Arad

Good News Everyone! I finally have my new site placement and will be moving to Arad on February 6th after I return from Paris. Arad is a metropolis of 200,000 residents and is the country seat for judetul Arad therefore no more traveling eight hours roundtrip to pick up packages! The town borders Hungary and is located in the Transylvanian region of Romania. It has a theatre, two malls,a trolley system, an airport and half a dozen major grocery stores. It will be quite a change from my small town of 4,500 and I'm a little nervous about moving and getting lost in the shuffle of a major city but i was fortunate enough to be able to visit this past weekend.

Within the city are two other volunteers from my group, Tom and Shaneka, about an hour outside of town are Justin also from my group and Jimmy from group 25. Jimmy is very familiar with Arad and has many influential, English speaking friends there and so was nice enough to organize a gathering so that he could introduce the newest volunteer to them.

So after one of the most awkward afternoons in my office while I worked up the courage to tell my counterpart Diana that I was being moved, and then going on to disappoint my Environmental Class by telling them that Peace Corps decided I was needed somewhere else and wouldn't be able to teach them anyore, I went home and started packing. Saying good bye to my kids was...uncomfortable, they were the one thing I had going that I would have wanted to stay for but there is just too much else that isn't working here. I did nominate their school to have a TEFL (English Teacher) PCV from the group that is arriving in May and I really hope that they are happy there.

Friday night I packed up everything I wasn't taking to Paris, left enough socks and undies for a few days for when I return and stuffed two HUGE suitcases and another two canvas bags full of things to take with me and leave at Tom's. Hauling around all that stuff I really wished it hadn't been winter and I had to deal with icy sidewalks and freezing toesy on top of it. But I arrived in Arad and was met at the station by Jimmy and Justin who gallantly helped me carry everything to Tom's apartment. We headed out to try and find a pizza place they knew about, but it was closed, as was the second option, and we finally stumbled upon a third restaurant called Pizza OK!

After dinner the group all went out to a lounge that is a favorite of the Romanians we were meeting up with and they were all thrilled to have another volunteer among them. (There have been a few volunteers placed in and around Arad for the past ten years and they had befriended them all.) What better way to bond with a new group of people than by singing kareoke? Well I had to swallow my pride and pick a song from the fishbowl and make a fool of myself singing "UnBreak My Heart" by Toni Braxton. First time I had ever been tricked into actually singing kareoke but it was actually quote enjoyable and Cosmin and I went on to sing "Like a Virgin" and then "Boom" by the Vengaboys.

I think I can be happy there. The new park that I will be working with has had experience with PCVs before and already have a few things they would like me to work on, and I've been introduced into a group of really great people. So a new Beginning is just around the corner.

Next stop. PARIS,FRANCE!!! for five nights and six days all for under $400.

I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends

1 instance of spencer finally downloading skype and getting to talk to him
+
1 semi-surprise mailing with a completely perfect book and a tear-jerking inspiration card from train
+
1 incredibly thoughtful and lengthy email from michael
+
and 3 squeals of excitement over realizing that there is a week left til we go to paris from becca
= a very happy me


oh. and it snowed all day today. so ive been walking in a winter wonderland

The view of the other side of the valley from my apt.
Complete with the smoking chimneys of neighboring blocs.

A Chance To Redeem Itself

The people here have a wonderful way with words (as humourously seen a few days ago), here is an example of one of their more famous authors, Elie Weisel who would go on to win the Nobel Prize.

Frienship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing.

Elie Weisel

Mihai Eminescu is Romania's most beloved and famed poet and lyricist. He's even on their money. One of his more famous poems in English and then Romanian just because its a pretty language.

Mihai Eminescu "The Sleepy Birds"

All those sleepy birds

Now tired from flight

Hide among the leaves

Good-night!

Only the spring whispers

When the wood sleeps silently;

Even flowers in the gardens

Sleep peacefully!

Swans glide to their nest

Sheltering among the reeds

May angels guard your rest,

Sweet dreams!

Above a night of sorcery

Comes the moon's graceful light,

All is peace and harmony

Good-night!

Somnoroase păsărele...

Somnoroase păsărele

Pe la cuiburi se adună,

Se ascund în rămurele

-Noapte bună!

Doar izvoarele suspină,

Pe când codrul negru tace;

Dorm şi florile-n grădină

-Dormi în pace!

Trece lebăda pe ape

Între trestii să se culce

-Fie-ţi îngerii aproape,

Somnul dulce!

