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http://www.aikenstandard.com/2011local/0302-Peace-Corps-couple David and I were interviewed last week by Rob Novit, a reporter for my hometown’s newspaper, the Aiken Standard. With March 1 marking Peace Corps’ 50th Anniversary, an article seemed timely. It’s a nice article and I don’t think we did a bad job in representing the Peace Corps or ourselves. Plus it is [...]
March 1, 2011 was a trifecta as David wrote on Facebook. 1) It was Mărţişor, the “spring’s almost here” holiday. (Here’s my post about it from last year.) Claudia told us that it’s also Ziua Barbatilor (Men’s Day). David got coffee and ties and tons of martisoare. I got a few martisoare myself, but this [...]
Perhaps you remember Radu. All winter long, Radu has been making caciula-s (winter hats) and fular-s (winter scarves) like mad. Thanks to a big big package from home, there are plenty of looms to go around, now. He and Mariana have made enough that the center is selling them on consignment at various stores in [...]
This is a story about Edi. He’s one of the beneficiaries at my foundation. Edi is a big guy who walks quickly and with purpose. He smiles beautifully and sometimes I catch him laughing to himself about some secret. But most of the time he looks blank and almost emotionless. He’ll do anything he’s asked, [...]
My colleagues Ciprian and Vasi eat sausages and bread every day for lunch. Well, except for days of their fast. They always offer me some and I politely decline. Today, something Vasi said had me giggling. I don’t remember what, but I thought of how in English we use the phrase “sausage fest” to describe [...]
So the title is a little misleading. I’m not typically one to put much emphasis on Valentine’s Day — it’s overly commercial, too couply and more about gifts than love. But this year in Romania, David and I have been trying to celebrate holidays with a bit more pizazz. As I’ve mentioned, being far from [...]
I printed this out to hang in our apartment this month…. to remind me that this is what it’s all about. Image is a great printable from HoneyBear Lane!
24 January 2011 Radu playing in snow on Ziua Unirea 28 January 2011 Second life of our Christmas Tree Note: We threw our Christmas Tree away late last week and apparently someone found it, liked it, and placed it on an old electrical box on a bloc. I happened to see it today and it [...]
Sometimes you don’t…. And some days I feel like a Peace Corps Volunteers and some days I don’t. I’m counting my blessings because today was a very Peace Corps day. I went to work and on the way, called dear Gretel to vent about something and then later to Tedros who called to check in [...]
January 24, 2011 was the 20th anniversary of Peace Corps in Romania. In 1991, the Romanian government and the Peace Corps officially signed paperwork to bring Volunteers here. Twenty years later, here we are. . . To celebrate this milestone and the 50th anniversary of Peace Corps worldwide, David and I redesigned Peace Corps Romania’s [...]
In the middle of December, one Saturday afternoon, David went out to pick up milk and eggs at the corner store and came back with a kitten — a little ugly black and white kitten covered in gasoline. There wasn’t much to do other than give it a bath, feed it, and try to find [...]
We came back from Istanbul to find a dozen ruffian boys on our bloc steps, talking (and laughing) about the latest happening. Dookie (or Magduta, as I call her) was killed. We don’t know the details as each boy had a different story, but Magduta’s gone to the great countryside in the sky with the [...]
I have been crazy sick recently. I was ordered to bed for DAYS by darling Dr. Dan and so I was out of commission and recuperating most of the Christmas weekend. I did get a few pictures/videos to share. And while I don’t have time to write about all of them now, I shall in [...]
As I said in my last post, David and I didn’t do ANYTHING last year along the lines of decorating for Christmas. This year, I’m trying to be better about it — because it keeps me busy, it keeps me creative, and it’ll feel better on Christmas Day for it to look Christmasy around the [...]
Last year, we did very little to prepare for Christmas. No shopping, no decorating, no listening to Christmas music. It was our first Christmas far from home and we thought that if we skipped the sentimental stuff, maybe we wouldn’t be too sentimental. But that didn’t pan out — it was tough and sad not [...]
Today at Clubul Copiilor, I wowed them with hand turkeys. So cute! For more hand turkeys… photos are here.
