Well, its Been About a Month...

I fully apologize for being lousy at this whole blog thing. I promise to work on it...right after I finish saving the world and all...haha.

So, last blog post was at the end of the first week of Practicum...which was about a month ago.

Well let's see. For the second week of Practicum, Sara and I taught 8^th graders. Once again, our students were fabulous. We focused on a different topic each day and really tried to get them to discuss and practice speaking. I think we did a good job of it. All of our observations went great. Well ok, not ALL, but we had a pissy observer that day...sooooo not our fault ;) The week went great...minus one little hiccup. On Friday, the last day of Practicum, I came down with a serious case of food poisoning. I still have yet to figure out what it was from, but all the symptoms were there. I haven't eaten popcorn or chocolate in two weeks. I was on a rice, crackers, and banana diet for two days. Yuck. Sara visited me after school on Friday and came bearing gifts...5 bouquets of flowers and two gifts from our students! So sweet! Saturday was much of the same, but luckily I was all better for Sunday, July 4^th!

Sunday morning I was up at 5 because I went with Sara to Bucharest. She had to get stitches out from having her mole removed and didn't want to find the way alone so being the good friend that I am, I agreed to go with her. We took a maxi-taxi at 6:15, and it arrived in Bucharest around 8. First, we got off the maxi-taxi at the wrong stop, thankfully it was not too big of a deal because we got on the same metro line. Then we took the metro to the University stop. We came out the wrong side of the metro and were greeted by torrential rain. We decided the 15 trek to the PC Office was not cool, so we ran across the street and hopped in a taxi. When we got to the office we hung out in the lounge and raided the clothing/random stuff left by departing PCVs. We came out with some good stuff! Although, at this point, the last thing we need is more stuff to drag with us to site. Sara's stitches came out in five minutes and we napped for a while before Sheila came to bring us back to the training site for the gazda barbecue. As we left the office, Sheila asked us if we were fans of coffee...yes, we were stopping at Starbucks. I ordered a venti caramel macchiato and a blueberry muffin. Mind you, this was the first “real” food I had eaten in two days, and it was glorious. I can't wait to get more, although a cup of coffee is around an 8^th of our bi-weekly allowance, yikes. We made it back for the barbecue, and boy did we have some interesting times...but in the spirit of cultural sensitivity I will refrain from divulging too much. It was a smashing success, for the most part. Afterwards most of the volunteers went to one person's house for a party...and more craziness ensued. All in all, it was the best 4^th of July one could hope for while living abroad!

Now for the big news! Last week we had our Site Announcement Ceremony! I now know where I will soon be departing (3 ½ weeks!!!!) to spend the next two years! Monday and Tuesday were basically full of anxiety and speculation...it was a good thing though. None of us could sit still through language class or the PC sessions in the afternoon. We all had site announcements on the brain! So Wednesday morning we had a session on diversity...and it was painful. Only because I was fidgety and couldn't concentrate...I felt like a 5 year old all over again. 11:00 rolled around and we all headed to the designated area for the ceremony. The Ambassador and his family arrived promptly at 11. After a short speech from the Sheila and the Ambassador, the ceremony began. The language instructors conducted the ceremony like the Academy Awards with the sites as categories and variations of our names as nominees. They always make things interesting. I was so happy to finally get my site! Now, I cannot post the town name, but it was exactly what I wanted...mountains and Hungarian! It is located near the center of the country, which makes it simultaneously easier and more difficult to get around to all of my other PC buddies.

This past weekend, was the first weekend we were officially allowed outside of the Dambovita county. Sara and I had made plans to go to Slanic, but it was her turn to get sick. I still went with my host sisters and another volunteer, Aron. Slanic is in the mountains and it is famous for salt. We visited the salt mine that is 270 m below ground. It was amazing inside. There was a playground, a soccer field, pictures from mythology, and famous Romanians carved out of salt. After the mine we walked up the mountain to the salt lake. We didn't swim because it had been raining, so the water was gross. Afterwards we grabbed an ice cream cone and drove back. The drive was beautiful once we were near the mountains.

Two weeks ago I started Hungarian class! It has been awesome. Everything is completely different, so it is taking more practice and studying to get the hang of things, but I'll pick it up. Last weekend our counterparts came to town and we had a three day conference. Then Tuesday we all left with our counterparts to visit our sites! We were back the following Friday.  I was incredibly excited for this, and I will write all about it in the next blog post...hopefully tomorrow!