Cav's Place

Read this in Romanian, after somewhat accidentally ending up with it at the end of a World Book Day event. Spotted a few places where something was obviously wrong with the translation, but while I doubt that it was better than that of the first book in the series, I can’t really know. Translating “Renegade” into “Tradarea” (“Betrayal”) as the title really doesn’t seem right though. Also, that use of metric units in some places but not in others remains, and I still don’t know whether it’s like that in the original text as well or the translator keeps converting only in some places. The first option seems far more likely, but it’s still odd either way.
About the book itself, at least it doesn’t seem like the novelization of the tutorial of an action game anymore, but it’s oddly mundane considering the potential of the concept. Also shallow, perhaps when it comes to the all too few problems resulting from being wanted by multiple forces in particular, but definitely not only for that reason. Many scenes seem thrown in just because they’re the fastest way to move on to the next part, consequences are often discarded, the romance still doesn’t feel right at all, whether before or after certain key scenes, the way events will develop and the intentions and motives of others are too obvious yet somehow the main character keeps missing them, plenty of times also being manipulated with hardly any effort, the levels of trust between characters are also hardly natural or reasonable… And that final chapter comes pretty much out of nowhere, reminding me of those scenes at the end of the last episode of a season of a TV series that was supposed to end but just got renewed for another season at the last moment, so somebody had to quickly replace the planned conclusion with a hook. In spite of it all, it’s possible that I’d have, grudgingly, rated this higher than the previous book if I wouldn’t have read it translated, but as it was…

Rating: 2/5

The previous post was awfully long even for me and only covered two days, or in fact less than that. This one should cover ten, plus today’s run and some other things that took place after I started writing it, so I sure hope I’ll manage to be a whole lot briefer, because I won’t sit here and write that much again on likely less than two hours of sleep, and when the plan for tomorrow is to walk the route of this year’s Bucharest Half Marathon, which differs significantly from what I knew from the previous editions.

I’ll start with the runs, and there were three of them during this period, the first being last Wednesday, when I ran 16 kilometers again and managed a new record: 1:19:29! Sector times were 4:23, 5:08, 5:57, 4:32, 5:05, 5:57, 4:37, 5:12, 6:17, 4:41, 5:22, 6:02, 4:52, 5:15 and 6:09, making for lap times of 15:28, 15:34, 16:06, 16:05 and 16:16. So, compared to the previous record, I gained 17 seconds on the first lap, 15 on the second and 13 on the fourth, but lost one on the third and 28 on the fifth, leaving me 16 seconds faster at the end. That fifth lap was outstanding back then, now I couldn’t keep up, but I had enough of an advantage at that point to afford it. And even though it was a pretty hot and sunny day, with a bit of wind as well, and more people were showing up along the route as I went along, since I started at 4:30 PM, I did rather aim to make a new record, though I was also prepared to fail as long as I won’t fail by much.
Sadly, that was followed by another poor run, Monday, when I got back to ten kilometers and only managed 49:42, with sector times of 4:19, 5:11, 6:06, 4:35, 5:13, 6:11, 4:44, 5:22, 6:09 and 1:52, making for lap times of 15:36, 15:59 and 16:15. Woke up early, around 8:30 AM or maybe just a bit over that, so after some two and a half hours of sleep or so, and did mean to run on that little sleep in order to simulate how it’ll be next week, but first couldn’t quite get much out when I went to the toilet, then with dad sleeping and my running pants still on the balcony to dry I decided to eat more, finishing the pasta that was left even if there was a fair bit more than I’d eat at once otherwise, and spent some more time on-line. It was around 11 AM, maybe even a bit later, when I decided to just put some shorts on and go like that, but he came out of the living room just as I was at the door, so I grabbed my running pants after all and changed… Yet the delay wasn’t enough to digest what I had eaten, so it was a real struggle to run like that. There were also some pretty serious gusts of wind and plenty of people in the park, but the biggest issue was my full stomach, plus the fact that I hadn’t emptied the other part properly either, so I had cramps, felt like throwing up, there was gas I didn’t even dare to burp because I feared more would come out… Things got better towards the end and I considered continuing to 16 kilometers again, but decided against it, leaving me with a time on ten that made me feel like crap. But maybe pushing through under those circumstances counts for something…
As for today, I wanted to simulate the race morning even better, so meant to wake up at 8 AM in order to start running exactly at 9:45 AM, which is the scheduled start time then. Ended up waking at 7:40 AM though, hearing my UPS click repeatedly. Didn’t hear it beep to indicate an actual power failure, but it is possible that it did so before and that was what woke me up, and I remember noticing unusually few lights outside when I went to sleep, so I was already worried about power failures in the area. But I had a plan and stuck to it, going to pee and then staying in bed until 8 AM, then eating what I normally do before running and going out and starting right on time. And the result was 47:42, with sector times of 4:18, 5:07, 5:53, 4:25, 5:05, 5:52, 4:24, 4:57, 5:56 and 1:45, making for lap times of 15:18, 15:22 and 15:17. So I was exactly two minutes faster than Monday, even though there were some gusts of wind again and a large group of children was in the park, getting in the way on sector three of lap one, though they had learned to leave some room for others by the time I had to go past them again. Otherwise, plenty of other runners, as you’d expect, but none I could actually race over a longer distance, overtaking those I saw running in the same direction quite quickly. But I was pushing anyway, leaving just about nothing over the first two laps and pushing even harder on the third. And I felt all right, I could do it, which makes me feel just a bit more at ease.

To finish with the topic of running, I’ll add that Saturday I registered for the Bucharest Marathon as well. So I guess that’s “real” now as well; I’m actually going to run a marathon… Or at least I plan to, because who knows what will happen until then. Does mean that next week’s half marathon will pretty much mark the beginning of the training, and I’ll have to get quite serious about it and really stick to the plan over the summer, which definitely won’t be easy, considering the heat. But I’ll have to do my best, getting to 16 kilometers more often, to 21.1 at least a few more times as well, and doing a long run at the start of September. Planning 11 laps around the lake, so 35.2 kilometers, but I’ll see then I guess.

