After Easter there wasn't really a whole lot to share, and the things that did happen, weren't the sharing kind. A few minor set backs kind of came my way and it wasn't the best of time to be writing out my deepest darkest feelings about everything. I will run down them quickly so anyone who hadn't been appraised can be.

First off, I was informed by Peace Corps Romania that I was not selected as a PCVL for the coming year. Which was disappointing for many reasons but I still felt like I had a good idea of where my future was going because of the Foreign Service Oral exam which I would hope to be taking in the fall.

Then, The FSOT panel decided I was not worthy of their interest either, thus shattering my plans for when I got home and upsetting the fabric of space time itself.

THEN, as I was walking home from school on slightly chilly and more than a little rainy day it happened that I was walking on the left hand side of the road (I like to see around the corners) and a car was speeding down the hill towards me, it kindly moved over as it approached me but not knowing there was a horse and cart lurking just beyond me on the opposite side, it swerved back in my direction. I being the nimble and quick witted soul that I am jumped slightly to the side so as to not be hit by the on coming Audi, however, being the clumsy and less than coordinated body that I am, I promptly slipped on the wet grass and fell into the ditch next to the road and twisted my left knee...

A train ride to Bucharest, an Ultrasound, invasive physical and MRI later I was diagnosed with a torn meniscus. Awesome! Just what I've always wanted in a country where handicap accessibility is a MAJOR issue! I wasn't given crutches or even a cane but a knee brace, and thankfully told it should heal on it's own, though, coming up on 4 weeks since being to the doctor and my knee still hurting everyday, I'm starting to think this whole heal on its own nonsense is a little far fetched. Still... maybe if I didn't walk so much it would heal faster.

In any case, I have a torn meniscus. Life really does like send you a box of lemons sometimes, but not good lemons like the one's you can transform into money making muscle cars or demolition derby winners... the bad lemons, that you just have to make juice out of and makes you pucker your face in that ever so unattractive way... actually, lemonade does sound pretty good right now, and sweet tea, Lemonade and Sweet Tea... Oh Arnold Palmer... I will see you soon...

This is going into the way back machine but from March 24-26 Peace Corps Romania group 26 had its Close of Service conference. It is a two day conference designed to help us relaunch our lives once we get to the U.S. something that has been on my mind a lot lately. But there were other things going on that week as well, my interview for the Peace Corps Volunteer Leader position, Language exam and just an overall sense of finality I don't think I was quite ready for. Like every conference it had its more interesting moments, including our dinner finale, watching our group together one last time, most of them dancing to "rollin' on a river" like it had never been done before... The Conference ended and everyone went their separate ways, much like we will do come July 1st and our PCR family starts heading home.

For Easter this year I decided to stay at site and even hosted a couple of guests. My good friend Brent and My partner Carly. I was away from site last year so I was really curious to see how things would work out this time. Brent and I stayed up late on Saturday and went to the Easter midnight service in the center of town... It was so crowded I worried several times about accidentally lighting the person in front of my on fire, until I realized there was someone just as close behind me and was then worried about being set on fire a little more.

The priests processed into the church and the lights went out as they lit tshe Easter candle from which everyone would light their own luminaries... It was again, an incredible sight, as not only the level of light in the church began to rise just from the number of candles, but the reflection of the ornamented walls as they danced in the shadows and flicker of hundreds of tiny flames. We stayed around outside to listen to the Easter story before heading back to the apartment around 1am and playing backgammon as our candles burned slowly on the table next to us. Then, we went to bed in preparation for the Easter meal the following day.

We were not disappointed by the meal. My Director invited me to his parent's house and Carly, Brent and I gathered around the table with my Director's family, including his uncle and aunt from Brussels, and experienced again, the wonder of Romanian cooking. The year before I had not taking a liking to the Easter specialty called drob, which I believe is lamb stomach, but this year, with a new chef, I enjoyed it quite a lot. The highlight of course was the lamb chops and as a special treat from our nearly French visitors, Duck L'orange... It was spectacular! I don't know if I have ever eaten anything as surprising to me as this. I would eat that prepared just that way, everyday for a year and never get sick of it.

After dinner there was of course, merriment, and by merriment I mean large carafes of home made wine. Excellent... strong... homemade wine. The combination of merriment and food led to a nap around 6 pm when we returned from the afternoon festivities. It was another great holiday in Romania and I am very thankful for the people who were willing to share it with me.

"I can't tell you what it really is, I can only tell you what it feels like"

Despite the events of the week before, I decided to go ahead and take the Foreign Service Exam. It would not be an easy trip, as it turned out, during this round of testing, Romania was no not one of the foreign posts chosen to host the exam, instead I had to choose between an 18 hour trip into Ukraine or a 16 hour trip to Sofia, Bulgaria.

Since leaving the U.S. Sofia was one of the places on my list of cities to see while abroad. I was lucky to have this opportunity, yet I was incredibly unsettled because of the prospect of once again, taking an exam that might have a lasting and dramatic effect on my future. I took along with me one of my favorite novels that I felt was appropriate for the occasion, The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemmingway. While I was not going to be wandering the streets of 1920's Paris or attending any bullfighting expositions, I was enthralled by the idea of the ex-patriots themselves.

As the train curved away from Bucharest I did everything I could not the think about the test, or arriving in a completely foreign city with no knowledge of the language or landscape. Romania had become like a second home to me, I felt at ease walking into any store or starting a conversation with random people because I felt confident enough in my language abilities to get by. It hadn't occurred to me that not only would I not know the language, but I would also not even know the alphabet. As the train pulled away from Girgiu and made it's way across the Danube river, I felt an overwhelming excitement. The trepidation I might have at entering a new country and being completely clueless was lost by the idea of experiencing something new and exciting.

The border guards in Bulgaria were courteous, and to my surprise, knew English very well. The Romanian border guards hadn't even attempted to speak to me in English despite my American passport. They instead made hand gestures when asking for my passport and other legal papers. The Train station in Russa, the border city, was much nicer than even Gara de Nord, which I had come to see as a monstrosity of Romanian transportation. This was my first inclination that Bulgaria would have many different things to offer me.

It was 7 hours from Russa to Sofia, so I had plenty of time to kill. I alternated between skimming the practice questions for the FSOT and getting lost in the complex mind of Jake Barnes as he struggles with his inner demons and his relationship with Lady Brett Ashley and Robert Cohn. Their pensiont for using French terms and British phrases amused me greatly. Their intricate unspoken understandings fascinated me even more. As they delved into what it meant to be from somewhere and not identify with their nationality, I began to understand my own feelings about Peace Corps and foreign service even more.

About an hour away from Sofia I thought it might be a good idea to check the maps and directions I had printed to get to my hostel. It was at this point that I realized I had left them sitting in a book on my dining room table. Thanks to my wonderful partner I was able to get the address, but I was wary of taking a taxi directly from the train station and couldn't find an open kiosk to buy a bus ticket. Instead I decided to set off on foot, into a city I had never been to before. I know, how ridiculous, but to be honest, if it hadn't been for that walk I wouldn't have seen the beauty of Sofia at night, the vibrant and colorful night life or the Orthodox churches lit up like monuments to God Himself.

After about 2 hours of hopelessly wandering the streets I finally gave up and got in taxi, I showed him the address in the Text message and we were on our way. I was sure I was no more than half a kilometer away from the hostel, but as it turned out, I was more like 3 Km removed from my final destination. This was the point where my entire weekend changed. While it was bad enough i didn't have my maps and addresses, I knew as long as I had the address in my phone I would be find. What happened next I was not prepared for. While getting out of the Cab, my phone fell out of my pocket and on to the floor... I did not notice, and proceeded to me hostel as if I had all my worldly possessions with me... It was only after checking in and settling down that I realized I was down one good friend... I loved that phone.

The woman at the Hostel was kind enough to wake me up the next morning and call me cab. I was then taken to the U.S. Embassy, though I was quite early. I walked around the outer gate for a little while but stopped when I noticed I was being followed around by the security guards, so instead I walked up the street and wandered around in the park near by. I returned and shortly afterward a few other people showed up, three of them being Peace Corps volunteers from Bulgaria, the other a Fulbright Scholar. Due to the piece of paper I signed while taking the test I am not allowed to divulge any information about the actual content... I will say it was difficult, and after a particularly tough week and long trip and traumatic night I was sure I had again failed to pass... I didn't! I passed the test with a score of 161.4. I 154 is required to move on the the next stage.

After the test I walked around Sofia for a while with the Fulbright Scholar. She had been to Sofia many times and acted as my tour guide for an afternoon. We parted ways after a few hours walking around the sights including the fabulous church in the center of time. It was absolutely breathtaking inside and even more so from the outside at night. It was exactly everything the people who built it wanted it to be, an awe inspiring sight that made one think of the greatness of God and cringe in his presence. It was a monument to Orthodox architecture and very pleasing to the eye. It made me wonder if there was something similar in Romania, I had never seen one, or anything like it in Bucharest.

Pictures of Sofia can be seen here...https://picasaweb.google.com/110820367558615266026/Sofia#

I again got lost on my back to the hostel, but this time on foot in the daylight. It's a sore spot and I don't want to talk about it. However within a 1/2 mile radius around my hostel I found a Starbucks, a dunkin donuts and a SUBWAY!!!!! This was another indication the Bulgaria had their stuff together. I ate Subway twice on the trip, a steak and cheese, and subway club, and KETCHUP CHIPS!!! Are you kidding me??? KETCHUP CHIPS!!! Where have these been my whole life???? They were delicious. I wish I could find them in this country, or even back in the U.S.

I was so exhausted from the trip that I only stayed out until around ten. Sitting at Happy Bar, a large international chain, watching the sushi guy work his butt of rolling and slicing, and nursing a Jack Daniels while two Spanish soccer teams flopped their way through a sloppy game. I had a nice conversation with the bartender, as it turns out, even the bartenders and subway workers in Bulgaria have excellent English skills. I went to bed early after walking past the church at night so I could catch my train back to Romania.

https://picasaweb.google.com/110820367558615266026/TheTrain#

The train ride back was beautiful. The mountains around Sofia are breath taking and well worth the price of the train ticket. The tracks wind around, through and over the mountains, snaking it's way along the banks of river whose name I never discovered. The picturesque scenery was a very relaxing diversion from the nerves that had built themselves up throughout the weekend. I listened to podcasts, finished The Sun Also Rises and started The Historian as the train wove it's way back into Romania. Even though I had enjoyed my visit to Sofia Throughly, I was glad to be back in a country where I knew the language and alphabet, at least until I got to Gara de Nord and witnessed a drunken brawl in one of the covered bars...

Another long sleepless train ride later and I was back at site preparing for another week of school... The next trip out of sight will be COS. Our Close of Service Conference... stay tuned.

"You may well ask why I write. And yet my reasons are quite many. For it is not unusual in human beings who have witnessed the sack of a city or the falling to pieces of a people to set down what they have witnessed for the benefit of unknown heirs or of generations infinitely remote; or, if you please, just to get the sight out of their heads." Ford Maddox Ford, The Good Soldier

This quote represents perfectly my motivation for writing this next blog post. There is nothing of any cultural relevance, there is limited action. The purpose is merely for me to come to grips with what I have experienced and, if you will allow, for those who do not know the burden Peace Corps can place on its volunteers, to give you a glimpse of what some of us go through being far removed from our families and the lives we left behind.

On February 4th, 5:00am Romanian time I received a phone call. I was groggy, out of it. Tired from the events of the night before and having only been asleep for 3 hours. I silenced the first call from a number I didn't recognize. The silence of the room was broken again a few moments later, and again a few moments after that. I answered the phone and heard the voice of my brother on the line, "Al, Grandpa died."

I couldn't immediately process the words. It took a few moments for me to realize what he was saying. My dad came on and explained the situation to me. That I shouldn't worry because everyone was with my Grandmother now and they thought I should know, I should think about coming home for the funeral. The call lasted three minutes, maybe less. Yet, it completely changed my service, and my opinion of my trip home.

My trip home in December seemed to me at the time to be a little indulgent. I had already been home once when many of my friends hadn't been home at all, and wouldn't be before their service was over. I felt like I was just taking advantage of my parent's generosity. Now, I no longer feel that way. I was able to come home and spend one last Christmas with my Grandfather, a man I admire and respect more than words can express. He and I had spent a long summer recounting the tales of his youth and his tour of duty during World War 2. We had sat in his living room, hashing through old photo albums and newspaper clippings. I had grown to love and respect him even more because of those interactions. I am grateful that I still have the recordings of our sessions together.

When I left home the first time the thought crossed my mind that I would never see my Grandfather again. When I visited home the first time in February of 2010 I had thought the same thing upon leaving. This time, however, I thought that seven months wasn't such a long time, and that I would see him again when I made my way home the following July. In speaking with my grandmother later, she would tell me that he hadn't had the same thought. Upon leaving after our dinner at P.F. Chang's he told my Grandmother that it was probably the last time he would see me.

I laid in bed awake for what seemed like hours, and in fact, was hours. I watched as the shadows of the rising sun crept into the room and encompassed my bed. I hadn't said it out loud yet. I had been thinking about it for hours and still couldn't wrap my head around it. I was in shock. I wasn't in my own apartment, and I wasn't alone in the room. I couldn't very well just let out all the emotion I was feeling with other people around. I had to keep it in and be strong. Be under control, be a rock. All I could think about was my family, and how much I wanted to be with them.

When my partner finally woke up I told her the news, and she set about trying to console me. But what do you say to someone in that situation. Especially when you know there is no way they can get home. You see, Peace Corps has a policy that Volunteers are only allowed to go home for funerals of immediate family members. I wasn't going to be able to make it to the funeral. Another thing I was slowly coming to realize. I tried to carry on through the day as best I could. Waiting for my phone to ring so I could speak with my family again. It wouldn't.

The next time I would speak with my Family I was sitting in a Starbucks at the Mall in Cluj Napoca. I was with my partner and another member of our group discussing life after Peace Corps when my phone rang again. I talked briefly with my father and made my way outside. When my mother's voice came on I could hear the strain in her voice, and her sadness, her grief, made me wish I was there to wrap my arms around her. To hug her and tell her it would be okay. To be a good son. I wanted anything but to be halfway around the world.

This is the first time in my Peace Corps experience I have not wanted to be here. The first time I didn't see the good outweigh the bad. The first time I felt helpless and alone.

