Schimb

So today i ahve officially changed to my second host family. It is strange, to have gotten used to a family, stayed with them, shared their food, their stories, played tennis and such with them, leanred romanian with them and the like, then all of a sudden start all over again. It is a good thing, and also an uncomfortable thing at the same time. But hey, i am not doing this exchange to be omfortable. :P I want to thank dan and laura for putting up with me for these past three months. i know it must have been a pain to have to try and talk to a kid who doesnt know your language and customs. I am grateful for the paitience and love they gave to me, and i hope that i was a good son for you guys too! So my new family is different than my old one. I am currently living with the stanciu family, across town. My dads name is Mihai, my mothers name is Gabi, and i have a six year old sister named alexia, who is a little cutie. :D I believe i am going to have a good time here. It is different because it is more of a complete family, i am no longer an only child. I am once again a big brother, and i have to get used to that job again, especially since my little sister is alot younger this time. My room is once again extraordinalrily girly, but whatever, i do not care, it is alot bigger than my last one. MY new house is alot farhter away from school this time which makes it a necessity to wake up earlier, bummer. they also dont speak any english, so it makes it alot harder when there is something i do not understand, i no longe have my english transltor. it is like i have gone from romanian I to Romanian II or III and i am thoroughly confused. again it is somethign that i will get used to, and in the long run, it will pay off for me. I have found out when i am going to be going to austria to ski. January 8th. I am soooooo superbly excited i can hardly contain it. Those of you who know me at all will know what this is for me. i am hoping it worksout that i can see my salzburg friends, but if not this time, i am pushing for a salzburg stop on the europe trip in the spring. dont worry, i am working my hardest to make it work! :D
So i sang karaoke again, last ngiht, in a crowded establishment. sometimes i even surprise myself. haha. Sure i was with some friends, but the fact that i did it in the first place is cause for celebration among those who know my shy personality. so yeah, i am coming out of bubble still, but the fact i am coming out at all means this trip has had success! :D ok, i really do not have much to say, but everything is still going well, and I am still having a good time! Christmas is coming, and the air is becoming festive! merry chirstmas, if i do not update again!

WOO NEW STUFF!!!

