Old Town

First off here is my hotel room now that I took pictures of it

Not too bad, the tv is pretty small and the shower is also quite small so I cant shave my legs in it.  Oddly enough the toilet is really tall so that my feet barely touch the ground.

Onto the Old Town tour!  This part of town is so cool at night.  During the day, there are lots of wedding dress stores and cafes.  At night it just looks so beautiful.

Not pictured: 50 different people coming to a table to sell you roses.

This is the oldest church in Bucharest.  So much history is preserved in this city.  Thankfully when new people took power they always left old churches and state buildings and just went around them

Not pictured: Horrifying sewer smell

This is "Probably the best restaurant in town".  And I probably drank there until it closed.

And this is probably a regular beer next to what a Romanian thinks is a "regular sized" beer

And this is probably a giant platter of various cheeses and gelatinous meats

And this is probably going to knock me on my ass (but its good!)

Probably a giant mound of horse radish beside a giant fried pork something.

Probably more food

Probably an amazing view and an awesome night out!

So far I'm really liking it here.  Sure there's some weird stuff that I will get into later, but all in all its good

Travel! (What if I die in an airport?)

A note to the people:  Do NOT take part in buisness travel if you have recently been very very ill.  For the past week I have been fighting a viral infection, fevers every day, coughing, nausea, headaches.  I miraculously got better by Sunday (better as in not dying), and took off Monday.  I didn't get enough sleep Sunday night thinking I could sleep on the plane.  Not so much luck.  There was like a bunch of screaming babies on the flight that kept setting each other off from Montreal -> Munich, and I was just too wired from Vancouver -> Montreal to sleep much.  In Munich I was feeling super dizzy and just really off.  I ate some pasta with weird veiny cheese on it (BAD IDEA).  On the flight from Munich to Romania I started to feel pretty bad/couldn't keep my eyes open.  Barely made it to the hotel room without being sick then passed out for several hours. 

There are three English channels.  Two are news.  One has been alternating terrible movies.  The hotel room itself is pretty small, but nice.  The bed is comfy enough but terrible flat pillows.  The tv is tiny, there is a desk and internet and a small closet.  The bathroom features a shower I cannot turn around in and a toilet that is so high my legs barely touch the ground. 

I woke up at 4am this morning and opened the balcony door.  The neighborhood has some really interesting buildings and it smells really beautiful here like flowers.  When I got out of the airport and into the cab I thought the main smell of Romania was cigarettes, so that was a great change.  I'm excited to do some walking around after work today if I feel up to it.  I'm still feeling pretty dizzy but getting better. 

The breakfast was the nicest hotel spread ever.  It would have been a death trap for Joel as it was mushrooms all over the place but it looked so pretty!  I will take a picture tomorrow.  I had toast, fruit, yogurt, some weird yogurt/orange/granola/raisin mix, roasted zucchini, peppers, and eggplant, breads and salami.  They also had mushroom caps with cheese, lots of fancy cheeses and meats, eggs, bacon, sausage, veggies in oil, cereal.  There was also wine chilling as well.  Not what I want for breakfast but you know, different strokes or whatever. 

Later I will post pictures of the room when its cleaned up.  Here are some pics of the city view from my room at 5:30 ->6am and and 8am.

This sign was across from all the smoking lounges in Munich Airport.  SMOKING CAN KILL, BUT OH GOD, IT FEELS SO GOOD TO BE HANGING OUT ON THIS BOAT!

The building across from the hotel here is all apartments

More to come later!

Just some thoughts

Just some things I have come across/thought the last few days.

First off some positives.  It's only two weeks until I get to come home for REALZ.  Second positive: Autumn in Louisiana is actually quite pleasant.  Its warm, not humid, not raining.  I Think I got lucky on the hurricane stuff.  Only negative is its windy and very cold in the morning.  By afternoons its between 20 C and 25 C. 


The other day I was eating at my fave hangout (Pita Pit - the only place I have been getting veggies lately it seems), and I saw a woman in a wool winter coat, scarf and gloves.  Lady, its like 22 out, get a grip.  I was in a tank top and jeans with my jeans rolled up to get some sun on my legs.  It wasn't cold at all.

