Long Time, No Blog

I'm back! Sorry for the hiatus, but it's been a busy time for me lately. First, let's talk about the pictures, shall we? First, we have yours truly with Mrs. Lupu, the Director of Hogas High as we prepare to do our duties as member of the judges' panel at the 5th grade Halloween pageant. What a production! The 11th graders organized and ran the show and the kids were great. They presented themselves as individuals, put on a group play, danced and had a costume contest. The kids here really get into Halloween and make quite a big production out of it. I also went to 3 other parties the following day for 8th, 9th and 10th grade.

Next, that's Ica, Victor and my friend Joel with Codlea in the background. We all went for a walk last Sunday and Joel got the birds-eye view, as well as the tour of the town. The weather was absolutely fabulous!

So yes, Joel made it to Codlea in his trusty Daewoo rental. He got lost a couple of times on the way, but finally made it. We ate a lot (of course), drank Tuica and hung out with Victor and Ica on Friday night. It was my first experience as an interpreter and both Ica and Joel said I did a good job. Whew! Good practice for when Sarah comes!

Saturday we went to Brasov (in the CAR!!!) and we took in the sights and went to the Scottish Pub. It was at the Scottish Pub that I ate a REAL Cheeseburger, not the Romanian version which I'm not sure is actually meat. Anyway, it was big, and it was legit. Had some fries with it and boy was I happy. I couldn't tell you the last time I had a real burger. Two kilts up for the Scottish Pub. I'm going back for sure. The other cool thing about the day in Brasov was that I was able to see some things that I had never seen before.

It was the first time that I was in Brasov strictly as a tourist. We went to the old Saxon Black Church and the newly restored White Tower, both about 500 years old. It was really great to do a little sightseeing and learn more about the history of the city. It used to be a full-fledged garrisoned medieval city with defensive towers, walls and a moat. Brasov is great. I like it more and more everytime I go. I now know why it and its surrounding area is Romania's number 1 tourist attraction. So, for those of you who are planning, or will be planning a trip to Romania(that's right people, you don't have a choice in the matter, you must come here at least once in your life :) ), I must suggest that you start with the Brasov area first.

Sunday afternoon we hopped in the CAR and drive north to Piatra Neamt. Going by car cuts 2 hours off of the trip, 4 1/2 instead of 6 1/2 hours. However, I miscalculated a bit, as we should have left 2 hours earlier. The last two hours of the trip were in the dark and, needless to say, the conditions were a bit difficult. Dark, two lane, potholed highways populated by horse-drawn carts and villagers (no sidewalks) made for quite the adventurous drive. Joel earned his stripes though. Not many Americans can say that they drove through Moldavia at night and lived to tell about it. He, nor I will ever forget that drive.

Monday through Wednesday were spent going to class and having dinner at my top three places here in Piatra: Pizza 66 (pretty damn good pizza), Nefertiti (good, cheap Turkish food), and the Cercul Gospodinelor (or, as I like to call it, the fancy Romanian restaurant on top of the mountain). We also, courtesy of Joel, were able to enjoy some episodes of season 2 of Chappelle's Show. Joel brought me the entire second season on DVD!!!! What a gift!!!! I'm sure that this gift will bring much joy not only to myself, but to many other PCVs in the future. Thanks again buddy.

Joel also spoke to a bunch of classes that have a mathematics/informatics focus and basically told them about himself and what he does for a living. He talked about web design, network engineering and even gave an interesting little lecture on the idea behind the MP3 and IPod. Very interesting stuff and I know that the kids and their teachers (including me) really appreciated it. But alas, he had to go back to civilization sometime, so we parted ways at about 4:50am on Thursday morning. He drove to Bucharest and flew back to Paris. He's probably enjoying his last night in Amsterdam right about now. Quite a vacation, huh?

So, it's Sunday night and I've got to finish creating a homework assignment for my geography class. A little map identification activity. Painless. I'm not trying to break their balls. Week 8 starts tomorrow. Even though time seems to move fast now, I still feel as though I've been here for a lot longer than I have. It's a weird sensation. Sarah will be here in less than 8 weeks, and, after the end of next week, I'll be 25% done with the school year. Amazing. I'm headed to Codlea this weekend again, as I've decided to try to go every two weeks. It's not nearly enough though.....I love my Mama and Tata. La revedere, numai bine si pe curand.