Getting back to the start of the period covered by this post, last Tuesday I ended up caught in quite a storm. Had checked the forecast and saw storms possibly starting around 8 PM, so I didn’t think that will trouble me, since I wanted to go to the farmers’ market and that closes at 7 PM anyway, but by 5:40 PM, when I was just about to get to the market after having finished the other things I meant to do first, it was pouring and I had to wait it out in order to be able to get back. I only had a t-shirt on, also had a book with me, and didn’t want my phone to take such a bath either, so I was getting a bit worried there for a while, plus that if it lasted a little longer I risked finding nobody still selling anything in the market, since I didn’t purchase anything while taking shelter there at first.
I didn’t go directly to the market because, after the previous day’s events, the plan was to first pick up MILA 2.0 from the Library, since I saw that it was available in a location that was on the way, then go to the location of that bookstore in the mall that’s close to that market in order to read the final part of In Calabria again, and only then go to the market. And those other things went well enough, it was sunny, nobody said anything to me for reading a book grabbed from a shelf while occasionally pretending to have a close look at several sections in that bookstore, but when I walked out of that mall, which I actually know was at 5:36 PM, I smelled rain and saw heavy clouds, then felt a few drops on me after taking a few steps. Still, it didn’t seem bad and the market was close, so I put the book from the Library in a plastic bag as well but otherwise thought I’ll be fine.
Well, by the time I got to the corner, it was pouring, and since I got there just as the light turned red, in the time it took for it to turn green again I got pretty much soaked. Ran to the market as soon as I could, taking shelter there along with a fair number of others, but it was uncomfortable, the drainage pipes from the market’s roof creating rivers along the edges and the roof itself dripping in many places, plus that some areas don’t have a roof or just have something like a net. Also, my pants were too wet to keep my phone in my pocket, so I took it out and held it in my hand for quite some time, before noticing that the back pockets were relatively dry and putting it there. Then I made my way past those rivers at the edges and sort of wandered around the more protected areas for a while, though I wasn’t about to buy anything, and plenty were gathering their things anyway. After a while, when things seemed just a little bit better, I dared to make a dash for a less protected area, but the rain got heavier again right away and I ended up crowded with a few other people under an umbrella that was pretty much the only proper protection there, that net allowing much of the water through.
That wasn’t a good position to be in though, not just because my feet kept getting wetter, but also because the net seemed to be bending more and more under the weight of the water that wasn’t getting through it, and the remaining sellers tended to only worry about the parts of the roof that were just above their heads and their things, which were more solid anyway and also had drainage pipes. So I just ran to a butcher shop, after an employee who had taken pictures from the door went back, then after another employee, who had been outside, returned and said the rain really messes you up as soon as you leave the cover in front of the supermarket that’s also there, I thought it’d be better to wait there instead and quickly made my way to it, sticking close to the wall.
A few more people were also taking shelter just inside that supermarket, so I waited there along with them, at one point sending dad a message saying I may need a boat if this keeps up. But fortunately it didn’t, and as soon as it started easing up I dashed outside to see how the sky looked, then went back to the market when it seemed safe to do so. Of course, I guess it was around 6:30 PM by then, so many had already left and others were carrying what they had left away in order to leave, but a few did brave the storm and stayed there, or were very quick to “open” again, so I wandered around a little and bought a few things after all, and then the way back wasn’t a problem. Was still worried it’ll start again, so I ran a good part of the way, but it didn’t get worse than a drizzle.

The next day, after running, I spotted two apparently new books, one on a parked car and another on a garbage bag. Nothing interesting, and I wouldn’t have taken the one on the garbage bag anyway, but I was left wondering why they were there, and actually checked to see whether there was a BookCrossing label on them. There wasn’t any, and the fact that they were pretty close together also made me think that maybe somebody had thrown them from a balcony, but I have no idea. They really seemed new, and the roof of a car and, especially, on top of a full garbage bag aren’t exactly places where one would leave books if they’re intended for others to pick up.
Either way, after that I wandered around quite a lot to get just a couple of things, checking some prices in all three hypermarkets and then returning to the first two. In Carrefour I could have gotten two 0.50 RON coins from abandoned carts actually inside the store, but only connected one to others that were nearby, wandering around the second one for a bit, to make sure nobody had just left it there for a little while, planning to get back to it, and having some guy who had just walked in grab it instead, though it sure didn’t seem like he had brought it there. On the other hand, I found some interesting lettuce in Kaufland that was deeply discounted, as some fresh stuff tends to be in the evening, but there were multiple types and a couple of different prices, and since I had very little money on me I had to be absolutely sure how much each would be, but the price scanners wouldn’t work with the bar codes on those, and an employee actually said so when she saw me trying to scan them, so I gave up on that idea.
But the unpleasant, and somewhat concerning, part came after that, around 10:30 PM, when I was close to getting back here and suddenly found a truck rather slowly going past me, spraying something that was probably some insecticide out of a “cannon” mounted on it. It was aiming rather high, at the trees, but considering how much those have been hacked apart, and how many old and large ones have been cut and maybe replaced with little ones that will likely need decades to reach a similar size, if they’ll ever be allowed to do so, that didn’t offer too much protection. Tried not to breathe before turning the corner, but did have to take one breath, and felt droplets on me and that stinging sensation of being in contact with a toxic substance like that. My eyes actually stung a bit for a while after that, and felt a little nauseous as well, and of course I washed and had everything I was wearing then washed as well, which also led to my running pants still being on the balcony Monday morning, since I hadn’t changed after running that day. But seriously, shouldn’t they do these things late at night, not while it’s still evening, and take care when they see somebody walking either way?

Something pretty awesome happened the next day though. I spent most of it reading, but what I’m referring to has nothing to do with that, but with the fact that the winners of an incredibly generous giveaway organized by a user on the GOG.com forum were posted and I ended up winning The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Game of the Year Edition. Definitely didn’t expect that, since it was the game that the most had entered for, but at the same time there were two keys being offered, so there actually were, if I calculated correctly, four titles with worse odds, even if fewer people had entered for them. Not that I’d have anything to do with it on this computer, of course. This probably wouldn’t even run the previous game, not even at the level my old computer was struggling to when I tried to start it back then. But it is a game I definitely want to play when I’ll be able to do so and it’s great to have it. Winning it actually made me quite happy for a while that day, which was rather surprising.

Next, skipping to Sunday… And Sunday started awfully. Not referring to anything that actually happened, but to the dreams I had that morning. Or in fact to one of them, as the other two that I recall were quite neutral, only somewhat notable due to how well I remembered them. One had to do with some completely impossible ski flying record set once again at Planica, by Dimitry Vassiliev, and which I only happened to catch a replay of after starting to watch just after it happened. It was over 500 meters, and later, when I could watch it better, I recall it was even 573 or 578 meters, and with a mess of a landing but still somehow without touching the snow with anything other than the skis, and questions whether it’d have mattered anyway since the landing itself was well beyond the line after which problems shouldn’t affect the jumper’s score anymore. As for the other, there was something about some important person apparently being in danger of being assassinated, but it eventually seemed like the person delivering that message was actually the one in danger, some woman catching on to that, and something about an address, but it wasn’t clear whether it was a street and a number or a hotel and a room, I believe the name of either the street or the hotel being Savoy.
But the terrible dream, which left me completely shaken, had to do with my worst fear, Andra with a child. She actually came to me with one, first seeming to be a baby, then she said two years old, and it suddenly looked like that as well. She claimed he was mine, and that she didn’t know she was pregnant until the end, so I guess this would place the dream in 2008, but that didn’t add up even without considering how crazy such a claim sounds when coming from someone with any reasonable level of information and intelligence, since it was some ten days over nine months between the last time we had sex and her getting back to England again after marrying him during that time when they both came here, which was something I was quite aware of in the dream as well. So I just pushed her away. That’s obviously the one thing I won’t tolerate, no matter what, immediately demanding papers to reject any obligations or rights and making it clear in my mind, and trying to do so to her as well without actually saying those exact words, that I will kill the boy if I’ll ever see him again. I wasn’t sure how or what to tell my dad about the whole mess, my mother showed up at some point too, but what I remember more clearly is that Andra had unblocked me on Facebook, but her current username had many numbers in it and I couldn’t remember it when I woke up. Could see an older one too, but I used a link that ended in 5 and it redirected to one ending in 9, which as far as I know can’t happen anyway. But I actually checked these links I did remember when I woke up, just to make sure there was nothing there and maybe convince myself that it was evidence that the part about her with a child wasn’t true either.