So it has been just about a full month since i have last updated, wow, that is a new record of laziness even for me i think. I dont know why i didnt update, but i didnt. But this morning, i have the day off from school, i decided something must be done. so actually quite a bit has happened since my last post i have jsut realized. I have had my birthday, rehearsals have started for my play, the baddest angel band, and yesterday was thanksgiving! woot woot! Let me start with my birthday, which was absolutley incredible. Ok, so it was a monday, whcih kind of is a sucky day to have a birthday. You have to wake up to go to school, and it is the first day of a long week of school, you all know what i am talking about i think. I got up, totally not remembering that it was my birthday until my mother said to me as i was walking like a zombie into the bathroom, "La multi ani!" which is surprise surprise, how romanians say happy birthday. i think it means something like many years. That was cool, i totally like say it that way, for some reason it sounds cooler than aying happy birthday. :D anyway i brushed my teeth, got ready for school and headed out. My friends had texted me the night before and asked me to meet ehr a little bit early out in front of the donut stand. so i did, and it was so cool. For those of you who do not know, our family has a tradition where we wake up the birthday person with a muffin and a candle in it, along with a loud, rousing chorusof happy birthday. Each of us always has a particular muffin that we get too, usually from dunks. Mine happens to be coffee cake for all those who are curious. :) anywho, i got there, and she had something behind her back, and she told me to close my eyes for a second. So i did, i heard her ask for somethign from another friend i was talking to and when i opened my eyes there was a candle stuck inside a muffin. I forgot that i had told her i was not going to get my yearly muffin, like 2 weeks prior. It was awesome, i smiled wide, gave her a huge hug and gulped down my muffin after making a birthday wish. :) so we went to pe, the first class of monday morning, whoever was n charge of making vlasses is truly evil, and went through the day. Everyone, knowing that i am american, said happy birthday to me as i passed. Way more people than i thought knew it was my birthday. It was actually kind of weird. Literally 75 percent of the school or more said happy birthday to me. i am ok with it, i was just curious how they all know so much about me all the time. :P anyway, we went through the first few classes, and it was fine, just another day at school. Actually my birthday happens to rest on the day of st. mihai, the name of many people in my class, and therefore it is an occasion somewhat similar to their actual birthdays, everyone sings happy birthday to them too, so we did that. Then during the large break we have at 10 or eleven, i can not remember which right now, me and my friend deea went to the store to get our ritualistic snitel sandwich, delicious piece of work from the "fast food" restaraunt next to the school, owned by "tante claudia" who is aweosme. :D we stayed outside on a bench eating it, just a normal break, me thinking about hoow boring the next class was going to be. We went back after i had finsihed my sandwich, and when i opened the dorr, the lights were off, there was a mass of people in the center of the room, their faces light ominously by the candles on a massive birthday cake. Then started the romanian birthday song, much longer and much more interesting than ours, i wish i learned it, and they all came towrds me at once. I was taken completley by surprise. As well i should have! It was my first surprise party ever, and it was soooo awesome! they sang in romanian, then they sang in the english version. I was smiling so wide at this point. I blew out the candles and they gave me a present from the class. A nice watch, and a toy version of a mini cooper, which they learned was my dream car. :D The school also gave me a traditional romanian rug, which is to grace my dorm room if i have my way. :D i cut the cake, hugged and thank many many people, iincluding my head teacher, my principal, and importantly my english teacher, who had a large part in orchestratign it. we ate, drank soda, and had a dance party. I taught them the cotton eye joe, which they seemed to find more difficult than their traditional dances, which they tried to teach me, like a hora and some other ones. I was thoroughly confused by them. But whatever. It was fun. This went on for the last two classes of the day and it was a grand time. After that, i went home, talked to people on the phone and on skype and later that evening i went out with two of my best friends and we hung out in a park for hours just talking and having a good time. It was an amazing experience. What could have been a sad, homesick filled one, turned out to be amazing because i have awesome friends here. I really do. :D
Ok, in other news, my play rehearsals have started. If you do not remember, i was asked to direct a play, in english, for christmas. I, being the fool i am , accepted, totally not knowing what i am getting myself into. I had to choose the play, cast it and produce it. So i held auditions, seeing who would turn out, which there were around thirty girls and then 6 boys. I chose my play, the baddest angel band, a short play about three angels who get kicked out of heaven for screwing around and to stay in they have to find a reason for earth to keep on turning. lucky for them it is christmas. yadda yadda yadda, much hilarity and witty comment later, christmas and earth are saved. It is a good play, and the casting was ok. Then as rehearsals went on, less and less people started showing up, even my friends, who said in the beginning they would help with what i need, stopped showing up. Anywho, i started with 17 or so, i am now down to i think 9. But it is ok, i making do. there are more lines for people, and those who continue to show are talented and very fun to be with. THANK YOU GUYS! we wstil have time to work ont he ply, as it is dcember 20th, but i am getting slightly nervous alreay. My cast is working hard, and i am sure it will be fine, but i do not want my baby to be a flop, you know?
Yesterday was thanksgiving! hooray! i said happy thanksgiving to people yesterday and they were like oh, is that today? and went about their business. Haha, whatever, i do not mind. It is another cultural difference that is both interesting and expected. :D In lieu of turkey and gorging myself, i made egg and cheese sandwiches, blated music while i ate them, and watched evolution. It was actually ook, i didnt mind. :D OH! by the way, it is good that the pats finally got their buts in gear yesterday and decided to be the lions. I would have been rather angry if they lost to the lions. :P So i hope you all ate much and had a grand time yesterday. :D
I am just about used to romania. It is ok now. I am used to school, i am used to the way you do things at restaraunts, i am used to dinner and lunch. It is good. I am proud of my self. I have had several conversations in romanian, and i am still trying to learn as much as i can. I am worried that i do not know as much as the other exchange students, but whatever. I can still deal and i know quite a bit. I am happy with what i have got. One of the biggest things that i am sad about is harry potter. I still have yet to see it, as there are no movie theatres in within reasonable distance. There is actually one opening up in slatina (maybe today?) but i am not sure exactly what movies are going to be playing, and for that matter if i will even be able to get in, because everyone has been waiting years for this. whatever, i am sure i will see it. I am re reading the book just so i can remember things. It is as excellent as i remember. :D
Ok, i really havent anyting to talk about. :D sorry i havent updated for so long. Maybe i will fix that. ;)

