Finally, A Post - Computer and Language Class

Whew, I finally have had enough time and have taken enough pictures to make a decent post.  First, an update on my computer situation.  Thankfully, Raluca from the American Studies department had an extra laptop that she is letting me borrow (thank you, thank you, thank you!!!).  And, she also has a friend who works in computers, and he met me on Saturday to transfer a few things from my hard drive (like all of my pictures from Romania!).  Whew.  That has definitely helped save my life.  Of course, now I am completely paranoid about something happening to my external hard drive since it is now the only place where all of my information is stored (no more back up on the desktop), so I am thinking about purchasing another one for a separate backup here. 

Here I am (in great fear) about all of my computer problems while Cris (aka "the savior") worked on it:

Right now, it seems like I have two options.  (1) My sister can bring over a laptop or netbook when she comes at Christmas, and I will just continue using Raluca's computer until then.  My laptop will basically be a paper weight until I haul it home (or send it with my sister) and just mess with it when I get back.  (2) Go ahead and get my computer fixed here.  It will cost around $475 in US dollars to purchase a new motherboard and have it installed, and it will take about 3 or 4 weeks to get it back.  I am just a little fearful that the same thing will happen again in a year and a half (the age of the computer) because there is definitely a problem with overheating, which I am pretty sure caused this meltdown.  Hmmmm.  Decisions, decisions.

Other than the computer issues, which have been no fun but I am not going to complain too much because I have been extremely luck to have had people like Raluca and Cris help me out so much (I love you both!!!), there have been a few other things keeping me out of trouble.  On Monday I finally started my Romanian language course.  It runs from 6:30-9:00pm on Mondays and Wednesdays for a month and a half. 

Neighborhood that the language class is in (about a 20 minute walk for me):

The sign to prove that I really am going to language class :)

The class (someone from England, Spain, and Belarus - and me!):

The first class was mostly review for me, though I think I learned a couple of new words.  Still, it will be good just to practice talking and using the words I already know.  I am already wondering if I should sign up for additional classes after this (they only cost about $150 for the session), but I am not sure I will have time with my sister coming and then moving to Bucharest.  If I decided to stay in Cluj the whole time, I definitely would be able to take one or two more levels.  That would be kind of neat.  It would just be so nice to really get to know another language.  So many people here speak two, three, or even four languages, and I just wish I could know  little more as well.  Of course, knowning more languages really is a necessity in many places in Europe whereas in the US you would just never use your other language skills (other than Spanish) on a very regular basis, so I feel like I probably would forget things quickly.  Though, even though it was about 8 years ago that I had my last Spanish class and I haven't really used it since then, when the language instructor speaks in Spanish to the one person from Spain (she doesn't understand English very well), I understand it pretty dang well!  I have class again tonight, so I will let you know how it goes!