Moving on to Monday, after running I went to buy some things again, and again wandered around a lot. First went to Auchan to get bread and yogurt and a couple of other things I knew I’ll get from there, then took the free bus they provide and brought those back, then went to Carrefour and Kaufland to get a few other things, comparing prices as well, then came back with those and went back out to Auchan, mainly for red cabbage, but picking up a few other things that were cheaper there as well, and again using their free bus to get back. But a somewhat odd thing happened when I first went to Auchan, when I just had the bread in my basket, passed by two boys and noticed one of them throw something there. Didn’t even realize what it was when I picked it up and threw it on what I believe was coffee that was on sale nearby, only then looking to see that it was a pack of Always Discreet. I guess they thought that was funny, assuming I’ll get to the checkout without noticing it and be embarrassed, and I guess I should have thrown it at them instead, if I’d have realized what it was right away…

And this gets me to yesterday, when I returned the book to the Library, after having finished it the day before, had a look at that pharmacy after my mother asked me to look for some things, I guess for my grandmother, finding none of them and also deciding against getting toothpaste for myself if I wasn’t getting anything else, and then went to that farmers’ market again. But what I want to write about took place later, after I started reading that book I picked up for the “price” of hitting my head twice… And noticed that it ends suddenly, on page 352 out of what it seems should be 368. And then I checked and found that it does indeed miss the entire final chapter and the last part of the one before it. No sign of torn pages, it just looks like it was incomplete to begin with, and it’s something I should have noticed there if I wouldn’t have been in such a hurry. Wonder if they weren’t actually aware of it, and the copies that could be taken for free during that event couldn’t be sold for one reason or another.
Now I do mean to keep reading until I reach that point and then probably go to one of their locations to grab a copy and read the end there, and maybe leave this one there once I’m done, I hope after also managing to tell them what happened. But I also found it on-line, so can finish it like that too, that’s not the problem. The problem is that Wednesday night I had just sent the donation form to the Metropolitan Library, wondering if I’ll be able to also drop it off on Tuesday if I’ll finish it by then, since they say a reply may take up to five business days and approved donations are only accepted in a single location, only on Tuesday, between 9 AM and 2 PM. So I then had to send another, rather embarrassing, message, apologizing and stating that it would appear that I have nothing to donate after all, explaining why that is the case.

Still on that topic, today I sent a message to that bookstore explaining what happened and saying that I’ll probably bring it back to one of their locations so they can send it back to the publisher or recycle it or do whatever they want with it, but I again bumped into that issue having to do with their on-line and physical stores operating separately. Still, while I sent the message to the on-line store, since a way to contact someone having to do with the physical ones is rather difficult to find and I didn’t even think to look for that separate section, and they pointed it out to me, they also said that the gifts they offer come directly from publishers, they can’t check all of them, and advised me to tell my story to an employee at the location I got that book from and see whether I’ll have it exchanged for a complete one, if any copies are still available. But that would require actually, well, doing that, explaining face to face, and I have no proof that I got it from them in the first place, and it’s not like I bought it, plus that I already sent that message to say I have nothing to donate, so sending yet another to say that I actually do after all would be quite awkward, and probably make it look like a prank. But I’ll see what I’ll end up doing…

And this didn’t have 5200 words again, but it will get to more than 4200 with this paragraph. Meant to stop at some point, but then went to the kitchen and hit my head yet again, and then decided not to go to sleep after all, even though I know that old recommendation doesn’t apply anymore. Do need rest, especially considering the plan for tomorrow, but right now I am also getting somewhat concerned over the possible consequences of hitting my head so often, since I seem to keep doing it lately, with plenty of light hits between the more noticeable ones, which are rather frequent as well. This time I also hit it against an edge again, and even if I didn’t end up with a scratch this time, there was quite a bump, and you can easily see the spot even if I kept frozen meat there for a while, since we don’t have ice in the freezer. We should have ice there from now on at least, since it’s becoming quite clear that I’ll need it frequently, but holding something frozen there also means I’ll end up feeling really cold. It’s been over three hours since I stopped holding that frozen meat there and I still can’t get that chill out.

Read this in Romanian, picked up from the Library after somewhat accidentally ending up with the sequel at the end of a World Book Day event. However, being included in the otherwise pointless free prequel, I read the first seven chapters in English as well, so I can say that I guess the writing style isn’t bad in itself… But the translation is quite poor, with some obvious mistakes I could spot and who knows how many others, after those first chapters, which I had no way to notice, plus a confusing way to print thoughts up to a point. There are things that can be fixed mentally if you pay attention, but others just confuse and at least a few may well lead to understanding something that’s the opposite of the original meaning. Plus, metric units are used in some places, but not in most others, so I’m assuming the translator didn’t bother to convert and that’s how it was in the original as well, but I can’t be sure. It’s odd either way.
About the book itself, while there are some interesting scenes, I tend to be pretty surprised that plenty of people like this sort of thing. The fact that the main character is annoyingly emotional and that leads to bad decisions and difficulty in making any somewhat reasonable ones may be explained by her programming, so she and the author may be judged less harshly for it than if she’d have actually been human, but fewer excuses can be found for the success rate of, and I’d even say praise for, irrational decisions after a point. More importantly, just about any other character is one-dimensional, the first six and a half chapters consist almost entirely of particularly silly teen drama and the few scattered hints of something more interesting are pointless anyway when the reader already knows what the main character is, there’s instant romance and a sudden return to it later, and the entire book seems like the novelization of the tutorial of an action game that doesn’t properly start before the end.

Rating: 2/5

I must start this post from April 20, when I volunteered at the Botanical Garden again. With all but one of this year’s planned “Spring Cleaning” days canceled because of the weather and me still recovering from the flu at the time of that one remaining day, I was sure I won’t go back there this spring, but suddenly there was an announcement that volunteers were needed for a slightly different kind of work there, and that the schedule was different too, between 4 PM and 8 PM, and Friday and Saturday instead of Saturday and Sunday. So it allowed me to go before going to plant trees again, and without waking up early that day. Don’t want to push myself for anything other than running until after the half marathon now, plus that my back was already bothering me at the time and it’s still not quite fine, so even though there were other announcements about needing a small number of people at various times, including both in the morning and in the evening now, between April 28 and 30, I didn’t go again since, but at least I went once this time around as well, just like in autumn and last spring.