My mom went through the arrangements they made for the funeral, an Honor Guard, There would be 21 gun salute. A flag presented to my Grandmother. Father John had kindly consented to preside. Despite the fact that my grandfather was an Episcopalian, he sat in church next to my Grandmother every week, and had been doing so for as long as I can remember. He had been baptized Catholic when he was young and that was all that mattered to the church. I remember being an altar server at my grandpa Cook's funeral when I was in 6th grade. My aunt had come up to me afterward and told me she thought it took a lot of courage to do it. I thought nothing of it. I wanted now, to be able to sit next to my grandmother and hold her hand during the funeral. To be there as she buried her husband of more than 60 years.

I could hardly breathe when I got off the phone. I took deep breathes, calmed myself down, and sucked it up. Buried my emotions deep inside me, and put on an act as I walked back into the Starbucks.

We stayed in Cluj one more night before I had a long 8 hour train ride back to site. The train ride was not friendly. Sitting alone for 8 hours on a train, watching the Romanian scenery pass by recounting every interaction I had had with him the last time I was home. Recounting every interaction with him ever. I held on to them like they were diamonds, I clutched them in my mind and tried to etch them in stone. I wanted them to be permanent. For every word he had ever said, for every time he had hugged, or shaken hands to be available upon request. Try as I might, I couldn't remember the last words he said to me.

When I finally made it home I collapsed in a heap on my bed. It was only 9pm but all I wanted to do was curl up into a ball and sleep until July. I wanted to magically wake up on a train or a plane or in my room at home. I spent the next hour waiting for my parents to skype me so I could speak with my Grandmother and uncle. When we talked she was visibly shaken, as is expected, she could hardly get through her explanation before needing to stop and breathe. I will never forget what she said to me.

"Your grandfather was so proud of you Alex. He didn't want you to come home for his funeral, he wanted you to keep doing what your doing. He didn't want to be a hassle. You meant so much to him and he loved you very much. He was so proud of you."

I cried that night. For a long time. I couldn't sleep. I tossed and turned and tried, knowing I had school the next morning. But sleep never came, despite my best efforts. When my alarm went off, and I crawled out of bed and into the bathroom I looked at myself in the mirror, my bloodshot eyes, my puffy cheeks and I couldn't bring myself to face the day. Another first in my Peace Corps experience. I texted my counterpart what had happened and told her I couldn't come to school. She was very sympathetic.

I spent the day instead, listening to the old tapes of that summer we had spent together and trying to come to grips with the what had happened. I missed my family dearly. I wanted to be with them and I couldn't. It is difficult to go through something like that at anytime, but even more so, to me, to not be able to be a comfort to the people you love.

My grandfather, Lt. Col. John Walker Walters, was laid to rest on Tuesday February 8th at Evergreen Cemetery in Lansing Michigan. He could have been buried in Arlington, He was a Lt.Col during WW2 and served on the European front. His experience with the VFW putting up flags on memorial day made him want to be buried there where he had made his life, and his family.

There is no question that every Peace Corps volunteer pays some kind of personal price. Whether it is missing a friend's wedding, a family member's birthday, holidays. Whether it is missing their favorite food, the comfort of a book store, the feel of driving a car. There are some volunteers, like myself, whose service will be defined by what they have missed instead of what they have accomplished. I've missed many events, My best friend's wedding and the birth of his child, countless birthdays and holidays, but my Grandfather's funeral will stick with me the longest. It is the first time I have felt like I have failed as a son and human being. Though many of the circumstances are beyond my control, it doesn't change the guilt or the sadness I feel for not being there with my family during a very difficult time.

Grandpa, you will be missed, I love you.

"All I can think about, is gettin' you home..."

I touched down in Grand Rapids on December 16th 2010 around 6:30 in the evening and was greeted by my Parents, my mother nearly breaching the security checkpoint to give me a hug, my brother, and my good friends Kevin and Joey. It was good to see them again, but much like the last time I made the trip I was unable to sleep on any of my flights and was therefore, very tired. We went to the Beltline Bar and had the most exquisite Wet Burritos... That's how the trip began. My time at home was short but good. I caught up with many of my friends and for a while it was good to just be home for a while. Still, something about it made me uneasy. It wasn't the life I was accustomed to anymore. I've grown to be accepting of my lifestyle in Romania. I enjoy the way my days progress and how my routine hardly ever varies. I am a creature of habit, even if they aren't always productive ones. I couldn't help shake the feeling that in 7 short months I would be back in the states for good. With no school waiting for me an ocean away, no apartment bills waiting in my shabby mail box and no more Romanian to speak... it was an incredibly sobering feeling. Like the last twenty months of my life had just flown by, and I was sure the next seven would be an equally rapid blur... but before that, there was the trip back, and New Year's.

"Let old acquaintance be forgot and never brought to light..."

New Year's in Brasov was something special. I had been sweating bullets at home trying to find a place to stay that was both cheap and could accommodate me and four of my friends. It wasn't easy to find, and even harder to find once we were actually in the city. My friend Brent and I arrived in Brasov around 9p.m. after two lengthy flights and a seemingly unending train ride. It had been nearly 24 hours since we had left the states and neither of us were what we would call "rested." Nevertheless, Brent and I decided to try and take the bus, rather than just paying the taxi to take us directly to our hostel door. We got off at the wrong stop, then, we walked up the wrong street, took a few wrong turns and before you know it had been walking around haphazardly for 2 hours in the freezing cold with gigantic backpacks on. We finally found the place and were able to settle in... Our other friend's arrived the next day and we greeted each of them in turn at the train or bus station. New Year's night was spectacular. We stood in the giant square in Brasov's old town, in the shadow of the Black Cathedral and watched as they counted down the waining seconds of 2010. With the echoes of "Una" still ringing in the square people popped off their champaign corks and ushered in 2011 by stealing a kiss from a loved one.

"I don't care where we go, long as I'm there with you..."

After New Year's I had a visitor come and stay with me for a few days. This visit directly resulted in the two of us beginning a relationship, which I am happy to say has been the highlight of my 2011 so far. She's an amazing woman, but also very private so I will keep the details to a minimum. She makes me happy, which isn't the easiest of tasks.

"I Don't like, I don't like, I don't like Mondays too much..."

Inevitably I had to crawl back to school and finish out the first semester. Grades, Tests and a flurry of questions about why someone's grade was what it was. I am grateful that my director and counterpart are beyond school politics. They don't care whose son or daughter you are, you get the grade you earned. It helps that it is hard for any of our students to put up a fight on their grades. Those who learn, learn, those who don't... well... they don't, ever. January was a relatively uneventful month compared to the hectic pace of December. It was cold, it snowed. It felt like winter. I made a couple of visits to my friend Ted in Piatra, relished the American food I had brought back with me, and mostly just waited around for the semester break so I could take another little adventure.

"Said I'm turnin' off my phone, Tell the world to leave to alone, Gonna stay right here in bed, All day long "

I went on a trip to see my new partner's site, it was not easy to find but I lucked into spying a bus headed to a city near hers on my to Targu Mures. I was able to switch buses and make to her site about 6 hours earlier than I would have had I made the trip all the way to Targu Mures. Again, I won't go into much detail to respect her privacy but it was a very relaxing and enjoyable time together. We made a trip to Sighisoara and saw the fortress, made pizza, pasta, curry chicken and ate hummus with home made tortillas. The majority of our time was spent in sweatpants playing scrabble and listening to podcasts. It was the perfect lazy vacation. At the end of the week we made our way to visit another one of our friend's and hang out in Cluj for a couple of days. It was at this point that something happened that will forever define my Peace Corps service.

In my last entry I misspelled my friend's name (no surprize there) It should have read Brent Weinert... sorry for the confusion... carry on.

November was one of those months that flew by just because of the sheer number of events. Here's the rundown.

"Welcome to the space olympics... believe in yourself, take your game to outer space." ~ The Lonley Island

The first weekend in November I was able to play European Handball with some of my 7th and 8th grade students. It was a lot of fun to spend more time with them outside of class. I was, however, disappointed in their lack of athletic ability. It looked to me as if some of the boys had never thrown a ball overhand before and when they did, made it seem like a Lion's quarterback trying desperately to get the ball downfield. The highlight of the day was playing one on one with one of my 8th graders, by far the best athlete of the group, it ended in a scoreless tie after about 5 minutes of us running all over and blocking each other's shots. The low light was while I was playing with the girls and one of them hit me in the no no parts with a rocket of a shot... she could throw harder than any of the boys, it really hurt.

"suntem copii, de acum vom fi, Plini de uimire, plini de iubire." -Guess Who "Locul Potrivit"

"we are the children, since now will be, filled with surprise, filled with love"

My director stopped by my apartment for a visit a few weeks ago and I was talking to him about a few projects I was interested in doing with the kids. His response kind of surprised me. He told me in Romanian "You don't need to do any more projects, you can if you want, but you have done plenty just being here. I know the students haven't improved much in English but we can tell that there has been a change in their heart and the way they see the world.".... hands down one of the best things anyone has ever said to me. Especially since I haven't felt like I've pulled my end of the project department lately... While I'm still not satisfied with what I've done, I do feel better knowing my director and other teachers have noticed a change in the students.

"I may be skinny at times but I'm fat full of rhymes so pass me the mic and Imma grab at it." Jason Mraz, Geek in the pink.

There really aren't many song lyrics that go along with this next part so I just wrote down what was playing. Every semester the English teachers from all over the county get together for a meeting. This semester the one in my area happened to be at my school, more than likely because I am there. Our presentation was on how to correct student error in language usage. I gave a nice little five minute presentation that ended up being more like ten. I thought it went fairly well despite the fact that I had only about three days to prepare and was only given 5 minutes to cover a topic that could have easily taken half an hour. In any case the inspector of our county told me I did a good job so cudos to me!

"See you driving round town with the girl I love and I'm like Forget you and Forget her too!" Cee Lo Brown

The next big event was our moldovan Thanksgiving... Thanks to David and Veronica it was huge success. We had about 15 volunteers come and enjoy a day of cooking, conversation and random hijinx, like licking whipped cream off of ted's head and finding new hilarious songs on youtube. The food was excellent as Veronica out did herself once again and many volunteers pitched in to make it a real feast. You can see pictures here... http://picasaweb.google.com/110820367558615266026/ThanksgivingTirguNeamtStyle#

Believe it or not the song is actually pertinent, Amanda showed it to us on youtube and it has now become a group favorite along with another song from Gretel... however, the title of said song is too risque for such a family friendly blog!

"You make me feel like I'm livin a Teenage dream..." Katy Perry

Two days before my seven hour bus ride to bucharest my computer decided it would be fun to Erase everything off of my ipod... I was incensed at the time, but now I am kind of glad it happened, I am still missing a lot of things I enjoyed but it also forced me to get rid of the things I wasn't listening to but thought maybe someday I might. And how can you argue with an event that brings you to a deeper understanding of ms. Katy Perry... exactly, you can't!

"I am in misery, ain't no body who can comfort me..." Maroon 5

The bus ride itself was the worst trip I've had in Romania to date. It even beat out sitting next to woman throwing up for 2 hours on our way to Sibiu... The "bus" left at 11:30 pm... I thought since it was a longer trip it would be more comfortable, but the seats were so close together that I couldn't even get my legs in front of me. I was unable to sleep the entire ride and arrived in Bucharest to the biggest surprise to date... McDonald's had breakfast! While this is a great acheivement for all mankind, the only thought that got me through the trip was that I would be able to have a Big Mac for breakfast... it unfortnately didn't work out that way.

"Alright, maybe that was the wrong bus" - Brent Wienert

"All my life I've been searching for something, something never comes never leads to nothing..." Foo Fighters

The whole purpose of going to Bucharest was to attend Thanksgiving at the Ambassador's house. Being awake for such a long period of time had made me a little loopy but left me unable to sleep, so like always, brent and I set out to find coffee and a distraction. We found Funland in one of the Buch shopping centers and I schooled Brent in Air Hockey... then we checked into our hostel and decided to head towards where we thought the Ambassador's house was... where we thought it was... Neither Brent nor myself are much for planning ahead so we just got on a bus that looked like it was headed in the right direction and for a while I think we were okay, but it took both of us a little while to realize that we were in no way going in the right direction anymore... our main goal was to find the Arc de Triumph and walk from there but all the signs kept saying it was not the way we were going... we got out of the bus and walked for about 2km before asking a cab if he could take us... he apparently didn't want our money and just told us it was up the street... another 3km up the street... then we couldn't find the road that starts with "T" that our friend told us the house was on... thankfully we got there only about 30 min late... another successful buc adventure.

"Inch by Inch row by row, I'm gonna make this garden grow" John Denver

The spread at the Ambassador's was impressive, Peace Corps was well represented with volunteers and the French and Turkish Ambassadors to Romania were both in Attendance. I will say that Veronica is a much better cook than the Ambassador's staff, there were no bacon wrapped somkies or green bean casserole so I will give the food nod to Moldova. We were asked as part of the Ambassador's family tradition to sing a song by John Denver which made the Ambassador's wife very happy. She was definetly greatful for being able to do so and we were happy to oblige her... We were also able to play a little football on the Ambassador's lawn... good times all around.

"If I die before I wake, At least in Heaven I skate" OPM "heaven is a halfpipe.

this one goes out to Brent who was able to guess 23 of 25 songs on my one hit wonders of the 90's albulm... well done sir.

"wow wow wow, can we use 8th grade words here, I dont even know what you just said" Brent Wienert

"Lay down, my friend. Close your eyes, breathe in, And I'll take you there and back again." Daughtry

The weekend ended with a trip up to visit Sarah and Carly, two other volunteers who had made the excursion to bucharest. Sarah was a very gracious host and the weekend had some definite highlights, including trying to get sarah to adopt 5 puppies in the park, making tortillas and tacos, apple bars and Alfredo, to go along with numerous card games and amazing conversation... The only down side was sarah's insistence on playing Daughtry and Nickelback all weekend... hence the song quote... A great way to end the trip, even though we slept maybe a combined 8 hours Friday and Saturday night/morning...

That's all for now, til next time... oh yeah... I'll be home in 16 days!

"I'm just sittin out here watchin Airplanes, Take off, and FLLLLYYYYYY!" Gary Allan

I would first like to say that this blog is the sole responsibility of the writer and does not reflect the opinion of Peace Corps or staff.

The culturally relevant point of the Halloween ball came in two parts. The first with two men from America the second with my bosses from Peace Corps.

My position at the Halloween ball was to help people fill out little bits of paper with information for the door raffle. On occasion someone would arrive who had better English skills than Romanian ones and would thus be easier for me to talk to than the two Romanian females who were also helping. After most the guests had already arrived I was casually hanging out by the table when a man who obviously spoke no English came up to the table and asked "so, what am I doing here?" I told him. He looked at me and said "that's not a Romanian accent." We exchanged greetings and I came to find out that he was there working on the Nicholas Cage movie. For the purposes of anonymity we shall call him Ryan.