A little bump in the road

Here he is folks, the one, the only, Mr. Moldavia: Stephan cel Mare (Stephen the Great). He presides over the park here in Piatra Neamt and is loved by all. He's got a 500 year old church and clock tower here as well (pics in the future).

Well, I hit a little bump in the road this week. Missed two days of school due to a respiratory tract infection. For those of you who have been loyal readers from the beginning, do you think that the dreaded "curent" got its revenge on me? So, I'm on antibiotics and still trying to shake this thing. I'm trying to avoid a medical trip to Bucharest at all costs. Apparently, Dr. Dan from PC doesn't trust any doctor outside of Bucharest, so if I don't get better it's a 6 hour train ride. Boo.

So, here's what I want to do right about now. At this moment, I'm going to ask Sfantul (Saint), (yes, he is a saint) Stefan cel Mare to cure me tonight and use his saintly powers to remove all of the mucus from my lungs and restore all of my energy. And here's why: 1) I need to go to school tomorrow and teach 5 classes in a row, 2) I need to teach more classes on Tues., Wed., & Thurs. and, most importantly 3) I've got to catch a 7am bus to Brasov on Friday.

This is very important for two reasons: 1) I need to see my mama and tata (Ica & Victor) because I miss them and need to stuff my fat face with Romanian goodness and 2) My first visitor from the US is meeting me in Codlea!

My friend Joel Cote, who I worked with at Skadden, will be flying into Bucharest on Friday from Paris. Joel's going to then rent a car (this is huge) and drive up to Codlea. I should get into Codlea at about 3pm and Joel at about 6:30pm. He's a lucky guy. He gets to stay with Ica and Victor, eat Ica's food, see Brasov and he (we) will not have to rely on public means of transportation (HUGE!!). On Sunday we will drive up to Piatra Neamt and he'll stay with me until Thursday morning. I hope to bring him into my classes so he can talk to the kids. He's going to bring newspapers from New York so that the kids can look at them. I've got a couple of Chicago Sun-Times (thanks Lora and Roz), so maybe we can answer questions about stuff that they see in the paper? We'll see. No matter what it will be cool.

I'm gonna sign off now. I hope Stefan can help me out.......

Orwellian Weekend?

First off, if you don't already know, you can click on pics to make them bigger for maximum viewing pleasure. Second, I guess that I have some explaining to do after posting such a photograph. I'm at a loss for an adjective to describe it. If I had to use two words they would be "slightly disturbing", as that's how I felt when we took the photo. So, we have Domnul Professor J.J., my friend from Codlea, as the hand model, a paperback edition of Orwell's 1984, and a 1984 edition of the Bacau phonebook.

I arrived in Bacau on Friday afternoon after an hour maxi-taxi ride south. It's a big city full of concrete blocs and sits on a plain pretty much smack dab in the middle of Moldavia. Many people were moved there during the communist era as industrial workers. There I met up with my brothers from Codlea group 20 Dave and J.J.. They are both TEFL volunteers like me and have the great fortune of sharing a spacious 2 bedroom apartment in downtown Bacau. The people of Bacau were celebrating "Bacau Days" this weekend, so I thought it would be a good time to pay my friends a visit. Another volunteer from Codlea group 20, Ashley, came up from Targu Jiu in the southwest and Gabby showed up later on Friday night.

After a tour of the city, we all went to the festival, ate mici and kebabs and drank plenty of 15,000 lei draft beer (that's about .50 in case you were wondering). There was also some Tuica in the mix as well....but it definitely wasn't as good as the homemade stuff I get back in Codlea from Domnul Lawrence. Anyway, we all came back to the apartment and hung out.

