't know if there are men on the moon, but if there are, they must be using the earth as their lunatic asylum."

"I came to speak ill of Swedish engineering, and so diddled myself out of a Nobel Prize."

"We could have saved the Earth but we were too damned cheap."

There are many more, the whole book should be quoted. Vonnegut is an amazing writer.

Out of office notice

Dear blog,

Please accept this notice. I will be out of the blogging world because:

a. the qe is coming (27 & 4) + deadline on the 2nd.

b. i cannot climb (i am in A LOT LOT LOT of pain)

c. all i can think about is that my climbing is going to suck after this is over (if it ever is over).

Hope to find you all nice and dandy. See you on the 27th.

The Lyrid meteor shower

Yup. Today when we got to school around 1 PM and greeted everybody with "good morning!", it was because last night we watched the lyrids meteor shower! Yey!! well, not exactly! See, it was supposed to peak last night, and we were supposed to go around 3 am to the kent ridge hill and watch it from there! But ... marian put the alarm but his phone was on silent ... So we woke up merrily around 4:30 AM, and went to the fourteenth floor (there's a small garden there) and watched it from there!


Bad things: city lights! (so not too dark); saw only 3 meteors


Good things: i had only seen 2 shooting stars before, so this totals it up to 5!; there's going to be a big one on the 5-6 th of May (in the southern hemisphere it's expected to reach 30/hour) ... so this was training if you wish.

Displayed is the only picture we took.

Speaking of training, i have resumed my climbing (though very very very light). Re-scheduled the doctor's appointment for the 26th of april.

Later edit: after climbing today my elbow was numb (even though the climb was ok). self-imposed pause until the 26th. drats!

Shame

In an unphantomable exercise of democracy (unphantomable because DEMOCRACY does not happen in romania very often), last night an un-elected parliament (un-elected because when we vote for parliament we vote only for the political parties who can put any person in parliament) voted to suspend an elected president (for whom i voted btw). While I feel that it is good to have this as a display of democracy, i can't help to feel the injustice of it all. I feel neglected as a voter. It does not help that one of the members of parliament said and i quote "Mr. [enter president's name] has been threatening us with the electorate. Are you afraid of the electorate? What is the electorate?" [stupid f*k] So yeah...

I have finished reading "cat's cradle" and loved it all the way. What i loved most, besides it being exhilaratingly funny and TRUE, is the following idea: the people of San Lorenzo (island country in the middle of the Pacific) are very poor, their life expectancy being around 35 years. However, they are very very happy. Why? Because of a very important pact that their leaders (the political and the religious one) have done: you see, the political leader threw the religious leader and the religion he was preaching in disgrace, and any follower found practicing that religion is bound to suffer a gruesome death. The thing is, everybody (including the political leader) is a follower, and the religious leader is never ever caught, even though search parties are supposedly going out for him. So you see, the people are poor, and hungry, and full of diseases, but they are happy, because their lives are filled with excitement, because they feel that whatever it is they are doing is important (by the fact that it's illegal even though it's noble). There's more to it than what i just said, but i am not very good at reviews or story-telling for that matter. I put some quotes below.

"She hated people who talked too much. At that moment, she struck me as an appropriate representative for almost all mankind."

"This here is a re-search laboratory. Re-search means look again, don't it? Means that they're looking for something they found once and it got away somehow, and now they got to re-search for it?" (now THIS is personal)

"Hazel's obsession with hoosiers around the world was a textbook example of a false karass, of a seeming team that was meaningless in terms of the ways God gets things done, a textbook example of what Bokonon calls a granfalloon. Other examples of granfalloons are the Communist party, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the General Electric Company [...] and any other nation, anytime, anywhere."

"The hand that stocks the drug stores rules the world. Let us start our Republic with a chain of drug stores, a chain of grocery stores, a chain of gas chambers, and a national game. After that, we can write our Constitution."

"I do no say that children at war do not die like men, if they have to die. To their everlasting honor and our everlasting shame, they do die like men, thus making possible the manly jubilation of patriotic holidays."

"If I were a younger man, I would write a history of human stupidity; and I would climb to the top of mount McCabe and lie down on my back with my history for a pillow; and I would take from the ground some of the blue-white poison that makes statues of men; and I would make a statue of myself."

Ice-nine baby!

"People have to talk about something just to keep their voice boxes in working order so they'll have good voice boxes in case there's ever anything really meaningful to say" Vonnegut

In light of this, yesterday i was feeling a bit down and feeling like i was living in Macondo (Reasons? listening to traviata all day? approaching exams? no climbing? no studying? hmm ...). I did not go to the doctor (should have), but i did get me an emo haircut. Also, here's an excerpt from a conversation of mine with andreas, my new zeeland-living in england-met him in romania climbing - friend. A couple of days ago, a romanian intern lost the key to his cabinet. Called the help desk, and they said that somebody will come and will change the lock. Nobody came, so he decided to take matters into his own hands.