We talked for a little while just about what I'm doing here for Peace Corps and How the movie was going. Another man came over, also with the movie, and I introduced myself to him telling him I was in Peace Corps, his response, verbatim was this: "What are you 23 24?"(first time I've been low balled in a while)"you'll get over that." Ryan recoiled in horror, "Jesus, come on he's doing a good thing." "well money will win out in the end." We continued discussing this for a couple minutes. Then Ryan asked me another question I was not ready for. "So, you think these people have a chance?" "excuse me?" "Romania, think it has a chance?"

Has a chance at what? Beating the U.S. in Science and Math education? Winning the world cup? Fielding an american football team? Brining Michael Jackson back from the dead? I didn't know what that was supposed to mean. But I responded the only way I knew how.

"Romanians are nothing if not resilient. They made it through communism, they've adapted well to technology. I have met more generous and kind people here in 18 months than I had in my whole life in the U.S. They in large part have a hunker down mentality. Just ride out the storm until something better comes along. I think when the new generation takes control of the Government things will be a lot better."

He responded "We've met a lot of good people to but just looking at this country makes me think it's beyond repair."

"Where have you been?"

"We've been in Sibiu, the Transfagerasan Highway and spent last week in Hunedoara. hunedoara is a sh*thole. I have never seen an uglier city in my life. But we had to shoot at the castle." I told him he was in the good part of the country. If he thought Hunedoara was bad he doesn't want any part of places like Barlad and Tirgu Neamt. We spit-balled for a little while about home made wine and Tuica and then they made their exit.

Throughout our conversation I got the overwhelming feeling that they thought of themselves as greater than the people they were sharing the country with. Ryan, for his part, seemed simply curious, making fewer generalizations and giving Romanians credit for what they are good at... wine and tuica. The other man, crazy hat, shared no such sentiment. He looked at their time here as a waste and saw no cultural or theatrical value of any kind in Romania.

A little late on I ran into two of my bosses from Peace Corps. I told them about the story. Their reaction was exactly what I thought it would be. "Ignorant, closed minded jackasses who wouldn't know beauty if it smacked them in the face" One of my bosses ranted for a little while about fighting that sort of bigotry and them not understanding what the world is really like and so on. This rant, was almost as bigoted and prejudiced as the one I had endured from Mr. Crazy Hat. They have been fighting for people from other countries for so long that they sometimes forget the American perspective. They are defacto world citizens because they have spent so much more of their adult life helping people from countries that are not their own. Their perspective has changed to side with those they serve, rather than those with whom they share a homeland.

There are two kinds of people in the world; those who believe and those who don't. Those who believe are steadfast in their opinions. They have dug their foxholes and are bunkered in for the shelling of those who believe the exact opposite that they do. Once in a while launching their own mortars and calling in air strikes. There's a war going on between those who believe. Crazy hat and boss lady would stand for days just shooting it out with one another, while those like myself and Ryan are much more apt to see both sides of the argument. We don't believe strongly enough either way to walk into a recruiters office and sign up. We observe and we digest and we move on, often without making a judgment.

There are some good things in the world, there are some bad things. Everything else is a shade of gray. Absolute right and Absolute wrong can almost never be found in the trenches. You make decisions, you make judgments and you move on.

I don't know if Romania is going to make it. There are obstacles, serious obstacles that require serious diligence and creative thinking. I do know this, the Romanian people are a time tested one. They will be here long after the countries around them shrivel and split and break apart. I have no doubt they will find a way to keep on living. The definition of "make it" is as flexible a standard as anyone could ascribe. They will live. Will they "make it" in a Hollywood sense and become a world power? No... But they will live and live well.

It isn't very often I get a chance to spend time in Bucharest. Until last weekend I had only stayed the night there once for a medical appointment, the rest of my time in Bucharest has mostly been spent waiting for trains at the gara or riding a bus out to Ikea for some fantastic meatballs. It wasn't until Last weekend that I found myself in Bucharest with a little bit of time on my hands. The results were well, interesting.

Okay, I wasn't just going down to the capital city for no reason. I made plans to Volunteer with and organization called Ovidiu Rom. Ovidiu Rom was set up by Ethan Hawke's mother (a former volunteer) to help get impoverished children into Kindergarden and then keep them in school. It is a worth while cause as I have seen myself the difficulties in convincing not only young children, but older ones as well that school is really in their best interest.

As a special fundraising event Ovidiu Rom puts on a Halloween Ball. This was the 6th such event and it was held at the Parlimentary Palace. Needless to say the chance to spend a large amount of time in a beautiful place like that was hard to pass up. I had originally planned on spending thursday through sunday helping but was told I would only be needed Friday and Saturday. So, thursday night my friend and I got on an overnight train to bucharest, passed out, and woke up to a delicious Big Mac Meal. After spending a few hours at the Peace Corps office we had plenty of time to kill before the volunteer meeting at the palace at 7pm. After finding our hostel (not without some difficulty and by means not condusive to expediency) we sat at a terasa and thought of what we could possibly due for a day in Bucharest... of course the answer came quickly with the sound of screeching brakes... Ride random buses.

The bus system is as such that there is little need for a ticket. I would say only one out of every 20 rides will there be a "controller" on the bus to make sure you have one. It is an accepted practice to skip out on such frivolities as a ticket... However since our experience in Timisoara proved that controlers do exist we bought tickets anyway and rode the bus til we saw something familiar. Got off, and got on another bus that took us out to the Arc de Triumph ala Bucharest. Something I had only seen from buses and taxis before that day. The Results of this trip may be seen here: http://picasaweb.google.com/110820367558615266026/FunInBuc#

There are a few things you tend to notice when riding around on a bus... one of which is that personal space is of no concern to the person next to you. The other is that there is ALWAYS more room on the bus even if you have to stand with one leg propped up against the window. The third is that, brakeing, is always the last resort for the driver, even at red lights.

The day was great. The park was beautiful and the volunteer meeting went off without a hitch. At one O'clock the next day We showed up to continue our volunteering and were put to work pretty quickly. Anytime something needed to be carried we were shown the way to help them. I guess we looked like guys who could carry things. Then, we were given our own special assignment... watch the wine. Yes make sure no one steals the wine before the guests show up... When the guests did start to show up it turned out we had the best seats in the house. Standing at a table exhibiting the door prizes. We saw celebrities, and rich people, and dignitaries, and Elvis, yes Elvis, and our boss, our ambassador, the Canadian Ambassador and of course Nicholas Cage, the guest of honor.

Nicholas Cage is in Romania shooting the Sequal to Ghost Rider, why they would make another one I have no idea, however there he was right there in real life with Jet black hair holding his son, sprinting by the press. Quite a sight to see, especially with a fellow peace corps volunteer trying to push the press out of the way. All in all the event raised 500,000 Euros to help put kids in school. For more information about that night check this out: http://www.bucharestherald.ro/dailyevents/41-dailyevents/16746-half-a-million-euro-donated-at-halloween-ball-to-help-1200-children-go-to-kindergarten

or here: http://www.halloween.ovid.ro/

Hopefully later this week I will have another post for you. Stay Tuned... Space Ghost Out!

Since I have nothing inspiring or culturally meaningful to say this week I thought I would write about some random things that have cropped up over the last couple weeks. These are in no particular order and the song lyrics may be completely irrelevant.

"Winter blows through my coat, It's chillin my bones..." -Frank Black and the Catholics

Its autumn now, though judging by the patch of ice I slipped on walking out of my apartment door last week Winter isn't too far behind. The trees are stubbornly clinging to the last bits of green left on their boney fingers. The sun is stuck in a perpetual semblance of dusk, as even at noon the long dark shadows of the trees and buildings are tinctured with orange and yellow. I know it won't be too long before it becomes dark at 4:30 and the only time I see the sun is out my classroom window.

"imi place modul in care minti" -Eminem

Okay, he didn't say it in Romanian, but this part is about that song. Last week one of my female 8th graders came into class playing "I love the way you lie" on her cell phone. I asked her if she understood what the song meant. She could tell me the chorus but admitted to not understanding any of the rest of the song. So, I asked if she wanted to translate it in class. She was excited. Now, I don't have to tell Romanian teachers its hard to get students excited to translate anything. But these kids were ready. This week I came prepared with lyrics in hand and we listened to the song while reading the words. Little did I know, the kids started singing. SINGING! Right there in class. It was great. It may not be the best sentiment for 8th grade boys and girls to chime in on but I swear they could have sung background for Rhianna on that part. I never knew my students could sing english better than they could read it.

"Shorty is a enie menie mine mo lover..." Justin Beiber.

That's right. A Justin Beiber reference. I went there. I had a strange feeling of rejection last week when the parents of one of my 8th grade classes decided they didn't want me to teach their kids. It was odd for me because I had to put up a fight with my director in order to keep all 22 hours I was teaching. He wanted me to cut my least favorite classes and only have 18... the peace corps standard is 16. I told him I had no problem teaching 22 hours... afterall I had 23 for much of last year. When he told me I wouldn't teach the 8th grade anymore because their parents didn't want to pay the money, I was shocked and felt guilty. See, at my school each family (if I teach more than one kid from a single family, which i do alot) is asked to contribute 30 lei to pay for my housing, as it is the school's responsibility to pay my rent. I know it wasn't the kids fault but I still feel a little slighted.

"Well you'd like to think that you were invincible.

Yeah, well weren't we all once before we felt loss for the first time?" -dashboard

I'm planning on writing a whole post about the process of comming home, but I'm just not ready yet. There are some things that are just too hard to think about.

"Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you?" -Foo Fighters

I have a new counterpart this year. She's only about two months older than I am however she seems to be a better teacher than the man I had last semester. I don't want to take anything away from Liviu, He is a good man who takes his job seriously, but he doesn't have a commanding presence in the classroom. And while, like Liviu, Alina will have me make all the decisions and often follow my ideas in the one class we team teach, She is also not afriad to raise her voice and put kids in their places. I have noticed I'm having a lot more fun this year. It's easier for me to cool off after a tough class because Alina and I can joke and talk about more easily than Liviu and I could. It also doesn't hurt to have someone my own age around to laugh at the old men.

"She packed my bags last night pre-flight,Zero hour nine a.m." Elton John

I'm moving. That's right. Moving. The apartment I am in has no heat and since temperatures were dipping below freezing last week my director has moved up my move date from the first of November to tomorrow. Or at least that is the plan thus far. The day has been moved a couple of times already. I have gotten used to my jail cell of an apartment. I am looking forward to having a real bed though... should be nice. On a little side note. So far while living here, every bed I have had (excluding hotels) since being in this country I have broken... alone... *sigh*

"Maybe this mattress will spin on its axis, and find me on yours." -John Mayer

That's enough for now. Stay tuned for next weeks installment of the misguided adventures of a Peace Corps Volunteer.

(In case you were wondering, the title is in reference to a hat my aunt sent me last year after halloween. It's black with an orange sticker that says Jagermeister on the front. My kids will sometimes ask me what it means. And I usually tell them deer hunter... or something to that effect... I don't tell them its a beverage that makes you feel like death on a triscuit.)

There must be some cultural difference in the way children are raised in Romania that makes it impossible for my students to pay attention. I used to think it was only me who had trouble controlling the kids during my classes. Most of the time I just chalk it up the Karma bug biting me in the ass. I was, afterall, quite the little trouble maker in my day. Though I seem to remember being a little bit more covert than just yelling insults across the room at my classmates while the teacher was giving a lecture. I didn’t have a phone so there was no way for me to play music during class and I knew if I ever didn’t do my homework, my grades would suffer and my parents would have something to say about that.

Having spent the last three weeks team teaching with a Romanian I know now that I’m not alone. Even she has trouble gaining their respect, not because she doesn’t know how to threaten or command their attention, but simply because they are completely apathetic to anything she says. Apart from being the normal amount of boisterous one would expect from a group of adolescent preteens, the kids show a lack of respect for authority that is uncommon outside of the school.

In all of my dealings with Romanians the title, family, or age of a person genders them a certain amount of respect. Priests, first and foremost, are afforded an amount of respect one would expect of clergy, they hold a special place in their community as for the most part, all of the major milestones in Romanian life take place inside of the church. Next seems to be title, obviously people like mayors, directors and business owners have the respect of their peers and for the most part the population they serve. I have noticed though, that here, teachers are given a kind of respect uncommon in the United States. When I lived in the village everyone referred to me as domnul professor, a title of respect and reverence. Even those people who knew my name and whom I had a more informal relationship with would still call me domnul professor when first seeing me. I have witnessed the same thing occur with other teachers from my village and in the city. So why then, doesn’t this feeling transfer over to the students?

I was in a fourth grade class yesterday explaining to them where I was from. I told them I was from the northern part of the United States. One of the kids immediately went to the giant map of Romania in the room and asked me to point out where I’m from. I then had to explain that, the United States is not inside of Romania. He walked to the other map of Europe and asked the same thing. I would have thought this particular child was being facetious if it weren’t for the fact that other members of the class were trying to tell him where in Europe America was located. I became discouraged and pulled out the map of the United States I keep in my backpack just for such occasions. I was even more disheartened when they asked me where Italy was on the map.

This story isn’t meant to illustrate any particular problems with geography the Romanian education system might have, it is more to illustrate how small their world view is. In terms of my kids, their life will more than likely begin and end in Romania. More than likely 90% of them will remain in the village and those 10% who do move away will stay within the same region of the country. Sure one or two might go to school in Bucharest or have to leave to go and work is Italy or Spain as their parents do, but their world, for all intents and purposes is going to be exactly where they live now. What could they possibly need an education for?

I told a story at training for the new volunteers to help illustrate some of the difficulties they might encounter in smaller communities. An 8th grader who was giving me a particularly large amount of grief last year explained to me exactly why he always acted out in my classes. I kept him after class after one particularly troubling day and asked why he didn’t want to learn English. He told me in Romanian, “When I finish tenth grade I’m going to drop out of school and work on the farm with my family. I’m going to live here the rest of my life. Why do I need to learn English?” It was the only thing he could of said for which I had no response.

Maybe the problem isn’t that they don’t have respect for their teachers, it’s that they don’t have any respect for education. My education is what has allowed me to get where I am, to see the world in way that I didn’t think about when I was in middle school. It wasn’t until college that I even ever thought about leaving Michigan, and it wasn’t until I spent time in California that I wanted to travel and see the rest of the world. If it is what these kids desire to live in their own world for the rest of their lives, happily ignorant of the bigger picture I wish them well. The simple life has its own intoxicating qualities, but I hope those who do want to see the world and travel figure it out before it’s too late for them to change their station, or if nothing else, make my classes a little easier to manage.

