a very hungry friend...

Today, March 20th, is not only World Storytelling Day, but also "The Very Hungry Caterpillar Day"; 2009 marks the 40th anniversary of the book and its very hungry (and famous) little character. The Very Hungry Caterpillar has been translated into 50 some-odd languages and is one of the best-selling books of all time, with over 25 million copies in print… wow. Eric Carle has illustrated over 70 books, and written almost as many… and just looking at a list of all of the books he’s done makes me want to run down to the library and check all of them out and read them all!! Hmmm… there’s no library here. I wonder if it’s been translated into Romanian? Eric’s been writing and illustrating for almost 50 years, and at 80, he’s still going strong (check out his blog!). His website is great and the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art looks great too; dedicated to national and international picture book art, it was built with the aim of “celebrating the art we know first.” I love love love looking at picture books; I guess I just love children’s books (okay all books), and his are awesome. I’ll put the library visit – children’s section – on my ever-growing to-do-when-you-get-home list. (What else is on the list? Eat sushi, put socks in dryer, eat sushi, eat sushi, eat sushi… okay, you get it.)

Eric's favourite things: a sort of self-portrait, created for a picture book art museum in the UK - from his website!

Steve is in Turkey and after two loooong road trips, has arrived in Izmir. They have a huge game tomorrow – semi-finals of the European Challenge Cup – and are playing a pretty strong Polish team at 6:30pm. They game should be broadcast live on Netzone, a local Romanian TV station, so if you’re interested in watching the game, check out their website – it should be on! Tammy’s team has their first playoff game tomorrow afternoon, so after we’ll probably head back here and watch it on our small big screen TV.

So! Other news! I’m heading to Italy on Sunday – my best best friend Lindsay and her boyfriend Kurtis are traveling through Europe and hoping to be in Italy – Florence to be precise – by Sunday. However… the French are on strike (again) and their travel plans might not work out as they’d planned…. So, in any case, I’m in Pisa/Florence on Sunday and will hopefully meet up with them. The plan was to hike the Cinque Terra, and visit some of the villages on the Liguria coast, and then head south to Rome. I'm bought a direct flight to Pisa from Constanta for less than what I paid for a one-way bus ticket to Greece, and can fly back to Bucharest from Rome for even less. I'm so excited! I love Italy and I can't wait to see Linds! Yay....

Other kind of exciting news, but not in a going-to-Italy-for-the-weekend way is that I went to a belly dancing class the other night... and it was super fun! The class was full of women, and we were all kind of shy at the beginning of the class - there was doubt and apprehension. However, by the end of the class we were all fully into it and it was a total blast – I’d go back for SURE. But I want one of those little jingly hip scarves with the coins – super fun! I wonder if men belly dance? Hmm… probably yes, but in not quite the same way. Okay, time to run – yoga awaits!