After last year’s successful volunteer Thanksgiving here in Moldova, we opted to host our volunteer friends for a crazy weekend of turkey-centered fun. This past weekend, 18 of us gathered together in our town of Targu Neamt to celebrate an American Thanksgiving in Romania. When you’re feeding an army, there are always stressful moments — [...]
Today with my little monsters, we did some work. Our theme was red — what’s red, writing sentences about red things, etc. Then we went outside and played for a bit. To transition back to the classroom and to warm us up, we sang some “Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes” in the courtyard. Here are [...]
For some of our Thanksgiving preparations, I’ve been looking for cheesecloth. I’d looked in the supermarkets and kept my eyes open at stores with kitchen stuff. No luck. I know it exists because tons of people make their own cheese here. I was chatting with one of my English students about our preparations and this [...]
So we’re to that time of year again when David and I alone keep the town’s dairy economy going. During Advent (and Lent), the Romanian Orthodox in our community fast. And their fast makes Catholic fasting seem easy peasy. In essence everyone becomes vegan for a month in preparation for the big pig kill and [...]
I mentioned awhile ago that I had found/developed a secondary project here in town. It’s not like I don’t have other irons in the fire,but while each Peace Corps volunteer has a primary assignment (organization or school), we’re really community volunteers. And secondary projects get you more IN the community. A few weeks ago, I [...]
We miss peanut butter. The only candy we really crave is Reese Peanut Butter Cups. So when I saw this blog post over on the Smitten Kitchen for buckeyes, I knew I had to try it. Mine aren’t as beautiful as Deb’s, but for a teeny tiny Romanian kitchen where we “make it work,” we’re [...]
A few weeks back, I did a cooking group with my beneficiaries and we made American pancakes with carmelized apples. (pictures here.) The reaction of my beneficiaries and colleagues to the pancakes was surprising. You’d have thought I’d brought them fire. Favorite Pancakes (adapted slightly from allrecipes.com) 3/4 cup milk (lapte) 2 TBSP white vinegar (oţet) [...]
It’s November and that means I’m planning for T-Day ’10, Moldovan edition. We have a group of about 15 volunteers who will be celebrating Thanksgiving here in Targu Neamt. The Southern woman in me loves this because I enjoy sharing my family’s traditional dishes and trying new recipes out — add an audience/hungry mass of [...]
This little gem was taken on our train from Tg Neamt to Pascani. It was the last train and I guess the train conductor needed some pick-me-up music. David made the best of the situation.
I never was one to really celebrate Halloween at home. It’s not like I hid from trick-or-treaters with the lights off, but I never quite got into the costume thing, especially as an adult. But being an American abroad, Halloween is something cultural to share. Last year, at my primary assignment we carved a few [...]
I follow a handful of blogs about being a curvy gal — mostly for fashion (not that I’m all that fashionable, although I aspire to be one day). But I’ve found in these blogs strong female voices about topics such as health at any size, positive body image and self-confidence. Really, I think any person, [...]
Zami likes to “help” with laundry by jumping up on the clothesline. She’s a creeper. More pictures of our romanca, Zamfira.
I mentioned awhile ago that David and I are tutoring a brother and a sister (Emi & Mada). This is Emanuel (Emi): And this is Madalina (Mada): Don’t they look studious? They are fabulous and so is their family. Their father, Marius, is an Orthodox priest in a neighboring village. Their mom, Claudia, is a dental hygienist (Her [...]
taken on our way to church this morning. 24 October 2010 color image here.
Back in my reading-everything-about-Romania phase, I found an article about the horned violin played by Roma musicians. The article mentioned a fall targ (or market) that happens once a year near Cluj where the Roma (primarily Hungarian Roma) come together to sell their wares. While last year I was just getting used to Romania in [...]
This is Radu. He’s one of my beneficiaries. Radu loves weaving and making rag rugs, really anything that uses a gherghef (a loom). He talks and talks and talks all about his dreams of having really big gherghefs and really little gherghefs for any project he can think of. There’s even a dream of a [...]
the main course: Foundation for Local Development Well, post-vacation, I was rather aimless workwise. And that’s been topped off by an extended funk of a mood. But now that we’re really into September, life is picking up the pace whether I like it or not. Remember the roses of Fall, 2009? Well there was a [...]