The arrival of a new group of volunteers reminded me how I used to feel about being American in a foreign country when I first arrived, and for quite some time afterward. I'm American, I'm special, I'm protected. I felt like an ancient Roman who was protected simply by saying the words "civus Romanus." No one would dare mess with a roman citizen because the fear of retribution was so great. After several experiences with harassment I must say that not even the teenagers behind my bloc fear a foreigner. Granted, when they found out I can understand what they say to me, they shut up pretty quickly but just being American doesn't make me special.

Often times I find myself wondering if people know they are interacting with a real live American. It seems elitist of me to think that I should stand out in their day to day interactions, but shouldn't I? Most of these interactions are short enough. Checking out at the grocery store, buying veggies at the market, sitting on a bus, hitchhiking and randomly at the terasa, restaurant or bar. I always wonder if they go home and say "you'll never guess what the American bought today! Pretzels and manual laundry detergent!" It must be the affect my village life had on me still trickling into my day to day life. I couldnt stand outside on my balcony without a crowd of students standing outside my house. Teacher's would ask me how I liked a certain kind of bread I'd never eaten in front of them or what I did when I rode my bike into the woods. In the city, I've learned to think of myself as just another blip, thoroughly unremarkable.

Case in point. Most cities in Romania have what they call Zilele orasului, city days. Its usually a festival of some kind celebrating the heritage of a certain city. September 7th and 8th are the city days in Tirgu Neamt and I made sure I was around to go. Both days were unseasonably cold and rainy. The clouds were so low I couldn't see the top of the hill behind our city, only two kilometers away. However, I put on my rain/winter coat and trekked outside to see what the fuss was about. I walked past the cotton candy vendors, games of chance, mici stands and gugosi dealers (gugosi is a kind of pastry) and settled in at a little makeshift beer garden.

I sat alone at a large picnic table watching the teenagers fall of their skateboards and listening to the rain pelt off of the awning over my head. After about 20 minutes two men came over and immediately involved me in their conversation. It took them quite some time to realize I wasn't a Romanian. My answers were short and simple. Usually either agreeing with what they said or offering a simple opinion in opposition. Deep into our second beer the man asked me if I was foreign. I said yes... nothing else was said about the topic. We just continued with our previous conversation. Me being foreign never came up again.

This hits me in two ways, one he didn't really care who I was or where I was from, and Two he didn't really care who I was or where I was from and still included me in the conversation.

A few weeks ago I went to a baptism for my director's new daughter Georgiana. After the ceremony they served a small course of appetizers and wine. As is my custom, I stood toward the back trying to avoid being loaded up with cucumbers, tomatoes and stinky cheese when the godfather approached me. We started talking and introduced ourselves and discussed the ceremony all in Romanian. After about 15 minutes my director came over and told him I was from the United States, something I had neglected to mention. He was shocked. He laughed for a few seconds unsure if my director was making a joke or not. He became much more interested in me after finding out where I am from and then wanted to practice his English.

Two weeks later at the party for the baptism I made my way over to say hello to the man again and He proceeded to tell his entire table the story of how we met. They too were interested in hearing about what I thought about their country and what life was like in the U.S. and exactly why it was I decided to come to Romania in the first place. The enthusiasm of this one man had rubbed off on his cohorts and I must say it felt refreshing to experience that kind of interest again, and while I might not be protected by the words "civus Americanus" it was good to feel that little bit of special I had felt when I first arrived.

I love the sound of rain. I always have. Particularly when it is accompanied by 50 degree weather. After the long boiling days of summer a the relief of a few days of rain is just what I had in mind. The cool weather also means.... no I'm not nieve enough to think that summer is really over. I've lived in places where the weather plays cruel tricks on you for too long to be that gullible. The summer vacation, however, is effectively over tomorrow.

That's right, school is starting back up. Back to the daily grind of waking up before the sun hits the horizon and dragging myself to school. This year promises to be even tougher than last because of the longer commute. However I look forward to those cold winter days where I leave my apartment before the sun comes up, and come home as it hits the mountains in the distance, ending another day... you might think I'm joking, but I'm really not. I love winter. To me there has never been a more enjoyable time than taking a walk through the soft snow storm, the freshly laid powder crunching beneath my feet.

At the moment its just the rain, a cool reminder of the days to come. Re-introducing myself to my kids, professors and new counter parts. It will be a fall of change. Time to make myself useful again.

I have been living on my own in an apartment now for almost two months. It is different. I miss my balcony and being only a 20 minute hike from the woods. I miss mountain biking and living with a family and feeling like part of my community. On the other hand living in the city also has its perks. I'm never more than 3 minutes away from junk food, which I guess is not a good thing, and I can cook all my own meals... which is a good thing. I've taken to spending afternoons in my tiny kitchen cooking up tortillas, corn chips, pizza dough and a myriad of other things. My most successful so far has been curry rice and sweet tea.

I taught two classes over the summer. Every tuesday for two hours each. The first group was of 5 to 7 year olds, the second the more advanced 7 to 9 year olds. It was definitly a learning experience. I hope to be able to use some of the materials I gleaned from those classes to help me this coming fall.

I went on vacation for a while. Two trips to Tirgoviste to visit my old gazda and hang out with some of the new volunteers. Their group dynamic is a lot different than the one that emerged in our group. They were less cliquey and more well rambunctious. We did our share of social debriefing during PST but the new group really knew how to have fun. I made some good new friends from the group, too bad some of them live on the entirely opposite side of the country... asta este... if nothing else it will give me an excuse to use up some of those vacation days i conveniently forgot about.

We also has MST, or mid service training. Another event that really hammered home the fact that you have been here for a year. It was strange seeing people from my own group again and hearing their stories... they are so much more realistic than the new kids who were so bright eyed and excited about site. I wonder how they will all feel a year from now...

After MST my friend Brent and I continued on our vacation and travelled to Timisoara. It was a great weekend with some good new friends all culminating in a scavenger hunt to end all scavenger hunts. The west side of the country is definetly more modern than the east side. Life seems a lot more european there and less Eastern European. One of my regrets of that visit is not going to see the Timisoareana factory. It would have been fun to see where all the beer I've been drinking comes from... after timis we spent a night in Ocna Mures with our friend Asher... I never thought I would see two grown men singing dashboard confessional though there they were, brent and asher singing away...

All in all a great vacation... now I'm just biding my time until school starts up again, might have time for one more lil vacation. sa vadem

My dad and I have been talking about me coming home for Christmas this year... we will see if that happens... It would definetly be a culture shock. Christmas here is so much more low key than in the states. I don't know if I would be able to handle all the fanfair.

This post is about two weeks late, but none the less I think I should still write it. I have now been here in Romania for a full year. I'll start by saying this... it doesnt seem real. My director likes to tell me that the people here in Romania feel like they have been taken out of time. In some way while things still move forward the old traditions and ways are still held to be more important. Looking back on the last year I feel like time has been playing tricks with me. It went by very fast, but so many things seem so long ago. I just spent a couple of days with the new trainees and remembered what it was like to be in their shoes only a year ago.

Turns out, training was a very long time ago. Even thinking about being at home only in January really feels like it was more than a year. The days and hours move slowly, but the weeks and months just fly by.

Then of course, with a year into service it is only natural to take stock of what I've gained and lost. I've lost a lot. I have also gained an understanding of a new culture and discovered new definitions of friendship and commisary. I've made some friends, and been adopted into two new families. I've reached levels of frustration that before were unimaginable. I've also become very happy by the simplest things. I've hitchiked, spent the night on trains and buses and city streets. I've also lost friends, something I regret. I hate letting people go.

In a year I'm sure I will be thinking much the same way. I could be headed home a year from now. plane tickets in hand, I could also just be getting ready for another move... and another year of service.

This is a story about a boy and a boy. For the purposes of anonymity we will call then bex and ant. These two boys met one day in a beautiful city called Iasi. Their plan, as it had been discussed, was to see a movie and get some good food before heading home for the night. What they didn't know then, was exactly how long a night they were in for.

It started out like any other night. A nice little terasa at 2 in the afternoon people watching, a leisurly stroll through the streets fresh with the smell of summer, and jaw dropping walk around a real mall. After a delicious Chinese food meal the two boys decided to catch a movie. A large barell of popcorn and a couple of beers later the movie ended and the two boys set back out into the city to find another terasa and wait for their train. Unfortunately, neither of these two boys wear a digital watch. Time slipped away from them and before long it was 10 minutes to 11 and they were running in order to grab their train.

They devised a plan that worked out perfectly. Bex ran to mcdonalds and got them a snack for the two hour train trip home, Ant went to the ticket office and bought the tickets, they were standing outside their train with 5 minutes to spare... or so they thought... Both so focused on the mcdonald's they hardly noticed that the train had no lights on and it was empty except for a cleaning crew. What happened next, changed the entire evening, as the two began to wonder about the dark nature of their train, They looked out the window and saw the train next to them pulling out of the station... without them. They were stuck in Iasi, with no way to get home until 5am the next morning.

There was some tricky negotiations, changing of train tickets, exchanging of train tickets. The boys thought they were on the way home, they'd found a bus leaving to bucuresti at 1:30. This was their ticket... this could get them home. ... they waited around the empty bus station, watching as a few people began to wander in and wait for the bus. When it arrived, they asked the driver if it was headed to their city... It was not... it was heading in a different direction. Now with no train tickets and still four hours to wait the boys were alone in the big city.

They walked dejectedly back toward the center of town, and luckily, found a place to sit and have a cup of coffee and try to stay awake. They watched all the late night club people walk in and out of the discoteca, the gypsy boys outside trying to earn money by doing push-ups and then huffing paint. Two cups of coffee later it was 3:45, and the boys needed to walk to stay awake. What they expected was for the streets to be empty. They were not. There were young people of all stripes walking around town, sitting on park benches and enjoying the cool 4am air. They bought tickets for a train to birlad a third time and finally made it onto the right train. At 5:15 they pulled out of the train station, by 7:45 they were back in the apartment, both sound asleep after a crazy adventure.

With only 5 weeks left until summer I am just about out of Ideas for teaching. I have one more good idea left, involving differences between American and British English and that is about it. After that I am plum out of ideas and really any kind of motivation... so there is that.

I am being kicked out of my house this summer. Not sure where I am going to live yet. I haven't been given any options yet. And all I know is I have to be out of my current place by July 1st... huh...

I bought myself a guitar and Have been practicing. I suck. But everyone does when they start.

Did I mention only 5 weeks left of school?

The new group of trainees will be here in two weeks... SO excited for that. A whole group of bright eyed bushy tailed newbies... fun stuff.

I'm supposed to think about if I want to some home this summer... tempting for many reasons.

umm... nope that's it... 5 more weeks... only 23 more days of classes...115 classes total... hmm, I'll stick with 5 weeks...

So, Back in Birlad after a week together it was the first time Brent and I slept in a different room since the day we left for Tirgoviste. We had also been no more than 30 feet away from on another the entire vacation... which in most cases would have driven me crazy, but Brent is like the calm shrugging self I never had. We had a nice little date sunday, going out to the zoo in Birlad which was incredibly sad. Animals locked in cages smaller than well, smaller than necessary that is for sure. Bears eating bread instead of berries and meat, Cats. That's right Cats.

Afterward we grabbed a brew and played some pool at the pool hall before going back to his place and making a mexican feast. Refried beans, taco meat and chips and salsa. Delicious. We hung out at his place cause of the early morning. We caught a bus to Bacau at 7 a.m. to catch a ten o'clock bus to sibiu. The ride to sibiu wasn't so much a bus as an oversize fan crammed full. We picked up a lady somewhere in the mountains who was obviously not so good at dealing with motion sickness. There she was sitting next to Brent with a little plastic baggie in her hands. I thought it was just for snacking. Then, The show started. As we were whipping around mountain curves and up and down slopes. She started losing her lunch. Brent turned around and looked at me. "I can't handle this. I'm gonna hurl." Luckily for everyone involved only the woman lost her lunch on that trip... though it was still pretty hard to listen to.

We finally showed up in Sibiu around 5 o'clock a good ten hours after we left Birlad that morning. The Hotel was amazing. the city was Amazingly beautiful. It was a great mid-evil city. Complete with city wall and a huge piata with a fountain and tons of roadside eateries and haberdasheries. The conference itself was also very informative. It was all about how to influence the behavior of your beneficiaries. Instead of just telling them how to act you have to show them and give them incentives. It was a good two days worth of information. And an incredibly three nights in a great hotel... and alot of basement bars.

We then made our way back to Piatra Neamt with Ted. Stayed there a few days and parted ways that saturday. It was a great trip that required a bit of recovery. But it is definetly a spring break to remember.

Well starting the First week in April I went on Spring Break. It was fantastic. This will be a quick rundown... I think, sometimes I meander...

So I spent the first night in Birlad with Brent. He will be my travelling companion on this fine adventure across the vast expanse of the Romanian countryside. The first night was just warm-up, spent a little time at the American Cafe on a back street in the mean neighborhoods of Birlad. Watched a few kids walking around huffing on paint... It's a big problem in Birlad... more on that later.

The next morning we got on an 8 a.m. train to Bucharest. Thankfully I had my handy little laptop with me and Brent and I were able to play a few games of Risk to pass the time. I say a few games because once in a while the train would turn the power off and my computer would thus turn off... reseting the game... We made our usual stop going at the Mcdonald's in the Gara and then hopped another train to Tirgoviste.

Stepping off the train in Tirgoviste we walked right into the loving arms of my old Gazda father. He wisked us away the palace of luxury known as... my old room. The terresa smelled like a log cabin after a fresh spring rain. The breeze was cool and it felt just like home. Brent agreed. We had our room all set up for us, matching beds and covers, so cute.

We spent the night catching up with my gazda and then at 11:30 pm we went into town for the Easter service. My Gazda took us to his parents old church, a family tradition, and we stood outside around an altar as they read the Easter story and everyone lit their candles from a central flame. The real interesting part to me was that Brent and I were the only family who attended the service with my gazda dad. His son never seemed interested in going and his wife had to stay home to prepare dinner, or so I gathered. The next part of the night I felt very touched to be a part of. It is tradition after the Easter service to take the candles over to the graves of loved ones no longer with us. It was a very touching scene.

After that we drove back to the hideaway and had the traditional after Easter service meal. Lamb, lots and lots of lamb and the hard boiled eggs of course. At about 3:00 am we finally turned in for the night. Now Brent would like me to tell you at this point in the story that at no time during our two week long vacation did I ever sleep past 9:00am. No matter how late we went to bed I was always bright eyed and bushy tailed at 9am the next morning. I couldn't explain it. I hate waking up.

