here!

From the emailsent to my family:

4Hey everyone! After a long and tiring trip, we are finally here in Romania. My flight was delayed for 40 minutes on Monday because the cargo-old door had a four inch crack in it (eek!) but other than that, I arrived in Philadelphia safely. Everyone in our group (Romania 21) is awesome and I have made plenty of friends already. There are 71 of us from all over the United States. Two others are from NC. One of them, a guy named Eric Halsey actually went to Western Carolina the same time that Tim Walters did and there were in the same fraternity. Small world! Anyways, we had session after session about what to expect from our Peace Corps experience, what to do, and what to not do. I had an authentic Philly cheese steak. It might have been that we went to the wrong place but I was not impressed with the sandwich. Ohh, the hotel we stayed at is one of the nicest hotels I have every seen. Someone said that the price for one hotel room that we had was over $300! On Wednesday morning, we boarded a bus to drive from Philadelphia to JFK Int’l airport in NYC. I got to see the skyline of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty again while on the bus. Our flight left JFK around 6. We flew Lufthansa. It was pretty nice. After a short layover in Frankfurt, Germany, we landed in Bucharest.

Let me tell you, I can already tell my experience here in Romania is going to be one of the best experiences of my life, but that is skipping ahead. We got into the airport in one piece, even though some people had luggage that was delayed a day but that did not happen to me. We took a bus from Bucharest to our new home here in Ploiesti. The Peace Corps put us up in the Hotel Central in downtown Ploiesti. We spent the couple of days in even more sessions dealing with Peace Corps Romania, from what to expect from our gazdas (host families) to what to do in case of an emergency and about routine health policies. I had three different vaccinations: MMR, Hepatitis A & B, and TB. It wasn’t that bad since I had allergy shots while as a teenager. Speaking of allergies, so far, I haven’t had much of an allergic reaction to the trees and flowers here in Romania. I am cautiously hopeful that this will be a continued trend.

Today, Sunday was the big day. We met our host families for the first time. Like all of the other PST trainees, I was very nervous about what kind of family I would be placed with and how we will interact. It turns out that my fears were greatly unfounded. My host family consisted of a husband and a wife with their daughter who is my age. After getting my luggage and checking out of the hotel, we took a car to their apartment. I will post pictures later of what my new home looks like but I am pretty sure that I lucked out. My bedroom is very large with a desk and a large closet to place my clothing. Speaking of that, we get to wear our normal clothes that we would wear in the States to training. Back to the gazda. My host-mother, who I will post her name later because I have forgotten due to the massive amount of information that we have had thrown at us, had dinner waiting for me when we arrived at their apartment. I had some kind of corn dumpling in a broth, carne de porc over rice pilaf and a couple slices of cake. After that, we went to the grocery store near here on the bus to get food supplies. We then spent the rest of the day talking about our lives, what Americans know about Romania, and about my family. I think that I am very lucky with my host family. If any of you have heard about the outbreak of the avian flu virus, H5N1 in Romania, do not be concerned. While we are close to where the chicken farm was, there isn’t a chance of us being exposed. As of right now, the Peace Corps has forbidden our host families to cook chicken until the threat of exposure has past.

I miss you all very much.. As I get my bearings here, I will get in touch with you and let you know how I am. Ok, we have class starting tomorrow at 9 AM; four hours of language and an introduction to Romania.

Pa

Chris