It did pretty much take up my entire day then, since I just woke up, grabbed something to eat, had a quick look on-line, got ready and left, easily getting there at 3:45 PM. That seemed to be right on time to me, since the previous times we had been told to be there ten to 15 minutes earlier in order to register, and in autumn also to draw our numbers for the rewards at the end, but now I just saw two others there at that moment and nobody waiting for us, the person at the entrance who stopped me to ask where I was going saying that she thought they were around the corner. But nobody was waiting for us around the corner either, and even though one of those waiting said she had called Anca and was told she’ll be there in a few minutes, we had to wait a bit longer than that before she arrived, saying the previous event, probably with employees from a company, had just finished at 3 PM.
There were still only a few of us there even then, and we were worried we won’t be enough to do much of anything, but Anca said that while anyone could see the post and come, she only actually sent the announcement to those who had taken part in both the spring and the autumn cleaning last year, because she needed people with some experience that day and not too many, saying 15 would definitely be enough, and either way only 24 had signed up and she usually assumes that 40% won’t show up, though in fact it’s usually more like 50%. We were a lot less than half of 24 when we started drawing the tickets with our numbers for the rewards at the end though, and still 11, so just shy of that number even though one who showed up wasn’t even on the list due to having signed up that morning, when we eventually started walking to the gift shop where the tools are, at 4:10 PM. Two more joined us there though, making for exactly half of those on the list plus the additional one, and even more came later, some having already announced that they’ll only be able to get there after 5 PM. I think I counted 18 at the end.
Trouble was that quite a number of hands shot up when Anca asked who was there for the first time, so she eventually said that there was a lot of work of different kinds to do, more than she can see being finished in any foreseeable future in fact, so maybe it’ll be better not to do what she initially had in mind, or not quite and not only that, under those circumstances. I guess a part of it was done, to mark a circle in the area where we were working that day, but otherwise those who worked there cleared up that place, pulling and digging out the plants growing in the area that was marked and leveling the ground there. Later, we were told to try to remove the bigger plants growing around that area as well. In addition, a simple but exhausting task was available as well, Anca asking for three people to carry gravel from a pile that was quite some distance away, as it’ll need to be used in the area being cleared and apparently tractors weren’t available anymore, so all we had were wheelbarrows and our arms.
Since it was something I could do with less people around and without actually working in a team, I volunteered to carry, even though I know I’m not exactly strong and I also risked my back getting worse… And we really had to carry the gravel quite some distance each time, since the pile was behind a part of the greenhouse and we couldn’t go through, even though there are doors there, so on top of covering the distance itself we also had to go around each time. That meant I tended to fill the wheelbarrow less than the others, and really struggled the one time I filled it more, and also couldn’t pull it up to dump the contents properly in the new pile, so I either ended up tipping it over on one side, which Anca said we should avoid because the wheelbarrow could get damaged, or dumping the gravel next to the pile, when she had said to do our best to make one tall pile. Also had some trouble simply filling the wheelbarrow, at first trying to shovel in gravel from the top of the pile until the girl who also volunteered to do this a good part of the time told me it’s easier from the bottom, which I had avoided doing because there were a lot of leaves at the bottom and we had been told to try not to take those too. Eventually managed to clear away that layer of leaves though, and then also found a better method, so filling the wheelbarrow was easier, but carrying and dumping the contents never got better.
Anca said none of us will realistically be able to make more than three or four trips, so when we tire we should get back to the others and ask for someone to replace us, but I did want to make five trips at first, especially since I was carrying less. That girl who also seemed quite determined to do this, and who also gave me the impression that she was doing it in order not to have to socialize more, did give up after three trips though, if I remember correctly, and while I know I wasn’t sure whether I had done four or five even then, I do believe I did four before giving up the first time as well. Did get back to doing that after some time spent helping the others, soon after that girl had left to do the same, and a very talkative guy joined us soon after that… Which was quite a problem, because I hoped I’ll be left alone and instead found myself with somebody always talking and asking questions, and after that girl gave up again there was even a moment when it was just me and that guy and he had arrived at the pile as I was about to leave, yet he rushed to partially fill his wheelbarrow quickly and then just about somehow ran after me, catching up on the way and saying he hates being alone, it’s the worst thing. Didn’t even say anything to him when I gave up again as well, so when he saw me leave the wheelbarrow he asked whether I was just going for some water and ran ahead, seemed to try to get me some, but I just muttered that I was just going to stop and, after actually getting myself a glass of water, got back to helping the others clear and level the area.
He was strong though, and that became even clearer when we moved on to the surrounding area. The plants we had to dig up had deep roots that the rest of us who were there couldn’t pull out even after digging rather deep holes around them, but eventually he came and pulled the worst ones out one by one once we had gotten deep enough with the digging, getting a fair amount of praise for it. I think he helped the other group as well, as some had gone a bit farther away to do the same thing, and while I’m not sure of this, it also seems likely that he was the one who went back to the pile of gravel to take the shovels back, since we had left them there after I said we should, since we were just carrying them back each time and adding that weight for no reason. Since it had been my idea to leave them, when Anca said that was it for that evening I ran back there, which was at least a bit easier since I was wearing my shoes instead of the boots that evening, to grab them without asking whether anyone else had already done it, but found nothing when I got there.
It was 8:10 PM at the end, and we got back to the gift shop to get our badges and certificates and rewards, mine again being a magnet. There was a much bigger chance to get something more useful this time around, since there were far fewer people and three t-shirts and two pots, plus one smaller one given at the end to a guy who had been left without what he should have received, and I’d have considered a keychain as somewhat useful as well, but I got a magnet back in autumn and another one now, even though just two were available among the rewards. Dad did end up putting quite a few over the years on the freezer door though, so I just added it there… And also added the pass with four free entries to the Botanical Garden next to the other two, meaning that, after using just one so far, I now have 11 free entries and not really anything to do with them, since the Botanical Garden is far enough that I need to take the metro each time and it’s better to go relatively early in the day, plus that it’s not something I exactly care to visit anyway.
Either way, I checked the time when walking out the gate and it was 8:23 PM, and as people scattered it was just me, that talkative guy and a woman seeming to head in the direction of the metro, yet when that guy started asking questions again she said she was actually going somewhere else and soon crossed the road, leaving me with him again, and within seconds each of us alone, as I picked up my pace significantly and I’d say quite pointedly, leaving him behind and breathing a bit of a sigh of relief when he didn’t try to catch up and keep talking. So there was no more annoyance of that sort on the way back, and I got here a little after 9 PM.

