Shout Outs

Big ups for all those people out there who have sent me care packages filled with chocolate, coffee and sour patch kids (my favorite).


Here's the list of do gooders out there (by order of appearance):

• Jenn Switz- 1st person to send me an envelope full of pictures from my going away party last summer. She had an excellent follow up performance when she sent me a birthday package filled with Sour Patch Kids . Familiarize yourself!
• The Lovely Charlotte - sent me a warm scraf and and a motivational book . Shortly there after she sent me a box with some coffee and other goodies inside . Thanks sugar. (UPDATE)- Just recieved a book, a card, and The Wedding Crashers on DVD. Well done Charlotte!
  
• Suyoung -you really outdid yourself my friend. Eight pounds of chocolate and pistachios air mailed only to be held hostage by the customs lady for 2 1/2 weeks. So much for speedy delivery.
• Nick-Nick W.- two boxes of cliff bars and a few burned cds. The customs agent wanted to know if I was importing vitamens. I told him I didn't really know what was in the box. I think they cut it open just to see me sweat. In the end, the customs assistant reported that the box had "paper" in it and with the nod of a head I was released to enjoy my carrot cake flavored oat bar. MMMMM Good.

Honorable mentions:

- Shannon (big sister) for hand delivering a 50lbs suitcase of clothing and various sundry items I left at home. Unfortunately half of that weight was a climbing rope I was planning to retire. Your classic case of mistaken identity.

-Bruce and Suzanne (the rents) for finding the items to send with Shannon, and for hand delivering some special gifts to Germany.

-Kristen and Drew Last Name Still Under Negotiation (sister and brother-in-law) for bringing along some gifts to Germany. And a thank your in advance for bringing my niece/nephew into the world Leave him with me for a month and I'll have his first words be "tuica pentru mine, gagica!"

So you want to be on the list? Feel bad that I'm rotting away in this barren wasteland of a country without so much as a single sour gummy candy to chew on? Carefully follow these instructions:

1) Get a box and jam pack it full of awesome stuff

2) Write this on the box:

Andrew Slawter
Strada Moldovei 24A Apt. 15
540517 Targu-Mures, Jud. Mures
Romania

3) Run, or get into the fastest moving vehicle you can legally obtain, to the Post Office.

4) Pay exorbient postal fees.

5) Plant a kiss on the package for good luck

6) Give it to the postal worker before they become even more disgruntled

7) Step back, wave goodbye and know that you may sleep easy tonight for making the world a better place by contributing to a needy volunteer in the field.

The end

Foreign Service Officers Face Mandatory Tour in Iraq

As a Peace Corps Volunteer many people think its a good idea to apply to the Foreign Service. In addition to our readjustment allowance we recieve one year of non competitive status for Federal employment. The following article might make one reconsider applying for the FS.

http://www.afsa.org/news/LosAngelesTimesArticle121805.cfm

Ahhh, Germany 

Sweet Virgin Powder 

Get Aquainted with Romania

Look for me in Targu-Mures. I'm almost smack dab in the middle of the country. (Try clicking on the map and using the zoom feature)

Evil Notary Public

Two days ago I went to the Notary Public to pick up a document I had ordered when to my surprise the cheeky little *&#tard tried to extort me out of some additional cash. Not only did he want me to pay for both the document I requested, and the bogus one he botched, but he then wanted me to pay him an additional fee (1/3) of the total cost for his......cell phone bill! I couldn't believe what I was hearing. This jerk told me that if I wanted the document I was going to have to pay him for the time he had "wasted" on his cell phone making the orders at the clerks office. He literally grabbed the document, put it behind the counter and told me to pay him, or I wasn't getting it. I tried to reason with him by saying that the prices written on both of the documents say that they cost 300.000 lei in total and so that is what I would give him. He would have none of it, and tried to intimidate me by threatening to call the President of my foundation. I said "go ahead, call him." But he wanted me to give him the number and then to use my phone to make the call.

I told him for the last time that I would pay him 300.000 for the documents (remember, only one of them was of any use to me, but I was kindly willing to pay for his mistake) but his reply was "Forget it, its not the first time I've lost money out of my own pocket for one of these." And I told him, "Fine, you've just lost 300.000 lei."

That guy had me so worked up I was fuming for the rest of the day. Its not such a big deal, because I can order the document from any Notary in town, but its the fact that he tried to treat me like a fool and that I've now wasted two afternoons having to go down to the office in person to collect the paper.

This whole system of the Notary Public is a bunch of crap. This country is so backed up in paperwork that they hardly ever get anything done. Everything has to go through the Notary because they are deemed the only "trustworthy and verifiable party." The notary is required to sign every contract, every business deal, every time you hire a new employee, every time you buy a new car, rent an apartment, or file for your taxes. No contract is legal until it has been signed and stamped by a notary. And what do these Notaries get for all their useless paper pushing? Anywhere from 1-3% of the value of contract. That means if you are signing a rental agreement between the landlord and the tenant for one year, the Notary gets 1-3% of the total rent for one year up front at the time of the signing. That’s hundreds of dollars for just 5 minutes worth of "work." And remember, they do this every day, all day, and their offices are packed with people ready to open up their wallets.

As the money flows in these Notaries start to feel very powerful and take on an eir of importance and superiority. They cease to be private parties carrying out a civil function and start to realize that nothing in society can be accomplished without their stamp of approval. This is why some goober at the notary's office thinks its ok to openly extort me for additional fees, which even he knows are ridiculous. Dare to challenge his authority and you risk being made a fool of in front of the other sheep who patiently wait to have their documents stamped. In my case the document was only over a small sum so I could afford to walk away, but for these other poor victims of the system their financial concerns deal with life savings, or money destined for posterity.

The office of the Notary Public is a clear illustration of the backwards legal aperatus in Romania. It is evident that the system is set up so that you must prove your innocence to your accusers, rather than have your accusers prove your guilt. It is assumed that your documents are fraudulent and so they must be verified by some fool with just enough money to open up his own practice (The Notary Public). Yes, that’s right, I'm told that a university degree to become a notary is about as difficult to obtain as a degree in "Recreation Sciences." The law places no trust in your fellow citizen here. The office of the Notary Public is an archaic, and wasteful system designed to control the populace which is manipulated by a few pompous, and power hungry individuals who use it as a vehicle to personal wealth. If I never see another notarized document it will surely be too soon.

Lunch Lady Land

Finally we've made it! This is the real reason why we volunteer. We have transcended the boundaries of East and West. We have struggled alongside of coworkers much too old to still be sporting purple hair, and most importantly we have discovered that lunch ladies accross the globe all look alike.

Just when we thought our Hungarian lunch lady had had enough of our tasty, and cost effective menu shenanigans she asked us to pose for a photo with her. Shortly there after she asked Aron to take her back to Sweden so she could earn the "bani". This was followed by some winking, nodding, and nudging.  

more chopping

If you look closely, Aron resembles a street bum pan-handling for vegetable scraps more than he does a professional cook and part time Swedish student.

Man in the white suit

Aron chopping onions, carrots, and potatoes in the "veggies only" section of the kitchen.

Yipee! Day 1

Instead of always trying to worry about sending pictures to people via par avion cds which only end up in their proper destinations some of the time, or overloading e-mail accounts with unshrunken photos, I figure you all can just have a peak at what I've been doing directly. These are the photos, this is my story. One Guy in Romania.