Buna Romana!

What a week! I'm safe, well-fed, happy to be here, etc. etc. I really don't know where to begin. I'm currently in an internet cafe in Brasov, surrounded by young Romanians and listening to American pop on KISS FM. Well, I guess there are some things that you can't escape, right? It doesn't bother me. I'm happy if the Romanians are happy. I don't want to see unhappy Romanians.....Here are some highlights so far:

Monday - Missed my flight to Philly by 2 minutes. Not the best time to miss my first flight. Let's just say I was a bit unhappy about that. However, with the help of a strong jetstream at my back, I made it to staging on time. Spent Monday evening in training sessions with the 63 other volunteers in my group (62 now) and went out to dinner.

Tuesday - More staging and getting to know people. Lots of group activities. Went for a run around Independence Hall and old Philly. It's a cool place to visit, especially if you're into colonial and revolutionary American history.

Wednesday - Left for JFK via charter bus. Flew to Amsterdam via KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. Let me take this opportunity to say that KLM is the best airline I've ever flown. You get your own personal monitor with approximately 80 movie choices and TV shows! Hot cheese rolls and free Heinekens aren't so bad either.

Thursday - Flew from Amsterdam to Bucharest. Landed at Otopeni Airport at about 12:50pm. Tried to be nice to the customs lady, but she was not having it. Stone cold comrade she was. We then waited for our bags to come out of the poorly designed baggage carousel. The carousel sucks so it has to be manned by two Romanian guys in funny blue overalls and euro-style wingtips. Awesome. With the assistance of our wonderful staff, we then loaded all of our crap into another bus bound for Brasov.

The ride took us north from the flat plain of Wallachia, into the rolling hills of Muntenia and then through the Bucegi mountains. On the way to Brasov we saw horse-drawn carts sharing the road with european sports cars, female "hitchhikers" (use your imagination), a Petrom refinery in Ploiesti, the beautiful ski town of Sinia and a 2500 meter snow-capped peak.

We checked into our hotel after about 24 hours of travel, so you can imagine how tired and cranky everyone was. My roommate and I got cleaned up and then went for a bere (beer) in the piata (plaza). I had a Ursus, which is a beer from Cluj and claims to be the king of all Romanian beers. Foarte bun! A few other volunteers joined us and we met up with everyone else at the Sergiana restaurant. We've been having all of our meals here and it is a very nice place. Dinner was chicken schnitzel with a cabbage and tomato salad. We also had fresh paine (bread) and more Ursus.

Afterwards, a few of us went to a beer garden in the piata and had a few more. We met up with a couple from Denmark who were on their way home from a six month trip in which the drove, yes drove, to India from Copenhagen. The spent time in Iran, Pakistan, etc. A luxury that we Americans don't currently have I'm sorry to say. They had nothing but good things to say about both countries and loved the people. The beer garden also featured some traditional Romanian folk dancing as entertainment. Pairs of men and women danced in full costume to some fast-paced music and did a lot of yelling and knee-slapping. Get your Romanaeste groove on....then it rained and we went to sleep (finally).

Friday - day one of pre-service training (PST). Breakfast here is interesting. Turkish style coffee, tea, carbonated water or juice, goat's milk for beverages. Choice of breads and pastries, cheeses, sliced meats, cabbage & tomato salad, potato salad and 3 different style eggs for main course. The only cereal they had looked like cheap corn flakes. I took a pass and am glad I did. I enjoyed the feta and sausage, eggs & salad. One thinnk that they need to work on is coffee temperature; it's entirely too cold, especially given its consistency.

Started training at 9am and met the staff. Only 3 on the staff are Americans! I can't say enough about how impressive these people are. They protect us as if we were their children, are so nice and accommodating and speak impeccable English. We have Dr. Dan, Florin the safety officer, Marius the training coordinator, Tudor the language coordinator, Manuela, Ioana, Octavian and many others. I look forward to meeting them all!

Well, my hour is up and I don't want to spend more than 16,000 lei right now, as I have to go to dinner soon. I'll continue with Friday and give some detail about today the next time I can get to an internet cafe. I hope that this posting finds you in good health and spirits. Thanks for reading!

La revedere

Fenblog is open for business

Ok folks, welcome to blog land. Before we begin, let's get a few things straight.

1) If you don't like what you see, please just keep it to yourself and go to a different web page or something.

2) If you do like what you see, please let me know by registering with blogger and posting a comment or send me an e-mail!

3) Please feel free to send a link to this blog (http://sfenwick.blogspot.com) to anyone who might be interested.

4) I'll try to keep it clean for the kids and various other loved ones.

5) I'll try to post as many pics as possible, but you may have to go to yahoo! photos to look. don't worry, I'll post a link when the time comes.

6) The opinions expressed herein are not representative of those of the U.S. Government or the Peace Corps and should not be interpreted as such. (had to get the disclaimer in there)

Soooo, let's begin shall we? A little housekeeping first.....

e-mail: rsfenwick@yahoo.com

Training address until August 5, 2005:

R.S. Fenwick
Peace Corps/Romania
Str. Negustori, NR. 16
Sector 2, Bucharest
Romania

Address after August, 5, 2005: TBD

Training city: Braşov, Transylvania

Start of Peace Corps service: May 23, 2005
Close of service: July 31, 2007

Packages: For those kind and generous souls who are thinking of sending me a care package (I'm not soliciting. Really, I'm not.), I cannot receive packages until after I'm sworn in as a volunteer and have been assigned to a post (job). I'll be sure to post my post address as soon as I can thereafter.

Phone calls: For those who cannot bear to live without hearing my sweet voice, fear not! I will have a cell phone. When and what the capabilities will be is TBD. However, I can say with confidence that I will be able to make and receive international calls for a decent rate (about 12 cents/minute). Now, for all of you digerati out there (thanks Durkin), you can call me for free via the internet on Skype! My profile name is rsfenwick. Be warned however, I'm a novice at the moment and you may have to schedule a time with me via e-mail beforehand.

Ok, I think that's it for the housekeeping. You're probably wondering if I'm excited? Yes, I am. But I'm more tired than anything. What a process this has been. Very time consuming and stressful. I just want to get on that plane so I can concentrate on the Peace Corps and not a bizillion other things. I've had lists coming out of my arse (see, clean) for many weeks now.

I leave for the Staging event in Philadelphia next Monday the 23rd. I'll be in Philly with my fellow trainees from Romania group 20 (all 67 of them) for a couple days. We'll be boarding a bus on the 25th for JFK International, at which point we'll board a KLM flight bound for Amsterdam. We'll have a brief layover before we head to Bucharest on the same carrier. What will happen then I know not. I'll keep you all posted. I hope that we get to stay in Bucharest for a night so we can rest, see the PC HQ at the embassy and meet the staff. Boarding a bus straight away for Braşov after all that travel is not an appealing prospect. Wouldn't be a bad as Chicago to Perth I think. But, then again, I haven't seen any Romanian roads yet....

That's all for now. Let me know if I forgot anything by posting a comment or sending me an e-mail. Back to moving more furiniture. Bunǎ Zuia.