My Journey continued

So, to continue on with my story, I was taken on a picnic. So when I heard the word picnic, I assumed an afternoon in the forest, maybe 3 hours at a maximum, well I need to remember that I am not in the US anymore, and I am in Romania now, a picnic here is an entire day in the forest. We left at around noon and arrived home at around 8. I slept well that night at least. It was funny when we were going there, we first turned off of the paved road onto the gravel road, and then off of the gravel road and onto the grass, I had no idea where we were going! It was sure beautiful there though, it was so nice to see the rolling planes of grass and the beautiful trees of the forest! I really liked it there a lot, even though I was tired. It was funny there were a bunch of cows grazing in the pasture and there was a small lake there, when I was walking around with my directors daughter-in-law, we saw a cow just swimming across the lake, it was the funniest thing I haved seen, it was completely submerged in water! I was entertained at least!

So after that we ate lunch, we had mici (a sort of sausage), chicken, french fries, tomatoe salad, soda, sarmale (ground up meat and rice in a cabbage roll) and of course bread, that comes with everything as does potatoes! The food was all really good though, and they make the fire in the ground, which was also really neat. So after lunch we sat around for a little while, and everyone around me was talking very quickly in Romanian, so I did not understand much as I was extremely tired as well, so I actually ended up falling asleep on the blanket. When I woke up, we were surrounded by cows, that's right cows. The cows that were grazing, came to see what we were up to. They weren't there for long, because the boys that were herding them steered them away from us, but it was strange to see them so close to us, especially since I didn't know they were there until I woke up. Then I tried to stay awake for a while, we drank some coffee, and I listened to them talking some more. After that we went fishing for a little bit. There was little luck however because there was too much crud in the water, it was difficult to find a decent place to throw the line. It was fun to go anyway and my director's daughter-in-law caught a fish, she was really excited about that.

After fishing, we went back to eat some supper, then talked some more, they gave me tuica (plum brandy), and then we cleaned up and went home. When I arrived home, I read for a little while and then fell asleep, it was so nice just to relax and sleep in a nice comfortable bed. I actually think that it was still light out when I did get to sleep.

Let's see that was Sunday, then on Monday I wondered around town with my director's son, hung out at their place for a little bit. After dinner, we went to the house of the high school math teacher, she is learning English and is good friends with the high school English teacher, both of who are around my age, so hopefully I can develop a friendship with them, that would be nice and we had a lot of fun talking, so we will see. I still have to find a tutor, so maybe the one who is learning English can teach me Romanian and I can teach her English, that might be cool :)

So then I arrived home late as has been usual since I arrived here, and I was awoken at 6:30 on Tuesday morning by a phone call, my mom and dad! It was so good to hear from them, especially since it was a suprise! I love suprises that are pleasent like that. Well I had not had much sleep, only about 6 hours and since I was so excited, I could not go back to sleep, so I decided to take a walk around town for a little bit, that was nice and I found a really nice place that I will probably go to sit and read sometime. It is a little bank alongside the river and it was just so peaceful, and of course along the path that lead there, cows were grazing, that is a given around here :)

On Tuesday I got the Internet, so I was spending a lot of time on there, trying to catch up with things. It is so nice to finally have unlimited access to the Internet. We had access in Targoviste, but I felt so bad for spending any length of time on the computer, because there were so many people who wanted to use it, and everything that I wanted to do took time. I did go to cafe's from time to time, but it is so much nicer just to sit at home and work, and besides my computer is rather heavy to lug around. We did actually end up getting wireless at school, but we didn't have more than a half and hour at a time to work on things, and seeing as I had a lot of catching up to do, that wasn't much time to work. I made it through however, and these past few days I have sent a lot of e-mails, figured out a lot of thiings, and gotten hopefully reconnected with everyone that I can! So after that I took a nap for a little while, called a friend, and then walked around town with some new friends for a little while.

That brings me to Wednesday, on Wednesday I chilled out at home a lot, did some more work on the Internet and then in the evening I went to Lake Prud. This is the lake that divides Moldova and Romania. We actually camped out there, it was really nice, the sunset was absolutely beautiful and the scenery is beautiful as well (all of these pictures are posted to my facebook page). I simply love it there. So we had a gratar (BBQ) out there that night, I watched all of the crazy kids being crazy fun kids, I tried to speak in Romanian, but did not do so well, and we slept out there. It was cold at night, and not very comfortable, but I made due. On Thursday we went swimming, well I should say I only went swimming on Thursday, some of the others went the night before when it was really cold, but I opted not to! That was fun and we layed out on the beach for a while and relaxed. My back burned a little bit, but not to bad, I am not quite as white as I was before. So when we returned home I took some more time to catch up on the Internet (noticing a pattern here huh) and read and relaxed for a bit.

That brings us to Friday, I walked down to the piata (the local market) as it is held on Fridays, and apparently I only saw half of it, but it was crazy. My little town holds the piata every Friday, so people from the smaller villages in the communa, come to Trusesti for things, there were people and horse caruta everywhere! I have never seen so many people before. I wanted to take a picture, but I was afraid that I would be in the way of people, maybe I will try next week :) The fresh vegetables there are amazing though, and those are available everyday, on Fridays they have clothes, macaroni, rice, cheese, meat, honey, jam, everything that you can think of, so I am going to have to really check it out next week!

After that I went to school for a while, I checked out my classroom, I was going to try to start organizing it, but that didn't work so well because there is so much stuff in there right now, so I am going to wait until later to see what is mine and what is not and what will be there and what can be moved. I was able to talk a little bit in Romanian however, and that felt good, when I have no other option but to speak in Romanian I do a lot better, since I don't have a fall back, but I really do enjoy the language! So after that I returned home to change and then went fishing for a little while. One of the guys I was with caught a fish, but I did not catch anything...oh well that is life! :) Then I returned home to relax and study a bit, and now I am here updating my blog so you all know how I am doing!

Just so you all know, I am doing really well, I truly like it here and I am looking forward to starting work. I think that I will be traveling a bit and I truly want to see the rest of the beautiful country. I do miss my new friends that I have made through PST, but thanks to the technology in Romania it will be easier to keep in touch with not only them, but also all of my great family and friends at home in the States. I hope to see the mountains sometime soon, and also to travel to the Black Sea, maybe next summer, there is just to much going on right now to do so. I also hope to travel outside of the country as well, when in Europe, you might as well travel when and where you can! I am currently working on obtaining my address, items for me will probably be sent to the school, more than likely in my name, but we are working on that and as soon as I get that to those of you who want it I will send it on. Other than that life is good, I have not started working yet, but I am sure once I do I will have some interesting stories to tell you! Thank you all for all of your support, always feel free to shoot me an e-mail if you have any specific questions that I am not answering, or to tell me what is going on back home because I am really interested in your lives as well. I know you all have great and interesting stories to tell me as well and I want to hear them!

Alright well I hope all is well, I think I have given you all enough to read for now! Se Iubesc si cred despre voi in fiecare zi! I love you all and think about you everyday!

La revedere!

~Until later
Sarah B.