Time for another blog post, what say we catch you up on everything since I last posted? I believe the first weekend was an evacuation drill that brought me to Bacau, a local city. Everyone in the country was ordered to their local evacuation consolidation point. I show up two and a half hours later (despite my near vomit experience on the crowded maxi taxi, I arrived in once piece), meet 10 or so other volunteers, sign a sheet saying we arrived, talk about it and BAM, we're done. Now I know how to get to Bacau in case of a disaster, Peace Corps, thank you for giving me that peace of mind.
Ultimately, it was all rather pointless. I know how to get to Bacau. Even when we arrived, our "consolidation point" had been closed for renovations. While it was a waste of time, I got to munch on some McDonald's with some friends while I was there. That night I returned to Vaslui with Ashley and stayed at her place. She made some rice and veggies and snickerdoodles while we watched some Big Bang Theory. The next day, with her help of course, I bought some sneakers to play football. I wanted to buy a coat for the winter but I didn't find anything I liked (or that fit me). Maybe next time. Until then I am borrowing a coat.
Anyways, after that was a week teaching at school which is nothing too special, just normal, 17 classes, 9th - 12th. I still hate lesson planning, let me just say, and I will NEVER give so much homework to that many classes again in my life, so help me goodness. Really, I don't have time to grade so many classes, nor the energy. I think I spent the weekend at home or at school with Florin preparing the magazine and then worked another week.
The weekend after that was my language weekend. What is a language weekend? When a bunch of volunteers get together and practice speaking Romanian of course. So, Ashley organized a language weekend in Brusturoasa, a village in Bacau county. I literally had to go from bus to train to bus to train to get there. Thankfully I met Ashley halfway there (though being as chivalrous as I am, I insisted on carrying her bag the rest of the way there, which was a million pounds and bright pink, of course). We eventually arrived, in the middle of nowhere mind you, and settled into a surprisingly nice accommodation.
Yes we were out in East Bumblast (as my father says when he censors himself) but we were staying in a beautiful log cabin filled with modern amenities. Our rooms were very comfortable and the bathroom equally so. The kitchen was adorable, I would like to show photos but at the time I hadn't my camera, so for those with access to Facebook look at Juli Johnson's photos. We cooked Turkey (curcan) with the normal fixings for a Thanksgiving dinner. The folks we stayed with almost certainly enjoyed our celebration.
This place in the countryside that was built to promote sustainable development and rural durability. There was a solar cooker there that really caught my attention. It was a solar dish with a rack in the middle that held a normal sized pot. The dish was positioned so all of the solar rays reflected towards the center (or towards the pot) and the heat cooked the food inside. Genius! It really worked! I actually ended up speaking more on the way home than I did at the event. I had a conversation with a boy that a volunteer knew from Comanești to Bacau, which was really me blabbing about nothing in Romanian, then a conversation from Bacau to Roman with some old man about Romania and Communism, then with the ticket house lady in Roman about my accent, where I was from, why I was here, and just about every other question of which she could think. From Roman home to Negrești I sat next to some poor Roma (gypsy). While I was reading my map, trying to locate the home of a friend, he started talking to me, asking me questions. I started talking back. He started telling me about his dead brother who was hit by a car recently, and then he started singing to me the songs he had wrote for his mother and brother. It was all a capella of course, and interesting. I appreciated the experience of course. When we were nearing his stop he told me that he was hungry. I felt bad and he did entertain me for the train ride so I gave him 5 lei. He then reaches over, grabs my head, and kisses me on the temple, making my American self extraordinarily uncomfortable. I got off in Negrești at the next stop. I guess I was ok when a town local told me the next day that the Gypsy's kiss was a sign of luck or something. I'll take his word for it.
After a normal week (and the magazine still unfinished) came another weekend. This weekend I traveled to Focuri, outside Iași, or as I like to say, to the end of the Earth, for my official Thanksgiving weekend. Yes, I was with 7 other volunteers at this little house way out where the sky meets the ground. Correction: we were at Kelly's host's house. To her (and everyone's) credit, there was every spice and ingredient we needed. We had a huge turkey (named Bert), mashed potatoes, a sweet potato casserole, a cheesy, crunchy greenbean casserole, a corn dish, etc. etc. While cooking, all of the lights went out so we had to finish in the dark. I was in the midst of carving the turkey so Jovanka had to hold a flashlight on me while I finished. We ended up eating in the darkness until the lights came on half way through our meal. We also had a crispy apple pie for desert, thanks to Jovanka. It really was a beautiful time spent with friends. A big thanks to Kelly for a successful (and may I add, tasty) weekend. While returning home, I met up with friend Andrei in Iași on the layover and spent a few hours talking about man stuff. Good times.
Before I get ahead of myself, I should mention that one or two weeks before this I had a visit from the lovely Raluca (the assistant TEFL manager at PC) and my school resolved to move me out of my out of apartment (which lacks a significant source of heat) into my adjuct directoara's house, on the other side of town. I have been living here now for about two weeks and it is decent. I have my own room between her mother and grandfather (she herself is 44 years old). I have my own bathroom. I eat with them, whatever they cooked for that day. It is all tradtional Romanian food, and even though in the weeks leading up to Christmas they eat vegan they still cook different meats and other foods with dairy products, so I have been eating healthily.
I should say healthy to a point. I drank from milk the other day, this is some seriously direct milk, direct from the utter, via boiling pan, into the stomach, and I got a little sick. Some serious stomach pains. I was out for two days. It was pretty painful actually, I couldn't get any work done, so I didn't (I was devastated at this, of course). Thursday was Romania's independence day, so there were no classes that day. Its the day that basically celebrates when the allies gave Romania the territory of Transylvania and parts of today's southern Ukraine and Republic of Moldavia in 1918. Anyways, I was finally better Friday, where I went to both of my classes that day.
Saturday I did nothing but read and surf the net when I should have been correcting papers. Later that night I went to a birthday party of my new host's sister. It turns out some of my students were there. I had a decent time and got to drink more than my share of famous Moldovan wine (research it). Next week I have a conference in Sinaia, just like at the ALL TEFL Conference, except this time it is only my group. There should be more sanity than last time, I hope, but I won't hold my breath. I leave Monday for nine hours of travel, mostly via train, thank goodness.
For those of you with Facebook, I should have some pictures posted soon of my recent experiences here, including my recent Thanksgiving weekend and my new home "la țara" (at the countryside). Until next time, la revedere.
