If You Are Looking for My Heart, I'll Tell You Where to Find it...

As I promised....post 2! So the counterpart conference was last weekend. Preparation for the conference was a little strained. Too many leaders were stuck in an extremely hot room together and tempers were flaring! The conference itself went well. It was a bit redundant for us volunteers because we had heard much of the information before, but it was necessary for our counterparts' understanding.

I was very very excited to meet my counterpart Zsuzsa. She's 27 years old, really nice, and extremely excited to have me at school. We had a great time getting to know each other over the weekend. I must say, those of us with Hungarian counterparts...plus Sara's Romanian counterpart...had the best time of all. After a beer, mine and Brittany's Hungarian was perfect...or so said one of the Hungarian counterparts...we are still unsure...haha.

Peles Castle

Last Tuesday, Zsuzsa and I left in her car for Judetul Harghita! It was about a 4-5 hour drive. On the way up, we stopped at a city called Sinaia to visit Peles Castle. Three other volunteers and their counterparts stopped with us as well. We took a tour of the elaborately decorated castle, but unfortunately were not able to take pictures. In Romania, you usually have to pay more to take pictures, and even more to film a video. This particular castle was really strict about this policy. The walls and ceilings were covered in carved wooden panels depicting all sorts of scenes from mythology, history, and art. This castle definitely had a Saxon vibe...I love it! When we finished at the castle we continued on our way to site. We arrived at site around 4:30 and met with Zsuzsa's husband and son, then we all headed to the next village to meet my colleagues at my school. I about cried as we drove into my village and walked into my school to meet all of the teachers. I was so excited to meet them, but also honored to be there for them. I instantly felt welcomed and loved by all. The school “lunch lady” made us a delicious meal...I guess that's one cultural difference between America and Romania...lunch food is actually delicious here!. Zsuzsa's son is two years old and such a little stinker...an adorable stinker of course. Funny story, we were eating this amazing dessert made with cake, apricots, and a marshmallow-like topping; I was sitting next to Zsuzsa who had her son on her lap and he was eating cake too, only he was just eating the marshmallow topping off of the top; he would take a bit and then put it back on the table; one time, I guess he couldn't reach the table because the next thing I knew, there was something sticky on my arm...he threw his cake in my lap! It was hilarious and had all of us at the table laughing hysterically. After dinner, I was taken to my apartment to settle in! My apartment is on the 3^rd floor of the only bloc in town. It is across the street from the church...can you guess what happened the next morning???

The Catholic Church in my village

Wednesday I was woken up bright and early by 1. ringing church bells at 5 am and 2. the rising sun at 6 am...and my gazda sister wondered why I was so tired when I got back to training site. Oh well waking up at the break of dawn every once in a while does a person good...unless it happens everyday for two years, in which case we might have a problem. I will say I did get to see some amazing sunrises behind the mountains. Oh yeah, I'm surrounded by mountains...my village lies in a large mountain valley. I have always had this dream of hiking up a mountain and lying in one of the meadows you see up high...we'll see how much stamina I have to fulfill this dream. Yeah so, Wednesday I spent the day with my school's director and his family. It was quite interesting because they don't speak English, and I really don't speak enough Hungarian to converse yet. Together we spoke lots of RomHunGlish...mine and Brittany's creation. First, we ate a hearty breakfast full of meet and salad and toast with jam...I'm lucky my stomach didn't give out on me. After that we went into the bigger city that isn't far from my village, Miercurea-Ciuc. I left my cellphone back at my gazda's which had my counterpart freaking out more than me, and we decided it was best to get another phone with a different provider. So the director took me to Vodafone to get a new phone...which the school paid for!!!! Its a pretty awesome phone if I say so myself...the nicest one I've ever had in my life.  Mom, you wouldn't know what to do with it! Before going to get the phone, the director's 20 year old daughter and I went to a restaurant to get ice cream. It is quite the interesting experience when you can't really communicate. We were sitting down and Imola went to get the waitress to come ask me what kind of ice cream I wanted...in English. We ran into problems when I asked what flavors they had. I watched the waitress splutter and try to find words for a minute or two and then told her I could speak Romanian if that helped. It did. I was soon enjoying a bowl of piersici si vanilie inghetata...peach and vanilla ice cream for you non-Romanian speakers. After all of that excitement we went back to the village to have a late lunch...REALLY late lunch...at the “lunch lady's” house. Man is she an amazing cook. Chicken broth and noodles never tasted so good. Nor have I ever eaten so much paprika, but its a nice change from the “naturally” flavored food of the south...or bland if you prefer. Haha, no really I have loved just about everything I've eaten in Romania...its just a little different in Szekely land. After “lunch” we went back to the director's house and rested before dinner. We ate dinner at another colleague's house and it was quite fun. The older gentlemen were more willing to speak Romanian with me, so the conversation was more lively. Eventually someone pulled out an atlas and we looked at a map of the United States...and the map of Canada which included a more detailed map of Michigan...I think Europe might be confused on the subject of where the US ends and where Canada begins...I know we are too...haha. And of course the conversation turned to politics...but they were very understanding of my reluctance to give my opinion of American politics. Mostly they were curious about the economic crisis. Economics. Totally not my strong point. I tried to explain that Michigan's economy has sucked for a few years, so the crisis wasn't really a surprise.

