Simina

I first met Simina while teaching here at the high school in BH. She was the most active student and the teacher was proud to present her to me as their prized pupil since she had taken the Cambridge Exam (I'm still not entirely sure what that means, but its an advanced English exam thats a super big deal). Anywho, she was so excited and nervous to meet me and speak with me that she could barely speak Romanian that first day.

We became fast friends, she soon got over her "girl crush" and forbid me to speak English to her wanting to help me improve my Romanian. By the way, explaining girl crush is a linguistic adventure I think everyone should undertake at some point in their lives. Simina has been my first true host country national friend, and at times she has helped me in ways she wouldn't know about just by her random texts and invites to walks it made me feel welcomed in a town I was very unhappy and lonely in. Our talks would range from physics to the inappropriateness of the n word, she insisted on me wearing slippers in my own home and gave me a few tricks on how to speed up building a fire. She taught me how to sling together an insult effective enough to get the children to stop shouting bad words at me, and I taught her how to make her new favorite food:cranberry walnut cookies.

I'm going to miss her very much when I move up to Arad. Thankfully she will be going to university in Bucuresti this fall so I will be able to see her when I go down for medical visits and things. She came by today to say goodbye and brought me her good luck sweater for my first day of work on Monday at my new site. It's such a comfort to know that I've made an impact on someone here, and her me. It was not a fun farewell, but a necessary one that thankfully she understands. I look forward to continuing our friendship and will hopefully get to see her again.

Tomorrow morning I will move to Arad to begin my new job at Parcul Natural Lunca Muresului. Wish me luck.