As J.J. and Dave had just moved into the apartment a week ago, they had not yet explored the contents of many of the numerous cabinets that are built into walls of the living room and hall. The apartment was fully furnished, so the owner conveniently left a lot of stuff there like books, an old non-functioning stereo and lots of other random crap. After I asked if all of the cabinets were empty, J.J. said he didn't know and started opening them up. He then pulled the 1984 phonebook out. We were all amazed at the sight of this communist relic and, as I said before, I was a bit creeped out at the irony of the year. No ads, no photos, a few propagandistic (is that a word?) drawings, and lots of numbers to call with the word "comunist" next to it. All businesses were just listed as what they were and didn't have distinct names (example: Pharmacy nos. 1,2,3,4,5, etc.) You'd have to see this thing to get the full effect. It was a bit surreal. Sitting in that bloc apartment and looking at this everyday item made me shudder a bit as for a brief second I felt as if I got a taste of what it must have been like to live here during the Ceaucescu era. I'll take as few of those feelings as possible, thanks.

So, it's Sunday today and I need to do a little planning for school tomorrow. Might cook some dinner with Gabby over at the vice mayor's house tonight and hang out with her daughter so she can practice her English. I've got one of my program managers from Peace Corps coming to pay me a visit on Thursday. She'll observe one of my classes, we'll meet with the school director and then we'll chat and have some lunch. Next week I get a visit from Dr. Dan from Bucharest, who'll give me a flu shot and ask me a lot of questions about my health and how I'm doing. Well, let's just say I've been better, ok? However, this was to be expected. I knew going into this that my physical health would suffer a bit. It's up to me now to try to get it back. As far as the mental health goes, It's touch and go still. Some days are better than others, some hours are better than others. I wonder if I'll ever truly get used to all of this? I think that by the time I do, it will be time to go. However, I'm not going to complain about that because I've got so much to go back to. And for that I'm very thankful. Much love to you all.

Scott

Happy Anniversary

This post is a special shout-out to my favorite couple in the whole wide world. That's right, I'm talkin' 'bout the VanTilburgs - Aaron and Carrie! They're celebrating their 1 year anniversary this Sunday and I was fortunate enough to take part in the wedding last year as a groomsman and "unofficial" photographer. So, if you know them, give them a call and wish them a happy 1st anniversary. If you don't, then just admire the picture....sooo romantic....

Love you both,
Scott

October's Here

I love this picture of Ica! She's peering out of the new window that Victor put in recently in the bathroom that he's remodling. The bathroom is accessed from the courtyard/driveway outside and is adjacent to a cellar. Victor's putting in new tile as well. There's no toilet, just a place to bathe. It's nice in the summer, with lots of fresh air to come in.

The weekend in Codlea was good. The wedding was small, but fun and I ate ALOT. Good food and good people. I think that I'll be going back there every two weeks. I really feel at home there and love Ica and Victor so much. Next time there won't be any pre-planned events and I'll be able to cook with Ica and get school work done in a relaxing and comfortable environment. In a perfect world, I'd live with them for the rest of my service. Living alone sucks and I never want to do it again if I can help it.

Week 4 of school has started. I had a bit of a rough day yesterday with one of the classes - they don't know how to keep their mouths shut. Today was ok though. Although I don't want to do it, I'm going to have to drop the hammer on them and make them realize who's boss. I did it this morning in the British History class and I think that it worked. Oh well. Today, tomorrow & Thursday I need to catch up on some school work and then I'm going to visit a couple of friends from group 20 on Friday. They live in Bacau and were 2 of my fellow trainees in Codlea. They share an apartment and I'm looking forward to seeing it and hanging out with them. It's been two months since we all parted ways, so it will be good.

Sarah bought her plane ticket for Romania the other day. She'll be arriving on December 28th and leaving on January 10th. I wish we could have more time together, but schedules will not allow for this. I think that I'm going to give Victor money to rent a car so we can pick her up in Bucharest and take her to Codlea in comfort. The Dacia's in no shape for long trips. We'll stay in Codlea through the new year, use the car to travel around together if we can and leave for Piatra Neamt after about 6 days. We'll spend a few days in Piatra and then leave for a couple days in Bucharest before she leaves on the 10th. I'm counting the days.

Well, that's about it for now. I've got to go buy a few things at the grocery store, wash some dishes, iron some shirts, vaccum, etc. And I've also got plenty of school work to do. Bye for now!