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