Peste-a nopţii feerie

Se ridică mândra lună,

Totu-i vis şi armonie

-Noapte bună!

We Can Insult You Better Than Anyone Else

http://www.cracked.com/article_16275_the-9-most-devastating-insults-from-around-world.html

oh romania....you make me so proud....sadly not for its beautiful mountains but for its creativity in profanity

A Girl and Her Soba

So if any of you have had the pleasure to talk to my these past few weeks, especially during my evening hours, you will likely have heard me battle with lighting my soba. A soba is a clay brick enclosed fireplace that you shove wood into so it radiates heat throughout the room. Soba's are traditionally for country dwellers, everyone's grandparents have one in every room. Here in Herculane we do not have gas lines that run to our town so everyone has one as the only source of heating their homes.

I wasn't exactly the best Girl Scout in the world, our troop preferring to go shopping and have overnights in hotel rooms over learning how to build fires and take care of them. ( My mother actually once took us all on a walk at night and left our fire untended in the middle of Camp Lakapodia, but thats a story for another day) So maintaining a fire all day requires trips to the wood pile.

The selection of the right combination of log sizes has taken me weeks to perfect.

The other thing about soba heat is that there is virtually no way to regulate the temperature your apartment will inevitably reach. Its pretty much...cold or tropical heat wave. The following is a discussion I had with a fellow volunteer and dear friend

[8:09:25 PM] Joel Piche: whatup
[8:09:50 PM] Elizabeth White: contemplating a shower
[8:09:56 PM] Joel Piche: not a terrible idea
[8:10:03 PM] Joel Piche: but being cold? brrr
[8:10:35 PM] Elizabeth White: sobas= no control over how warm your apt gets
[8:10:39 PM] Elizabeth White: ergo
[8:11:01 PM] Elizabeth White: the necessity of clothes because you are on the ground floor and your window is like a display at the zoo
[8:11:13 PM] Joel Piche: lol. not good
[8:11:15 PM] Joel Piche: no walking around naked
[8:11:16 PM] Elizabeth White: clothes become the... instigator of stinkiness
[8:15:02 PM] Joel Piche: that's my least favorite part about cold weather
[8:15:06 PM] Joel Piche: bundling up at home
[8:17:13 PM] Elizabeth White: agreed bundling is only fun when snowmen are involved
[8:17:51 PM] Joel Piche: word
[8:18:07 PM] Joel Piche: but....
[8:18:11 PM] Joel Piche: i like not wearing clothes
[8:18:15 PM] Joel Piche: more than making snowmen

Today I Met the Boy I'm Gonna Marry

Yesterday was my first full day back at work since Thanksgiving. Obviously in two months you would expect a few changes, new hairstyles, maybe a new picture on the wall or something. Well that didn't exactly happen, in fact everyone was wearing pretty much the same thing when I left. Though you couldn't honestly tell because they all hide inside their coats since October. Anywho on to my husband...

There were an extraordinary amount of new people coming and going from the office yesterday morning so I inquired of my counterpart just who exactly these new individuals were. I should have known better. The following exchange was all in Romanian my thoughts in parenthesis:

-They are working with our engineer on a road. Are you interested in any of them? That man there talking to the boss he is unattached.
(uh oh.)
-He has a good job with the Forest Service.
(and now the traits will be listed off...in order of importance)
-He comes from a good family, has a big car...a Jeep!, he is young and attractive
(...aaand wait for it...)
-Would you like us to introduce you? He knows a little English. Are you interested?
--No thank you, I'm not interested in anyone these days.
-But Alizabet we want you to get married and be happy and that way you will stay here forever.
-(:gulp:)

and then they proceed to discuss his multiple traits that would indicate a good match and they didn't understand why I was uninterested in him.
-(...and now they will ask what happened to Chris..)
-Alizabet you had a boyfriend when you came here, why don't you see him anymore. When did you stop dating, why did he never come to the office to meet us? You need to be with someone its not good to be by yourself. A man will make you happy.
--I need to go have a cigarette. (no I did not take up smoking but it's the only acceptable excuse to leave in any situation.)

So yes. I'll send you all e-vites book your tickets now because if they have their way, I'll be engaged by Friday.

a wise man

I hold it true, whate'er befall;

I feel it, when I sorrow most;

'Tis better to have loved and lost

Than never to have loved at all.

