August 13-14th 2004 Day 1,2 of Eastern Europe Trip

A few short hours after my last exams, Kuo-Bao and his family took me to the airport. Eight or so hours after that, I found myself meeting Kuo-Yu in Munich, Bavaria. After a long day touring (wow, who would've thought you could see most of tourist Munich all in 1 day?), eating and being a stupid tourist, I said good-bye and hopped on the last train to Budapest. I had the fortune of sitting with all sorts of interesting characters. There were a group of adolescent boys in the next compartment blasting BackStreet boys while a group of older men drank beer and chatted from my compartment. I felt like such a stuck up North American sitting with these relaxed Eastern Europeans.

I woke up to a few hours later. We were heading into a city of some sort. Not realizing what was going on, I got off the train to witness a tangerine sun yawning above the horizon behind an endless mosiac of speckled glass. Whatever city this was, I liked it. I had a strange feeling I wasn't in Budapest when people asked for Euros at the groccery counter. Quickly I realized I was in some city named Wien. I had no idea what country I was in, but I knew that my train left out of Budapest in a few hours so I had to get my butt into Hungary. Without even knowing what language people in this country spoke, I somehow managed to run halfway across the city to catch the next train into Budapest from the other train station. As I left, I thought to myself, whatever city Wien is, I like it already. Maybe I will stop by on my way home. Little would I know that Wien really is Vienna :).

After arriving late in Budapest, I realized it was impossible for me to catch my early train into Cluj. Instead I decided to spend another day being a stupid tourist. I spent a few hours just walking around the city. I felt so lost, but the locals were really helpful. I really didn't see any of this racist society the media seems to portray. One thing I noticed about Budapest is that everything is so.. vandalized. Despite having such a long history and beautiful architecture, the city just has this depressing grunginess about it. Wow, I even hopped on one of those tour buses. I felt like such a stupid tourist. At least I managed to get around the city a lot easier. I really like how Buda and Pest are actually like sister cities - one above in rolling hills while another nestled below, separated by a flowing water. You can definitely feel some reminance of Communism in the area.

I caught the 4pm train heading into Cluj. As the train chugged away, I realized just how much the concept of "wealth" changes along the train tracks as you head farther and farther into Eastern Europe. EuroTrip is exaggerated, but there's definitely that divide between the rich West and the struggling East.

I sat with a French girl on the train into Romania. She told me a lot about the country, and was really helpful in a time of uncertainty. I'm so thankful she was there. As I hopped off in Cluj around midnight, I once again felt displaced. The locals all stared at me, and the world just seemed to be a blur. Nobody spoke English anymore, and I realized I didn't have any Romania Lei. I exchanged cash with a local shop owner, bought a phone card, and phoned around until I found a way to where I needed to go.

As I pulled into the Cluj University ghetto - I felt that feeling of uncertainty and unease slipping away. Sure they were just cement block buildings, but I felt a strange strange sense of "home"... 

A bit later, the other volunteers returned. I was going to share a room with a French, a Japanese, a Dutch and an English. Wow, it's going to be an exciting two weeks. I never felt so fatigued in my life... a short moment later, we were all collapsed and dreaming away.

God never closes a door without opening another one ...

I got locked out of my house again last night... arggh another night of sleeping at the lab. This morning at 7am I crawled out of the Syde lab and drove home expecting my mom to be back. But nope, she wasn't home yet and the front door was still locked. I had 2 hours before church and I was tired, groggy and desperately wanted to shower. I thought I'd drive to her work to look for her - but the entire street where she worked was closed off for some sort of festival. Then I thought I'd drive down the block and call her on a pay phone. For some reason as I walked up to the pay phone I knew that it wasn't going to be in service... and it wasn't. Then I went into a convenience store, and begged to borrow their phone. As I had thought, my mom's cell phone was off. Then as I walked back out to the car I realized how angry and frustrated I was. I laughed, yes that's right, I am just a weakling who gets angry at stupid stuff. How faithless am I? The good Lord never closes a door without opening another one. I guess I needed a literal example of this :). Then I drove home, I knew that one of the doors would be open. Just as I had thought, the garage door was open.... although it was locked when I had checked at 4am the night before..... What a strange strange lesson I learned today ... too bad I was late for church.

Yes I think I win the award for updating Xanga the least, and putting on the least interesting information with the least amount of personal content.

I finally gave up in my job search and decided to go back to RIM. Hopefully next term will be as beautiful as the last. Yep, everyone apply to RIM and keep me company

Yeah yeah we all know Troy was pretty good. Here are a few of my favorite lines: "because we're mortal, because any moment may be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we're doomed. You will never be more lovely than you are now. We will never be here again." .... So true, and in many ways I think that is why God made us so temporary. Everything we will experience here will never be quite the same. Secondly, "You gave me peace in a lifetime of war." Has next to no earthly relevance to me personally, but beautiful line none-the-less :).

Last weekend was so much fun! I spent the weekend up in Mississauga with some friends. You will never guess the type of beauty they have even in the city. Oooh I even met the Asianavenue member of the year. I guess it will be the last full, non-productive weekend for a while .

This week was the last week of working at RIM. I miss my coworkers already. Everyday they humble me with their amazing intelligence . I was so lucky to have worked with them. Wow one day I hope I can be like them lol. Now I know for sure that I'm the "stupid engineer".

Monday is back to school! Yai, as funny as that sounds I miss learning for the sake of learning.