I hate mosquitos

This is hard for me to write.

I know no one will believe it anyways.

I'm...I'm h-h-h...

Homesick.

Yes, Karla, the eternal world traveller, who has lived in four countries in four years...wants to go home.

There were many reasons why I chose to stay in Romania:
a) I love Timisoara (Timisoara > Bucharest)
b) good friends
c) thought I would be living with some cool Frenchies

Well, Timisoara is still great. No complaints there. But my friends are all writing exams now, so I never see them. I work with my best friend, so we don't go out at night anymore and besides, he wants to spend time with his girlfriend, which I can understand. And since I was cheated out of my apartment with the Frenchies and needed to find a new one, I am lonely. (And as a postscript, the girls who took my room didn't get along with my former roomates and ended up moving out anyways).

Sure, I love my new apartment and my kooky neighbours but sometimes I get so lonely I could scream. No computer, no television. Just me, the same books and magazines I've read over and over since September and a room missing some windows.

This means that the mosquitos have discovered Canadian flesh.

It only makes sense. Everyone always loves foreign food. Which would explain the multitude of Oriental restaurants at home, the Italian restaurants here and the popularity of Mexican food everywhere.

So it's only natural that the mosquitos would prefer my imported Canadian blood to the standard, run of the mill Romanian fare that they're used to.

I have twenty three mosquito bites on my arms. TWENTY THREE! People stare at me on the streets. People comment on my arms when they come into work. I look like I have leprosy.

I nearly scratched my arm off last night. And please, no comments about "don't scratch". I haven't touched the bites on my shoulders and they look like someone extinguished cigarettes on my skin. I attacked my wrist yesterday because I couldn't sleep. Miraculously, they don't itch this morning.

They bite me while I sleep. I close my sunroom and kitchen doors so they don't get in, but mosquitos are crafty creatures. I have to leave my bedroom window open because otherwise the apartment turns into a sauna. Often, I'll be woken up with a "zzzzzzzz" in my ear.

Cristi gave me a plugin to repel mosquitos last night. Works like a charm. Not a single mosquito around me last night!

Due to some error, I had a 50 euro heat/water bill for the month of June. Does this make sense? No, it doesn't to me either, especially since I only paid like 20 euros in the winter for my other apartment.

On Tuesday, I was told to give my "metre readings" to the landlord that night. I had no idea what this was, so I figured I could just ask someone the next day. Turns out that Tuesday was the last day for collecting the heat/water data.

My bill was over 1,800,000 lei.

It was for the end of May and the first of June. We had no heat! And the hot water was turned off for two weeks in the meantime.

They told me that sometimes they average out the heating bills in the winter and summer, and since there were three people in my apartment, and now there's just one, my bill is actually triple what it should be.

Still, it doesn't make sense. Apparently they average the bills of everyone who didn't give their readings and make everyone pay the same amount. But still... These apartments aren't big and most of the tennants are single people, not families.