Alanica Fara Frica

You may have noticed that I haven’t posted much about my project with the mayor’s office on the site.  Well, that’s mostly because there isnt too much to say.  For those of you who didn’t take notes, I am hoping to demolish the old fountain in the central park and replace it with a new one, pavilion/stage and viewing area for small events.  I have some designs drawn up and I’m starting to really like what is happening with them.  I decided the mayor needed to see them after weeks of both of us putting off a meeting.  So I stayed up late last night making some graphics to show off the designs and “casually” stood outside of his office until I “bumped” into him… he was busy.  Supposedly we are going to meet tomorrow morning.  So tomorrow I’ll either have a post about where I see this project going or how nothing ever gets done around here. 

In other news, when I returned from ambushing the mayor, I was invited upstairs because a collegue of ours had a baby.  We go up there and he has some snacks and pop for us to drink.  It still feels wierd that people throw parties for themselves. 

Also, I will accomplish one of my goals for my Peace Corps experience in June.  I’m going to a wedding!  My counterpart is getting married to her boyfriend of, like, a decade.  Of course I was excited for her, but I couldn’t hold in my own excitement of getting to go.  I have heard of other weddings here and they sound like quite the celebration including many meals, all kinds of homemade drinks, dancing till morning and (of course) kidnapping the bride and holding her for randsom to the groom (the randsom is usually having to do something embarassing).  Oh, and I also saw a wedding celebration on the street once that involved a gypsy band, a small tree with candy bars hanging off it and dancing in the sidewalk so that no one can pass.  Either way, they sound like my kind of parties.

• Many people of all ages ride their bikes and you never see anyone wear helmets.  But I have noticed that lately at night they all wear flourescent vests for visibility.
• Many people that I meet in the older generation can not understand at all why I’m here.
• Bars close their doors at 12 or 1 am but don’t actually close till the last people leave.
• They barely put any sause on their pizzas, so adding ketchup on top is expected. (I believe this is true for many E.European countries)
• “Non-Stop” actually means “I can close this establishment anytime I want, and it will probably be 10 min before you come”.
• Apparently, Metalica is the greatest band that has ever created music.

I spent the past holiday season visiting friends and family in Romania.  First, I went to Targu Mures and had a nice relaxing time with some other volunteers.  We ate and ate and didnt leave the apartment until it was time for me to head out to Ploiesti so I could visit my gazda family from PST.  Learned a valuable lesson about how easy stuff could get stolen on trains on the way down there when my friends bag was stolen as he slept.  Didn’t lose anything unreplaceable save his passport.  Oh, and he was heading to Istanbul a few days later.  It was not a pleasant train ride.  There is not much street crime here, so there isn’t much reason to fear strangers here, but to trust them, well…

After spending some time with my gazda, I headed back up to Sighisoara for a cookie roulette party.  Let me just give you a little advice.  Don’t eat a cookie that has a tablespoon of salt in the middle.  It’s actually not as good as you would think.

Finally, off to Sibiu to celebrate new years.  There were tens of thousands of people in the street to celebrate not only Romania joining the EU, but Sibiu becoming the (co) Cultural Capital of Europe, which basically means… uh…   They are a little fireworks crazy here and didn’t hold back on the 31st and the 1st.  Went to a concert in the center square and had a blast with other volunteers and romanian friends.  The biggest difference that I noticed partying for new years here was that there was no countdown.  Well, there probably was, but there were so many people we could have easily missed them counting down on stage.  I guess we just assumed we wouldn’t be able to miss it.

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.

Last year I was living in Portland and spent my Thanksgiving with a large group of other west coast orphans.  We had a great time and it really gave me a chance to appreciate the holiday more than I ever had.  Being away from home made me more conscience of what I had to be thankful for.

This year was exponentially more powerfull.  Tim and I had a train to catch leaving Poland on thursday night at 10:30.  The Krakow gang had planned a big Thanksgiving dinner for anyone that was interested in going.  There were Americans (both current residents and ex-pats), Canadians, Poles, Brits and someothers that I can’t remember.  Steve had left that morning, but Ian was there that night and so were Anna and Katie.  It was nice to spend that time with Steve and Ian because we were together the year before for our midwest meets west coast Thanksgiving.  The turkey we finally found was frozen and we didn’t get it till the afternoon so we had to flash thaw it in the bath tub… a bird bath (bad joke).   And, of course, at 8:28pm we were deep into our circle of thanks. 

It was hard to leave such a lively group right in the middle of the party, but Tim and I had a train to catch… and we really didn’t want to do dishes.  Filled up on stuffing and wine, we were ready to sleep through our 15 hour train ride back to Arad where….

