21.5 degrees

I almost forgot how nice it is to be able to play basketball outside in a t-shirt and shorts. Radu, Ovidiu and I were out on the court yesterday (the same one that doubles as a soccer field; refer to photo) and played for about 90 minutes against three high school kids. Man, I felt old, slow and out of shape. Radu was our star and coach, as he played during his college days in Iasi. We held our own despite the fact that they were quicker and had that 17 year-old stamina. They were like rabbits. But, remember this: old men know how to pass the ball. It wound up pretty even in the end, with the kids taking 5 of 9 games from us. I hadn't played that much basketball in years. I need to work on my game and exercise more. What a wake-up call. Even though I'm about 12-15 pounds lighter (since I joined the PC), I was in much better shape last May. Time to go back to work. Oh yeah, by the way, 21.5 degrees is about 70 fahrenheit. Perfect weather.

Today's photo was taken this afternoon in front of Hogas High. As you can see, we don't have a proper soccer field (no high school in town has one), so they play on the blacktop. It's a 6 on 6 game and is pretty fast-paced. Dangerous too. I cringe everytime I see someone fall and hope he has all of his skin when he gets up. Hogas is the team in blue and the team in red is the forestry high school. They wound up in a tie at 2-2. Yesterday Hogas beat the informatics High School 4-0. Informatics has cool jerseys. They're collared and have "INFO" printed across the chest. I wish I could get my hands on one of those.

I'm going to be traveling to Bucharest next week for a medical visit. I've got to get my eyes checked, my teeth cleaned and I'm going to have Dr. Dan take a general look at me. I haven't been feeling all that well the last couple of weeks and have been more fatigued than usual. I'm wondering if it has something to do with the weather? We'll see I guess. What will probably happen is that I'll feel perfectly normal by the time I arrive next Friday. If so, oh well. Friday's going to be a bit brutal, as I have to take a 3am train. I'll arrive at 8:15 and will then have to go to the three appointments. Ouch. PC will put me up in a hotel and then I'll take a 3:00pm train back to Piatra Neamt the following day. This will be my first trip to the PC office and I'm curious to see what it is like there.

It looks like I'm going to help out with the teaching practicum for the new TEFL volunteers from group 21, who arrive on May 18th. They will be in Ploiesti, which is a big industrial city just north of Bucharest. I'll head down there for two weeks after school ends and will then come back to the U.S. for my vacation. Looks like I should be arriving in Texas on or about July 2nd. I should be in Chicago around the 9th. Probably will leave around the 23rd. So, the near future is starting to take shape. Only 10 weeks of school left for me after tomorrow.....