I saw a sticker on the back of a truck that said "IM THE COWBOY YOUR MOMMA WARNED YOU ABOUT"  it was a homemade sticker job and it wasn't straight.  The truck was clearly in front of a store that was being renovated so I looked inside to see who the "Cowboy" was.  Inside was several balding fat dudes.

Dressy Cowboy Boots is a thing.  For real.  Like, wear it to a wedding.

If I never see anything with "eaux" in place of Oh sounding words I will be very happy.  Worst example was a bumper sticker that said "Preaux-life".  Yikes.

When outside on a jog, why are women wearing tight running pants or shorts under the loose Nike shorts that make up 90% of their wardrobe?  If its cold, wear pants.  If its hot, wear shorts.  Why both? If you are cold but don't like how tight on your butt the tight spandex running pants are then buy loose pants.  I really do NOT understand why you would wear pants then shorts on top.

Speaking of crappy clothing choices - Tight running pants are the new Nike shorts.  Basically on campus that is what they are wearing.  So we've gone from unbrushed hair, baggy t-shirt, and Nike shorts with flip flops or runners to unbrushed hair, Nike running pants, Uggs and baggy shirt with wind breaker or hoodie on top.  SO UGLY.  Worst dressed town ever.  Also why wear Uggs with this outfit, ITS NOT COLD.  Get a grip, sorority girls, you look like hell.

On that same note, I totally got side eyed by some sweatpants wearing girls at the hotel this morning.  They WISHED they looked this good today! 

Traffic is CRAY CRAY here.  Things I have seen:  People parking ON THE MEDIAN!  What IS that?!?!  Oh no parking spaces...guess I'll just park IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD.  That's a safe move.  Not parking on the median?  Well just park all over the side of the road.  Don't quite fit?  No biggie you can stick out onto the busy street.  Try to park vertical maybe? or go ahead and park the wrong way on the other side.  I'm sure that's fine. 
Also once I was going home to my hotel, and I am going the speed limit (like 40 or 45mph).  Some guys in a beater car come up behind me and want to pass.  There is one line of traffic each way.  He goes into the oncoming lane, and just isn't going fast enough, hes literally doing the same speed he was going before which was the speed limit.  I'm looking in the rear view mirror like what the heck is this guys plan????  Anyways he speeds up a little so hes pacing me.  At this point we are getting REALLY close to the stop light.  I am just doing the same speed I am not going to go faster or slower I haven't changed a thing.  So the guys in the car just stay there. In the other lane!  We get to the stop light and they look at me like "Get out of the way!" and I'm looking at them like " what the hell do you want me to do, you're an idiot!" So now like they are in some danger here, they're in the wrong lane.  Now, there are NO cars behind me so they COULD just go reverse back behind me.  But what did they do instead?  Throw it into drive and go through the red light and around people turning.  Those people are crazy.
Another weird traffic thing that happened.  Same road as my hotel again, one lane of traffic in each direction.  Pretty heavy traffic both ways, it was rush hour after work.  So I'm going towards the hotel, and some car comes towards me on my side of the roads shoulder!  He just didn't want to wait in traffic to turn left so he drove on the wrong side of the road in the very tiny shoulder to go to his destination!  SO WEIRD.

In any event, gone in two weeks.  I can't wait to be home and not live in a hotel.  4 months in a hotel is crazy strange and it just feels wrong.  Cant wait to have my own things and my own bed back :)

Microwave food reviews - yes it's come to this

Back in the ole Red Stick

I've been surviving on microwave meals and I'm going to start rating them.  Exciting I know!

First up:

How does it smell:  OK

What does it look like after cooking?

I added peas..to pretend I am still ingesting vegetables. 

Gotta say, this isn't bad!  for the 2 dollars, thumbs up!

Ooh fancy microwave food!

This smells like chicken noodle soup, and not the good kind.  It smells like the instant nuclear yellow kind I eat when I'm too lazy to make people food due to illness.  Its the kind Joel hates because it dyes our serving utensils bright yellow. 

Back to the meal at hand:  The sauce is meh...too much like cheap chicken soup.  The peas are nice for once and so are the carrots.  The "walnuts" it claims to have were precisely two crumbs and also, why is there walnuts in here?  Like what is that going to improve?  Odd choice.  The inside of the pasta for this is REALLY good despite everything else.  I'd eat this again, mostly because I have little choice.

mmm Fake Chinese food.... yikes why do I buy this stuff when I'm starving.  Bad plan.

