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Trip Start Jun 01, 2005 Trip End Sep 01, 2007 Next
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  Brasov, Romania
Monday, June 6, 2005

June 6, 2005 (I was not able to send this on the 7th, so I'm sending this today, June 10th)

Wow, what a whirlwind. Here I am in P.C. Romania with a whole new host family, language, colleagues, and environment! I am typing this to you now with the hope and expectation that I will be able to access the internet tomorrow while in Brasov. Currently I am living in the small town of Zarnesti (the phonetic is "Zarnesht"), which is breathtakingly beautiful, nestled in the foothills of the Piatra Craiului National Park. I live in a house (log cabin), with some modern conveniences like a kitchen (minus microwave and dishwasher, of course), bathroom (with bathtub/sink/mirror/american style toilet!!!), no landline phone, but my host family has a cell phone, no A/C (but that's what windows are for), and TV (cable, baby!). I have a host mom, Monica, host father, Gheorghe, one dog, 2 cats, and many cocks and chicks. My bedroom is on the second floor and is cute as a button, and I have a door outside my room that goes out on to the large terrace overlooking the mountains. I will doing a lot of studying, reading, and working-out here. My host family is wonderful, and they live modestly, they are so cute, laughing away downstairs at the moment, and are taking wonderful care of me and helping me with the Romanian language. The romanian language is a romance language and is the closest to classical latin...to me that means it's not Cyrillic, so YIPEE!

Okay, so I arrived here on June 1 and spent the night in Bucharest with the other 3 Uz 18 volunteers who joined the Romania program. On June 2nd, PC bused us to Brasov...a large town in the Transylvania region where our training headquarters is located, then off to our sites. Mine (Zarnesti) is 25 Kilometers away. I am hauntingly close to the mythic dracula's castle in Bran. Actually, this country is full of castles, mountains (including the Carpathian mountains), intriguing culture...oh and borders the Black Sea.

I am so happy to be here, if not still a little confused and in a state of culture-shock from the events of the past week and a half. This program is very different than most PC programs in that we have more conveniences than most other PC programs. For example, eventually I will have a cell phone, as most all PC volunteers here have one at the request of our PC staff. Yes, this means you will be able to call if you so wish. However, we have many problems to address in this country and it looks like I will be working in the much needed NGO sector of "environment". There are many ecological problems here that are systemic of their past communist regime and the ever-growing tourist industry.

Lets see, remember how I would refer to my Uzbek group as UZ 18, well, here I am part of the 20th group...but don't know if they call it Rom 20...or what. Doesn't sound as good, does it?! There are about 65 volunteers in this group and I think we have around 200 volunteers in country...but don't quote me on this. I am slowly meeting the other volunteers, but the ones I have met so far are really cool. Of course I miss my UZ volunteer friends like crazy...here's a shout out to a few of you...Tamar, Jenny, Jamie, Lucas, Kjestine, Tricia, and Michelle (UZ 17)...and any other UZ friends who have found this...I miss you all and hope you are doing well!!!

I haven't mentioned the food in Romania yet, it's awesome. My host mom is an incredible cook and I have had the best homemade soups, salads and meals since I left the U.S. In fact my host mom just brought me a small plate of cheese and asked me to taste it and let her know if I want it on my sandwich for tomorrows lunch! Her and my host father don't speak a lick of English, but we are slowly communicating better. My host father actually speaks a little Russian, so the first few nights we were translating our dialog from Russian to Romanian and vise versa! Talk about crazy. Anyway, so the cheese, wine, fruits and vegetables here are great. Since we are a small family the meals are modest and so thankfully they don't gorge me with food. Most volunteers here are being fed monstrous meals and are pressured to eat it all. I'm lucky.

I'm also lucky to have a close friend with me here (Mary) to go thru the rigorous training all over again. We were both interested in this program when PC Uzb. was telling us of our post UZ options. I am so glad we are both here together, as NGO volunteers, and she even lives in the same town with me. We will definitely be each others life-line in facing the first 5 months again...and of course, beyond this too! Have I mentioned that when we all get to our sites, after training is over, we will only have to live with a host family for 2 months instead of 3? I am very happy about this. Of course, if I am placed in a rural area there is always the possibility that I would have to live the whole 2 years with a host family if apartments or houses to rent are not available.

I will be serving a full 27 month term here in Romania, as the new volunteers here only arrived 1 week before us. Additionally, I am able to keep my current status as "volunteer" and not trainee. Which means I'm accruing all the perks of volunteer status and did not lose anything from what I earned during my Uzbekistan time. Okay, so that means more to me than to you, but I don't want to explain right now b/c it's getting late and I have to be at the train station by 7am tomorrow. We have our HUB tomorrow, which is where all the group meets and has lessons together, which is in Brasov. The city of Brasov would literally make your jaws drop when you see it. I will be taking pictures, trust me...it is so beautiful that it doesn't look real. When I first saw it last week, I could only describe it as a picture perfect movie set...of what I imagine some Swiss Alps town to look like...and I was just waiting for the director to yell "CUT!" and the props to fall down and the extra's to go home. Difference is that everything was real, and I kept pinching myself and saying "where the hellll am I?!!"

So, I hope your not bored with me already and at least a few of you are still reading my log. I hope, as always you are doing well. I also hope you understand that since arriving to site in Navoi, going thru all the transitions there, and then being kicked out of country and now in a whole new place...that you will cut me some slack in not having written too many personal emails in the last month. I apologize, really I do. Don't take it personally, and by all means, don't stop writing me whenever you have a break in your crazy schedules, too.

Much love to all,
Amber

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