:P SOrry!

Hey everyone, i am really sorry i havent posted in a verrry long time. I have been extraordinarily busy, and also extraordinarily tired. I have seriously not felt well rested since coming here. In some ways, that is a good thing, because it means i am out doing things and getting to be part of this place, but in another way, it sucks, because i am constantly on the verge of having a nasty cold. :P UGH! but! enough about such depressing topics. That is not fun to hear about. GUESS WHAT! i got stuck in an elevator yesterday! and this is a romanian elevator! the are maybe 3 feet by three feet and are quite sketchy. We were coming down from the top floor of a bloc and we had four people in the elevator. That was a dumb move, but it would have been ok if one of my friends hadnt started to jump. It was terrifying. Three jumps in, the lights went out and there was a nasty slam sound. It sounded like we slipped out of something. Truly terrifying. The light said we were now on the second floor, but according to our friend who could not fit in the elevator, we were still on the eighth. Well between the eighth and the ninth actually. So there we were, four boys squeezed in a tiny area, suspended 8 floors above the ground, stuck between floors, without the ability to get the door open. Fantastic. So what do we do in this case? TAKE A PICTURE! it was really quite fun. We were in there for a total of five minutes, nothing as compared to what it could have been. We managed to get the door open and jump out. Before jumping out i remembered the fact that the elevator might slip while i am crawling out and cut me in haalf. GREAT! But i made it out alive, and i am going to try and post the video of our escape.
In other news, i am going to be directing a play, for which auditions are on monday. :P haha. I do not know what i got myself into. It is going ot be december 20th, which is kind of a bummer, because it limited my selection to christmas plays, which can be boring. I found a really funny one, but it is both short and maybe not the easiest to understand. It is going to be in english, as it is for my english class, and all of the people in the school who can speak english in the school. I am trying to find a christmas play that is interesting and easy to understand, harder than it sounds. I am very excited however. It will be so cool to see my final production. I am hoping someone will tape it in december, so i will post it if so. WIsh me luck, as it may be the endeavour of a lifetime. Trying to get a bunch of romanian kids to concentrate and come to rehearsals, and make a set. All in about a month and a half. :P
Halloween is comign up, and our class is celebrating by having a party tomorrow. I am excited. Iam going to dress as the joker. I went to thrift stores today and put together a decent costume. Not like the one from the movie, but still very jokeresque i feel. I cannot wait. I am going to be the "guest of honor" and i am even going to get a little certificate. They give out alot of certificates here. They call them diplomas. For example, I wrote and essay on the holocaust with my friend deea, and we were recently invited to a little ceremony to give out diplomas to those that wrote exceptional essays. I got a certificate and a book with pictures of SLatinas historical district. Ifelt honored. :D It was very cool. It is nice to know i can still do good things while i am here. It is frustrating not being able to do the school work very well, so to have a sign of progress is good.
MY friends have been teaching me new games too, which i WILL be teaching to people upon my return. They are so fun, the kind of games a bunch of teenage boys would play. They often involve pain. There is one, called lapte gros, or hard milk. It involves jumping in the backs of other guys, who are bent over with their heads in each others crotche for protection. It is so fun, depsite the previous description. I will also be posting a video of us playing that, when i get it. It is awesome. :D
I had tacos with my family the other night. It was like a bite from heaven, that first taste. IT was delicious, and it was a memory straight from home. OH! by the way, if any care packages are on the way, Kettle brand salt and vinegar chips or taco seasoning. I have quite a bit of peanut butter, but those two are what i need/ want, if interested. :D I will be sending my package out soonish, i just have to get somemore things, but it is going to be like a big, one time thing. SOrry if i have owed you for a while, chances are i have your present, i just need to buy the others to send it. :D
I PROMISE that i will update more frequently. I feel bad. :P DOnt give up hope on me!
Goals ,continue to leanr more vocab, and order somethign from a restaurant besides a drink.

