We Made It!

The first time my hand has been held so that I would safely cross the street since I was 10…

After sitting through 7 hours of meetings and 2 Irish pubs (across the street from each other) in Philly, one lost passport, one found passport, two misplaced laptops, and almost getting stuck in Munich, all 39 of us made it to Bucharest. We were met by a lot of happy faces and several Peace Corps banners to the massive relief of all 39 of us. After a 2 hour bus ride we arrived in Targoviste.

After sitting through a day and a half of more meetings, more paper work , huge meals 3 times a day, and dancing to reggae music in an Irish pub (those things are everywhere) we met our Gazda (host family who we will be living with for the next 3 months). Needless to say most of us were pretty nervous.  There’s that whole speech about how we’re integrating into another culture and they will probably have a lot a differences and blah blah blah but the fact of the matter is, moving in with people you have never met is nerve wracking anywhere in the world.

I was extremely relieved when I was introduced to a shortish blonde woman with a smile on her round face and her eight year old son (who absolutely loved the picture book about Alaska I brought for the family) named Cosmin. Right now it’s only been 24 hours (this might actually be too good to be true) but I can’t imagine getting a better host family.

I’ve basically been adopted by this family. The mother, Lucretia, keeps telling me how I’m her new daughter and insists on holding my hand as we cross the street (and that if I continue to not wear socks in ‘cold’ (70 degree) whether I will catch my death of cold). Cosmin is hysterically goofy and slightly mischievous (as every 8 year old boy ought to be) and talks to me non-stop in Romanian. The father is tall, swarthy, good humored, and always ready to refill my glass of beer. And then there is my new sister who is 22 and gorgeous, petite with dark features and incredibly sweet.

As far as I can tell they are a pretty typical middle class Romanian family, all living on top of each other  in a two bedroom (and remember I have one of those rooms) apartment. Ever since I realized both the kids (remember one of them is 22) sleep in the living room at night I’ve been trying to figure out why they would let a stranger into their home. Peace Corps can’t be paying them all that much and its only suppose to cover my food and extra utilities. I’ve broken it down to these possibilities or some combo of them. Part of it is the hope of the family learning English by being around me, that comes up a lot (how I will teach them English). I think there is also some prestige that goes along with hosting an American (and who doesn’t want something to rub in their neighbors’ faces?). And the biggest part I believe is that they understand that I’ve left the comfort of home and America (the leaving America really confuses them) to learn about their culture and most importantly help them in some small way and this is their way of showing that they appreciated that.

Wow, I haven’t even started my first day of training and I’ve already become extremely sappy and idealistic. Thanks Peace Corps !