With the rest of that evening and the next two days covered in the previous post, I’ll now get to last Monday, when my digestive system seemed to have pretty much finished cleaning up and I first went to buy some things, also taking all the plastic bottles which had gathered to the recycling machine. Actually took the largest bag we have this time and was able to fit them all in it, and since that also has a zipper, albeit one that’s broken at one end, I managed to close it so what I was carrying wasn’t so obvious anymore, even though a bit was showing through one side, where it can’t be closed.
Could have picked up another 0.50 RON coin from a cart left at the free bus stop at Auchan when I left, but I saw a woman struggling to connect one to another that was there despite having placed her bags in it, so at first I just held that second cart so it won’t move away as she pushed, but then picked up her bags as well, to make room, which made her rush to tell me that one tips over and grab them from my hands, though after that she could at least connect the carts, since there was nothing stopping the second one from going in all the way anymore. During that time, however, a woman and a little girl, possibly with others with them as well, walked past and the girl grabbed the cart with the coin in it, which wasn’t connected to any other. The woman told her to leave it in case it’s the other woman’s, but I answered that it wasn’t, knowing that she had struggled with the other one, so they walked away with that one.
Other than that, since I did go to all three hypermarkets I tend to check and dad had asked me to look for cheap shoes for him, I didn’t just look but actually took some pictures, which I then showed him, so he’ll get an idea about what’s available at the very low prices he’s looking for and know where to go. However, he recently said he only had a look these days and couldn’t find what was in those pictures anymore, which would make some sense, since the sales change every week and most of what was in those pictures was on sale at the time I took them, but a few models weren’t and, either way, I spotted some at those low prices again when I went to get some more things yesterday. Maybe not in the same spot I had found them in the first time, but they were there, so not sure where he looked.

But the more interesting part of last Monday had to do with it being World Book Day and the events organized here to mark the occasion. One was organized by a bookstore, people being asked to go to one of their locations and read a book that day, some short ones being made available by them for this purpose, then being able to take one of the others made available by the bookstore for free once they’re done. The other was the book exchange organized on this day by a publisher from here for some time now, people being asked to bring a book and take another in exchange, whether from those this publisher makes available or from those given by others, those given and not taken by someone else when the event ends, at night, being donated. This time they actually said that this event will take place over three days, with the exchange between 7 PM and midnight and other events, apparently mostly for children, earlier during those days, and there was also a “library” set up there, where people could sit and read books from this publisher without taking them home, since each person was only allowed to take one book regardless of how many they had brought.

This was the event I went to first, grabbing three crappy little books that at least looked better, since they had said they’ll only accept books in good condition, from these boxes of books we really should get around to giving away at some point that are still in my room. They were from some collection of military thrillers, short and, like I said, not good for anything as far as I could tell, though I probably read them in my teens, so thought I’ll just get rid of all of them at once, even if only one will “count”. And it was a good thing that I brought at least one additional one, since one of the two girls who were behind me in line told the other several times how disappointed and annoyed she was that she forgot to bring a book herself despite being the one to tell others to do so, so at one point I just pulled one of them out of my bag and handed it to her, apologizing that it wasn’t good for anything. Heard her being quite amazed by the price label, I think even taking a picture of it, since those had been bought before the switch from ROL to RON, so they cost tens of thousands. Admittedly, with one RON meaning 10000 of the old ROL and books now costing tens or, in case of some hardcovers, hundreds of RON, it also shows how much more expensive they got.
Also about those two girls, a television crew that was there interviewed the other one, asking her why she came, what the book she had was about, what she hoped to get, insisting on a title when she said “some SF” at first, even though I can’t see how could one look for something specific at an event where what’s available has to do with what others bring and what just happens to be available at the time you happen to be there. The reporter actually talked to her for a few minutes, and after that she was saying she had been just standing there and thinking “not me” repeatedly when she spotted them, then saw them head straight for her, which was obviously much to my relief, since they didn’t pick me to talk to. And she got some more attention after that too, this time from another person standing in line, an older woman who asked to exchange the book she had for the one this girl had brought, since apparently her daughter really wanted that one, leaving both girls to give books they hadn’t brought themselves and knew nothing about.
But to return to the event itself, there was quite a long line already when I got there, at 7:35 PM, but it was moving quite quickly, so it wasn’t that long until I got to the front, seeing two tables with books on them that people were looking through in order to pick something. Nobody asked for what I had brought though, so I just dropped the two books I still had on one of the tables, though I later noticed that the books on the tables had stickers marking them as being from that event, at least in case of those not from that publisher, which were entirely wrapped in jackets made for the event, while some boxes with older books were behind the tables, and when I started looking through those as well somebody told me those weren’t for taking. That led me to believe that you were probably supposed to either give what you had brought to some people I didn’t see in time or simply drop them in the boxes and then they were going to check whether they met the criteria and, if so, put a sticker on them and put them on the tables. But since nobody said that, I just left them where I saw the others right away…
Either way, there was nothing there I’d have actually been interested in, didn’t expect it anyway, so I just grabbed something at first, then dropped that for something else, then just as I was close to finishing going around the second table I spotted a book I remembered seeing at the science fiction and fantasy fair I checked out in March. Not one of those I was interested in when I went there, nor one of those I had found myself taking a little bit of interest in after spotting them there, but I remembered the cover, and being written by a Romanian author at least means it’s not a translation, though it also means that, just as in case of a translation, I wouldn’t normally be interested in it “by default”. But it did seem quite out of place, compared to the other stuff that was there, and I guess I’ll see how it is when I’ll read it…
Should have headed straight for those who had the raffle tickets after finishing looking at what was on the tables and leaving that area though, but instead I went to the “library” area as well, having a look at what was available there and ending up without a ticket as a result. One of the volunteers having the tickets had also handed them out to people waiting in line while I was also waiting, but stopped two people before me at that time, when someone else wanted to fill theirs on the spot, so she waited, took that one and then didn’t get back to continue. I could have gone to the others to just take one then as well, but didn’t want to step out of line, thinking I’ll just do that once I’m done with the rest, yet it was only 8:15 PM when I did get to them, seeing one last person fill one in and drop it in the box but finding no more tickets there when I looked. One of the volunteers asked whether they could help me with anything, but when I said I was looking for a ticket they said they ran out, and I actually posted about it on the event’s page after getting back and was told that indeed the interest had been much greater than expected, so they ran out of tickets… But it sure seems odd to me to run out of them one hour and 15 minutes into an event lasting for five hours that evening and five more over each of the next two evenings as well…
The thing is that at first I thought that it was possible that it was simply a matter of those volunteers not having any more and needing to grab another stack, so I got back to the “library” area and had a closer look at the books that were available, glancing back at them from time to time. But in the time it took me to have that look, they didn’t seem to be doing anything and I didn’t happen to spot anyone else putting any more tickets in the box either, which would have indicated that some more were probably available elsewhere. So at 8:25 PM I shrugged it off and walked away, this actually being shortly after somebody asked those who were in the “library” to try to finish and make some room for those waiting, which seemed like a rather odd request when you make such an area available and definitely seem to mean to let people read an entire book there.

