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