Here it is:
03:59:40 PM) szaboclaudia: i am definetely living in sa man (e.n. sa= south america)
(03:59:47 PM) szaboclaudia: there are 3 romanians in my lab
(03:59:58 PM) szaboclaudia: climbed up on a desk
(04:00:01 PM) szaboclaudia: trying to open it from the top
(04:00:08 PM) szaboclaudia: have you seen romanians at work? one works and three stand around and give advice
(04:00:13 PM) andreas: I need to study a subject that provides me with the structure to learn what I need about this
(04:00:29 PM) szaboclaudia: then indeed you need to go to school
(04:01:55 PM) andreas: to support a family and live the kind of life I want
(04:01:55 PM) szaboclaudia: so ... instead of doing bills today and all that
(04:02:10 PM) szaboclaudia: you decided to sort your future
(04:02:33 PM) szaboclaudia: *sort out
(04:02:37 PM) andreas: that and the bills
(04:03:07 PM) andreas: and....
(04:03:25 PM) andreas: I am also trying to buy land in Wales
(04:03:39 PM) andreas: so much to do
(04:03:46 PM) andreas: better get doing it
(04:04:03 PM) szaboclaudia: ok
(04:04:07 PM) szaboclaudia: now it's 3 romanians
(04:04:09 PM) szaboclaudia: 1 indian
(04:04:11 PM) szaboclaudia: and 2 chinese
(04:04:25 PM) szaboclaudia: one chinese is wearing a basketball player outfit
(04:04:30 PM) szaboclaudia: and slippers
(04:04:41 PM) szaboclaudia: you know the kind? the fluffy rabitty ones ...
(04:05:30 PM) szaboclaudia: indian has left
(04:06:06 PM) szaboclaudia: romanians are trying to move the desk (it's 3 meters tall)
(04:06:17 PM) szaboclaudia: updates from the front ... are you reading this?!!
(04:06:48 PM) szaboclaudia: aaaaaaaa ...
(04:10:26 PM) szaboclaudia: 4 romanians
(04:10:28 PM) szaboclaudia: 1 chinese
(04:10:34 PM) szaboclaudia: the other sat down at his desk
(04:11:22 PM) szaboclaudia: aaaah ... grad life at its best!
(04:11:35 PM) szaboclaudia: and me ... NOBODY to share it with
(04:21:02 PM) andreas: yes I am here
(04:21:09 PM) andreas: just doinfg stuff
(04:21:43 PM) andreas: busy day for a day off
(04:26:57 PM) szaboclaudia: it's 5 romanians now ... 3 on the desk
(04:28:17 PM) szaboclaudia: ok they're done

Allez! The play was great! Horatiu Malaiele rulz! i will post about it tomorrow, cause i got a special autograph from him and i need to take a picture of it!

Inspiration

Inspired by Kesheng who is going to collect the results for his xray (something i would never do if i were feeling better) and finally giving up to marian's bickering, i decided to GO for my appointment tomorrow with the orthopedist, even though the consultation only is 85 bucks. I really really hope we can get those moneys back ...
And yes, i was seriously contemplating not going, even though the pain in my elbow after the extended climbing sessions this week was giving me second thoughts.

Last night i ran 6.67 km at an astounding pace of 4 minutes 47 secs per km! It's an improvement ... for my hikes the least i got was 10 something minutes per km ...

LATER EDIT: just wanted to say that marian has been threatening to tell my mom about my elbow (which would start a never-ending discussion about how "you should quit this, honey, it's not girly enough" or "it's not safe" or "you should be using your brain more" (wtf?!) )! So there [throws fist in the air] !!!

LATER EDIT2: Students shot at virginia tech university. Omg ... [whew .. the only romanian grad student i know in the us is in columbus, which is not in virgina - my us geography sucks]

IR iz going to the theatrez

Yup. A romanian theater company are in town, going off to Sydney, and they will be performing tomorrow for the romanians here too.
I am going to see "The Lesson" by E. Ionesco and a play by Chekhov whose name would translate to "the buffoon" but I can't find it anywhere listed in english. I can't wait, it's been so long since i've seen a play!

Today i saw the funniest thing in the canteen: do you know the two piece cue sticks, that the pros have, they disassemble them and carry in a box? Well this guy had two piece chopsticks! Or is it four piece chopsticks? And he had this cute little tiny box for them too! Yey!

In climbing related news, I bought myself the ticket from Milan to Bucharest - 19th of july, 72 euros, so cheap! (actually not so cheap, i really need to start saving)

I climbed yesterday and this morning, but the climb this morning was really tiring, and i didn't do much: climbing in the morning is so different from climbing in the evening, your muscles are so stiff! (or maybe i just need a rest day) I was supposed to meet alex at 8:30 at the gym, but i knew he wasn't going to be there after he said last night: "don't wait for me if you get there first"... I only climbed from 8:20 till 9, will resume on wednesday.