Week One Practicum...Check!

Wow, here we are finishing week 5 of PST! Sorry for the lapse in updates.  My computer was not working for a while, but last weekend my host sister took me to a computer repair shop.  Tuesday I got it back good as new...I just have had to reinstall all the programs I had on it before it crashed.  Oh well, its getting back to normal now, so I'm happy.

June 12-15, we finally were allowed on supervised visits outside the county boundaries!!  We went on an IFV (Integrated Field Visit) to see the site of a current PCV.  We traveled with our language groups and our language instructor.  My group, and another language group left together to visit two volunteers with sites in the southwest part of Transylvania.  We had quite the adventure.  My group took a train that left at 9:30 in the morning for Bucharest.  We wanted to walk around the city before we left for our site.  Unfortunately, that weekend happened to be the hottest string of days we've had in Romania.  We were walking around with our heavy backpacks, sweating bullets...rather unpleasant.  However, we did see some neat things in Bucharest.  We left the train station and took the metro to the University.   There, we saw the building that still has bullet marks from the Revolution that began the end of the communist regime.  There was a plaque to memorialize it.  Next we got burgers and sandwiches from a fast food place that all of the PCVLs told us about.  We took the sandwiches to go and ate in the large park.  It was beautiful, but I would have been more into it if I wasn't so tired and hot and gross in general.  After that we sat on the lawn in front of the People's Palace, the building Ceausescu began during his regime, and now houses the Romanian Parliament.  After a rest, we began the journey back to the train station where we met with the other language group and together we found the maxi-taxi station.

We lasted about an hour on that maxi-taxi before it overheated.  It had to stop and wait for another bus to come pick us up.  We were very happy about that because the bus was big and new and had real air conditioning!  A few hours later, we transferred to another maxi-taxi to take us the rest of the way to our site.  Towards the end of the journey, we traveled through a mountain gorge, it was fantastic.  Mountains rose around us as we followed a winding river.  At 10 pm we finally arrived at the city and were greeted by our volunteers and some of their friends.  They took us to the hotel, we checked in, then we went to an outdoor bar to eat and watch some World Cup soccer.  That completed Saturday of the journey.

And I think I'll finish the rest of the trip in another post :)  Here are some pictures for you all...the first is the building in Bucharest with bullet holes, the second is the People's Palace, and the third is the view from my hotel room on my IFV.

Week Two, Here We Come!

We've begun our second week of training!  It feels like forever ago that we all said goodbye to our friends and family.  I can't believe it has only been two weeks!  I have been blessed with a fantastic host family...which after the disastrous start to my semester in France I feel I deserved...hahaha.  There is my gazda mom, dad, and two sisters.  The older of the two girls speaks English very well and we have been having a great time.  I call her my personal social planner because she is always planning stuff for us to do, new people to meet, and places to see.  While it can be tiring at times, I appreciate the effort the entire family has put in to acclimate me into Romanian society.

Language classes are going well.  This week we were placed into our more specialized groups.  In my group we all seem to be at the same level, which is nice.  Today we learned vocabulary to get us through a visit to the "posta," or post office.  We would have gone a field trip to the "posta" to mail a letter, but it was raining.  Instead our language instructors set up shop in their office and it was rather amusing.  By now I know some basic verbs, possession, common phrases and greetings, numbers (yes, I can count to one hundred!).  Some things we haven't learned yet are food, clothing, and colors....the basics that we usually learn right away in a language...but PC does things a little differently :) .

Sunday afternoon, my host sisters took me, and another volunteer, to their grandmother's house in the country.  It was a fun time...despite the crazy country driving!  They had a very hyper dog named Jack...AAAANNNND a litter of kittens!!!  They pulled out two for us to hold and I fell in love.  I told my gazda sister that I want to take the kitten with me when I go to site...we'll see if it happens.  Apparently it is not too difficult to bring cats back into the States, unlike dogs.  So mom, don't be surprised if we have a new addition to our family :) .  But if its any comfort to you, I won't be at home too long after I return...haha.

Well I have to go catch up with my Tigers in the remaining time I have before sessions resume!

Freya

P.S. I posted new pictures on my facebook page....check them out!!!