I resemble that remark

I have been informed that people are comparing my blogging to my brother's. Which ok, it's been a week, but really he can go months without blogging. I really haven't had much to tell. I'm well aware that I'm in another country and that in and of itself is exciting, but I think y'all would get sick of reading in my blog 'I'M IN ROMANIA!' over and over. That being said, there have been a few funny incidents since the last time I've blogged. At lunch at the family center one day, one of the Romanians wanted to know if Rebekah, one of the students, wanted a plum. Rebekah said no thank you, but the woman persisted going so far as to basically climb up Rebekah and shove the plum in her mouth. Not something that happens everyday here and one of the funniest sights I've seen. This past weekend Mama C's-who the first time I met I wanted to call Mrs. C, but I didn't think anyone would get the Happy Days reference- brother in law was visiting. We were at dinner on Saturday night and Ali was asking Mama C, Anita-our sister, and me what animal we would be if we could be any animal. Uncle came in and sat down next to Ali and Ali, assuming he didn't speak English, turned to Anita and asked her to ask him what animal he would be. Anita, laughing, turned to her and said 'ask him yourself.' Yeah, he definitely spoke perfect English. This week a woman from America who is on the advisory board is visiting and today gave a seminar on teaching techniques. Since my secondary practicum experience is going to be in the kindergarten starting in October, I was required to be at this training seminar. Most of it felt like an art class. At one point the advisory board woman was talking about different supplies you can use to help the child recreate something they've seen. She mentioned chicken wire. One of the Romanian woman, who speaks pretty good English, turned to me and said 'chicken wire? there's wire that comes from chicken?'

Oops!

So I almost fell in a giant hole today. Apparently it's OK here to dig up holes all over the place and just leave them open. It's like they are digging up the entire town. There's quite a few of these holes from our house to the building where we have classes. One in particular only has a small piece of ground to walk on next to. This small piece to walk on is made entirely of dirt, and it was raining today. So there is this pile of mud and a hole. Ali went over first and kind of slipped but made it to the other side OK. I went after her, and in the middle I started to slip. Luckily, Ali grabbed my arm and I just slammed into the ground. Causing me to punch a wall, and cover the entire bottom half of my pants in mud. It was pointed out in class too, because it's sort of obvious I didn't throw these pants on this way this morning. But it's OK, it's easier not to be embarrassed here, somehow.
The latest thing on the interesting, yet delicious, menu: rice boiled in milk and sugar, topped off with cocoa powder. Maybe I won't lose weight while I'm here after all.

Random Things

Yesterday Ali and I decided it was time to do our laundry, and we actually figured out how to use the German washing machine. We didn't really master it however, since we have no idea where the soap was supposed to go-there were at least 3 different places we could have put it. So we just sort of threw it in with the laundry, which was only slightly disastrous since it was a front loader, so a little bit of the powder came back at us. We had to leave pretty soon after we had put our laundry in. When we got home that afternoon we saw that someone in the family had hung our clothes up outside. I just laughed off the fact that I practically ran into my long johns-yes it's been that cold already. Not sure Ali saw the same humor in the situation that I did. Then last night, we decided to wait for the family and eat dinner with them. They had bread-shocking I know- and zacusca, which apparently is a big thing here in Romania. It's eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, onions, tomato paste, and a little bit of oil blended together to make a paste that goes on bread, or on potatoes which some people here make an entire meal out of...a giant baked potato. While it looked like something some had regurgitated up-my roommate's words, not mine- it was actually really, really good. Lastly, I would just like to say that I feel like Rocky with the amount of stairs I have to run here everyday-since I've been here I'm constantly running late and I have no idea why, hence the running up the stairs, otherwise I definitely would not be running, or even walking fast.

