Wednesday

Now that regular classes are over for the 12th graders my Wednesdays are different.  I teach a class of 10th graders at 9:00am and then now have a giant window in my schedule where I used to teach three classes of 12th graders.  

Today I spent a couple more hours in my classroom after teaching to finish grading the final English quiz for two of my 11th grade classes and figuring out their final grades. Next week is last week of regular classes for 11th graders before they start practicum (a month of classes in their profile subject) so next week will mean more goodbyes for me.  For the final question on the quiz I asked students to share some of what they learned in my classes during the past two years. Here are some of the responses I got:

"...she learned us to be quiet and to speack English."
"She gave me a lot of homeworks and this helped me to improve my English writing and reading."
"She is fool of life."
That last one is full of life, I swear.

After finishing averaging grades, I came home and made salsa to bring to some of the mothers at the Foundation.  A few weeks ago I gifted extra seeds that I had left over from planting herbs on my balcony to one of the mothers.  One of the seed packets was cilantro and she asked me what it could be used for so I made salsa to show one use.  Romanian food is not at all spicy so I warned everyone before I shared it.  The responses were pretty awesome.  Everyone generally liked it, but they were a bit overwhelmed by what, for Americans, was very, very mild salsa.  Angela told me she might make it in the winter to warm up instead of making a fire in the fireplace.

While the mothers and I were tasting salsa my dear students were teaching the kids English class in the other room.  Adelina and Oana took over my English kids classes in April and have been going steady since!  They are doing a great job and as you can see the kids love them.

My Morning in Photos

7:45 - making coffee

8:30 - more coffee and breakfast

9:30 - teaching English to the mothers group at the foundation

11:30 - charades in 10C (Cosmina acting out "to pray")

12:30 - group charades in 10A (being "super")

Winter in Miniature

Over the past 48 hours we have been inundated with snow as a winter storm rolls across Eastern Europe.  Thus far I have been lucky to have heat, power and water, but even with the heat on drafts still sneak into my room from the unheated hall and uninsulated balcony.  The weather seemed a perfect excuse to make winter treat.  Roasted Brussels sprouts and pecans!  The treat is two-fold.  You get to eat something delicious, but you also have an excuse to turn up the oven, savor the warmth and good smells coming from it.

In Romanian, Brussels sprouts are varza de Bruxelles, literally cabbage of Brussels. I love to imagine that Brussels is a land where everything is tiny.  Perhaps it's a hold over from the hours I spent as a child playing with my Sylvanian Families dolls, but this idea has enchanted me.

As I spent time huddled around the stove waiting for my tiny cabbages to roast, I was reminded of a neat photo trick that I learned about on Bridget's blog called tilt shifting.  This is done by changing the focus on the imagine so it looks like a miniature.  It's one of the most fabulous and totally addicting things I have done recently.  Fueled by delicious sprouts I decided to tilt shift some of my photos from today.

I also even took a snap of my dinner and fiddled with it!

Pork

Last Saturday I got the chance to experience a unique part of Romanian holiday festivities.  It's something that people talk about a lot, but one that I thought I might not get to see as I live in a large city without any livestock in it.  Luckily, my dear friend Angela invited me to her home in a village so that I could experience it before my time in Romania comes to an end.

At this time, I would like to put a disclaimer that if you do not like the sight of blood, this blog post isn't for you.

Julie also joined me on this expedition which started early in the morning as we trekked out to the village which is about a 45 minute walk outside of Onesti.  We were headed to see a traditional pig slaughter.  Families in Romania usually have one pig that they kill a little before Christmas.  The meat is used for the holidays and smoked to last through out the winter.

The pig in question on Saturday was raised by Angela's mother-in-law.  It was actually one of a pair that she raised.  The first pig was killed last year so this pig was two years old and weighed in over 200 kilograms (440 pounds).

We started the morning by visiting the pig which was resting in its stall.  The men then brought the pig out of the stall and bound its feet.  Angela explained that if you have compassion for the pig that it makes it harder for the pig to die so it was best if we went inside.  She and her husband, let her father-in-law and some neighbors deal with the killing. We went inside to the sound of pig screams (which were terrifying) to wait until the pig was deal.  Inside, we found Maia, Angela's youngest daughter, crying on her dad's shoulder about the death of the piggy.

After staying inside for a bit we went back outside to see the butchering process.

First, the hair and top layer of skin are torched. 

Torching

Next, the burned skin is scraped off with a knife.  After the whole pig is scraped it is washed and scrubbed with hot water. 

Scraping

Maia recovered from her initial grief and joined Julie and her older sister, Anda, outside to watch the butchering.

Maia, Julie and Anda

Removing the limbs

After the pig was cleaned, the girls took part in another tradition.  They sat on the pig to bring them luck in the new year.

Sampling pig skin

The pig was then cut along the spine and the fat was separated from the meat.  The fat will be smoked to make slanina which is a traditional Romanian delicacy.

After getting to the meat, a few samples were taken out to be brought to the domestic animal vet in town.  The meat is tested to make sure it is safe to eat.  We got the all clear and Angela then started working on lunch.

butchering

the family cat was very happy

Angela making lunch

lunch

For lunch we ate sauteed fat and meat with garlic sauce and mamaliga (polenta with a course-grain cornmeal). It was delicious, but better than that was getting to share the day with a wonderful and open Romanian family experiencing their traditions.

