Emma Craiova

We have been staying with Alex and Carol at their 100% British Bed & Breakfast close to Piteşti. Thanks to Alex who was picking us up at a gas station we finally found this treasure in Romania. Alex and Carol are wonderful hosts and they provided us wıll all the warm comfort we needed after such a long journey. (Alex was even calling the evening before, because I mixed one day).

The road to the ...

I was asked by the OCP, the person who is in charge of the whole summer school program, to be the Chair of the Closing Plenary. I was so happy to have the last moment with the kids and being up in front of the students. I think I have a certain way with the kids. I see them laughing and smiling. They actually laugh at my jokes, which I like, and maybe I do have a good sense of humor. I wanted to say some words to them for inspiration and motivation. I truly believe ...

Yesterday was Global Village and it was very impressive. The kids in summer school along with the people in AIESEC Pitesti worked really hard to represent their country. Global Village is an event where there are different tables that have information of a country and people are standing there to tell you something interesting or show you something interesting about a country. In this case, there were food, decorations, costumes, and dances. It was organized at a big mall ...

I prepared for the last training for AIESEC Pitesti Summer School and it was bittersweet...=(
I felt really happy that I don't have to think of all the icebreakers for each day and prepare the outlines for each training, but it was all for the kids. Well, I say kids, but they are really just a few years younger than I am. Anyway, it was about Country Ambassadorship, we pretended that I was a foreign person ...

At the swimming pool there are three big pools. This is where people go to swim. Of course. They don't have pools in their backyard like in America. The locations of this place is in between a mall and the near the center of the city. (Kind of. I don't really know where I am walking. I just follow my roommates.) Anyway, on one side you can see a really big sign of the mall, Euromall, and the other side you can see four buildings. The only ...

Good morning in Romania

"Queeny, Queeny, wake up. There's no water." My roommate woke me up in the early morning to tell me that there wasn’t any water at all. First, we have no hot water and then this morning, you can hear the faucet struggling to pump the water through. It was just wonderful. We used the water that we get from the well nearby. We have about 10 1-liter bottles and we walk about a mile to get some water from the running well. We use up the water ...

6th June

Timisoara to Craiova

Sunny 29 degrees

Today's drive was very long as it seems that Romania is fixing all its roads. Consequently the expected five hour drive turned into seven as we negotiated roadworks for most of the 300 kilometres. We did pass through some interesting towns and past small farms where the locals were out in the fields with their hoes or building tall ...

On our way to Belgrade we made an overnight stop in Craiova in order to cut the distance in half. Craiova is the last major city before leaving Romania to the west. It rained all day and the drive was rather ugly, as is Craiova itself, a very industrial and grey city. You can see Cecescu's influence everywhere. Surprisingly enough, we had ...

... even if they're been stripped of their original, cohesive urban environment. Some of them have been converted to museums (a particularly stunning one now houses the city's art museum) and others function as important civic institutions and public buildings. The monumental, neo-classical university building still dominates the town center in its hulking mass, even if it's surrounded by faceless housing blocks and neighbored by arguably the ...

What an incredible experience I had today. World Vision took myself and two other volunteers out to a couple of small rural villages where we had the opportunity to meet the children that we found sponsors for. We travelled off the main highway and drove down a narrow road between fields for quite a long distance. This road eventually turned to dust, with rocks randomly strewn across. We saw interesting sites along ...