Village Bound

I have been teaching a small adult English class at the Woman's Center in my town. This week one of the directors of the Center invited me for lunch at her home. She lives in a small village that is a fifteen minute bus ride outside of Onesti.

I was very excited as this was my first invitation to the countryside as discussing village life always seem to spark many debates among the Romanians I have met. Some love the community and beauty that exists in villages, but others will expound on the hardships that lie in village life.

The village I visited is home to around 450 people and does not have running water. People utilize public wells that line the roads. I got to see visit a couple families who live there. During this time of year many people only use a few rooms in their homes as it is too expensive to heat more spaces. We visited a family of five that is essentially living out of the kitchen and a small bedroom. It was very interesting to learn a little more about village life, especially as about many of my students live in villages and take the bus or train to school each day.

I had an amazing lunch including cheese from the family cow that I got to meet and pork from a pig whose family members are pictured here. I ate the pork before I met the pigs otherwise I am not sure I could have done it, they were so cute.

Below are a few other photos from my afternoon tour around the village. I hope to be able to go back in the spring when everything is in bloom.

Maya helping her mom give me the village tour.

A traditional gate.

Looking back down the valley towards Onesti.

Back Again

Coming back to Romania from winter vacation was a little rough for me. While I don't want to dwell on rough times, I do try to really document my life here and I thought I should share a little bit of what the past couple weeks has held for me. I came home to discover that my landlord's son who was home from college used my apartment as a crash pad without my knowledge or permission while I was gone. While his mother had come in to clean up after him, it was a little creepy to come home and discover that things were not quite as I had left them. Luckily, Elizabeth had come back to visit my site for a few days and was a great support for me.

The next bump in the road was that my dear site mate told me that she decided that her time in Romania would be coming to an end. I understood her decision, but was selfishly sad knowing that this would mean the end of having an American neighbor living just down the hall.

I did get to spend three lovely days with Elizabeth; showing her my town (and sculpture park), introducing her to some fine Romanian cuisine and taking her to school to help teach some classes. It was fun to show her a little of what PCV life is like and show her some of the places that I written about. My students loved meeting another American. It was very hard to say goodbye at the end of Elizabeth's visit. We had a great time exploring Istanbul and Athens together. I said goodbye to her look forward to future globe trekking adventures.

Over the weekend some volunteers in the area came into town for a goodbye dinner for my site mate. We had a nice goodbye dinner complete with Romanian style pizza (read ketchup for sauce). Our little group had become a family since we arrived at site in August. We celebrated holidays together, shared teaching ideas and laughed about our experiences together. It was hard to be losing a piece of the family, but we toasted to her success in the states and discussed future visits. She left in the middle of the following week and it was difficult for me. I had been spoiled having someone to check in with after a rough day at school.

After a few teary days things got better, the weather warmed up and the snow and ice melted so it was finally safe to run again. I got to go for 3 glorious runs before the snow started again. I also had a number of handball practices and boys' game to go watch and while I am still terrible at the sport I have found it is a great way to take my mind off things. We have one more week of first semester left and then we will have a week break before the second semester starts. I am looking forward to having a break again.

Winter Holiday - Part 2

2011 started with a bang, literally. We arrived in Athens on New Year's Eve and watched the fireworks over the Greek House of Parliament from below the Acropolis. We then spent the next five days exploring the city and ancient sites. It was wonderful to be in a milder climate we even got out for a couple morning runs which was especially as it's too icy to run in my site in Romania.

We managed to pack a lot in and I would definitely love to go back to Greece in the summer to see some of the islands. Here are a few highlights from our time in Athens.

Elizabeth tests the water in the Aegean Sea.

Hadrian's Library.

Hadrian's Gate

Finally, Acropolis!

Theater of Herodus Atticus

Parthenon

Erechtheion

Socrates' prison

View of the Acropolis from the Hill of the Nymphs

Winter Holiday - Part 1

I spent the majority of my winter holiday outside of Romania with my dear friend Elizabeth. I feel so lucky to have someone get on a plane on Christmas night to travel around the world to see me. Let alone to have this be a friend who has known me since 3rd grade. I hadn't seen any friends or family since July when my cousin Emily came to visit so I was extremely excited to be with a loved one, especially around the holidays.

Elizabeth arrived on the 26th of December and we spent a couple days in Bucharest before heading to warmer climates. We were a bit nervous because on the day of our departure heavy snows hit Romania.
However, the Bucharest airport knows how to deal with snow so our flight departed on time and in just one short hour we arrived in ISTANBUL!

Istanbul was amazing and with only 3 days there it was a bit overwhelming, but we managed to see a lot. Here are a few of the highlights from our time there.

The Blue Mosque (exterior)

The Blue Mosque (interior)

Taking photos inside the Blue Mosque.

Hagia Sophia (exterior)

Hagia Sophia (interior)

12th century mosaics in the Hagia Sophia

Orient Express train station

castle viewing during a boat cruise up the Bosphorus Strait

We made it to both the Europe and Asian sides of Istanbul. Elizabeth is representing her affiliation.

As we hit both sides we felt ready to venture to an even warmer climate. Next stop Athens!

Blogger note: As with most of my vacations, I took way too many photos. If you would like to look at my larger Kodak Gallery, just shoot me and I'll send you a link to the full gallery.