Friday, June 23, 2006

Practicum and other useless information

I really hate mosquitos.

We TEFLers have just finished our first week of practicum and man I am glad that we have a few days to relax before it starts all over again. My teacher partner, May and I have been teaching a 9th grade class from here in Ploieşti that is truely amazing. Everthing May and I taught to them they picked up instantly. Their English skills are almost at a fluent level and they are just in the 9th grade.

We find out where in Romania will be going to on July 5th. We are filling out a questionaire about our preferences and dislikes and on Monday, I have an interview with the heads of TEFL on Monday and from a week of Monday, we will be FINALLY finding out. I am excited.

Ok that is all for now. I can't leave the window open at night due to the swarms of mosquitos that attack me at night so I will just sweat it out. And yes, the sweating part is literal due to the 90+ degree weather that we have been having lately.

Pa.

Thursday, June 15, 2006

There isn't really a reason why I am making this post except to say that I am in the only wireless cafe in Ploieşti and it is so good to use a Mac once again. I can function in a Windows world but I do not like to. Anyways, there isn't a lot to say. We start our practicum on Monday. We TEFL trainees will be teaching a two week course to students in Ploieşti who signed up during their summer break to listen to Americans and glean English language skills from us. We will see.

Pa

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Life

Life is good.

Seriously, life is good.

Last week my gazda family and I went into the mountains to a town called Buşteni. The place is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. We went by car since Rodica was going with a friend of the family to a city in western Romania called Timişoara. Christie, Gena, and I hiked for a while on this road until we reached a restuarant type place. We ate breakfast and then I was told to go hike on the mountain. One note on trails here in Romania. There has not been introduced the idea of a switch back in trail maintainance. Therefore the first part of the trail was a 40 degree slope and it took me a while to get where I was going. Even so, it was beautiful and I got many great pics from the experience.

I came back down and we went to start the barbeque. As you can see from the pictures, we basically set up on the side of a logging road and used one of the tree stumps as a table. It was great. The only bad thing that I experienced there was the amount of trash that ppl throw into the streams or on the sides of the trail. Luckily, most of the younger generation do not litter like the older ones so there is hope for the future.

We took the train back from Buşteni to Ploieşti. We rode on the tren personal of which I have few words of praise so I will be silent on the matter.

Truely, life is good.

Friday, June 09, 2006

Buşteni


Buşteni, originally uploaded by ionntag.

A typical village street in Romania

Our table


Our table, originally uploaded by ionntag.

Another view. The father and I rolled our "masa" from the wood pile to where it is in the pic

My Gazda and our "table"


IMG_0997, originally uploaded by ionntag.

My host mother and father on the "table" that we used when we cooked out in Busteni

Crucifix Mtn


IMG_0996, originally uploaded by ionntag.

This was pretty cool

Thursday, June 08, 2006

More mountains


More mountains, originally uploaded by ionntag.

Mountain Top


IMG_0983, originally uploaded by ionntag.

Can you see the snow?

Creek


IMG_0980, originally uploaded by ionntag.

Creek near the mountains

IMG_0979


IMG_0979, originally uploaded by ionntag.

Peas. pork, and bread. Can't get better than this

Ciorba


Ciorba, originally uploaded by ionntag.

Ciorba is a thick soup. This type doesn't have meat in it but it does have pork fat. Mmmmm...

Kitchen


Kitchen, originally uploaded by ionntag.

Rodica, my host sister, cutting slices of Romanian bread for me to eat with my dinner

Barbeque


Barbeque, originally uploaded by ionntag.

Barbequeing mici (pork sausages) and chicken wings at the park

Saturday, June 03, 2006

Ploiesti picture



I haven't posted any pics of Romania yet on here but I did find find a picture of Ploieşti on Wikipedia. The building on the right of the pic is the hotel that we first stayed at here. Enjoy!

First Romanian wedding (or something similar to that)

Yesterday afternoon, my host sister Rodica was asked by her parents to go to a wedding as a favor for an old friend of the day and I told her that I would go with her, since she didn't know anyone is the wedding party except for the grooms parents.

So this morning, we both got dressed and took a taxi to the government office. To understand how a Romanian gets married, you mus tunderstand the bureaucracy. Before the ceremony, the soon-to-be married couple and all the parties that are in the wedding must go in front of a representative of the government so that they make sure that they have paid the fee to get married to be sign the marriage license stating that, in fact, they are married.

So that is where we went this morning. There were crowds of other wedding parties there since most people get married on Saturday here. We carried flowers to the ceremony; only in odd numbers to a the superstition that if you bring an even number of flowers to something other than a funeral, it is bad luck. You also carry the boquet upside-down for some reason. After the official signing of the marriage license, everyone in the crowd must give their flowers to the bride and kiss her while saying something like la casa piatra (stone house), I think that is what I said anyways, Rodica was the one that told me what to say. You also kiss both cheeks of the groom, and while I am definitely American in my ideas of male to male interaction, it is a common thing here. Kinda like how they do on The Sopranos.

After that, we went out the park just across the sidestreet to the building and had pictures taken. I am sure that many years later, they will wonder who in hell is this strange person doing in their pictures. After that was over, Rodica and I left to go back to the apartment. The wedding then continued at the church where a priest will marry them in the religious sense. I will be going to a wedding of a friend of Rodica's so I will tell you all about it when it happens.

Tomorow, my host family and I (except for Rodica) are going to a town in the Carpathian Mtns called Buşteni. I will take loads of pictures and get them on here as soon as a I can. I miss you all very much and love hearing from everyone, including random people that are viewing my blog. Rodica isn't coming because she is going to visit her brother in a city in the western part of Romania called Timişoara. She is excited because it is a beautiful city, from what I have heard and I am some-what jealous of her.

Ok, pa for now. Week 3 of PST starts on Monday. We TEFL's hav team teaching Tuesday and Thursday with two other of us in a very upscale school here in Ploieşti. I will let you know how it goes.

P.S. I had Ţuică for the first time yesterday. It is a privately made liquor, on the lines of moonshine made out of the pressings of plums grown here in the region and man, is it strong.