Life at my gazda has been amazing.  I have never eaten three full meals a day with such regularity.  My mama gazda Ana is a great cook and everything that I eat is homemade.  She is very funny and likes to sneak me shots of palinka (moonshine) before each meal. I have definately been eating a lot more meat than I’m used to, but I don’t mind too much because the meat is much healthier than in the states.  Of course we are trying to stay away from chicken because of bird flu, but even here, it is a pretty distant threat.  I think I may break 150 pounds, I’ve been holding steady at 145 for five years.  We live all live in a small aparment in a large bloc on the south of town.  It is much nicer on the inside than it looks on the outside.  However, I hope that when I get my site assignment (in 3 weeks!) I will get to live in housing that was built before the communist era.

This past weekend I went to Brasov (pronounced bra-shove) with four other volunteers and we had a blast.  A lot of Romanians had told us that Ploiesti kinda sucks and we only understood that after spending a weekend outside of it.  Brasov is set inbetween two big hills and it is probably the most beautiful setting for a city that I have seen.  (it has aproximately 300,000 people)  Check out the pictures at www.828pm.com/photos. 

Sorry I haven’t been posting any pictures, but I’ve had some technical difficulties with setting up some of my site.  I also hope to be posting more often, but right now my daily schedule is school for 8 hours, hanging out with volunteers for 2 at a teresa (cafe), eating a big dinner at home, talking with my gazdas for a while, then passing out around 11.  Once PST is over at the end of July, I will have more time to organize my communications. 

Pa!
-alannesti