~Tennyson

ken

We will be getting a new country director in March and i must admit my immense sadness at the thought of my crush major supreme on Ken Goodson, our current CD. Ken is probably one of the most fantastic people you will ever meet and it is a rarity that a country director meets all of the volunteers in their respective countries due to travel and communication limitations. Here we are blessed (other countries say spoiled rotten) with cell phones, internet, and reliable transportation so Ken has developed a personal relationship with about 98% of the volunteers here. Just this past Wednesday he treated me to a Starbucks coffee latte after saying to hell with Dr. Dan's orders of no caffeine. This is a man who you literally bear your soul and all your troubles to in four minutes. ( And I of course inappropriately asked the Ambassador on Thanksgiving if Ken has the same effect on him that he does on us volunteers, to which he classically responded "Well no actually Ken does that to me :)"
We're gonna miss you Ken.

My Year in Pictures

So this collage is definately not chronologically correct and definately doesn't encompass everything but as far as being a good reflection of my happenings for 2009 I think it fits the bill.

the imagaes are as follows beginning in the top left and moving across

1. Me on the top of the third highest mountain in Romania. Parungal Mare- September
2. An impromptu visit to Valerie's with Becca as my life was slowly falling apart - November
3. Fourth of July party where Deborah promised to include me in her will-July
4. Making tacos at Chris's with Simona- July
5. Building birdcages for Noah's Ark with Scholl and Michael-March
6. There were four of us from Ohio one this hike so we just had to do it for a website of O-H-I-O's from around the world-July
7. Mother Dearest busting a move at my going away party-May
8. Learning how to dance the Brascoveanca- a traditional couples dance and my favorite folk dance ever!! July
9. Visiting Chris in Bucuresti-August
10. My best friends drove multiple hours to come to my going away barbeque-May
11. Joslyn and I at the Heroes Cross. THE hardest climb we had ever been on. July
12. New Year's Eve in Belgrade,Serbia-December
13. Arrival to Serbia- December
14. My wood pile. Before the daily battles to light a fire began I was super excited about it. October
15. Swearing in Ceremony when we became Official Volunteers to Peace Corps Romania-August
16. Our last night in the States-May

I'm going to go now and search through my Pictures folder to fill in the blanks but I can't promise I'll be back because I'll probably get lost on memory lane....

Home Again

hey friends and loved ones,
so this time I really do plan on staying in one place for more than a few days. Being on the road/train rails for almost two months straight is draining in more ways than one, and as I was just starting to feel like I was going to be a couch surfer for the rest of service I finally got the good news that I will be moving to a new site next month. Things here in Herculane while beautiful and picturesque no doubt have been more than a little bit difficult and PC has decided that the best solution to the multitude of problems is to move me a few hours northwest to Arad a major metropolis up near the boarder of Hungary. I am really hoping things work out better there and I will be able to accomplish some good works, make some friends and take home even more unique memories.

I am very happy to be reunited with my computer. David was able to save all my pictures which are in my personal opinion the most important thing on my hard drive so I was eternally grateful for that.

To celebrate my return to my little slice of concrete heaven I stoked up a huge fire in my soba, filled all my water bottles with fresh stream water from the middle of town and called Simina to make a date for a walk. Simina is one of the coolest high school students I have met here in town, she's fascinated by my American accent since she speaks much more proper British English, and more grammatically correct English too (she sometimes has to explain the rules of accusative and dative to me. don't worry i'm properly ashamed...) anywho I might introduce her to some good ole peanut butter and banana sandwiches since I'm finally going to be here long enough to buy bread :)

C'est la Vie

oh yea and happy birthday to me! this year for my big present to myself (courtesy of the family) ill be going to Paris,France with another volunteer to celebrate our birthdays together on top of the Eiffel Tower with a bottle of champagne!

La Multi Ani la mine!!!!

S'mores

Now we all know and love these bonfire staples and have all watched the classic Sandlot scene where Ham teaches Smalls how to properly prepare the meal. Imagine a world where S'mores are unheard of and a new concept :gasp: I know. During one of the sessions for our IST this past December the magical words were said "...and then Wednesday night we'll have a bonfire out back and we will be making... Sa More es? Am I saying that right?" to which 38 pairs of previously unattentive sets of ears perked immediately up.





Two of our language instructors learning how to properly brown the mallow.

And our trusty Dr.Dan chief medical officer having his first ever taste of the glourious S'more he ahd seen in movies since he was a kid.

Later on I'll include the movie I took of him describing the experience.