We did Thanksgiving all over again!

A volunteer in a small town outside of Arad had organized a dinner of about 13 volunteers and 20 romanians.  It was nice to get out into the countryside of RO after spending a crazy week in Poland, but my late nights sure didn’t get any earlier.We hung out friday night in the cabana in the woods and caught up after having spent a few months apart at our sites.  We had great food that night and lots of fun sharing our holiday with Romanians.  Highlights of the night include:

• Deep fried turkey, it was my first experience with that, and I don’t think I can go back
• Stirring the big bowl of mashed potatoes with a rolling pin
• Having a dance party in the tiny kitchen
• The french guy dancing on top of the old iron stove and waking up to find his shoes had melted on the bottoms
• Did I mention deep fried turkey?
• Sleeping in a bed by myself (needless to say sleeping conditions were a little cramped in Krakow)
• Sitting around a fire

Well, chalk up another great Thanksgiving.  Now I’m back in Reghin and have to do work and wake up “early” and upload pictures and clean my apartment and study romanian and …

After a pretty entertaining train ride with Anna, Katie and Clint (another volunteer who just happened to going to Krakow on the same train) I arrived in Krakow in the early foggy morning.  We wandered around for a while until we found my friend Garrett’s apartment.

Garrett is living in Krakow now teaching english and writing for the English language magazine, Lost in Krakow.  My friend Rachel was there and my visit was a surprise for her.  Most of the excitment of the surprise was not fully felt at 6:30 am.  Their friend, the Goat, was also crashing with them for a few weeks.  Once my friends Steve and Ian showed up from California, the apartment felt more like a hostel than an apartment.  Oh, Garrett also has two roomates… and oh, my friend Tim from Arad also showed up a few days later.  It was quite a culmination of people in one polish apartment.

Despite the many distractions in the apartment, I got out of it plenty and was able to explore one of my new favorite cities.  Krakow’s city center is a great place to wander around.  The old city is surrounded by a park that used to be a moat.  Unlike some other European cities, the old city still serves as the financial and civic center for the city so it is the busiest area of town.  There is basically no car traffic in the center as well and the streets are filled with people all the time.  I can understand why it has such a high ex-pat community there.  Every bar/restaurant/cafe we went to was a unique experience.  The food was great.  There were all kinds of events and festivals going on.  Pretty much everything that I ever wanted in a city was there (save Skyline Chili).  All that and I was actually not spending too much money.  I was shocked to find that the Romanian lei is actually slightly stonger than the Polish zloty.  Didn’t really make much sense.

I saw the World Press Photo traveling exhibit, which is the best photojournalism images from the year.  It tours all over the world, and looks like it will be in Los Angeles in January.  To my friends there (who probably don’t view this blog) check it out.  I also got to see a little bit of the animation film festival that was going on there.  Saw some cool stop motion animation by a film maker whose name escapes me.  We even checked out the National Museum of Art, but that was mostly because we were there for the free museum day.  It was pretty awesome.

If anyone happens to be in the area of Krakow, I’d suggest a stop.  It is a place that can easily suck you in if you go with no agenda and just feel like hanging out for a while. 

For those of you reading this that know and see Steve Muzik, feel free to point your finger and laugh at him a little.  He was sure klutzing it up Krakow to the tune of chipped tooth, face abbrasion and broken foot.  He’ll tell you a meteorite hit him… you can choose to believe him or not.

Last week two friends from UC, Anna and Katie, came by Reghin to check up on me.  We cooked some Romanian dishes at my apartment and got ready for an all day trek to Arad, a city on the border of Romania and Hungry, where I would leave to Krakow.  Since the girls had such a short time in Romania, we thought the best way for them to really see the country would be to hitch hike to Arad. 

We set out towards Cluj and got there early enough to check out the center and go to my favorite tea house, Flowers.  We then walked 40 min to the edge of town where we waited for 40 seconds before a truck driver pulled over for us.  Danny was his name and he was an Italian truck driver transporting tires from Bucharest to Turin.  I was able to understand his Romanian better than one else before and I got some good language practice in.  He could only take us half way to Arad, but was on the CV radio most of the ride trying to find us a ride all the way to our destination.

We pulled over in a traffic circle outside of Oradea and he walked us to another truck who was heading towards Arad.  This guy I could not understand at all.  But after some poor verbal communication and hand jestures we managed to get dropped off only 10 min from where my friend Tim (who lives in Arad) was. 

We partied that night and after minimal persuasion, the girls agreed to come to Krakow with me… despite the fact that they already visited there a week before.  If anyone reading this knows Anna and Katie, give them a pat on the back for being awesome travelling partners and open to changing their travel itineraries.