The next day we had another cookout. Played some cards, listened to some music and drank all the wine, tuica and beer we could handle, free of charge from our gracious hosts. It was a good Easter. Even though Brent could never figure out how to respond to "Hristos a Inviat" (It's "Adevarat a Inviat" Brent, keep practicing)

Monday was much of the same, eating, drinking, walking around and enjoying eden. On Tuesday we packed up and shipped ourselves over the Brent's old Gazda in the city. We ate and drank some more. Walked around the town and scoped out some new hangouts for the coming summer. Group 27 volunteers arrive on May 20something and it would be great to give them some pointers on the best places to hang out after school. Plus its just plain fun...

This next part deserves its own paragraph, because it is the turning point of my entire Spring Break. Brent and I made a lil excursion to the Agip. A gas station where I found Dr.Pepper over the summer. Brent and I were both excited We were so close we could taste it. I walked in the sliding doors turned the corner to the cooler and bam! No Dr.Pepper, I was heartbroken and had to settle for a lil mini can of coke... I was not a happy camper...

We made our way back to the OMB (Old Man bar) that was where we hung out during the summer. It was Brand Spankin New! Newly sponsored by your favorite Romanian Beer and my second favorite Timisoareana. Blue Tables, Blue Chairs, Blue Awning it was practically Blue world inside. One of the regular occupants actually remembered us from over the summer and asked us what happened to everyone. We told him we all went to different parts of the country. It was nice to be remembered, even by an old man from the old man bar, the bartender remembered us too... free pretzels!

We Went back to Brent's Gazda and had a cook out with Tata and his new girlfriend then walked around Tirgoviste aimlessly at night, great feeling. I miss that city. A lot. The next day we went to Ziua Romanilor, a festival in the main park, Ate some cheap mici had some cheap beer and watched them roast an animal of some kind... very interesting. On Friday Morning we headed out of Tirgoviste and went back to Buc. This time we stayed a little longer and made our way to the Bucharest Mall and had some Chinese... Mall Chinese Food might as well be laced with cocain, its just that good when you haven't seen Chinese food in Three months... for Brent almost a year. We also bought a Whopper from Burger King for the road.

We had an intoxicating train ride up to Bacau where we were greeted by Five lovely ladies for a goodbye party for one of our friends. It was also great. Not so much for Brent. This was by far his worse night. Not a fan of the power hour that one, of course, the sidewalk is no longer a fan of him either. Good Times... the next day we hopped on the bus and made our way back to Birlad for a little rest and relaxation before the start of part 2 of our vacation.

Today was my gazda father's birthday. He turned 51 years old. Every morning when I get up he and I share a cup of coffee and talk about the weather. If its cold outside, whether or not it will snow. There is usually a plate of bread with too much margarine and some jam on it, or a sandwich from the sandwich maker, or eggs, sunny side up. Every morning, without fail there is something to eat on the table. His main obsession was finding me food, or having me eat it. I used to think this was a special obsession that applied only to me. Until I saw him with other visitors. As it turns out, he is just a gracious and generous host. He hounds everyone anywhere near a table to come and eat.

He is a man who insists on giving his children better than he ever had.Even if it means sending his wife to Italy in order to pay for tuition, iulian's piano, or anything else they may ask for. While today should have been a great day of celebration for him, it had to be one of the saddest birthday's he has ever had. With his wife away working, his daughter away at school for the first time it must have been very hard on him. A few friends stopped by to say La Multi Ani and were of course husseled to the table for some food.When everyone left it was still just us three boys sitting in the kitchen, His 12 year old son, His illegitimate American son and one of the most generous people I have ever met. I wish there was something I could do to make his day seem better. But I have a feeling he won't really celebrate until he has his entire family back under one roof.

It is hard to believe it has been six weeks since I was at home. However, that is exactly how long it has been. I can still smell the taco bell wafting through the air... or that might just be the bag of sauce packets I have yet to put a dent in. I've been keeping myself busy teaching and trying to put a dent in the manual I have been writing for the incoming class of trainees. It has proven to be harder than expected but I am still confident I can have it done before the new kiddies ship off to site.

Two weeks ago Brent and Ted and I met in Piatra Neamt for a little social debriefing. I attended my first real European professional soccer game. I also severely misjudged the weather and wore only a light jacket and long sleeve shirt. I must remember that Piatra is in the mountains and even in the summer it can get a little chilly. In any case it was fun to sit in the stands and watch a soccer game. The stadium was pretty empty but it is only a town of about 75,000 and it was still winterish. I'm hoping the next time we go the weather will be more cooperative.

I was sick last week. But am feeling much better now. Good thing I decided to give my students a test. Its a nice way to take a break from teaching. Even though romanian students seem to have a proclivity for cheating. They don't even try to hide it. The good students will even go and help the bad ones after they had finished. For the first few classes this really annoyed me. But then I thought better of it. Maybe by helping them on the test the good students will be able to see themselves as tutors and help the bad ones catch up... or they will just cheat more. Either way I'll do things slightly differently for the next test.

In just three weeks I'll be heading back to Tirgoviste for a good old fashioned Easter with my Gazda there. My gazda mom still hasn't come back from italy and its been almost three months now. She is supposed to come back sometime before Easter. But I have overheard some arguments over how and when. I guess we will see. Until then it will remain a bachelor pad here in the village... a bachelor pad where everyone goes to bed at 7.

I'm planning on showing the simpsons movie at movie club this week. It will be interesting. Most of the jokes have a lot to do with U.S. culture. could be a good teaching tool... that's right, the simpsons, a teaching tool...

Believe it or not that is all I have. Simple village life. Luckily it looks like we'll be getting up into the 50s this weekend, though I'm not going to hold my breath that winter is over... made that mistake once already this year.

Before I went home I mad a short pilgrimage down to see Ted for his birthday. Brent met us there and a jolly good time ensued. I met another volunteer from a nearby city, we will call her Sarah, and we made burgers for Ted's romanian friends. This was not easy and i will tell you why. In Romania they have open flame stove tops. They have also constructed grills to fit such a stove top. They look like giant jello molds, a big hole in the middle for the flame to come up through. Now, Brent had one such article and he believed it was a good idea to fill the base of the grill with oil. Having had experience with fire and oil before it didnt seem like a good idea to me, but then again it is Romania and some laws of nature and chemistry don't apply here.

So we put oil in the base and left the top off and I could not for the life of me understand why the burgers we not cooking. 30 min and the outsides had barley become brown. That's when Brent told me to put the lid on. this is one of those good idea bad idea moments. The lid did allow for the burgers to cook, however they also allowed for the oil to heat up and catch on fire. When we told the romanians what we were doing they laughed at us and told us you have to put water in the bottom to catch the grease from the meat... i should have thought of that.

The romanians got pretty sloshed with Ted. I think the final count was seven bottles of wine... good stuff. Brent and Sarah and I split a couple two liters of timi and a good time was had by all...

Two weeks later I was sitting in the freezing cold of the pascani train station waiting for my ride to buc when my dad called and told me his coworker had a friend who lives in buc. I told him I would really be okay staying at the gara all night in the middle of the night. But luckily for me he insisted I call her. When I finally got to bucuresti I made a beeline for McDonalds and woofed down a big mac before going to find a cab. When I came out of the McDonalds an old man asked me if I needed a "taxi". I said sure. I followed him to his car, explaining where I needed to go then i saw what he was driving. An old beat up little dacia without any taxi markings... asta este.

When he got me to where I was going he asked for 20 lei... it was about a 6 minute ride. I gave him ten and got out. Livia, my dad's coworker's friend, called him "mosu communista" or old man communist. Which i thought was hilarious. Livia was a tremendous host. She gave me soup and cake and we stayed up until two a.m. talking about their travels in the U.S. and what I was doing here in Romania. Mostly in Romanian... I felt good about my language skills after that. It was incredibly kind of Livia and her Daughter Ioana to give me such a warm welcome. I hope to see them again some time in the future... it would be good to have a buc contact.

The next morning i got in a cab and headed to the airport....

I have decided that watching too much of one show while here is a bad thing. For instance, Watching too much West Wing makes me think I am smarter than I am, could also be making me a little conceited. I've been watching a lot of House lately and have thus developed a pain in my leg and a subsequent limp. So far I have not developed a jonesing for pills but I've been cleverly insulting my kids in English for a little while. Unfortunately most euphemisms are beyond my students and usually result in my just laughing to myself in front of a class full of 8th graders.

hmm... re-entering romanian life was a little rough. For some reason staying up late has always been easier for me than getting up early. Getting up at 11pm to go to school was not easy. After the first three days i felt better but have had trouble sleeping the last few nights cause of some crazy dreams. I don't dream that much so when I do they are usually memorable. Can't imagine what my brain was trying to work out when it put me and Brent on a prop plane without a floor landing in the middle of a corn field.

I really thought there was something else I wanted to say. I'm going to finish the timeline and then touch on a few things from home.

The following is a running diary of my trip from Petricani to the United States, towards the end my brain gets a little tired...

14:00 EET - 7:00 EST Tirpesti, RO

Left the house, my gazda drove me to the autogara

14:15 -7:15 Tirgu Neamt

Arrived at the autogara and went across the street to Cafe Las Vegas for a pre trip bere.

15:02 - 8:02 Tirgu Neamt

Maxi Taxi leaves headed for Pascani

15:30 - 8:30 Pascani

Arrive in Pascani at the train station and buy my ticket, then find a warm place to sit. went to cafe Alba and had some ciorba

17:10 - 10:10 Pascani

Boarded the train, nice train, pretty empty. Watched WW on my Ipod.

19:40-12:40 Bacau

BORED!!!!

22:30-15:30 Buzau

Realize when we get to Buzau that we are an hour late.

23:45-16:45 Bucuresti

Arrive in buc and go straight to the Mcdonald's, old guy approaches me and asks if i need a cab, I say sure.

00:02-17:02 Buc

Its not a cab, its just his car. I get in anyway.

00:15-17:15 Buc

Get to Livia's bloc, she calls the old man "mosu communista" or communist old man. We go upstairs.

00:20-17:20 Buc

Sit down in Livia's kitchen for some soup and chicken and cake. Romanian hospitality is incredible. I've never met these people before and they are feeding me already. Meet Ioana, Livia's daughter. She's cute, med student.

01:45- 18:45 Buc

Finally allowed to go to sleep. Very Grateful to Livia and Ioana.

05:45- 22:45 buc

Get up, have tea, call a cab.

06:20 - 23:20 buc

Get in cab, say bye to livia

06:45-23:45 Buc

Arrive at the airport, 19,25 lei

07:10-00:10 buc

Call from dad as I'm in line to check in for the flight.

07:17-00:17 buc

Pulled out of line at security, bag searched, patted down.Things they missed: Two lighters, a pocket knife, tube of spray hand sanitizer... I feel safe.

08:15-01:15 buc

Get on a bus that takes us out to our plane... first time I've ever climbed stairs to get onto a plane.

08:59-01:59 buc

Plane takes off about 14 minutes late. Captain says we have "jolly good" flying conditions... I laugh audibly and people look at me funny. Cant get over the british, they serve breakfast.

Brent and I spent many hours on a train over break and found there to be some peculiar things that are completely acceptable that would not fly in the US.

-Making out with your significant other while sitting two feet away from another person.

-Selling beer and snacks out of a large plastic bag.

-Drinking beer or wine or whatever you have in the open.

-Swearing loudly into the phone next to the people who you think don't speak romanian.

-Selling baby goats out of a duffle bag.

-getting on the train for one stop to sing christmas carols and ask for money.

-setting your oversized luggage in the aisle and not moving it for old ladies on the way to the bathroom.

-Letting your miniature dog roam around on the two seats across from you.

I'm sure there are more that I just can't think of right now... just a little cultural update.

On Sunday the 27th I made my way to Birlad to visit with Brent. I took with my a can of Refried beans from home and some taco seasoning so of course we had to make taco stuff. It was pretty good. We spent the rest of the night sitting around talking and watching football, a pretty low key Sunday but good to hang out with Brent again.

The next day we headed down to bucuresti, a 5 hour train ride, to go and visit the peace corps office. We had a good time talking with laura and picked up some resources for a project we'd started working on. Had a good talk with Ken our outgoing country director and even got to see elie, a former PCVL who was in charge of some of our training over the summer. As Brent and I were walking back to the Metro a car came screaming by and hit a puddle, spraying me with muddy puddle water. It was really the perfect metaphor for that particular moment. Brent laughed and really the only thing I could do was laugh too. It really was ironic.

At 6:30 Brent and I stepped off the train and onto Tirgoviste soil. It was great. We both just looked at each other and said "it even smells better here." The funny thing was that during training we enjoyed our time but were ready to leave when the time came, well everyone except me and Brent. I loved my Gazda and the life I had there and so did brent so going back and seeing his gazda and just spending time in that city was great. We found a new bar where they give you free peanuts. In a country that charges you for ketchup, free peanuts is a huge deal! plus they had Carlsberg on draught for 5 lei, or about 2 bucks. Can't get much better than that... we saw all the christmas lights and the skating rink and even made our way back to make a visit to the OMB.

We also got a chance to meet up with courtney at Fiord and hang out with her old gazda and her friends as well. It was really the best though to just spend time with Brent's mom and catch up. Her food was as good as ever and she wouldn't leave Brent alone for a second. Asking questions about his village, Birlad, the school, girls, more questions about girls and why he hadn't found a good romanian wife yet... the normal questions.

We came across all sorts of new things while we were in Tirgoviste, not to mention the unfamiliar feeling of not sweating when you're walking down the street. Aside from all the Christmas decorations we found several streets that were not paved when we left in the summer that looked very nice and well done. The Peanut bar was a great surprise and we found lots of new food at Kaufland. Tortillas, chips, queso, salsa, lots of stuff that was no where to be found back when we were there.

It was sad when we left. Brent's mom squirted out a couple tears and I think Brent was pretty close to it too. Then, we made our way back to buc.

Christmas in the village was a lot more low key than I thought it was going to be. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that my gazda mother wasn't there. The family has been struggling a little with money, sending their daughter to university, a broken down car and slow times at the store have made money scarce so she took a job for three months in Italy. Because she's making Euro's its automatically four times what she was making here. She will make more in three months working at a hotel than she would have in a year as a teacher. Hard to turn it down. But also very hard to leave your family two days before Christmas. It was incredibly sad to watch her go and once my sister goes back to school it will just be us three guys in the house. Going to be a little weird that is for sure.

On Christmas morning I went to mass with my sister. It was three hours long. I did not know it was going to be that long. However, we did have a coffee break midway through when some of my sis's friends were walking past us, they said hello and we followed them out, had coffee and cake for about 45 minutes then went back to church... I know... weird. There are no pews in these churches. You have to stand the entire service. After the service a group of my students came to the front of the church to sing christmas carols. It was very nice and they sang really well. After they were done they handed out flowers attached to evergreen branches. One of my students came and handed me one... it made me happy.

