Whew

Posting today from and hot and sweaty internet cafe. Today and yesterday, we have been observing classrooms in Ploiesti, both middle school and high school. There are a wide variety of teaching methods here in Romania, both old school and new methods of teaching. We had a be dressed a bit nicer than what we are used to and the weather has been sunny and hot. Oh well, it is the Peace Corps.

This weekend, I broke down and got a mobile phone. Email me if you want it because I am not gonna post it on here for all to see. On Sunday afternoon, my host parents and a friend of theirs went to a park that is near Ploiesti called Parcul Bucov, literally translated as "the park Bucov". We grilled mici (pork sausages), some kind of fish, and chicken wings over a charcoal fire. I consumed massive amounts of meat and bread and they kept on offering me beer and some kind of homemade brandy that was pink. I had to refuse after a while because I was starting to get sleepy and would have passed out if I had not.

Speaking of food, I had my favorite, so far, food in Romania yesterday for supper. Genia, host mom, prepared sarmale for us this weekend. Sarmle are a mixture of rice and ground pork meat wrapped around either grape leaves or cabbage. We had it with grape leaves. It is served with smantana (a little like sour cream) and bread. I ate all of that up and even had seconds.

Language classes are going well. They broke us up from the group we were in the first week and placed us with different people and a different teacher, I guess based on our learning abilities and how well we are doing. The bad thing is that in the past couple of days, we have learned a ton of new verbs and I really need to sit down and memorize all of the conjugations; not a easy thing to do.

Ok time is about to run out here. I will be very glad when the summer is over and we are in our permanent sites but we are all nervous about where in Romania we will be placed.

La revedere