Tuesday, February 28, 2006

the days keep on coming

Buna seara

Temperatures is rising finally. There are the tale-tell signs of spring all around; the trees are budding and the easter lilies are poking their heads out of the ground. I love this time of year! The colors are at their most intense and I love being outside after being couped in all winter.

My car likes to play tricks on me. I thought that the battery might be bad: nope. I thought the starter needed to be replaced: negative. It turns out that the battery cable had a short in it and just needed to be replaced and the garage charged only $10 to fix it. Rock on!!

I printed out the form for the "no-fee" passport today. I have to send in the materials soon so that the DOS can process the passport in time.

On Saturday, I saw off two friends that are volunteering in the Peace Corps program in Morocco. I think they are in the public health program there. I am very excited for them and will miss Hattie and LB.

I've been going over Romanian lately. I have found a program on the net where I can hear Romanian words spoken and what they look like. I really want to learn the language quickly when I arrive so that I can assimilate into the culture as fast as I can.

Ciau

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Piece of Sh*t Car

Adam Sandler said it best. That is all I have to say on that subject.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

I step into the fray

Well, it is official. I called the Peace Corps Placement Office to confirm my acceptance to the Romania TEFL program. If only that was all I had to do before I get on a jet plane. Yea, no. I have to update my resume and write an aspiration statement for the Peace Corps Romania Office. This is basically a telling of what I bring to the program and what I expect about the whole experience. I also have to apply for a "Peace Corps Passport" on top of my regular passport. It is pretty easy but all of this just takes time and patience.

So my car has serious problems. Sunday, I tried to start my car but the motor would not even turn. I have tried charging the battery to no avail. Therefore there is one of two problems that I have; 1). the battery is no good and I have to buy another one soon or 2). the alternator is gone bad and my car is in need of seroius help. I am hoping for option 1 or a way to charge my existing battery.

Ok, I promised you I would post more resources concerning Romania but I haven't had the time to look seriously into it. Here is something that you can view in the interim.
Romania
Wikipedia is an awesome site if you just want to learn basic information about a particular subject.

Ok take care and I will see you on the flipside

La revedere

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Romania info

I will add more as I find it.

My Invite Came!

After much impatience and worry about just when my invitation would come, the mail delivered for me! I went out and did a few things and when i got back, the packet was waiting. I took it in the back and opened it up. All my hopes for were my post would be cam true. I have been invited to go to Romania!

Now I have two main goals for this spring. First, I have to finish my thesis! That is my main priority and I will work on it all March and April. The second is I will need to read and learn all I can about Romania so that I will be able to better assimilate into the society. I am soo excited! Ok that is all for now, I will post more infor about Romania later.


La revedere

Saturday, February 18, 2006

Once again

No mail today.

I spent the day being constructive. My grandpa had a doctor's appointment (his cough has been really bad lately) and they gave him some antibiotics, a chest x-ray, and told him that basically his condition is just a bad case of bronchitis. I then got a call from my mom asking me to go get Bailey since she was supposedly sick (not really) but I got her and we came home. I cleaned out my car (it was seriously overdue) and washed the dishes. Overall, I got a lot done and I am a little sleepy.

I hope my invitation comes in the mail on Saturday. If not, it won't be until Tuesday before I get a chance to get the packet since Monday is President's Day. Oh well.


Vale! (Latin)

Friday, February 17, 2006

Oh yeah...

I forgot that I got some pretty good news. For Christmas, I took some of the money I received and decided to participate in the Genographic Project. In a nutshell, the Genographic Project takes a DNA sample (Y-chromosome in men, mitochondrial DNA in women) and analyses the genetic variations in the population to see what your DNA says. Well I got back my info and here it is.




Your Y chromosome results identify you as a member of haplogroup R1b, a lineage defined by a genetic marker called M343. This haplogroup is the final destination of a genetic journey that began some 60,000 years ago with an ancient Y chromosome marker called M168.
The very widely dispersed M168 marker can be traced to a single individual—"Eurasian Adam." This African man, who lived some 31,000 to 79,000 years ago, is the common ancestor of every non-African person living today. His descendants migrated out of Africa and became the only lineage to survive away from humanity's home continent.

Population growth during the Upper Paleolithic era may have spurred the M168 lineage to seek new hunting grounds for the plains animals crucial to their survival. A period of moist and favorable climate had expanded the ranges of such animals at this time, so these nomadic peoples may have simply followed their food source.

Improved tools and rudimentary art appeared during this same epoch, suggesting significant mental and behavioral changes. These shifts may have been spurred by a genetic mutation that gave "Eurasian Adam's" descendants a cognitive advantage over other contemporary, but now extinct, human lineages.

Some 90 to 95 percent of all non-Africans are descendants of the second great human migration out of Africa, which is defined by the marker M89.

M89 first appeared 45,000 years ago in Northern Africa or the Middle East. It arose on the original lineage (M168) of "Eurasian Adam," and defines a large inland migration of hunters who followed expanding grasslands and plentiful game to the Middle East.

Many people of this lineage remained in the Middle East, but others continued their movement and followed the grasslands through Iran to the vast steppes of Central Asia. Herds of buffalo, antelope, woolly mammoths, and other game probably enticed them to explore new grasslands.

With much of Earth's water frozen in massive ice sheets, the era's vast steppes stretched from eastern France to Korea. The grassland hunters of the M89 lineage traveled both east and west along this steppe "superhighway" and eventually peopled much of the continent.