We then went to my Gazda's godparents house for "dinner" which was really a mid afternoon thing. Then I came home and went to the Mayor's house for whiskey before finally coming home to my gazda. I called all my closest friends to wish them a Merry Christmas and then skyped with my family for a little while. Pretty low key... really weird no opening any presents and sad to be away from home but All in all it was a good experience. Next year I hope to have enough money to go to Rome for Christmas mass at st.peters, but we'll see how that plan goes.

I made my way through the snow to Piatra Neamt to pick up a couple of packages from home on Friday the 18th. They were good packages. I never thought seeing new socks would bring me so much joy but my feet were really cold. It also had some Sweet Baby Ray’s, Starbursts, Reese’s and the other usual goodies of taco stuff. I think I have saved up more taco bell sauce than an actual taco bell restaurant. If only Tortilla chips were easier to get a hold of I would be all set.

Anyway While I was in Piatra I met up with Ted, my new role model. We made bacon burgers and chicken wings. And devoured pretty much everything. It’s always good to spend time with someone who knows their community so well. I’m sure I could explain my village to a visitor but then again there isn’t too much to say. I think I could even manage to give them a tour of the nearby city but I don’t think I know as much about it as Ted does his City. Piatra is the county seat of Neamt and is upwards of 100,000 people. Another city built in the mountains its incredibly beautiful and bosts ski slopes and a telegondala.

We weren’t to concerned with too much of that stuff though. We made our food and then hung out at a late night hot spot for few hours. And by a few hours I mean from about 7 to 1. It was a great time even though the servers there didn’t seem to want our business. Although one of the bartenders did agree with me that the beard is more important than girls. Ted thought I was crazy but those of us with beards understand that any girl who asks you to shave your face for them isn’t going to stop there and you’re better off without them! Ted’s still not convinced… can’t say I blame him.

Hopefully the next few days will be restful as well. Leading up to Christmas I’m not sure what will be going on. I haven’t a clue as to what will be going on here. I’ve heard tell of caroling and a pig slaughter but other than that I’m going to take the time to work on a new project and maybe do some lesson planning for the last three weeks of classes before I head home for ten days on January 28th. I’m excited to get home and see my friends and family again, plus to eat all of those things that I miss so much being here… a bread bowl from panera has never sounded so good, or nice big Qdoba burrito… even stuff I didn’t eat much at home sounds amazing, and believe it or not a bagel with cream cheese would also really hit the spot… no bagels here and the cream cheese just isn’t the same.

Asa… I think that about catches everyone up. Sorry for so many posts but no internet makes life a little on the boring side. Hope everyone has a good Christmas… la revedere.

After predeal I didn’t feel like going back to site. Afterall I’m on a break from school until the fourth of January and there really wasn’t anything for me to go back for. Instead Asher, Brent, Courtney and I decided to make a night of it in Brasov. I was in Brasov before in the summer and it was a good time. The city is beautiful and there are plenty of distractions. It was just about the same in the winter, plus since Courtney’s site is right near Brasov she knew of some hidden treasures for us to discover. Tiny basement bars an unmarked “hotel.”

We met up with Ted while we were there too and had a great time. We went ice skating, had some food and vin fiert and then played euchere until 3 in the morning. When I first through about signing up for Peace Corps it never crossed my mind that I would be ice skating with a group of good friends in a beautiful city in the mountains while snow was falling around us. It was one of those moments where we just kind of look at each other and say “peace corps… tough life.” I know this type of assignment is different and more about integration and adjustment rather than living through hardships but it still makes me wonder if a tougher assignment would have been better for me.

I like it here, don’t get me wrong but I also really signed up for this to live in hardship and test what I’m made of. Being able to hop a train and see friends nearby for pizza and a drink wasn’t exactly the kind of life I had in mind.

Anyway, we had to teach Asher how to play euchere since he’s from the east coast and had never heard of it but I was his partner so we had no problem winning almost every game. Towards the end I was pretty tired and stopped paying attention so we lost the last one pretty bad but its okay.

After Brasov I went to see Courtney’s site. I thought I had a good view and some mountains nearby but her site is literally buried in the mountains. It was a pretty lazy night hanging with her Gazda watching the discovery channel. The next day I made my way back here to Tirpesti. It was a 7 ½ hour bus ride through mountains in snow. Not exactly the best time I’ve ever had but it’s also not the worst bit of travel I’ve done since being here either. I would definetly put the train ride back from Vama Veche at the top of the no good list, but this bus ride might be in third.

I had no problem sleeping until afternoon the next two days. It was snowing like crazy anyway so really no reason to get up. Leaving the house or trying to get to Tirgu Neamt wasn’t an option. It was good to relax after the whirlwind week.

Whew, where to start… Really I don’t know how much I can ever write about this week. By the end I was walking down the driveway from the hotel with a couple friends. We were all pretty quiet until my friend said, “You know, now that I think about it, that week was F’ed up.” He’s right. It was incredibly F’ed up.

Things were normal the first day. The hotel was amazing. It had a gym and an incredible view of the mountains, every room had a balcony and the peace corps really went through a lot of trouble to make sure that we were spoiled. Seeing everyone from PST again was nice. It was good to be around a group of Americans and see some people who I’d missed since leaving Tirgoviste.

The days were long. I would get up between 7:30 and 8 and we would have language sessions and training until 6pm. After that the night usually went as follows. Go out and get some dinner, come back to the hotel and drink until 2 or 3 or 4 in the morning. It was really like living two completely different days.

My birthday was nice. Almost everyone in our group wished me a happy birthday and there was a nice cake with a firework in it. It was also the night they chose to make s’mores and I broke out the Tuica. It didn’t occur to me that some people might not have been used to Tuica and therefore should not drink it at quite the pace I do… I was blamed for several incidents that night… and took full responsibility. Though I could share the blame for a few of them I’m sure.

Yet as always when a group of people get together there is inevitably drama… I’m not going to get into it on here cause that’s just rude but sufficed to say the label my friend gave the week is the only way I would choose to describe the events that transpired. Don’t get me wrong, there were times that were great… the wisdom of Tedros and the interesting game Asher and I made up were always good for a laugh… asa, daca vrei sa stii despre saptamana mea in Predeal intrebi, dar mai bine sa nu intrebi.

The last week of school was rather uneventful. I finally was able to start my film club in Tirpesti, I had 30 students and a couple of parents show up to watch Shrek. They all seemed to enjoy it and since everything went well it looks as though I will be able to do more of it in the future.

On Friday the fourth I took an overnight train down to Bucuresti. It left at 12:30 and got into buc around 6 am. It was actually one of the nicer trains I’ve been on even though I paid for a second class ticket and was expecting something much less glamorous. I was actually able to sleep for a couple of hours. I spent the day walking around Buchuresti, went to the people’s palace and took a couple pictures and then walked over to the mall and took myself bowling, had some starbucks and ate Burger King for lunch. All in all a pretty good day.

I took a train later that day to Tirgoviste to visit my old gazda. I finally met their other son who had been living in Germany. Being able to actually converse a little bit in Romanian helped me feel more included in things but my language still isn’t where it needs to be. I need to stop being lazy about it, I’m no good at memorization and don’t know how else to study languages.

I spent two nights with them. We went to a nice restaurant in town and did a little shopping. They also gave me a very nice birthday gift. We watched the election results come in on Sunday night. When Geona was announced the winner my Gazda dad got about 30 phone calls in an hour. I think he’s a pretty big player in local politics and still regarded with respect on the national scene. He gave me a book by a liberal author that has his picture and his comments about the book on the dust jacket. The next morning when the results had changed he wasn’t in a too good a mood, but still made time to talk to the bus driver and tell him exactly where to drop us off for IST.

Though I think the thing I had been looking forward to most was actually buying some Dr.Pepper! There is a gas station there that sells it and it’s the only place I’ve found that actually has it. Well until I saw someone order one at the bar I was at with ted last Friday. It’s more expensive than any other soda but well worth it if you ask me. I miss Dr.Pepper.

Now, IST…

I've been unable to update because someone decided to steal 7 meters worth of cable leading into the village... we've been without cable tv and internet for three weeks now. It's a little frustrating to say the least. Thankfully my computer still works so I can watch movies... otherwise I might have gone crazy by now.

I have done alot of traveling and when I have more time/the internet back I'm going to write entries for the following events.

The end of school for xmas break...

My visit to tirgoviste and seeing my old Gazda....

IST... or what has become known as the "F'ed up week"

My birthday night...

Visit to Brasov and Teliu...

A night in Piatra with Ted...

Lots to write about and catch everyone up on. Hopefully you'll see all that stuff soon... Hope everyone at home is having a good holiday, it doesn't feel quite the same here.

Merry Christmas everyone!

This time it isn't my fault that it's been so long since I updated. Sometime shortly after my last post my power adapter overheated and kind of, well melted a little. The power in the village isn't the most stable. It is a common occurence for lights to get brighter and then darker and then back to brighter. The wear and tear on my power cord was apparently a pit too much for my poor US made adapter.

So for a week and a half I was without a computer. It was interesting. At first I was really worried about what I would do with all the time I had without talking to friends in the U.S. or watching movies on my computer. As it turns out. I did just fine. I read a few Tom Stoppard plays... one per night to be exact. I read half of Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. I laid in bed staring at the ceiling listening to old this american life episodes and I did some writing. All of it felt very... simple.

School has been going all right. Stressful at times. Today in fact I had two students cry over their grades. One had an 8/10 the other one had a 9/10. I was in complete shock. I don't think I ever cried over an 80, especially when I deserved it. And I was absolutely never upset with a 90. Oh well. I guess they breed them a little differently here in Romania.

Last weekend was our Thanksgiving celebration in Tirgu neamt. a group of 12 peace corps volunteers gathered at Dave and Veronica's and had turkey, stuffing, cranberries, pie and all the traditional foods. It was a good time. Great to see some of the people I hadn't seen in a while and even more fun to hang out with an actual group of other volunteers. I would say that IST might not be so bad but, sa vadem. I'm looking forward to my trip back to my old Gazda in tirgoviste. It will be great to see them again. I'm sure we will have a good time. Thought they might still tease me for my limited Romanian.

Well, I've kind of gotten used to the class load now. It used to be overwhelming and exhausting and while it still takes a little toll on my sanity its also become a little easier to manage. I'm three weeks away from IST... Which means I will have been in country for 5 months. Already 5 months have gone by and that is both amazing and terrifying. It means I have 22 months of service left. Which will probably go just as fast as the last 5 months, especially if I keep as busy I have been so far.

While the months and weeks go by quickly the nights and days are a little tedious sometimes. Reminds me of the lyrics from a song "you see the months they don't matter its the days I can't take, when the hours move to minutes and I'm seconds away." I don't mean to say that I'm counting down the time until I'm done but recent events have made me think about it a little more than I used to. Thankfully after IST I can get focused on some bigger secondary projects, getting grants for some new books in English for the school and seeing what I can do about making a playground educational in nature... I'm still having trouble with that one. I'm going to start and English Film club next week. Twice a month we'll meet and watch movies in English(with romanian subtitles) and hopefully that will be something the kids enjoy doing. Since it gets dark here at 4:30 the kids are pretty much trapped inside from 5 o'clock on. If I could give them something to do at night, even if its just every other week I think it would help things out a little bit. I should start coming to school one night a week to help tutor some kids too but I don't think anyone would show up. They don't get much English homework and I think the only kids who would come would be the boys who like to ask me questions completely unrelated to the stuff I'm talking about in class.

This weekend I was supposed to go to Barlad and visit my friend Brent but my host family asked me stick around for a festival going on all day Sunday. So I did. I'll go to Barlad next weekend if Brent is still going to be there. Even if I go there and there's nothing to do, being bored with another PCV will be better than sitting around being bored on my own. I'm still adjusting to not speaking to one of my best friends here. Its been tougher than it probably should be but when support is in short supply you miss every little thing you used to have. Plus I haven't had anywhere to go and cook recently and I really like to cook. I just hope its not a permanent thing... would make the rest of my time a lot easier to have her around.

It snowed for the first time this week. It was on the ground for all of two days before the weather turned around and got back up into the 60s. I was hoping it would stick around. Something about breathing in Cold air really helps me feel better... its weird but true.

My dad is still making plans to get me home at the end of January and early february. Its looking like a 16 hour trip if I'm lucky. so, I'll be pretty tired when I get home but happy to be there, even if some of the stuff I've been planning doesn't work out it will still be good to see some of my friends and eat some Mexican food.

Well That's all for now. pa-pa.

Last weekend I went to Iasi because a group of Peace Corps Volunteers were gathering for various meetings. VAC volunteer advisory council and GAD, Gender and Development committee. It was great to see some of my old friends from PST and meet some new volunteers. I spent the day shopping in Iasi and then randomly walking the streets. I ate at Pizza Hut which was amazing. Almost tasted like the real thing. Then we went out for Thai food with a group of PCVs. The country director was there and gave me probably some of the best advice I've had since being at site. All this time I've been teaching trying to be a teacher. An authority figure and someone the kids fear and respect. What I should have been doing is being their friend. A role model, big brother. My director Ken, told me that it was more important for these kids to interact with me and experience a different culture than it was for me to actually teach them English. He said it making sure I knew he didn't say neglect my teaching responsibilities but all this week I've been more relaxed in classes because of those words and they've seemed to be a little more fun.

On Tuesday I got a visit from Doctor Dan, who insisted that a flu shot was necessary but that getting sick from it was not mandatory. Hearing him say that was the highlight of my day. Really made me laugh, which he seemed to think was odd but I wasn't going to try and explain connotation to a man who speaks english perfectly well. I got the flu shot, and yelled at for not turning in my site locator form... with all the information needed should I ever be in an emergency situation... cause if Romania ever gets invaded they need to know how I'm going to get to Iasi... right... I think it would be safer for me to stay put... they would never even bother to look for us here.

Today, thursday, I was visited by my program director. It was good to see her and she had some good advice. She thankfully brought me some books and stuff to use with my younger kids. I know my mom has sent me some stuff in my next box that will help out too. I'm looking forward to actually having resources to use in the classroom that aren't chalk and the blackboard. I talked about the project I want to do also. I need to find some way to make a playground educational. I was thinking maybe it could be an exercise based playground, kids could learn about physical fitness, or I guess physics based... don't let go of the monkey bars or newton's laws of gravity will send you crashing to the ground... yeah that sounds about right.

