It’s 9 pm when I collapse onto my
bed after a long ride from Turda, and as I am about to fall asleep miserable
from having the stomach flu I think about one thing—how awesome it is to have
this new apartment with such a great bed! (read dorm style mattress).
Back in the beginning of August I
received bad news that I would have
to vacate my apartment by the end of the month because my landlord/owner wanted
to sell it to make more money. Little did I know how difficult it would be to
find a new place. For the entire month I, along with numerous others, searched
everywhere but came up empty. To my dismay I would have to follow through with
step Z (yes it was that far down) and move into the Inspectorat Scoalar--a county agency for school--which houses
students from various towns and villages, and visiting teachers. However I had
to stay with a professor for two weeks until it was deemed 'ready.' On the last
night at my temporary apartment I thought my luck had changed when a lady
offered to rent her grandmother’s former apartment to me! The apt. was decent,
average former communist bloc apt..the norm here however once I stepped into
the bathroom and saw it crawling with bugs I immediately decided to stick with
the Inspectorat place. Battling bugs for eight months on a constant
basis was enough for me!
The new place is no posh-core
apartment! For two weeks I was without hot water which I suppose normally
wouldn't be a big deal BUT I also didn't have a stove; I couldn't even take a
bucket shower with warm water. Additionally the place came without a
refrigerator and only has one sink in the bathroom. The modified PC motto from "how do you look at a glass with half water in…" to include "a PCV sees it and
thinks I can take a bath with it!" definitely rang true with me. Water conservationists
would be so proud of me. As for my food I am grateful to finally own two
burners and a small refrigerator as the all natural diet was getting a tad
old. To celebrate I decided to bake a
cake. Not having any table space I sat on the floor mixing the batter afterwards
I found on the floor above me a community stove albeit not cleaned for a few
years (yuck). At this time the electricity decided to go out so the reminder of
my baking was done in the hallway and again on the floor. There was no tray in
the oven thereby requiring the pan to sit directly above the floor of the oven;
needless to say the cake turned out horrible. My celebration was short-lived
(looking back it stopped after I bought the ingredients at the local store)! No
more baking for me…darn it all.
While my new living arrangements
are less than to be desired for other things have gone really well. I am happy
to say that after eight months my SPA project is finally complete. The
playground opened up recently to all the village kids grinning ear to ear
waiting anxiously to use the equipment. I must say I was delighted. In PC
Romania where volunteers work on projects with results usually being intangibles
(i.e. trainings, changing mentalities, etc) unlike in many other PC countries
where projects result in tangible accomplishments it can be extremely difficult
to see the value of what and why we are here. Therefore to have a project with
both tangible (playground) and intangible (project planning /org.
management/proper use of funds) accomplishments is absolutely wonderful.
Shortly after cutting the ribbon
with my counterpart and a volunteer to officially open the playground I hopped
on a bus to help another volunteer with her festival roughly six hours away. Turda
Fest was good, classic Romanian festival including vendors with traditional
arts and crafts, food, and agro businessmen. Plus a world record was broke and
I helped--in a very, very small way! Kalacs
is traditional bread made by rolling the dough onto a long cylinder heated up
with a fire below spinning slowly. Sugar,
nuts, or cinnamon are commonly added to give flavor. Turda now owns the record
for the longest kalacs (Hungarian spelling)in
the world! I, along with many other volunteers, carried the 20-30 ft. cylinder
to the center of town. Carrying it we all resembled a military unit—marching to
cadence wasn’t far off.
The festival was also great for
another reason. These events give volunteers a chance to get together, have
fun, catch up, and of course distress. For four days Turda included a "little
American" community with thirty or so volunteers helping with manual labor by preparing
the kiosks, putting, re-applying roofs to them, and an attempt to manage the
crowd before a parade, ha! That most definitely failed. But in the end I
certainly enjoyed myself meeting up with friends and seeing a new part of Romania.
Unfortunately a ciorba, or sour soup,
had other plans. The last night I was unable to fall asleep (we were all at the
PCVs office using a variety of mattresses and sleeping bags) and after a hour
of tossing and turning I had to make a mad dash to the bathroom for the
inevitable. There is nothing worse then having to go Number 2 and to vomit
simultaneously. Let's just say I crashed
the rest of night next to the toilet. Fun times.
To get back to site as quick as
possible for rest I decided to skip the bus and hitch. Going from Turda to Sibiu with another
volunteer worked out great. Lovely people these students were, we got to ride
for free! The ride also only took approximately 2.5 hrs instead of three or
more. We were quickly picked up at the next autostop (hitchhiking stop) by
someone with a big van. It does not help that one of the worst roads in Romania in terms of traffic, width of the road,
and terrain happened to be between Sibiu
and my city, but this man was a horrible driver! Stop, go, stop, and go
continued forever. While stuck in a huge jam due to only one lane being open I
kept thinking a horse-drawn cart from nearby towns would be faster than this. Another
thought that crossed my mind (excuse me to all the Americans reading this) was
that I kept wishing this man would start driving more like his fellow Romanians
or Europeans for that matter, he wasn’t super fast nor did he have any ‘wild’
driving traits found commonly here…he was very American in his driving. He kept
letting people pass in front of him and he would never seize the opportunity to
pass semis when the path was actually clear. What can I say after living here
sixteen months I am either used to crazy drivers or have realized American drivers
are too polite?
At any rate, the trip in total
did get me home quicker than a bus (8 hrs.) or train (10-14 hrs) which made the
second leg of the journey worth it. This brings me back to where I started…in
my bed. Even though I now live in something on par with a dormitory minus all
amenities(no tv and no internet—not allowed) plus sharing it with two unwelcome
guests—spiders which went crazy as seen on my arm, neck and a few bites on my
face and mold, the apartment to its
credit has not one but two comfortable beds!!! Ahh I was able to sleep the next
twelve hours in comfort and for now, my friends, that is all that matters.
NEW ADDRESS: Apt.
219, Str. N. Balcescu, Ramnicu Valcea, Jud. Valcea, Romania
And if you care to make a trip to the post office…
- I am in need of some Halloween
candy for the upcoming 2nd edition of a school party/fundraiser...and perhaps some taste testing by yours truly...
- Posters—a way to give my apt. a
new feel (and to cover up the permanent mold). All posters welcome
- Key chain. Romanians have them
but I can't seem to find one and I'm in desperate need of one
- CDs with movies on them. They
must be VCD format or something else but NOT DVD; I don't have a dvd player on
my laptop, big regret! If you can convert your dvds to this format or others
you will be my new superhero. Seriously, I am not kidding!!!!
Mulţumesc frumos! (Thanks a lot) | 
