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.......