Our last stop was Krakow, Poland. It’s a charming and lovely city with friendly people, great food, and too many consonants. Of course I was mesmerized by all things John Paul II (Yay JP2!). With constant drizzle, the main square was pretty quiet (and unphotographable), but it almost felt like we had the city to ourselves, a [...]
Sundays we do a bit of walking and this week, we decided to photograph bits of our journeys around town. On the way to church. . . our stairwell cow dung on sidewalk as we walk towards Mass road our church is on. ducks near church. house that serves as our church. On our evening [...]
Pictures from Prague are uploading as I type! They can be found here!
Monday is Piata Day or Market Day for our little family. After work on Monday, I head over to the bustling piata, chat up my favorite old piata guy and get a load of fresh local seasonal fruits and veggies for the week. It’s one of my favorite things about Romania. This week, I took [...]
Facebook is great for a lot of things. I love keeping up with friends from various parts of my life and what they are doing, personally and professionally. Here are a few friends making headlines of their own. Former college pal, dear friend and fellow Spoleto-junkie, Mark Canavera has written on LGBT rights on the [...]
As part of my job is to help Americans better understand the country I’m currently living in, I figured I’d do a quick round-up on Romania in the recent news media. Back in July, Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu’s bodies were exhumed for DNA testing at the request of surviving family. The BBC reported on the [...]
Yes, you read it correctly. The Sagans — Cyril, Amy, and baby Cy are in Romania with us. They were taking a European vacation and they added Romania to their itinerary. There’s been great food, copious amounts of gelato, fun chats, long hot walks, and that addictive new baby smell all in the great city [...]
I’m pretty meticulous when it comes to photos — deleting the ugly ones, putting together panoramas, scanning in tickets/brochures/postcards, etc. So a week after returning from vacation, I’ve only got half the photos done. Rather than waiting for all of them to be done, here are links to our flickr sets. I promise some future [...]
I know it’s awful to come back from a fantastic European vacation and have the next blog post be about decision-making and stress. But these subjects reared their ugly heads because there are moments on a vacation in a foreign country that are stressful — not knowing a language, getting turned around, figuring out currency [...]
So, we are back in Romania and recuperating from vacation with Mary Ann. On Sunday we’ll make the long trek back across Romania to our little town and get back into the swing of things. While I’m not ready for vacation to be over with, I must admit it’s nice to be in a country [...]
Later tonight we say goodbye to Prague. Things we’ll update y’all more on later via photos: Seeing the absolute wonder of St. Vitus Cathedral’s stained glass and the extreme Baroque of St. Nicholas in Mala Strana Hopping on trams we think take us to certain places, but don’t. Experiencing the coolness of the bone ossuary [...]
Ah Vienna… things we shall remember and write more about later… exploring palaces, churches, and musuems for two days — everything from Hapsburg opulence to Keith Haring and grafitti art more heat necessitates more gelato everything has its place in Austria (bikes, dogs, tourists) almost tossing my cookies in Karlskirche being overwhelmed by people and expensive [...]
Good news: our hotel has a computer with internet. Bad news: we cannot upload pictures. Regardless, we wanted to post a quick update about our few days in Budapest — both to give y’all a taste and so that we don’t forget some of the good stuff. Riding to Budapest with a big Hungarian guy [...]
Yesterday from 5:30AM to 9:30PM we were on trains. Hot trains. Sticky trains. Never-ending trains. Yes, to get across Romania from our small town in the northeast to a larger city in the northwest, it took 16 hours. But we kept our spirits high – our cabin-mates weren’t afraid of curent (draft), so there were [...]
So far we’ve kept most of our travel Peace Corps pertinent — seeing Romania, collaborating with other volunteers, integrating into this country, etc. But a week from today, we’ll be using some hard-earned leave and hitting the road to new places — Budapest, Vienna, Prague, Krakow. These are some of the crown jewels of Europe [...]
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