I really had no complaints about my site. All my issues have come from sources outside of the community so I don't really feel the need to complain or ask for anything more. I would love it if they built a kaufland in tirgu neamt but I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon. And I would love to not have to hitch hike into the city during the winter but they won't be building a train station here either. So... no issues nope. Just tell me its okay to whap some kids with a meter stick as thick as my wrist and I'll be just fine.

This weekend is Halloween and there is apparently some kind of goings on. I've been invited at least a dozen times so I suppose I will probably be there. Other than that it's more of the same. Working on lesson plans and watching movies on the computer... I finally finished off West Wing this week so I started in on Rescue Me... but its just not the same level of comfort. Tommy Gavin is No Jed Bartlett.

I have found myself spending most of my time doing lesson planning. One would think that would make my classes better but the sheer number of hours I have to teach in a week makes it nearly impossible for me to do anything else. What once seemed like a pretty easy four day schedule has turned into a 5 day marathon. By Friday morning all I want is for it to be 11:30 so I can crawl back into bed and sleep for a while, then spend the afternoon riding my bike through the forest nearby. Last friday when I was riding through the woods up and down hills, big hills, I really felt better about things. Its been tough, not the adjustment so much or even being away from family and friends, I think my trip out to California prepared me for that, but the sheer number of things that I have on my plate is simply overwhelming.

For some reason a part of me thought that coming here would help put the issues I had at home into perspective. In some ways I guess it did, making me realize what is most important to me and trying to nail down plans for my future life. I know I'm only 5 months in but I'm already thinking about re-entry. Thinking about the life I left and whether or not it will still be there for me. A lot of things have become more clear to me since leaving, the way I was hoping they would, and a lot of things are still very unclear leaving me with not only a plethera of things to worry about here in Romania, but trying to sort out issues at home that should have been taken care of before I left. Things I should have known, said, did, etc... I'm not quite sure where it leaves me except here in bed desperately hoping to actually be able to sleep for a night without waking up every hour or so... and not just from the cold.

It is getting colder. I got my first taste of romanian snow yesterday when my school director took me to ski resort about an hour away from my site. Its a nice looking place. The hotels are all very nice. The one we went to for lunch was very rustic and log cabbinish, I'm hoping to put some pictures up on facebook soon.

I've also been talking to my parents about a possible visit home in February. Its something I'm going to have to think about and come to decision on in the next week. I get a week off in between semesters and I need to decide if it would be better spent making the 28 hour round trip or just staying put, planning for classes and working on my secondary projects. Its a tough decision because I have a lot of reasons to want to come home, and a lot of responsibilities that make me think I should stay... hmmm.. it's a thinker.

This week I'll be teaching about Halloween. A good week ahead of the actual holiday. I think I might teach it again next week, with a little bit of different material, maybe have them make masks or fake jack-o-lanterns or something. Though I will be getting two visits next week. One from my program director and another from the medical officer. I really don't want a flu shot and I'm scared to death of what my program director is going to think about my teaching. We'll see how that all goes then I suppose.

I hope this finds you all well in the states, or wherever. O zi Buna.

I'll skip the apology and just move on to the good stuff.

School started only 6 days after my last post. It was interesting to see all the ceremony on the first day. The priest came and blessed the kids, teachers and students and then the school itself. He walked into every room and said a prayer and did the whole incense thing. The kids met with their homeroom teachers and then they were gone. In and out by 11:30

The next few days were pretty incredible. The schedule was made on a class by class basis, whatever class was free and didn't have a teacher is where we were sent. We were never there past noon on any day and most of the classes only lasted about 30 minutes rather than the 50 that are scheduled. The following week our classes were a little more regular and I was able to meet all of my students. We gave them an initial test at which point I found out just how much work I had ahead of me.

In each class there was one, maybe two students who got a passing grade. The rest had below 50% on the test. These weren't complicated problems. It was simple verbs and fill in the blank (with a word bank). Recognizing simple objects was even incredibly difficult. Then there were some kids who didn't even try and just left the test completely blank.

Last week was my first week teaching on my own. I definitely learned all over again that more planning is better and that not all of your ideas are going to work. For instance, trying to explain I spy, and 20 questions to kids who barley no english... not an effective use of one's time. However the game of "swat" is popular at every age.

let's see, what else... mmmmm I made a trip to Barlad for a friend's birthday. It was just the two of us so he and I had a nice romantic weekend. Took in a rugby game that ended early due to the sheer number of injuries. I stayed in the village this past weekend, had lunch with some fellow peace corps volunteers in the nearby city, did some lesson planning, watched the MSU game over the internet and had some really good muska. A kind of incredibly sweet wine.

I'm looking forward to this weekend and going to Iasi days. A festival in the closest big city to me. I'm also going to be getting my first package from home tomorrow morning. It isn't an easy process but it will be well worth it... I'm really looking forward to the hard taco shells, even if they are in pieces it will be like have real chips again! plus then I will have measuring cups so I can make more complicated things this weekend.

That's about all for now. I will try to update next week but, we'll see how that goes!

They told us at the end of PST that the adjustment period to your site would take time. Three months or so before you really start to feel like your site is home and you get to know enough people that you aren't just sitting around and lesson planning. They told us that... over and over and over again and I just kind of shrugged it off and went back to playing snake on my phone. After all I'm a strong grown up man, spending time by myself in a city where there is nothing to do and I can't communicate with anyone wouldn't hurt me at all...

Spending time with yourself is tough. Your brain can do weird things to you, make you obsess about things that you really shouldn't, focus on problems that aren't really problems at all. I've tried picking up running again. But even that is time with myself. Granted I'm spending most of it trying to motivate myself to pick up the pace or keep breathing in a regular rhythm, but its still trying to exercise self control over myself. I don't know how much self control I really have over myself after this week.

The worst part is being bored here and going through the utter and complete feelings of loneliness doesn't make me want to go home. I felt dejected and insufficient there to, for different reasons, but I still spent most of my days either working or by myself. There were just more distractions. You can only walk around the village so many times, or walk in the hills which is nice but, also more time alone to think. Thinking is my worst enemy right now. I need to find a way to completely turn off my brain. So I stop torturing myself and making every day feel like an eternity.

They also told us at training that once school started things would change, you'd be so caught up in the drama and frustration and lesson planning that there would be no time to think about just being alone. I highly doubt that in my case, but I'm hoping. At this point nothing seems to be able to shake me away from my own crazy thoughts... I need to find something soon.

So upon leaving Bucharest we hitched a ride on a pretty nice and expensive bus to a city call Constanta on the Black Sea Cost... after a little confusion and some random yelling in Romanian we made it onto the bus to mangalia, the closest city to our little beach "resort" town... Vama Veche. We waited on the side walk in front of a store for our next bus to show up... not actually sure that it would because bus departure points and drop offs are really just random.

Thankfully we got on the right bus... (hee hee sorry becca) and ended up in Vama Veche with enough time to throw up our tents before the sun went down. We didn't know it then but we set up shop in an incredibly noisy location, i guess camping directly in front of the bar called Choppers and next to the defacto Night club was not such a great plan. I didn't mind the music from Choppers until at 6 am they started playing nickleback songs one right after another. pretty much every single ever released, so their entire discography. It was awful, and to facilitate happier campers we moved down the beach for the next night to a much better location... the basic scenario of each day went like this.

sometime between 7-8 wake up, go to the Turkish bath with brent.

Go get Coffee at Control (one of the lesser frequented spots, even though they had couches) and sit around for a couple hours drinking cafea and listening to music.

10:30-11 we would go swimming...

12:30-2 find lunch eat it and feel like taking a nap.

2:30-4 be lazy around the tent or take a nap.

4ish swim again.

6ish go find dinner and start the night...

I am a little ashamed to say the aside from the first night I never made it past midnight before going back to the tent and trying to sleep... some of that was due to my tent mate and some of it was due to just not really wanting to dance or continue drinking.

The last day we went to a really nice dinner and then some of us went to a Black Sabbath Tribute show... I was not one of them... but I heard good things...

The train left for home at 10pm on friday night and arrived in Pascani (another neighboring city) at 8:08 am. It was a brutal train ride. We were in a cabin with three very nice Romanian women but my travelling companion was incredibly ill. It was probably something she ate, either the partially cooked eggs for breakfast or the awful looking humus at dinner. Either way she made it back to Tirgu Frumos but nothing she ate in Vama Veche did. I spent most of the train ride trying to take care of her so I didn't really sleep... its okay though... now she owes me one... or like 3 since this is like the third time I've had to take care of her when she was sick...

I made it back to site (barely) on sunday night and have been here ever since. It was a great relaxing trip and I'm looking forward to doing it again next year. No one got anything stolen and we only had one incident of losing a person, and she just got off at the wrong bus stop...

That's all for now... later this week I'll tell you about the first week of "school."

La revedere

Okay, once again Back track about two weeks to the first week at site.

The first couple days went really well. My gazda from Tirgoviste dropped me off and I met my director for the first time. He's a very nice guy and young for his job... his father used to be the director of the school but is now the mayor so his son took his spot until either the mayor decided to retire or is voted out of office... either way he's been great.

On monday I went to the mayors house and met a very nice greek couple. They were vacationing here in the village by the mountains... no idea why but they were awfully nice and told me if I ever made it to Athens to give them a call... which is entirely possible that I might...

Tuesday didn't go quite as well... I had a fever close to 101 and didn't feel good at all. It took a good couple of days for me to feel semi normal again. On Thursday I went to a conference in Tirgu Neamt (the city near by) and met the mayor of Tirgu Neamt... I sat and listened to a panel about The Fortress in town throughout literature and history and pretended like I knew what was going on. I picked up a few words here and there but for the most part it was of an intellectual nature that was foreign to me... after the round table discussion my director and I went to the banquet afterwards. I really had no idea the mayor threw such lavish parties for events that seemed so small but we had a 4 course meal and all the wine and tsuica we could handle... if only my stomach had been feeling better I might have enjoyed the three hour lunch a little more...

Friday was a little more low key... I stayed around the village to make sure I was feeling better for the trip to the black sea and packed... and unpacked... and repacked... I really didn't want to take more than my backpack and I made that work damn it... but left out a few crucial things which I will get to later...

Saturday I took the 7:30 am Maxi taxi to Tirgu Frumos to spend the day with one of my friends from PST. I didn't know I was going to have to sit through 5 hours of True Blood but I managed to stay sane... And for dinner I even managed to make a pretty decent pasta sauce out of romanian tomato paste and a couple random spices... go me... Unfortunately our train left at 4:50 the next morning so sleep wasn't really something that happened. It took a good 8 hours to get all the way to Bucharest... but the meatballs at Ikea... which I was promised would be awesome... were very very good... We also found a cool bar on the roof of the national theatre and stayed in a hotel for free... squatting in someone else's room.... The next day we made our way to La Mare Negru.

Once again, horrible blogger, but now that I am at site and have wireless internet in my house I should be able to update more... well I will be able to but whether or not I do is something completely different.

Alright rewind a week... Thursday August 13... I had dinner with Brent and his Gazda for the last time. Brent's "mom" has really been great the last couple months. Ever since the first time I went over to Brent's for dinner she would ask about me and invite me over all the time. Usually fridays were the night that Brent and I would go over eat some good food while everyone else went out and had pizza...again... we'd get hopped up on tsuica and find ourselves a half hour late in meeting people for the rest of the night... always fun... Last thursday wasn't much different except Brent's mom broke out the Polinka... which is twice as strong as Tsuica. (Both of which are basically home made moonshine)... We were supposed to be going to a party for the staff and trainees last night... we got there an hour late... and we were supplying drinks for a ton of people... not my fault... brent had to stop and have a beer at the beer garden half way there... needless to say Brent's night ended early.... Mine did not... and it wasn't too much fun either... When I finally got home at 3:30 in the morning it struck me that I needed to be up and semi conscious in the morning for swear in.

The swear in ceremony itself was pretty tame but nice. The parts that were in English were also Translated into Romanian, the parts that were in Romanian were translated into English... sometimes... but the acting ambassador came and spoke to us. We had two volunteers give speeches in Romanian... and we took an oath. My gazda parents really enjoyed it but I will talk more about them later. A few people got a little teary eyed and tons of people were really happy that they had been sworn in... unfortunately I didn't feel much different... it might have been the exhaustion but I also think it had alot to do with me thinking of myself as a volunteer already. For some people it was a question as to whether or not they would pass the LPI and actually be able to swear in... I never doubted my abilities or my commitment so I never had a reason to think I wouldn't be a PCV. Is that bad?

After swear in there was yet another party this one thrown by my Gazda parents. I really just wanted to sleep but tried to make a good show of it. We unveiled our board game based on our experiences as peace corps trainees with such cards as "you fall backward through a fence and when someone asks what happened you great them instead of saying sorry, move back two spaces" and "Your Gazda gives you a bath, you feel sparkly clean but slightly violated, move ahead one space." There were a lot of others that I might someday take the time to write out one here... we'll see how bored I get.

Saturday was spent packing and relaxing. After the whirlwind of the last 48 hours it was great to be able to just sit and watch movies all day with a friend and relax. Even though I knew the next couple days would be a little tough to get through...

Sunday my Gazda drove me and a few of my friends and fellow volunteers to site. Brent was the first to go. He and I have been great friends during PST and I'm glad he's only 3 hours away but that is still a good sized trip. Then came becca, who is closer to me but also not to crazy about me... And David and Veronica who are only ten minutes away from my tiny village... well ten minutes if you can get someone to pick you up on the side of the road and drive you into town... that's right... I've now hitch hiked twice...

Leaving my Gazda in Tergoviste was really hard. My "mom" kept calling me her child... well her copi mic. which means small child. Living with them for the first 11 weeks was probably the best thing that could have happened to me. It made transitioning into Romania so much easier. They were always understanding and gracious and very very generous. At one point I told them I couldn't sleep cause it was so hot and they went out and bought an air conditioner for me room. Anytime I went on a trip there was extra money slid into my pocket. I never had to touch a load of laundry and my "mom" laughed at me when I told her I wanted to help. She teared up a little while we were leaving... my gazda "dad" wanted alot of pictures on our final trip. Which is understandable. I have a picture I want to send to them of the day we went to Bran last week to see "dracula's" castle. Its of me the two of them and becca... I don't think they'll mind becca being in there but its the only picture I have with the three of us. I wish I had the language skills to tell them how much they meant to me... sigh...

Sometime soon I will update on how life in the village is treating me... stay tuned La revedere.