A group of M89 descendants moved north from the Middle East to Anatolia and the Balkans, trading familiar grasslands for forests and high country. Though their numbers were likely small, genetic traces of their journey are still found today.

Some 40,000 years ago a man in Iran or southern Central Asia was born with a unique genetic marker known as M9, which marked a new lineage diverging from the M89 group. His descendants spent the next 30,000 years populating much of the planet.

Most residents of the Northern Hemisphere trace their roots to this unique individual, and carry his defining marker. Nearly all North Americans and East Asians have the M9 marker, as do most Europeans and many Indians. The haplogroup defined by M9, K, is known as the Eurasian Clan.

This large lineage dispersed gradually. Seasoned hunters followed the herds ever eastward, along a vast belt of Eurasian steppe, until the massive mountain ranges of south central Asia blocked their path.

The Hindu Kush, Tian Shan, and Himalaya, even more formidable during the era's ice age, divided eastward migrations. These migrations through the "Pamir Knot" region would subsequently become defined by additional genetic markers.

The marker M45 first appeared about 35,000 to 40,000 years ago in a man who became the common ancestor of most Europeans and nearly all Native Americans. This unique individual was part of the M9 lineage, which was moving to the north of the mountainous Hindu Kush and onto the game-rich steppes of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and southern Siberia.

The M45 lineage survived on these northern steppes even in the frigid Ice Age climate. While big game was plentiful, these resourceful hunters had to adapt their behavior to an increasingly hostile environment. They erected animal skin shelters and sewed weathertight clothing. They also refined the flint heads on their weapons to compensate for the scarcity of obsidian and other materials.

The intelligence that allowed this lineage to adapt and thrive in harsh conditions was critical to human survival in a region where no other hominids are known to have survived.

Members of haplogroup R are descendents of Europe's first large-scale human settlers. The lineage is defined by Y chromosome marker M173, which shows a westward journey of M45-carrying Central Asian steppe hunters.

The descendents of M173 arrived in Europe around 35,000 years ago and immediately began to make their own dramatic mark on the continent. Famous cave paintings, like those of Lascaux and Chauvet, signal the sudden arrival of humans with artistic skill. There are no artistic precedents or precursors to their appearance.

Soon after this lineage's arrival in Europe, the era of the Neandertals came to a close. Genetic evidence proves that these hominids were not human ancestors but an evolutionary dead end. Smarter, more resourceful human descendents of M173 likely outcompeted Neandertals for scarce Ice Age resources and thus heralded their demise.

The long journey of this lineage was further shaped by the preponderance of ice at this time. Humans were forced to southern refuges in Spain, Italy, and the Balkans. Years later, as the ice retreated, they moved north out of these isolated refuges and left an enduring, concentrated trail of the M173 marker in their wake.

Today, for example, the marker's frequency remains very high in northern France and the British Isles—where it was carried by M173 descendents who had weathered the Ice Age in Spain.

Members of haplogroup R1b, defined by M343 are the direct descendents of Europe's first modern humans—known as the Cro-Magnon people.

Cro-Magnons arrived in Europe some 35,000 years ago, during a time when Neandertals still lived in the region. M343-carrying peoples made woven clothing and constructed huts to withstand the frigid climes of the Upper Paleolithic era. They used relatively advanced tools of stone, bone, and ivory. Jewelry, carvings, and intricate, colorful cave paintings bear witness to the Cro Magnons' surprisingly advanced culture during the last glacial age.

When the ice retreated genetically homogenous groups recolonized the north, where they are still found in high frequencies. Some 70 percent of men in southern England are R1b. In parts of Spain and Ireland that number exceeds 90 percent.

There are many sublineages within R1b that are yet to be defined. The Genographic Project hopes to bring future clarity to the disparate parts of this distinctive European lineage.

No news

No news, in my case, is not good news! My letter hasn't made it's way to Little Horse Creek, but it will be here when it will. In other news, the door on my Explorer was fixed; a woman hit me and I needed a new door and new paint job on it. The guys that did the job did a great job and the cost of fixing it was quite below what we had figured. :)

My goals for tomorrow: after taking my grandpa to the doctor for a checkup, I am going to clean out my car, do some laundry, and do the dishes. Not the best things in the world but they need to be done.

Ok, I will be sure to let you know when I receive my news.


La reverede

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

pics

I have posted many of the photos from my time in London and my week in Barcelona

Click here

Enjoy

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

so close, so close

Well, when I woke up this morning, I had received an email from the Peace Corps. I am officially in but I do not know yet where or when I will be leaving. The Peace Corps udated my tool-kit, in which they changed my status from a nominee to an invitee. I am now at the will of the USPS, hopefully they won't lose my invitation! The kit was mailed either today or yesterday so I should receive it an about a week. My placement officer called yesterday just to make sure I could handle teaching a whole classroom of kids since my volunteer experience was mostly with one or two immigrants at a time. I am crossing my fingers for Romania but we will see.



Ciao (or Ceau in Romanian)

Monday, February 13, 2006

A Wintry Day


A Wintry Day
Originally uploaded by ionntag.
Here is a pic of the snow that we got today. Sorry if I haven't posted in a while but there hasn't been much to talk about. Well, scratch that, I did found out from my Placement Officer that I am better suited to be invited to the May 2006 program instead of the original April invite. She said that I will be invited "shortly" but that was the Thursday before last, so who knows. I think that I will be invited either to Romania or Moldova.

Ok, I will be back soon....