P.S. Maia decided that she wanted to model her Christmas outfit for us.  Here is a photo of us from the day!

Waiting

While September signals the beginning of the school year, that hasn't been the case for this Peace Corps Volunteer.  The Romanian education system is in a flux this year following the results of the end of year baccalaureate exams last year.  The Economist covered the results last July saying, "...the results of the Romanian school-leaving baccalaureate exam were released. They did not make for pretty reading. Following an anti-cheating initiative that saw CCTV cameras installed in schools, pass rates plummeted. Over half the students taking the exam failed; just two years ago, the pass rate was over 80%. In some schools, not a single student passed."  This has lead to different start of the school year across Romania with students now having to take initial tests in each subject to try to help establish a baseline of student's ability.  

For me this has meant that I haven't been able to do anything in the classroom yet.  There has been intense pressure on the teachers in my school to create the initial tests, review the previous year with the students and give the tests.  My counterpart told me that all the reviewing and testing needs to be done by Romanian teachers; so it's easier if I am not in the classroom.  

I took my queue and have been engaged in other activities.  The second week of school I learned that I will have a new classroom this year so I spent time clearing out the old one and decorating the new one (I'll get some new photos eventually). The nice thing about having done this once before I feel quite a bit more calm about the process.  

Outside of school, I have also been cooking a fair amount. I enjoyed the bounties of the late summer harvest making peach pancakes and then started right on fall produce making apple sauce and roasted butternut squash.  I also enjoyed the bounties of a care package from home using cranberries and walnuts from my parents to make cookies to take to the NGO where I volunteer.

Peach pancakes

Roasted butternut squash and pasta

Cranberry walnut oatmeal cookies

Next week looks like I will finally start working in the classroom.  The end of this week we should have the results from the initial tests.  I still do not know how this will play out in terms of what I will be teaching, but I am learning patience is a necessary virtue, especially as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

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.

Chicken Day

Over the weekend, I organized a mini-Thanksgiving for volunteers who live in my area. We opted for chicken, not turkey, as to get a turkey you have to spend a lot of time befriending farmers and we didn't quite have time this year.

I figured the day wouldn't be complete a crafty project. With the guidance of the internet I fashioned some quality headgear for the event.

Aron and Julie peel potatoes for dinner.

Mil carves up some chicken.

Our feast.

Julie, Mil, Aron, Vicki, Monica, Relu and Megan.

Thanks to a wonderful package from Ona we were able to enjoy pumpkin cupcakes with candy corn!
HAPPY CHICKEN DAY!

Cooking for the Road

Before leaving our training site and heading about to my permanent site. My gazda, Maria, wanted to arm me with recipes for a few of the dishes that I enjoyed most during my 11 weeks staying with her. Soup is very popular in Romania and Maria always had a pot or two of homemade soup that she served me as a first course at dinner. One of my favorite was supă de gălușcă, dumpling soup, which tastes very similar to matzah ball soup. Although, the dumplings are more dense. So the day before I left, we had a cooking day.

First, it seems that when you buy a chicken from the store in Romania that they are not fully plucked of feathers. So after Maria pulled all the remaining feathers she could find, she seared the outside of the bird to get them all. This also made it easier to remove some of the excess skin. She then rinsed the chicken and cut it up. She then cooked it for a few minutes, poured out that water, rinsed the chicken again and finally began cooking.

While the chicken began to cook, carrots, onions, and potatoes were cut up for the soup. Then fat was skimmed off the top of the broth.

The potatoes and carrots were then added along with a little salt and pepper to make the broth. After the broth is made the chicken was removed and the actual meat was used for two other recipes. The onion was also removed from the broth and thrown away.

Maria then made the batter for the dumplings out of eggs and a substance that would be most closely related to cornmeal. You have to add the batter to the soup quite quickly, otherwise the batter gets very tough.

The batter was then added spoonful by spoonful to the broth to make the dumplings. After about 45 minutes of being cooked with the lid on the soup is done and ready to serve with parley. Yum!

Sticky Adventures

On Sunday afternoon I went outside the city to the country property of my gazda's daughter and son-in-law, Gabi and Nico. Nico's parents live on the property next door and have a pretty sizable garden. I think they are subsistence farmers with chickens, ducks and turkeys in their yard. They have a fairly good size piece of property with a large garden and tiny vineyard where they make wine for the family. They have a tiny house that I imagine must be very hard to heat in the winter.
A lot of the plants that are grown here are similar to those that grow in the Northwest. I saw tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, garlic, onions, butter lettuce, parsley and dill. They also have apple, peach, and plum trees.

We made a fire in the backyard and cooked sausage and chicken on the fire. It was delicious! However, the best part of the afternoon is that Nico is a bee-keeper and has a lot of hives on the property. He had been harvesting some honey so we had a desert of fresh strawberries and honey still warm from the hive. It was amazing!

This fire eventually became our barbecue; our "charcoal" was dried corn husks.