Field Trip

On Saturday, we went on a little trip to Sibiu (pronounced C B U) which is about an hour and a half drive from Sighisoara. Which meant that I had to get up at the ridiculous hour, for a Saturday, of 7. When we got there, Dorothy just sort of brought us to the main street and told us she would meet us at 12:30 outside of the town hall. I still don't know where the town hall in Sibiu is. We just sort of wandered around for 2 and a half hours, going in stores, but not really buying anything. I discovered that they have notebooks here in which every page smells like chocolate. We specifically went on this trip to Sibiu because there was a German festival. Apparently, Sibiu used to be mostly populated with Germans, who knew? At one point there was a parade, with all of the couples that were in the traditional German garb and we followed. However, there was a point that Dorothy had us following side by side the parade so closely, that we were practically in it. On the drive back, Dorothy had us go into a Romanian grocery store, saying that it was part of the cultural experience. It's interesting that she said that, because the inside of a Romanian grocery store looks exactly the same as the inside of an American grocery store. On a completely different note, today in language class we learned a song and dance in Romanian. The song was either about walnuts or small boys dancing. It wasn't really clear. Apparently, our teacher wants us to put on a small show before we leave. I hope she was kidding, because the vision I have of us performing the song and dance we learned is laughable.

Games

Today in language class a girl, who often wants to know how to say strange things in Romanian, asked Alana, our teacher, how to say squirrel. Alana didn't quite understand what a squirrel was, so this girl and her friend decided to act out a tree and a squirrel to help her understand. Then someone commented that it was like charades, which we had to explain to Alana as well. Her eyes lit up and she decided we should play charades using the words we know in Romanian. Considering our limited vocabulary in Romanian, it was interesting to watch. This is the second time we've played a game in language class. The first time we played UNO to reaffirm our numbers and to learn colors. I think charades will forever stick in my mind though as the most ridiculous sight I've ever seen. A few examples: A girl acting like a cow, but since we don't know the word for cow, she was trying to act out milk. Two girls on the floor spooning, looking for the word spoon. And myself, on my knees and with my arms curled over my head trying to act out the number two.

What's for dinner

So Ali, my roommate, and I would look through the kitchen every night to try and find ourselves something to eat for dinner. We would do this so that our host family wouldn't feel obligated to wait on us all the time. The only thing we would ever be able to find is bread. I can't tell you how sick I am of just plain bread, because on those days I would eat just bread for breakfast and dinner. Two nights ago we decided to wait for the family to get home and just eat with them. The first person to get home was the 10 year old and we waited until 9:30 to eat 3 pieces of chocolate and a bowl of popcorn. S0 last night we scoured the kitchen and found some pasta. We didn't know if they were going to use it for something specific, so we went upstairs to ask if we could use it to make our dinner. Anita, the 20 year old, said yes, but then insisted she make it for us. It was really sweet, but again we didn't want to make her feel as though she had to serve us. Anyway, last night we had pasta with sugar. That's all it was topped with, and it was pretty good.

Almost Lost in a Strange Land

Yesterday I went on a home visit with Imishaye, my practicum person, to visit someone from the disabled group that had been in the hospital recently. It was a long walk and once we got there, of course the entire meeting was in Romanian. So I just sort of sat there, feeling really out of place. Then I walked back to the family center with Imishaye, but from there I had to find my own way home. I didn't exactly know which direction to go, so I just sort of picked one. Thankfully, it was the right direction, though I have no idea how. Then today I had to find my way from The House on the Rock-where my language class is-to the family center. All I know is that the family center is through an alley that is under an arch of a sea foam green building. You'd be surprised at how many sea foam green buildings there are in Sighisoara. And again, I wasn't exactly sure which direction I was supposed to go in. Then I saw a sign with a four leaf clover on it that looked familiar, you don't see many of those around here, so I went that way and miraculously found the family center. I'm so directionally challenged so I'm not surprised I've gotten turned around. Although, it is very good that I've been able to find my way because the only thing I know how to say in Romanian is 'how are you?' and 'what time is it?' I'm pretty sure neither of those phrases would help me if I were to get lost. Interesting things I saw and heard on my way to the main st.-I know my way there. I heard a British woman say she killed someone last night and I saw a very pretty old building with old time shutters with a dragon emblem on them. And above the dragon? The words Fast Food.