This smells ok, but MY GOD, look at it.  Its so BLAND.  Throw less veggies in there Marie Calender.  Water chestnuts are NOT food, they are filler.  Only eat this if you don't like eating.

Oh yeah...here's where I make my worst mistakes.  Why would I purchase this deep fried monstrosity?  How does one "Microwave Crispy"?   These are mysteries best left unsolved.

Look at this shit.  It's like deep fried turds.  It smells AWFUL.  Also note the bite - I didn't microwave it quite enough, took a bite, gagged then remembered I should take a picture of this sucker.  It literally looks like its covered in some kind of food related pimples.  AVOID AT ALL COSTS!

Healthy Choice!  Because when eating from a microwave, remember - Keep your health in mind!

This is 310 calories for a reason.  There is basically NO FOOD HERE.

This one smells like baby food. :S The sauce is super apple-y and full of cinnamon. Bonus points for using asparagus and squash, even if the squash was a bit stringy.   The insides of this are awesome, too bad they give you basically no raviolis. They are clearly trying to starve me to death. (Take that for eating a burger for lunch! You're going to starve at dinner, biotch!).

More fake stir fry! Even less calories!  I forgot to take an after picture.  This ones actually pretty good, but needs more rice in it and would be really good if it had chicken.  I'm pretty sure the low calories is because its vegetarian.

Oh god - this one....Another Healthy Choice.  I must have bought this particular one while suffering from a head wound because DAMN U GUYS, this shit is terrible.

Everything about this, the smell the texture, the taste was a giant NO.  I mean what in Lucifer's handbag was that "Cherry and Blueberry Dessert"?!?! Just NO.  Smells like death.  Tastes like I am dying.  I actually think I am dying or getting a tumor or something.  This cant be good for me, and this is like 1 weeks worth of crap I ate!  I just want a salad, and a hug and a full health check up.

Ahh look at it!  SO GROSS.  The Cherry Dessert was goopy cherry syrup with chunks.  I needed to eat so I gagged the meat and veggies down, and then I was still hungry so I chased it with the next food item!  (I have literally lost my mind AND my taste buds by this point)

Healthy Choice again - when will I learn.

Answer: never!

The below picture doesn't even need an explanation.  You can just see how friggin awful this is.  The beans were dry and tasted like plastic and some had something crystallized to them.  The pasta was so vile.  I went to bed hungry and sad.

Only to wake up the next day and eat more micro-foods!

Ok this one has my vote on good.  Smells very yummy, has veggies and a good sauce and meat that feels like real meat and not cardboard in the shape of meat!  YAY!

That's all for now, I think I am going to eat at some real food places for a bit.  I am pretty sick of the weird taste of these foods.  This week was a lot of pastas but before this I did more stir fry options which seem to be really gross.  I can't wait to eat pork chops and steaks and salads again.  Currently my salads come from McDonald's.  Yes, that's right I'm getting my veggie intake from freaking Ronald McDonald.

LSU Lakes are pretty

Took a jog around the lakes on campus today, gotta say, its one positive thing that its warm and sunny :)

And now - Sorority Houses!

Ok- I have a story about this house.  I was walking here, and these two guys in a paddle boat come up to the bank of the lake across from this house.  And I'm thinking "this is totally romantic" and the the girl comes out of the house and shes wearing (Of course!)  a baggy t-shirt, NO shoes, and athletic shorts.  No makeup on, chewing gum like a cow, and her ratty hair barely in a pony.  She looked like she hadn't slept and she looked like she might smell like beer and regret.  Basically it was a potential cute moment ruined.  Way to go, lady, now please wash your damn hair.

This ones really cute with swings on the upper level

The owl in this pic looks just like a Furby to me.  Also what the heck does "hoot for the Tigers" mean.  They weren't against some weird Owl school.  Louisiana has no reason. FACT.

Moving on to....A FRAT HOUSE!

Womp wooooommmpp!  Let down!  The girls live in nice places, the guys live in old shacks.

This house is so adorable.  I want to live in it, so cute!

Forgot to mention that I actually saw some guys SWIMMING IN THIS LAKE.  THERE ARE LEECHES AND ALLIGATORS IN THERE YOU FOOL! 

That is all :P