Springtime Cometh

Last weekend I traveled west to Cluj for a VAC meeting with fellow volunteers and Peace Corps staff. While my site is not in the mountains, there is small string of mountains to the west of my site that must be circumnavigated. To get to Cluj, I took a 3 hour maxi-taxi ride over the mountains and then a 6 1/2 hour train ride across the countryside. The train ride was gorgeous, I felt like I could finally see signs of spring coming to the country. I saw a few herds of sheep and a lot of the fields on fire getting ready for spring plowing.

I left my site a little after 6am on Friday and was finally out and about in Cluj around 5:30pm with my friend and fellow committee member, Becca. We had delicious coffee (I needed it), caught the sunset, did a little shopping, and had Asian food!

Cluj is a university town and in Transylvania, which is very different from my region. Translyvania is the Hungarian region of Romania, home to lots of scenic architecture and interesting history.

Saturday was mostly taken up with Peace Corps meetings, I presented the results of a survey about community integration that I helped give my group during our December training event. We also discussed the new group of volunteers that will be coming into the country next month. I am excited at the prospect of meeting new volunteers. We got out of our meeting in late afternoon in time to get one more hour of daylight in the city.

St. Michael's Church

Church entrance

Although, I was really only there for a day and a half I loved the diversity and options in the city. I went to an art museum, visited a historic church, and had Indian food to boot. I definitely would like to come back again.

By Sunday afternoon, I was back on the train headed back to site. In the daylight hours of my return ride I enjoyed more views of the country side and saw more fields on fire. At first, I found this a little alarming, but I was assured it is normal for this time of year. I didn't get a great pictures of this, but you can see this in the upper right corner of the below picture.

Country Love

One of the things that I enjoy most in Romania is the deep connection that people have to the country. Most people I have met either have their own land in the country or have a parent or grandparent with land. On this land they grow fruits and vegetables and many people have livestock. People are very passionate about knowing what went into the food they consume.

In smaller communities, almost everyone has chickens and an animal to provide them milk. This actually proves problematic to some of my fellow volunteers who live in villages because there is literally no where for them to buy eggs or milk in town. They get very excited when they can actually "score" milk.

I have been tutoring a few kids in town and have been lucky to been given gifts from the country as I head out the door. In the fall, I got some delicious apples, pears and grapes. Then I got homemade tomato juice, pickled watermelon and honey. Recently, I got some gorgeous (and yummy) eggs.

I also got this smoked fish. I haven't quite been brave enough to try it yet, but I am intrigued. It's also quite pretty.

On the corner next to my block you can find people selling herbs, veggies and milk every morning. The milk is sold in old soda and juice bottles, but is only available very early in the morning as it sells out. Once home you heat it, then can skim the fat off the top. I have to admit, I don't do this, but when I lived with a family during training this is how they got their weekly milk.

Signs of Spring

In Romania the coming of spring is celebrated on March 1st. Spring is marked by the changing of months on the calendar and not necessarily by the weather outside. Being from a much milder climate, it's been hard for me to get excited about spring with so much snow in the ground, but I am getting there. Here is a scene from the first day of spring in my town; city crews hard at work removing snow from the street.

Over the weekend I took the train up the valley to have lunch with some fellow volunteers. The train ride was gorgeous. Here are a few snaps from the ride.