So all of last week was orientation, and a lot of it was common sense, but it was still good to know the basic dos and don'ts of Romania. But today I finally was able to observe the group I will be working with for my practicum. It's a group of disabled-some mentally, some physically-Romanians who meet and try to learn about computers, english, and on one day a week, they do crafts. So today while I was there, the leader had me reading an English book to help them learn English. Or, one of the members would read and I would correct them if they were saying a word incorrectly. Then after they had said a sentence they would translate it back to Romanian to make sure they had grasped the meaning of the sentence. At one point, the leader left the group and a woman had just translated it back to Romanian and kept asking 'Da? Da?' So of course I had to do the whole, hands up and shrugging of the shoulders because I don't know if she properly translated it back to Romanian. The only thing I can do is say 'da' when they say something correctly in English, and at one point I understood that she was asking what back meant, so I patted my back with my hand, and she understood that. It was interesting though, all of the members introduced themselves in English.
Interesting little tidbit-in Romania if you buy something in a store and they don't have enough money in cents to give you change, they'll just give you a piece of gum or a small piece of candy, and you can't do anything about it.

Pa-Pa

Eu Sunt Obosita

Pronounced Oo Sue-nt Obo-c-ta. It means I am tired. We haven't really been given a chance to recover from the fact that we are currently 7 hours ahead of the time it is at home. It's been good so far, it has just been exhausting. Last night we moved into our host family's house. The family seems incredibly nice, it's just the mother and 3 girls. A 20 year old, a 16 year old, and a 10 year old. The house is...different. It's really nice, don't get me wrong. It's just when you go in the front door you have 4 bedrooms and a bathroom. Then you go outside to go down the stairs where there is another bedroom-a very nice one, it's the one my roomate and I are in, the kitchen, and a bathroom that apparently is just for my roomate and I. We spent last night just hanging out with the girls, the mother had to work late. It was definitely good to be able to unpack and not be living out of my suitcase anymore. Today we had an 8 am meeting to meet the rest of the Veritas-the program owned by the Romanian Studies Program-staff. At one point we had to do the exercise where you go up to someone you don't know and find out 3 things you have in common with that person, and be able to find out enough about them that you are able to introduce them to the rest of the class. I'm not a fan of this exercise incidently. But the person who picked me was actually the woman who is teaching us Romanian. It was good because she made me do the first part of the conversation in Romanian because she knew I knew the words. So we introduced ourselves, we asked each other how the other person was, and we said where we were from. Thus ends the basics of what I know. Then this afternoon we went on a hike up a mountain, I call it a mountain-the person guiding us called it a hill. While it may not have been a huge mountain, it definitely was not a hill. We didn't have a choice, I don't know why but after lunch we were just told you will be doing this at this time. It was long and it was painful since I wasn't exactly wearing proper shoes for a hike. It was good once we got up there, the view was amazing of the entire city of Sighisoara. And we went to a little playground area, where we played Red Rover, Red Rover, and swung on swings. There was a little restaurant at the top, and some of the girls and I had to use the bathroom, so we went in the door marked toilets and realized-these bathrooms were unisex.

