Intro

I know I promised to start this blog a long time ago but I have been so busy!!

First of all I swore-in to be an official Peace Corps Volunteer on July 28th, and then had an awesome going away party with the other 70 volunteers. We were in Ploieşti for ten weeks for training and cross-cultural adaptation. The city is about an hour north of Bucharest and is a very industrial town. It is the oil hotbed of Romania which was why it was bombed into disarray after WWII. The city really hasn't rebuilt too much and the remnants of communism and the 1989 revolution are apparent (i.e. block buildings, dilapidated infrastructure, etc.). The city is very smelly and the citizens are very afraid of the current (wind but more on that later).

I lived with a host family on the sixth floor of a bloc apartment. The family included a retired father (Radu), the mother (Magda) who is an elementary school teacher and is one of the most sincere people I have ever met, two daughters and a horribly spoiled cocker spaniel. Alexandra is 22 and goes to school in Philly at Bryn Mawr. She is so smart, speaks perfect English and is studying abroad right now in Australia. Cristiana is 17 and is going to be in her final year of high school. She and I used to have to call each other almost once a week in the middle of the night because one of us forgot our house key. It was pretty funny because we are both so forgetful!! Puppy, the little jerk that he is was actually pretty cute. Other than the fact that after ten weeks he was still trying to attack me and stealing my things to munch on (including but not limited to my cell phone and bite splint), he was fun sometimes. Only when I would take him outside and when no one else was home would he come to me. I talk to my Gazda still now that I am in my new city and am planning a visit in October.

For the Institutional Development Field, which is my job category, I worked in the Social and Community Services Office, which is under the Mayor’s office. It is a public authority office in charge of social services and child protection. This was a five-week Practicum to get used to the fields we would be working for in the rest of the two years. Eric, Paul and I worked with Roxana and Carmen (the only 2 english speakers in the office). It was great fun because we got to go around the city with them everyday while they visited the people receiving social assistance. The elderly people loved having the company and talking to us about different topics. It is quite sad because most have no family, have lost their fortunes and receive hardly any retirement funds. One lady we visited, Doina, was a singer before the revolution and made CD’s that were translated into Romanian. I have remained very close to Roxana and Carmen and am even a bridesmaid in Carmen’s wedding in October. I am very excited and nervous because weddings here are crazy.

My new Gazda in Tîrgu Jiu is also amazing. The father, Marius, owns a construction business and even built this house, which is huge!! Marius speaks some German so that is pretty fun since he understands me better when I speak German instead of Romanian. The mom, Vali, is an accountant and is trying to learn English. Luminiţa (Lumi) is 18 and is the cutest thing ever. She looks about 13 and loves having a new big sister. About every other day I have to endure getting my hair either crimped or blow dried. She also likes to pick out my outfits and I often leave the house looking a little crazy. Its ok though since the Romanians do not know what matching colors or patterns is here!! The first weekend I was here, they took me to the Black Sea which was amazing. I was even invited to go to Greece with them, where they are now, but I can’t leave the country just yet. It would have been amazing though because they do not allow me to pay for anything. I think since I am foreign they think I am incapable of cooking, cleaning or anything else. My gazda mom thinks I am crazy when I do my own dishes because kids here don’t do any work. She even tried to give me 50 lei spending money at the Black Sea!! So anyways right now since they are gone I am being babysat by the aunt and I swear she thinks I am a 200 pound man by the way she feeds me. I only understand about 60% of what she says to me, which often gets me more food. I had a friend come over last night for dinner to help me talk to her. It was funny because he had to tell her she is overfeeding me and I really am full when I say so. I am waiting for the day I move into my apartment so I can eat at my own pace, although something tells me my gazda mom is going to bring me food everyday.

I started working for two organizations, Youngsters Without Borders and Youth and Regional Development Association. They both work under the European Union (which will be great for my career later on) and host and exchange youth volunteers into the EU member countries and candidates. I was a bit afraid to start working because I found out the two orgs are in competition, thanks Catalina, but have had no problems so far and don’t plan on any. Right now I am planning an exchange for one and taking over the volunteer management of the other. It is pretty fun because we just got 4 new volunteers from Macedonia, Albania and Serbia. They are pretty young so it is a bit of work keeping track of them and their activities.