Sunrise over my mountains

Thursday I spent the day with Zsuzsa. Again I was awaken by the bells and Easterly sun streaming in my bedroom window. We ate another hearty breakfast and went back into Ciuc to have vodafone activate my number...which they apparently overlooked the day before. It was a pretty chill day and I went back to my apartment to rest before heading to a Hungarian music festival with Zsuzsa and her husband. It was a lot of fun. We saw a fairly popular Hungarian rock band...I didn't understand much...ok, any...of it, but I still liked it. While at the festival, I was bought a kurtoskalacs. It is the most amazingly deliciously heavenly scrumptious Hungarian dessert-ish bread thing. That's about the best description I can give. You'll just have to come visit me in Szekely land to find out for yourself! We didn't get back until 2 am...which for me is like not sleeping for 48 hours.

First night at the music festival

Friday morning I didn't not hear the church bells! Hooray! I was so tired I slept right through them...or maybe it was the fact that I closed my bedroom window. Again, Friday was a pretty chill day. We didn't eat breakfast because Zsuzsa spent the morning trying to figure out how to get me back to training site. So we just had a light snack at the village pool...quite the experience. It started pouring and we barely made it without getting soaked. I don't know what is going on, but everybody in all of Romania seems surprised at the amount of rain we have had this summer. Stupid me for never investing in those rainboots I had my eye on all Spring. For lunch we went to a pensiune...bed & breakfast/hotel...in a nearby village. Zsuzsa treated me to Pepsi, pizza, coffee...yes I am starting to drink cups of coffee...with lots of milk and sugar of course, but not from Starbucks...AND dessert. Amazing. It also helped that we saw some other Americans there, I didn't say anything because they were a large group, but after over two months in a foreign country where most other Americans are Peace Corps Volunteers...you get starstruck. Again I was dropped off at my apartment before going back to the music festival. This festival is put on for students and is a Hungarian Romanian version of Woodstock. People camp out in nearby fields and then head over to a nearby mountain valley to listen to some great music...if only Woodstock were so cool. This night we saw a lady who won Hungary's Megastar competition a few years ago. She had an amazing voice and actually sang about half of her songs in English. From “Black Hose and a Cherry Tree” to “Bohemian Rhapsody” to Pink's “Sober” to “Highway to Hell”, she really performs for everyone! This night wasn't such a late night...we were back by midnight, which was a good thing because...

Saturday I was up at 5! But on purpose this time. We had to leave that early for her to drive about a hour and a half to get picked up by a maxi-taxi en route to my training site. When I got on the maxi-taxi there was actually a volunteer from last year's group, so it was nice to have somebody else on board. It was a hot and bumpy ride, but I eventually made it back to my gazda's in dire need of a shower and rest. I was nicely reminded that “you live only once and you shouldn't spend all of your time sleeping” by my host sister. I kindly reminded her that I wasn't sleeping the whole afternoon, I also read and watched TV and played solitaire, but she didn't see that did she...things are just different for the young'uns.

Next week is our last week of training!!!!!!!!! We have a review session and then our Language Proficiency Interviews...I'm only freaking out a little bit about sitting down with an interviewer and speaking my 4^th language for 30 minutes...only a little bit. After that we have our swearing in ceremony in Bucharest!!! That is when we OFFICIALLY become Peace Corps Volunteers!

Alright, next time something interesting happens I promise I'll blog about it. Now just when that blog comes, I give no guarantees.