My 1st post as a real Volunteer

As I sit on a bench in front of my new acasa, overlooking outrageously green rolling hills speckle with cows and horses and listen the chickens and turkeys cluck away, I finish my list of things I need to buy next time I’m near a Carrefour. Looking for something else to keep me the lovely predicament I remember my mother’s parting words last time we spoke “Dad and I are so proud of you but…YOU NEED TO UPDATE YOUR BLOG” also adding “AND CHANGE YOUR FACEBOOK PROFILE PICTURE”. Miss you mom ;)

So here I am, after a nauseating and boiling seven hour van ride, after an amazing party thrown by Grant’s Gazda, after a touching dinner with my own Gazda, after surviving a crazy night in Bucaresti, and after officially swearing in as a Peace Corps Volunteer, here I am. That all happened in three days btw…

Surprisingly, when I got to site I was quite sleep deprived. The last few days I have been sleeping for 8 or 9 hours and taking 2 hour naps during the day. I think the need for sleep has also been caused by truly being immersed in Romanian for the first time. New languages are hard on the brain. We’ve had four hours of language class a day for the last ten weeks, where no English was spoken, but the rest of the time I was surrounded by Americans or at least English speakers. With most of my English speaking co-workers living an hour away and no one else in my village knowing the language… yet (that’s why I’m here after all, and I have become highly motivated in the last three days) I can say with a great deal of certainty that I am completely immersed.

I really could not have asked for a better village. Focuri (which means “fires” in Romanian) in some ways closely resembles the last isolated I place I lived in. There are only dirt roads, it is an hour from any kind of major city (and there are only two buses a day to get me out), most of the population lives off the land in some way or another, the main form a transportation is not cars, and it will get very cold this winter (I am told). (Just so we’re all on the same page, I’m comparing Barrow, AK with a small town in Romania)That’s more or less where the similarities end  because Focuri has trees, actually it seems like it’d be hard not to grow something here, it’s green beyond belief. I might be an hour away from the nearest city but that city is Isai (Yash) and it’s the second largest in the country, and its less than a few bucks to get there (and when you get there they have opera, ballet, museums and bars Oh My! (and two, count’em T-W-O Carrefours (big ones!))). The main mode of transportation is horse cart, (which won’t drive past my bedroom window and 2 am with an obnoxious noise) and are pretty fun to ride. Hopefully, Focuri will provide the same caliber of cool people I found in Barrow and so far I have not been disapointed.

So far I have been blown away by the people of this country in general. Before leaving the states I read accounts of how great the people are here and kind of rolled my eyes. These writers were clearly exaggerating. And after having spent time in a few countries were the friendly people were the exception I was pretty skeptical. And now I have become one of those writers that goes on and on about how wonderful the people are here. So there I’ve said it Romanians (well at least the ones I’ve met) have been awesome. It’s just their great sense of humor and their welcoming nature and and and… come visit me and see for yourself ;).