With the bookstore organizing the other event having a location nearby, I went there after that. Had also checked out their location in this nearby mall earlier that day, when I went there to go to Carrefour, and had found a spot with some pillows and a few short books, but on top of nothing seeming interesting, there was nobody else reading there at that time, so I didn’t care to stop and try to read then, nor to get back there later. But that location I went to after the book exchange is a major one, plus that it was evening already, so I expected things to be clearer there… Yet instead couldn’t even find a spot with books to read, making me wonder what was going on.
There was also a somewhat awkward moment after I left, as I bumped into a guy I know from protests and meetings with activists and he recognized me from a distance, asking whether I was taking Victory Square by storm, though we sure were some distance from that at the time, then where had I been and where was I going. When I mentioned the book exchange, he said he’d have wanted to go there too, I said it was close by so he could go then if he wanted to, but he seemed to be in a hurry. He stayed long enough to ask what I had given away and what I took instead though, and while “some stupid stuff” seemed to be an acceptable answer to the first question, he didn’t accept “what I happened upon” as an answer to the second, asking me to “reveal the secret” of what was in my bag. So I showed him the book and he seemed to have a slightly surprised reaction before telling me to enjoy it and running off. The fact that he insisted and got me to show him the book actually made me feel a bit violated, if I may use the term, probably also because I didn’t exactly feel comfortable with what I perceived as that book’s genre.
Either way, went to that bookstore’s main location after that, reaching it around 8:50 PM and looking on the door to see that it closed at 10 PM. Once inside, saw people coming down the stairs, some with books in their hands, and writing book titles and the hours between which they had read them in a notebook that was there. Also saw the handful of books that people could select one from after they finished reading, and since the notebook was there and people were coming down with books in their hands, I assumed the books to read were also there somewhere, but couldn’t see them, nor any signs explaining anything. Fortunately, somebody asked and was told the books were upstairs, and you had to finish before closing time, so before 10 PM.
That made me say out loud that there was little chance of that, but I nevertheless rushed there, found the “reading area”… And promptly hit my head on that low ceiling, as I do pretty much whenever I happen to go there. But had no time to dwell on that, so kept quickly looking through the books that were still available there and grabbed In Calabria. Still a translation, but the back at least mentioned some fantasy elements and it had 174 pages and the font was a bit large and with a fair amount of spacing. It would have been quite a test of my quick reading skills even so, since I had just over one hour, but I found a spot to sit down and started reading.
Matters got somewhat complicated a bit later, when a woman came with a child and the boy was talking loudly, wanting stuff, then occasionally calling for the mother to leave already when she decided to stay for some reason, talking on the phone, albeit quietly. Seriously, we were trying to read there, and it was actually a scheduled event, so the employees should have known to ask customers to treat that floor more like the reading area of a library that evening, yet they did not and those two stayed and bothered us until close to 10 PM.
Still, I pushed along, staying there while others either finished or gave up. First a girl who was there with her boyfriend seemed to finish and stay to wait for him, eventually getting up to have a look around and leaving together after she got back, the guy seeming to give up, since he definitely wasn’t at the end of the book. Then the girl next to me gave up about halfway through and also left, leaving me and three other girls there, one of them having returned for one of the others at one point, probably after having finished earlier herself. Heard one say something about two more minutes, then those two left together, leaving just me and the other one on that bench. I checked the time then and it was 9:52 PM, but I only had some 15 pages left, so after reading about 160 in under one hour, it seemed like I’ll manage just fine… Until she got up and left as well, leaving me all alone up there, without even any employees around, and worried that they’ll forget about me and lock up, since I was hidden behind shelves. Not that there’s any door to that floor, so as long as there was somebody left at least downstairs it wouldn’t have been a problem, but I didn’t exactly sit to think things through at that moment, instead getting up in a hurry… And hitting my head on that low ceiling yet again, a lot harder than the first time.
Had even less time to dwell on it then, however, so I just rushed downstairs and continued to read while pacing behind the others who were in the checkout area, finishing at 9:58 PM. Rushed rather too much through those final pages, and the circumstances made it even harder to understand things properly, but then again that part is rather confusing in itself and leaves things unexplained anyway. So I quickly took a couple of pictures of the ISBN with my phone, to be sure I’ll list the correct edition on Goodreads later, then wrote my name, the book’s title and author and the hours between which I read it in the notebook, though I’m not sure who’ll understand my handwriting when I was rushing like that, and left the book on one of the shelves in that entrance area as a guy was closing the door and turning off the lights in the other rooms, after telling a couple of people who tried to walk in that they were closed.
There was still the matter of picking a free book though and little time to do it, though a couple of others seemed to still be looking as well. Not that there were many titles available, and of course nothing interesting, though in some cases the problem was just that they were translations, since I seem to remember something from some fantasy series I had some interest in at least at some point. But I didn’t want something from a series, because it was a matter of making sure it was the first one and then, if I’ll want to continue, the fact that I’ll end up having read the first in Romanian and the rest likely in English, so I grabbed something that at least seemed to have science fiction elements and not only gave no indication that it was part of a series, but actually seemed to indicate that it was not. There was no listing of the titles in the series, the large title on the cover and spine matched what a note at the beginning said was the author‘s first book, there definitely was nothing stating that it was a sequel of something else, yet it is in fact the second in the series… Fortunately, the Library has the first, and also lists this one as wanted, so I was thinking to donate it once I’m done. But that is something for another post…

A week after the first time, I went back to Videle to plant more trees, the same NGO organizing the event, this time in partnership with Auchan. In fact this had been the first scheduled event, initially supposed to take place on March 24 and rescheduled due to the weather, this causing some confusion at first, since I initially got messages about the next event from both, the NGO stating April 14 and Auchan April 21, before it was made clear that the April 14 event will be in partnership with a bank and a week later they’ll do the one they had originally planned together.
I must also be fair and say that Auchan really did put some funds and efforts into this, since on top of having transportation covered, tools, gardening gloves, water and coffee available and breakfast and lunch provided, which had happened a week before as well, they also offered windbreakers and caps, as you can see in the pictures I took, and some Coca Cola and Fanta, though those seemed to have been mostly finished early during the day. Also, the sandwich offered for breakfast was a lot bigger and croissants and some cheese-filled pastries were also offered alongside it, while at lunch, alongside the individual portions, there were large trays, I guess the idea being to have one per table, filled with fresh vegetables, olives, cheese, and either something that might have been bacon, likely boiled, or vegetarian meatballs and schnitzels. And there was plenty left over at the end…

But I’ll get back to the previous evening now, when I took a shower after getting back from the Botanical Garden, which is something I’m yet to write about, and then got in bed some time after 10 PM. Since the washing machine was running, had to wait for it to finish, which I guess happened a little before 10:30 PM, or maybe even closer to 10:20 PM, before I could have any chance to fall asleep, but that was all in theory anyway, since I couldn’t sleep at all and just tossed and turned in bed until 12:30 AM, when I finally decided I had wasted enough time and got up to eat. After that, though it’s hardly the best idea to sleep immediately after eating, I got back in bed and actually did manage to catch a nap. I know it was 2:50 AM when I checked my phone, so I was in bed clearly before 3 AM, but it was well after 3 AM, likely around 3:30 AM, maybe even a bit later, when I finally fell asleep. And since I had set my alarm at 4:45 AM, I got just over one hour of sleep and had to function on that for the rest of the day.