Pa-Pa

Buna Ziua

Pronounced Boona Zewa. Which as I learned in my first language class yesterday means good afternoon. And by the time y'all are reading this, it will be afternoon where I am. So much to say and we only just got here two nights ago. This particular post is likely to be long and all over the place, so bear with me. The plane trip-while way more time than I have ever wanted to be on a plane-wasn't bad. Considering I got a call at 4:30 that my 9:15 plane was delayed and they were worried about me not making my connecting flight but that there was a flight at 6 I could be on if I could make it there in time. Thankfully, we made it there in time. I had a fun time observing the people around me on the flight-I know, I have too much of my mother in me. Apparently, there are magazines on airplanes that are actually catalogues that you can order things from and they bring it right to your seat. I saw a woman order a piece of jewelry-from an AIRPLANE!! I got to London at 5 am their time, which is about 12 am at home. I found out quickly that I would not enjoy the London airport. First of all I had to take a shuttle from the terminal my plane had landed at and the terminal from which my connecting flight would be departing. On a good day, I can maybe figure out how to get somewhere that I've been 20 times, when it comes to new places, however, I am on of the most directionally challenged people you will ever meet. So functioning on no sleep, I watched movies on the plane, I was supposed to figure out where I'm supposed to go? I figured out which shuttle I wanted and rode the seemingly long trip to the next terminal. When I got there I was trying to read the signs for connecting flights, but they were all contradicting themselves, so finally I became a lemming and followed the crowd. It was then that I found out that in the London airport you have to go through security again, which was odd to me. Then I went to the British Airways booth to ask where the heck it was that I was going, and the guy simply said downstairs. I went down the stairs and found myself walking down the longest hallway known to man. I noticed one of those moving sidewalks, and nearly cried for joy, until I realized it was going in the opposite direction I was, fan-flippin-tastic. My connecting flight wasn't until 9:55 am, so I had to sit around for several hours doing absolutely nothing. About 40 minutes before my flight I saw 4 girls looking slightly lost, I realized they were four of the girls going to the Romanian Studies Program, so I joined them. We got to Romania at 3:10, and had a surprisingly easy time getting out. We then had a 5 hour drive to our town. We stopped about halfway through to go to dinner-at McDonald's. But after almost 24 hours of nothing but plane food, I was ready to eat almost anything. The first night was a bit of an adventure. Myself and two other girls were put into an apartment a street away from the head of the Romanian Studies Program-we won't be meeting our host families until later this afternoon. We thought we would be staying with someone, but no, it turns out it was just us and apparently they had entrusted us with keys to the entire building-which they suggested we lock up completely. So we did just that. After having devotions together we were all getting ready to go to bed when we heard this loud banging. We looked at each other and concluded that the knocking couldn't possibly be for us. The banging continued and we realized it was coming from the door at the end of the hallway from the apartment we were staying in. Thinking it was someone from the Romanian Studies Program, we opened the door to the apartment. At the end of the hallway, there was a man and as soon as he saw one of the girl's head pop out he started speaking loudly and very fast-in Romanian, which none of us can understand. Then we heard pebbles being thrown at our window, we went over to investigate and there was a woman outside. What we think happened is that the man lives upstairs and we locked his wife out. However, we didn't feel comfortable going and unlocking the door at the end of the hall and giving him the keys-especially when he started to get a little agitated and started to rattle the door. After trying to communicate with him, using an English to Romanian dictionary, we slowly closed the door. There were two beds in a room with one window and one bed in the other room with two windows-we moved the one bed into the room with the other two beds-it made us feel slightly better. That and the fact that they couldn't possibly get to us-the windows were pretty high up. The next morning, someone came to wake us up and found the doors unlocked. So thankfully, the angry man found someone to solve his problems. Yesterday wasn't nearly as eventful, but it was busy. We had orientation all morning, then language class, then a reading assignment, then dinner followed by devotions together. By the time we were done, we were all ready to fall into bed. Which is pretty much what we did when we got back to the apartment and thankfully nothing exciting happened.

Pa-Pa (pronounced the way it looks)- bye-bye

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Ok, this day was never actually supposed to happen. I heard about the Romania Studies Program in one of my classes and brought the pamphlet home to my mother. She was supposed to say no within the first two minutes, stating valid reasons on why it wasn't possible. She was not supposed to flip through the pamphlet and say 'ok'. WHAT?!? And now the day has come where in a little over 7 hours I'll be getting on a plane and flying to Romania. My bags are all packed, although I have that pesky feeling that I'm forgetting something. I have my ticket and passport ready. So material wise, I'm prepared-emotionally, well that's a different story altogether. I'm incredibly anxious, but I have faith that this is going to be an experience of a lifetime and that I'll come home with pictures, stories, and the desire to never, ever leave again.