Romanian Revamp

Last month, I moved to my site and I have spend the past month trying to make my studio a little more homey. I was lucky enough to have my landlord paint the apartment about a week ago so I thought I would devote this post to a little before and after of my space.

Here are my "before" shots:

Also, as I cleaned I had to combat a few spiders.

Here is my finished product. As is typical in many Romanian apartment, the first thing you see when you open my apartment door is the refrigerator.

Here is my petite kitchen. The table functions as my sole counter-top and dining table!

It's important to have extra liters of water in the bathroom as the water gets turned off in my town with no warning for days at a time. The water works to try to help flush the toilet.

Here are the "after" shots of my repainted and reorganized abode:

The First Day at School, well, sort of...

A Romanian School Crossing Sign

The first of September is supposed to be the first days for teachers to go back to school, but at my school this was not the case. Students who did not pass their end of year tests last year had to re-take tests and this meant that no teachers (except those giving exams) could go into the school. My counterpart and I tried to do an errand at school on Monday and were refused entrance at the gate because we weren't involved in the testing. So the first of September came and went and I did not go to school.

However, today we finally got to go! I was excited at the prospect of meeting other teachers and getting copies of the English textbooks so I can start lesson planning. Today was just a day where teachers could do work if they wished so there was no official schedule. The student schedules have not been made yet, so no teachers know which classes they will be teaching. I was looking forward to meeting the two new English teachers that will also be new in my school this year, but they were not at school today. No one has met these teachers yet as teachers are assigned based on test results, especially my counterpart, who is the head of the language department. While I did not get to meet two of the teachers that I will be sharing classes with; I was able to meet a few of the 100+ teachers in the school. It was nice to meet a few more people in town (now I just need to be able to remember all their names).

Before we left school for the day, my counterpart and I walked over to the building that houses the language classrooms to get copies of the English textbooks for me. A woman ran up to us and stopped us just before we entered to let us know that the whole building had just been fumigated so we could not go in. Thus, I will save getting my books for next week. We can't go to school tomorrow because of more exams. For now, I'll be happy for a three day weekend!

Exploring my Neighborhood (Part 2)

In August, much of Europe goes on vacation, Romania is no exception. Thus it has been hard to meet people in my community as since I have arrived at site, both my potential Romanian tutor and community mentor have been on vacation. I finally was able to meet my school director (the equivalent of a principal) for a few minutes the other day as he had been away in the beginning of the month. Luckily, I got an invite from Mil, a fellow volunteer in my group, who lives about an hour and forty-five minutes away from me.

Julie, a volunteer who lives about an hour from me, and I went to visit Mil last Friday. The floods that ravaged Romania earlier this summer destroyed part of the train track that runs beyond Mil's site so in order for me to get there I had to go to Julie's site and spend the night so we could take the only morning train at 7:00am that goes to Mil's site. Normally there should be many more train options, but a couple stops past Mil the track has been damaged. Julie and I woke up at 6:30am and walked to the train station that is conveniently about a 3 minute walk from Julie's apartment. Below is Julie's gorgeous old station.

We arrived bright and early at Mil's site which runs in a valley between two mountain ranges. The air was quite crisp compared to the heat of my site and I had goosebumps for the first times in months. It was delightful! We walked through the village of around 3,600 to the house Mil lives in with a gazda (the widow of the former town priest). We were greeted by the flowers in Mil's front yard.

In one of the sheds in Mil's yard braided onions and herbs are hung in preparation for winter.

After some restorative coffee we walked to Mil's school. On the way to the school we saw some girls herding some ducks.

Hay coming from the fields.

We had a picnic by the river that flooded earlier this summer.

Julie, Mil and me.

One of the kindergartens in Mil's community.

The school restroom.

The playground!

A few more houses and barns in the community.

Home is where the heart is! (or the gate)

Work being done to restore the river to it's original route after the flooding in June and July.

Sadly, we had to take the train home in the afternoon (there was only one train option out), but Julie and I vow to come back and visit Mil again soon. It was a lovely day!