At least I didn’t have to rush in the morning again, as I spent more time than intended on-line yet still left on time. Still ran most of the way to the metro station, getting there in only 11 minutes and then waiting for three or so more before the next train got there, and when I reached the parking lot where we were supposed to gather, no later than at 7:25 AM, the first bus was already leaving, but the second one, which I got on, only got moving at 7:48 AM. That also meant I could calmly change the shoes, since I had left wearing them, with my boots, which I had glued back myself and was worried about, especially since it didn’t seem like I had managed to do much about the heel of the left one. But they held just fine over the course of the day and I saw no reason to change again at the end. Admittedly, didn’t wear them when I ran in the morning and didn’t dig that day.

The trip was even more annoying than the week before though, even if nobody actually tried to talk to me. The team leader, or perhaps the main team leader, was also full of energy and wanted to get everyone in the same state, but she gave up soon enough, so I just gave her some nasty looks then and some even worse ones later, when she was stressing that we should look around and talk to people and make friends. The bigger problem was that, though nobody had taken the seat next to me before we were ready to leave, so the guy who I guess could be called the secondary team leader, who also said it was his first such event and kept being pushed by the other one to get more involved and talk to people more, sat there and after just introducing himself didn’t try to talk to me again, he soon got up and left the seat free for the rest of the trip.
Well, that didn’t mean that I was left alone, but that a girl I recognized from other such events, and who had stopped by the Botanical Garden the previous evening as well just to tell the organizer that she couldn’t stay, just suddenly appeared there and spent the rest of the trip talking to those sitting behind, one of them being an older woman who had also been at the Botanical Garden the previous evening. So she didn’t talk to me, but she just kept talking, about volunteering, at some point about pets, so nothing annoying in itself, but just never shutting up and being so infuriatingly excited and positive. When we were approaching our destination and she apologized to those she had been talking to for ruining their trip in case they wanted to look out the window or just rest, before launching herself yet again in a rant about how much she enjoys just looking out the window and seeing the places we pass through on such trips, I actually wrote “annoying babble next to me” on my phone, in the message I was saving, with the few notes I wanted to remember. Don’t know and don’t care whether she saw or not; been trying not to strangle her for over an hour at that point.

The next thing I wrote in that message was that we arrived at 9:37 AM. Then we gathered around the tents and tables, picked up the windbreakers and caps, which I used to make really sure I won’t get sunburned again, with the windbreaker’s hood pulled over my own cap and the one I received worn on top of it, backwards, and had breakfast. I for one grabbed a Coca Cola bottle and drank it all right away, to help myself stay awake, and was eating the cheese-filled pastry and still holding the unopened sandwich when our secondary team leader, as I decided to call him, came to see whether anyone from the green team was still there after they had shouted for us to gather around them a couple of times. But I hadn’t even picked up a croissant yet, so I finished the pastry, grabbed one of those as well, a guy standing in line letting me go ahead of him in order to do so, and then walked to the tables. Not that there was any rush, since I could finish eating before we were all called to gather to listen to a few instructions and then teams were sent one by one to their designated areas, the green one being among the last. And our team leader did show that she was serious when she said, on the bus, that she’ll lead a warmup before we’ll actually start working, after reaching our area.

Back to the moment when we were all gathered, I of course didn’t have teammates at that point, and we had been told to form teams of three this time. But as I was just ignoring the issue and taking a few pictures, a guy came to me, introduced himself, pointed to the girl he was with, and asked whether I wanted to be the third in their team. And I must say that they were great to work with, Giorgian digging, Luiza planting, really taking care to do it right while still being quick, and me chopping up the soil he was digging out and separating the part with the grass from the rest, so we’ll put it back on top, after pressing the rest around the sapling. At first it wasn’t quite so well separated, since he was digging but also chopping up to some extent, so I was also bringing some saplings and pulling the soil back into the hole alongside her, but after a while he really got into a rhythm, digging large chunks out and ending up several holes ahead of us, I think even eight or nine, and she had me just focus on chopping up and separating behind him while she planted on her own behind me. Eventually, before lunch break, he stopped digging and all three of us focused on planting in the existing holes, possibly also in a few made by others as well.
Since our secondary team leader said he was there to bring us water or anything else we needed, they sure made use of him in order to sustain that level of effort. I just grabbed a bottle of water and that was all I drank while planting, but think Giorgian asked for, and drank, a few liters of water over the course of the day, Luiza had a bottle of Coca Cola brought at one point too, and at one point they asked for coffee as well, leading to a somewhat tense moment when they were told there was none left, which only got worse when they were asked to wait for water as well. While still trying to rush the guy, he made a joke of it, but she rather lashed out, there was a somewhat angry little exchange, and when I muttered that it had probably been too much she asked what else did that guy do, reminding me that he had told us himself that he was there to bring us stuff, so he had to bring us stuff, it wasn’t like she was sending me, who was actually working. Then she said that “you must take advantage of people”, which both me and Giorgian reacted to, though neither of us actually said anything else.

Though lunch break was supposed to again be at 1 PM, as that time approached we heard team leaders say that it had been moved to 2 PM. In the end, Auchan employees who also took part in the event were the ones to go on break at 1 PM, while the teams of volunteers were called after that, I think also somewhat separately, to prevent overcrowding. It was still not quite 2 PM when we had our break though, at which point I grabbed the bread and beans and salad and left my teammates again, just finding a free spot for myself at a table.
Hadn’t spotted those large trays when I grabbed my food, so was quite surprised to see them on the tables, also wondering whether they had been placed there from the beginning, which is actually quite possible. There seemed to be two on the table I sat at, one of them empty and the guys sitting there poking at another, which was a vegetarian one, but not seeming to want to eat more from it. They were also almost finished with their portions when I got there, so they were asking each other what to do with that tray, deciding to just take it back to the tents without asking me whether I wanted anything from it… But I did want to eat from a tray too, since it was there and I was making effort, and on so little sleep too, so I looked around after finishing my portion, spotted a table with a covered tray left on it, one of those with meat, alongside the rest of the food those who had sat there hadn’t finished, and despite feeling quite embarrassed because of it, I just dug in until I felt I had really stuffed myself.

