Alanica Fara Frica

Litterally.  I’ve finally installed a shower curtain and a shower head mount in my bathroom.  No more sit down showers for me!  Of course, the same day I did that, my kitchen faucet broke and I have to use my bathroom sink to clean my dishes until I fix it.  Word to the wise, if I locate to your city when I return stateside, be my roomate.  I have become much more handy around the house.  My resume includes:

• lampshade made of plastic bottles
• being able to hang pictures on concrete walls
• washing clothes by hand
• keeping plants alive
• making end tables from cardboard boxes
• defunking random smells
• installing faucets (time will tell on this one)

Also, this past week the mayor’s office had their annual christmas party.  It was quite an experience including; a two dinners, a political fight between council members, a striptease to You Can Leave Your Hat On and lots and lots of circle dancing.

I’ll be spending my christmas in Targu Mures (city near Reghin) with other volunteers who opted not to go travelling outside of Romania.  Then I’m back to Sibiu to share in the festivities of Romania joining the EU.  Apparently there will be a 70 min fireworks show by the same company that did the opening ceremony for the 2004 Olympics.

My cousin Sam came to visit for a week after spending 2 months in Morocco.  He came at the tail end of IST and got to party like a volunteer for a few days.  Then we travelled to see Sighisoara on our way back to Sibiu. Took a nice little hike up in the hills above sighi and played a little frisbee.  We didn’t get to play long, however, because a herd of cows came and interupted our field.  Eh… cows happen.

We came back to Reghin and Sam spent his remaining time here.  I made sure that he got to try everything great that Romania had to offer.  So, needless to say, we drank a lot of romanian moonshine.  We saw some music from a mediocre local band and hung out with my romanian friends from town.  At the bar with music, we met two americans who are living in the area.  They are both from Indiana and one of them actually lived in cincy for a little while, but not only that, he lived in Clifton on Wheeler St., where I used to live with the 2212 boys.  (obviously, at 2212 Wheeler)

We spent our last day having a BBQ with a friend and got to eat some good meat and drink some homemade wine.  Sam got a good taste of what my life is like here so feel free to call him in the middle of the night sometime to ask him what my apartment is like, or how far I walk to work in the mornings.

That is how I would explain my last week and a half.  I’ve been in the city of Sibiu for an In-Service Training conference for the volunteers in my group.  We have three conferences spread over our service to get together and talk about our projects and learn hold sessions on information we would need at that time.  So basically 68 americans get together in a big city and party for a week.  We had some language training and some sessions on grant writing and funding options… sounds fun, right?  Well we also had four birthday parties and a christmas party.  Got to watch the grinch and charlie brown’s christmas, as well as had a tacky christmas sweater contest and white elephant gift exchange.  All in all, it was great to see everybody and I learned a lot.  (when I say “learn”, I mean “dance”)

check out photos from IST by clicking the picture above

That is the date that Romania’s regions united into one country.  Think of it as July 4th.  On that day I was woke up by a friend of mine in town who wanted to go get a coffee.  We went to a place in the center and as he was driving me home, I realized he wasn’t driving me home.  I asked him where we were heading and he turned to me with a big smile.  “We go my house.  BBQ!”

So I found myself standing around a grill for the whole of the day drinking all kinds of homemade brandy and wine and moonshine.  My friends family was very welcoming to me and made sure I was never without food or drink.  Everytime I would speak the simplest romanian, they all laughed and got a kick out of the novel american trying to speak their language.  We had a lot of fun with it. 

Now I must go take my wet laundry and hang it from all of my door knobs around the apartment to dry.  Too cold outside.