Want to learn Romanian?

How to say...

dog: cuene (coinay)
how are you?: ce fac (che fach)
I would like to learn Romanian: Ash vrea sa invets Romaneste (Ash vra su invuts Romaneshtay)
....good job, you're doing well!
I don't know: Nu stiu (Nu shtu)
I don't understand: Nu intelleg (Nu inseleg)
bear: urt (oorts)
....fantastic! Now try this...
I have dirt underneath my fingernails: huit unda nolgrasa
...just kidding :) that was swedish!


So now if you and a sweed are ever hunting Romanian bears with a Romanian dog you can...well, talk the dog I guess...I don't know, but have fun!

:)

:) So there's this girl...
So her name is Cheryl, I met her after my mom and Cheryl's aunt decided to play match maker. We've been getting to know each other for about two and a half months through emails, phone calls, text messaging and in person. The more I know her the more I like her, it's pretty great :) She's been my girlfriend for about a month...a very full and good month with many trips to Portland (where Cheryl lives...about 3 hours drive away). She's really a wonderful person that I've come to respect and I hope you get the chance to meet her :)

City of Roses

So I got to visit Portland this last weekend and hang out with a friend down there. The sun came out and it really was a great day to see the city. I've been there a couple of other times before, and ya know, it really is a nice city. Compared to Seattle, which I've lived in and around for the last 10 years, Portland seems more relaxed. There are lots of things to do and cool places in Seattle, but it's busy and hectic downtown. Portland didn't feel hectic. Maybe it's because I was sauntering around, not rushing anywhere. I also found out that if you're from Portland you're a Portlander, where as if you're from Seattle you're a Seattlite. This made me wonder what you are if you live in Sacramento, where I grew up...I can't think of any suffix that works with Sacramento...let me know if you do.

Another thing about Portland is that it's filled with hippies :) This isn't so much an insult, I just can't think of a better word to describe the attitude of the people you meet down there....free thinkers, there that's better than hippies. We went to Pioneer Square and there were three people giving away free hugs. They had signs and everything. We found out later it was Free Hug Day. What was great is that there were always people coming up to get a hug, some even ran. It reminded me of how much we need that connection with people, even just the physical touch.

Apart from the sunburn, which I can't really blame on the city, it was a great day.

Family

As promised, here is my family. Most still live in Sacramento where I grew up, my little sister and her fiance live in Romania and my Mom now lives in L.A. and is taking care of my grandma -(we refer to her as Nana :)...

This is my niece Zoe and her new baby brother Joshua, the day after he was born. If you can't read it her shirt says, "I'm the big sister" :) It was so cool to see her reaction and joy at seeing him.
Here is my sister Alison and her fiance Alistair. People call them Ali and Ali...kind of cute. They live and work in Romania with an organization called Networks. They do so much for this village they live in (as well as other parts of the country) - you should take a look if you're interested....www.networks.org.ro/site/ Anyways, they're getting married in October in England (Alistair's British)
This is my Mom holding Joshua on Easter Sunday. She moved down to L.A. to help care for my Nana a couple years ago (but Sacramento and L.A. are only like 6 hours apart) so she comes up a lot to see the family.
Here's me and my dad when we went to Yosemite. He loves going to places like Yosemite and Tahoe. He's retired at the moment, so he goes up there a lot, but still not as much as he wants to - as he would tell you. And this is Beth and Bob, my older sister and brother in law, also the very, very proud parents of Zoe and Joshua.

So that's my family, basically. I couldn't fit more pictures on this post....I'm learning this blog thing, but there's also Nana, and Evan - who's like my little brother. I love em. :)

Matt is now blogging

So this is my first time blogging. I'm not a big fan of that word, it doesn't really roll off your tongue...it's like a mix of Blah and slug. I really don't have anything significant to say right now, but here are some pictures from a recent trip to California I took to visit my family...I was there for two months, mainly because my sister was due to have a baby...his name is Joshua (below) and he was born on March 20th. I'm pretty sure he peed on my like right after I took this picture :)

My dad and I went on a great trip to Yosemite (right) and it's hard to take bad pictures there...it is so beautiful. I also got to go camping up at Lake Tahoe with Evan (below). We went on some great hikes and made it to the top of some semi-mountains. It was fun. I'll post some more pictures of my family soon, got to go for now.