After lunch, the teams were rearranged, so those who had finished or were about to could help others who had more work left. It came as something of a surprise to me and my teammates when our team was listed among those which didn’t have much left to do on their designated area and were supposed to finish quickly and then help another, since it sure seemed like there was a fair bit still to do when we had a look, but we did indeed finish quite quickly and then moved on to help with the areas around ours. That wasn’t too easy for me, since I was so stuffed and was even worried I’ll throw up when moving or sitting in ways that upset my stomach, but I managed to hold it all in and get back into a rhythm, mostly planting on my own, close to my teammates, since there were plenty of empty holes.
Not that we had much time left to work after lunch. I heard our team leader ask for confirmation that we were supposed to stop around 4 PM and appearing to receive it, but it was only 3:30 PM when we were all told to just finish planting the tree we were working on at the moment, then bring the tools back and get ready to leave. At that point we, as in the green team, had just been led away from the entire planting area, to one right next to it, where other trees had been planted before, possibly in 2016, according to the guy I asked, and many hadn’t survived. Not sure why our team leaders wanted us to do that when there were still some trees to plant in one or two areas, and since I had spotted that when I had a look around I headed there at first, assuming that’s where we’ll be taken, before my teammates called me back, but either way we pretty much only got to be told that we were supposed to pull out the dead saplings and replace them, because that call to get ready to leave came just as we were getting started.

When I got back to the tents, to take back the gardening gloves, I saw plenty of two-liter water bottles left, saw a few people with Coca Cola bottles too but couldn’t spot any left to grab, but there definitely were large bags of bread that I saw a couple of people make supplies from, at least two piles of portions of beans, with lids on so they could just be grabbed, I think three trays with lids on and one with it off, probably with whatever had been left on trays at the end of the lunch break piled on them, and I believe also some sandwiches in a pile at the back of the tent. If those would have been set alongside the rest, I’d have grabbed one, but wasn’t sure I could just walk in and grab one from there and couldn’t get myself to ask, or to try directly. And I also couldn’t get myself to grab anything else, though I somehow felt a bit hungry again even though I had only stuffed myself about an hour earlier and had been feeling too full just minutes before, so would have wanted to grab another bread and at least some of those vegetarian schnitzels I saw on that open tray, and quickly eat them before leaving.
Team leaders even told us to grab water before heading back to the buses, but even though plenty of others were doing just that, I hadn’t seen any small bottles left and a two-liter one seemed too much to me to just take, especially since I couldn’t have found room for it in my already stuffed backpack and would have had to carry it in my hand. Did consider to get back to the tents and see whether I could persuade myself to grab food after all, but couldn’t even get myself to try, so I ended up being among the first back on the bus and waiting for the rest.
Didn’t even take more than a glass of water on the bus, feeling like shit to even ask for that much when our team leaders were walking with bottles and plastic cups and asking everyone whether we wanted some at the start of the trip back, saying they had five large bottles or so and nothing else to do with them. The woman who ended up sitting next to me, since her seat had been taken by someone else, said she had been given an entire bottle and asked whether I wanted some more a bit later, but even though I was thirsty, which is odd for me in itself and only shows that I had pushed myself a bit too hard, I just couldn’t bring myself to accept. So I just kept that plastic cup in my hand, hoping she’ll ask again and I’ll manage to bring myself to accept, but she didn’t.

Getting back to the start of the trip back, while a week before our team leader had called the names we had written down after leaving Bucharest, to make sure that everybody was there and back in the same bus, as required by law in these cases, this time this wasn’t done and some didn’t even listen when they were told to make sure they got back to the same bus and seat, some even complaining out loud about the request. As a result, when we got moving, at 4:10 PM, there were three people in our bus who were standing, as there were no seats left for them, and soon enough the buses stopped so they could move to the other… Though when the door opened, four people left instead of three, so I’m not sure what happened in the other bus, whether there was room for all of them or not.
In addition, the certificates were messed up as well. I had spotted someone filling some there on the spot before leaving, at a tent next to the one I had to take the gloves back to, but when I asked whether they hadn’t been filled in before she said, with a pretty thick French accent, that there was no point in filling in some that won’t be used, then looked at me and asked whether I was there with Auchan, telling me the certificates for the volunteers were already at the buses and will be distributed on the way when I said no. Some, including the woman sitting next to me on the way back, apparently just had her fill in theirs as well, likely because she couldn’t know who was there as a volunteer and who was from Auchan, since I saw that they had them, but the rest of us were largely left without.
There were certificates on the bus, but they seemed to be for the people who were supposed to be in the other one, as those of us who had gotten back to the right bus couldn’t find ours but a guy who had switched buses found his, as well as that of someone else he knew who was on that other bus. Then there were also some calls between our team leaders, those on another bus and the woman with the French accent, apparently about three people who should have received their certificates from her and were thought to have ended up on our bus, but which seemed to have actually gotten on the other one. And in the end our team leader told us to send her a message after we get home and she’ll either meet with us to give us our certificates or tell us when to go and pick them up from the NGO’s headquarters… But when she replied to my message she said our certificates had been left back there at the tents and we’ll get an e-mail when we’ll be able to pick them up, and so far I didn’t get it.

Either way, we were back at that parking lot at 5:55 PM and I was walking through the door at 6:33 PM, finding it locked in a way that would have indicated that my parents were probably about to leave, but not finding them. What I did find was the kitchen TV on, a hot pot on the stove, though the stove was off at least, smoke in the kitchen, dirty dishes everywhere… Knew my mother had gotten back here to go to the dentist, so that explained where they were, but not why they had apparently left in such a hurry, and definitely not why the door had been locked that way. But by that point I was quite a mess, and hungry and thirsty, so didn’t think much about it and threw my clothes to be washed, grabbed an orange, made myself tea and ate a large bag of corn puffs, therefore using up some of the “reserves” I had here instead of stuffing myself there with stuff that was left over anyway, and feeling even worse because of it. As for my parents, dad explained when they got back that he meant to just take her there and come back, but then stopped to talk to someone in the parking lot and never did get back before he had to go pick her up again.

At the end of it all, I’m happy that trees got planted, and quite grateful for my teammates this time around, but after having pushed myself so hard, both in terms of physical effort and of being around people, and with one trying to talk to me and another babbling endlessly next to me and others being too energetic, or infuriatingly cheerful or positive, or simply being there, too many, too close, too long, I was completely drained. Yet didn’t even nap that evening, didn’t even want to try, only going to bed at the usual time in the morning. And the next day, while my digestive system cleaned up, which resulted in having to take a shit five times, the last one after eating at night even though I hadn’t even made myself a salad, I could finally go through the previous week’s first post again, since I hadn’t until then, and then write the one about the April 14 event. And Monday I was feeling sufficiently recovered to go buy some stuff… But that’s a matter for another post, which will also need to include the part about the Botanical Garden.