We got back from Site visit on Thursday the 23rd. On Saturday the 25th a group of friends and I went to Brasov to celebrate their collective birthdays, which happened to be about a week apart. The original plan was to go to the Brasov movie theater to see Harry Potter, however we found out two days before that Harry wasn’t actually playing Brasov, instead, Paul Blart: Mall Cop was on… needless to say it was a little disappointing, though Brent was all for Paul Blart: Mall Cop. He watched the first half on the plane ride over and really wanted to know how the story ended.

We went the Brasov anyway and spent some time being tourists, and drinking. The rooms were relatively affordable, considering we were able to split it between three people and it only ended up costing 10 euro a piece I think we did alright. Especially since the hotel was right in the middle of old town, where it actually feels like Europe. Throughout the whole experience we’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out why Romania doesn’t quite feel like Europe, well the answer was mostly because the communists destroyed or changed anything vaguely western and made the rest of their cities into industrial powerhouses, fortunately places like Brasov were spared some of the demolition. The Black Church is probably one of the most impressive structures I’ve seen. Its stained black because of the fire that was set to it a hundred bagillion years ago and it definetly stands out as a major city landmark.

The other funny thing about Brasov is that they have their own sign. The city was a huge fortress that was dug into the side of the mountains, which is why so much of the architecture has survived, it was hard to attack the city from any direction. Up on one of the mountains just behind the city they have their own “Hollywood” sign. We took a cable car up to the top of the mountain and there is trail you can walk on to stand next to the sign. It’s and amazing view. I have pictures, but still no real way to upload them yet… but I’m working on it.

It was a great trip and I really enjoyed the city. Getting out of tergoviste and seeing a real European style city was very relaxing. The following weekend (last weekend, or weekendul trecut) I decided to take it upon myself to try and make some Chinese food for my friends… well… it went okay… though it wasn’t actually Chinese food. I made noodles in peanut sauce, curry rice(that wasn’t very good), hummus and chicken cooked in some weird teriyaki soy blend. Everyone said they enjoyed most of the food, though I’m still pretty skeptical. I thought I did well considering I didn’t bring any measuring utensils with me and had none to use in the whole kitchen.

The next day we went to Bucharest to see the Harry potter, I must say, sitting in a movie theater drinking a stella was something I really didn’t think I would ever do. The movie was only so so but the popcorn was just incredible. I miss good popcorn.

We took our practice language exams last week also, I scored an intermediate High, which is good for only taking a language for eight weeks. We’re starting to get into a lot of things in the language that are just trying to help us advance to a more fluent style. Like in English there are a lot of different ways to say the exact same thing, we’re starting to learn a few of the more complicated ones and its… trying. The finish line is literally a week away and most of us are too fried to even try to pay attention. A week from Friday we are sworn in as official peace corps volunteers, but before that my gazda dad is planning on taking me and my friends to Bran, to see “dracula’s castle.” There is some big festival going on so it should be a really good time.

If all of this seems like a sort of extended vacation let me assure you that it is not. I wake up every morning at 6 am to get ready for school and walk about 50 minutes to get there. We are in class from 8:30 to 5 with a few assorted breaks and an hour lunch. We spend all four of the morning hours in language class being tortured over and over again. The afternoons are spent being told about medical issues, cultural history, and teaching us how to be teachers and work with students with limited language skills. We haven’t even gotten into secondary projects yet… Without our little weekend diversions… I don’t think many of us would still be left standing, no matter how dedicated we might be.

Whew, Okay so sorry that I haven't updated this in such a long time. I'm going to split this into two parts... site visit and Brasov week.

So Two weeks ago was site visit and I traveled to petricani on an overnight train. It was an interesting experience arriving in a new city in the middle of the night. I arrived at my new hosts house at 4 a.m. It was a very interesting way to meet the people I'm supposed to be living with for the next two years. They have a son who is 12 and I will be probably be teaching in one of my classes, and a daughter who is 17 and leaving for university in October. While I was in Petricani I saw my school, met the mayor, drank tsuica with the mayors family at his house/museum, visited an old fort of Stephan Cel Mare, saw three different beautiful monasteries tucked back into the hills and ate ostrich at an ostrich farm… yup, that’s right I ate ostrich at an ostrich farm in Romania.

The people were all very friendly and seemed eager for me to come and stay with them. I think they thought this was like a try out or something because they spent a lot of the time asking if I was okay or there was anything wrong or something they did. I guess I just seem like a sad person. It didn’t have anything to do with the fact that two days in a row I was up until four in the morning and got practically no sleep.

I don’t officially have a counterpart yet because my school hasn’t hired its English teachers for the year. I don’t really know how to deal with that except to say that Peace Corps assures us it is just the way Romanians do things. I was picked up from the counterpart conference by the 24 year old geography teacher Alina. She was nice and I went into the woods with her, her boyfriend, and a few of their friends for a gratar (cookout). It was a lot of fun. My dad would have been proud because they even do mushroom hunting here, though, they don’t just look for morels.

The last night we went to an Ostrich farm, in Romania they are called struts. It was very interesting to sit at a table outside and be watch the animal that you are eating walk around in a pen. I would definitely recommend it. It was a good trip and I really enjoyed everything while I was there. I’m a little worried about living with the family for two years simply because it’s a really long time and the language barrier is pretty large at the moment. Hopefully in a few months I’ll be able to actually have a conversation or two with them. Right now its really just me telling them where I am going, what I do and don’t like and that I’m tired.

It took us a long time to ride back to Tergoviste. Our train left at 800 am and we got back into Tergoviste at around 7. 7 of those hours were spent on one train, and two hours were spent in Ploesti, where we found a Mcdonalds and quite possible the most modern bathroom in all of Romania. Then we were on another, much slower and hotter train for the last two hours of the trip. It was fun though. I’m excited to get to know my towns better and try to figure out what exactly I’m going to do there, but nervous about becoming a teacher...

Sorry it had taken me so long to post something new. The last week has been kind of crazy and on more than one occasion I accidentally locked up my account by entering the wrong password too many times. In any case I need to go all the way back to the fourth of July to make this post all inclusive.

On the fourth of July we were supposed to hold a picnic for our hosts. We had everything set up in the park, some frisbee going on, a little bit of football and then... boom. Down pour. The picnic lasted about 45 minutes. I felt bad for the people who but alot of effort into it, but not being one of them I wasn't all that disappointed.

After the picnic, my hosts agreed to let me invite my friends over for a fourth of July Party. What happened next I was completely unprepared for. When I got back from the rainy picnic there were people setting stuff up. They put up a large American flag set up some speakers and brought in three cases of beer, two very large containers of homemade wine and tsuica. Tsuica is deadly. My friends all showed up around 7:30 and the music, food and drinking started almost immediatly. They brough us deli trays, fries, chips, cookies, and then started up the grill around 10. We ate like kings and drank even better. I think the first person to head up stairs to pass out went around 11:30. The last person (other than myself because I didn't sleep) went to bed at 5am. And yes the DJ was still playing at 5am. It was an amazing night and I can not express how much i appreciate my Gazda for it. I didn't drink much and was really a nervous little host most of the time but that's ok. I still think the highlight of the night is telling someone they can't sleep on the lawn outside because there are too many dogs. Yes, someone tried to go and pass out on my lawn.

In other news... I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING! I'm going to small communa called Patricani. It's about 4-5 thousand people. I'll be teaching middle school and probably spending all my free time in the surrounding mountains. I was lucky to be placed near some of my friends from PST, when I say near I mean about 2 hours. Which is fine considering some of my friends are 6 to 12 hours away.

Today my friends are comming over to make dinner for my gazda parents... I hope it works out!

So this past weekend we went on IFVs. In field visits. The trip to our city was amazingly easy. We took a train and had a short layover in the small town of titsu. In total it took us about 6 hours from when we left at 9:30 to when we arrived around 3:30. The train was comfortable and gave us a great view of the countryside.

While in our city we met two volunteers and worked on a couple of project with them. We helped some High school seniors study for the test of their lives and the oral english portion of the bacheloreat. I do not envy them. I had trouble talking about some of the subjects and I'm a native speaker. Its like a 6 sentence paragraph about the history of near eastern peoples, now discuss. umm, what? Anyway I wish them the best of luck, they we all great kids and we even were able to teach them how to play frisbee. The next day we did an environmental clean up project. Then I played soccer with romanian kids for the first time. I don't want to brad but I scored and had an assist, I'm awesome! We will forget that these kids are in middle school and the grass was about 9 inches long. sometimes it was so deep on the outside wings i lost track of the ball.

The trip back to our home base was not as nice. We took a bus, which was an hour late and full. We had to ride standing in the aisle for 25 minutes to the first stop. Then we got seats... some of us. Others had to wait another 30 minutes to the next stop. It was hot, cramped and uncomfortable. Thanks Chrisinica! (our teacher). We did however make it back eventually but it took longer, cost more and was much less comfortable. Live and learn!

Lets see, so far this week I've tried to find a decent internet connection three times and none of them have been successful. I have a backlog of 5 entries now and no way to get them on here. I suppose eventually I'll find a way to get them on here but until them you will have to deal with my short cryptic messages.

Hmmm, There was a meeting this week for the host families and the issues they have encountered with their PCVs (peace corp volunteers) I suppose they probably heard the following advice from the collected stories of my counterparts.

-please do not bathe your volunteer.

- They are grown adults and are fine by themselves at 10pm

- Do not force them to eat massive quantities of food.

-please be sure to knock before entering the room.

-please make sure when you leave town that you do not lock your PCV in the apartment.

and so on and so on. None of these stories apply to me. My family has been great and I feel guilty with how much time and effort they seem to put forth with me just being there. I suppose eventually the romance will wear off and they will get tired of me but i know when they walked out of the meeting my gazda mom patted me on the head and said "you're a good boy" and my gazda dad added, "we have no problem with you"

yay for that. la revedere.

I apologize for not being able to update this more often. I don't have internet at my apartment and can't find it in the city to save my life. I'm hoping to become a little more regular once the wireless goes up at the scoala (school). Lets see. I think I will do a bullet point list of what has happened thus far this week.

My gaza wouldn't let me walk to school for fear of the gypsies... not even kidding.

Lots and lots and lots of language studying.

I figured out how the money works.

I figured out how to see I'm not hungry anymore.

I've eaten more sausage than my entire life combined.

I might have had dinner with a mob boss. He lived on a compound in the mountains and was from Italy.

I watched my gazda vote in elections for european parliment.

I saw both middle school and high school enlish classes. They speak better english than some americans (Liam)

I still don't know how the phones work. Stupid romtelecom.

And I lost the key to my room and had to climb the balcony in order to get back in only to find that the door was locked there too.

I fell backwards over my bag and broke a gazebo at a nice pizza place, when the guy came over to fix it I said Im pare bine, instead of im pare rau. Im pare bine means nice to meet you. Im pare rau means I'm sorry.

That's the first week in a nut shell. Hopefully this week I can post some back logs that i have saved on my computer. The mountains are beautiful here. but the roads are even worse than they are in Michigan. La Revedere.

Staging in Washington was alot of fun. We ate at a restaurant called Thai Tanic for dinner after the orientation meetings. deep fried tofu squares dipped in red ginger chili sauce are delicious. As for orientation itself, well they still managed to go through four hours of material and not mention a single word about what we will be doing where we will be or how intensive it is. Awesome. Thursday morning before our flight I walked down to the WW2 memorial and snapped some pictures. The last time I was there it was still covered in snow. I also wittnessed a motorcade enter the whitehouse grounds. Whether it was a foreign diplomat or the Pres himself I have no clue.

The short version of the trip is like this. Bus, Airport, Plane... more plane, train, Fresh Air!, Train, Airport, Bus...

Our flight from Washington was delayed due to weather so we missed our connection in Amsterdam. So instead of a two hour layover we have a nine hour layover. A lot of us went into the city. We took the wrong train at first an ended in Dutch countryside but made it back to city courtesy of a friendly dutch student. Amsterdam is a beautiful city. The canals and victorian houses were just like i would expect from an old european city. The prostitutes in the windows? everything i would expect from Amsterdam. We weren't even in the red light district I was walking down an alley trying to see an old church and across from the church was a girl, in her underwear, in a window.

We eventually left Amsterdam and made it to bucharest to find out we had a 90 min bus ride to our hotel. I was 1:00 am local time when we left. the airport. I finally layed down to sleep... after a shower with no shower curtain... at 3:30 a.m. bucharest time. Making the total time I'd been awake 37 hours...good way to start I suppose. Sorry if my spelling and grammar aren't up to par but its been a long day and I'm still really jet lagged.

Sucks.

I've been through alot of goodbyes the last few days. I leave knowing there are probably people I won't be comming back to and knowing that my friends and family will all move on with their lives without me as an intregal part. Missing Ben's wedding is going to be extremely tough. I've known him since kindergarden and not being there to stand up for him at his wedding will seem like a slight against our friendship.

I will miss Jeni a great deal. I already do. Saying goodbye to her was probably the hardest one I've had to deal with. We have never been overly emotional toward one another but watching the torture of the last few weeks has left me feeling guilty. She has maintained the entired preparation period that she is proud of me and wants me to succeed even though her emotions obviously were geared toward wanting me to stay.Spending the week in florida with her family has led me to feel more involved in her life than ever before and yet, now, I have to leave. It seems kind of cruel. I hope for great things for her. I love her very much. I would write more but I know she wouldn't want me to say alot of this stuff publicly.

My mom and dad have also been supportive of my whole endeavor while still having their reservations. Watching your son fly off for two years can't be easy. my mom even got a little choked up at the airport saying goodbye. My mom has cried maybe three times in my life, seeing that was incredibly hard as well.

Sooo, long story short, goodbyes suck. try to avoid them.

I suppose the most common question I get asked is why I decided to join Peace Corps. There are many answers and many reasons why I've made this decision and I will run them down so everyone has a better understanding of my motivation.

1. Serving my country. I've developed an unquenchable urge to serve my country but I wanted to do so without compromising my own beliefs. I felt that serving in peace corps would not only allow me to serve my country but also allow me to advance the causes in which I believe. Maybe I've spent too many hours watching west wing, but my more liberal tendencies have led me on this course.

2. A duty to serve others. My upbringing was one centered around service to the community. From the time I was in grade school i was required to do service hours in order to get good grades. This trend continued through Boy Scouts and even into college where service was mandatory in order to continue receiving a scholarship. I feel the since I was brought up in a situation more privileged than most it is my responsibility to pay some back. Peace Corps gives me this opportunity.

3. The urge to travel. Ever since my last excursion to California I have had the urge to travel and see the world. But I also wish to understand the places i go as more than a vacationer might. I don't want to just see the highlights and move on, I want to know how people from everywhere live. I will have ample time to delve into this curiosity while in Romania.

Those are my reasons. Combined together Peace Corps made sense and has offered me a once in a lifetime opportunity to serve.