Weeeeeeeeeeeee

This week has been another one full of, surprise surprise, new things! I continue to gain valuable new insight into the curiousities of the romanians concerning America and what exactly it is we do there. I am still hearing things that give me the mpression that it is a "grass is greener on the other side" type thing. The movies and tv shows that come form america are a huge influence in their preconcieved notions. I have been in two other classes thus far, one a fifth grade class and the other another twelfth grade class. The two were surprisingly similar. The fifth graders asked amazing questions, not just "have you met the jonas brothers or hannah montana" which i did get asked, but also questions about how relationships are different, what the difference between teenagers here and there were, and many questions about school. What did i like about school and what did i not like. They were very curious and there lust for knowledge was very apparent to me. It was a great experience. I know have a posse of shortlings. The follow 20 feet behind me and my friends, and they always kind of hide when i look back at them, giggling the entire time. It is strange, i feel like some sort of celebrity, akin to the jonas brothers. It is a cool feeling. But i am not going to let it get to my head. ;) The twelfth grade class was also interesting. They were much more terrifed of asking me questions it seemed. Only a handful of students felt comfortable enough to do so. Yet i could tell that they all were interested. They wanted to know if i was like the people in the movies too. They knew i hadnt met the jonad brothers, but other than that, they asked the smae or similar questions as the fifth graders. It was another ownderful experience though. I love sharing my culture with them, as much as i can anyway.
Today i also had my first experience with romanian theatre. I have to admit. I left disappointed. Not in the theatre or the eactors or anythin glike that, in fact i admired them for what they endured. I was disappointed in the audience. Immensly. It was a disgrace. The audience members, most of whom were high school aged kids, were talking loudly, they were jeering at the actors while they were onstage, they were moving around, there were cameras going off, there were cell phones ringing and people answering said cell phones. By the end, during the bows, one of the actresses was close to tears, either that or close to murdering the whole lots of us. I felt ashamed, ebarassed for the audience. My friends assured me that it was just the people who came to this show that made it bad. If i were to go to craiova or bucuresti there many a respectable folk who attend the theatre and it is enjoyable. It was just such a difference. I couldnt imagine being able to do that to people who were performing a rehearsed show for you. It was simply appalling. I wish to go again somewhere else, just to see if it was an anomoly. I hope it was. I would be really sad if it wasnt. This weekend i am going with geo to Rinca, a small town in the mountains, where we will be staying overnight in a room belonging to to one of my friends, andrei badita, who also happens to be my host brother in my third host family. I cannot wait. I have been dying to see the rest of the country. The only other chance i have had is to go to alba iulia, and that was with rotary. This will be different, probably more fun! I will tell all about it when i return. For now i am going to cut this post a little short. I will be getting to your requests in the next blog. I am completley exhausted. This week was busy for me, which is not a bad thing, but i am still completley drained. Goals for the next couple of days: Have fun and take awesome pictures in rinca, leran more vocab, continue work on my essay. I found a person to admire btw. Bode miller. I will be posting the final draft when finished for all of you sceptics out there to read when i am finished. Trust me, i can justify my admiration. ;)

More panoramas!

DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

Rain rain, go away, and never come back! please! It has been miserable weather these past couple of days. It is 8 degrees celcius, with rain and wind, and hasnt given up for 3 days! bummer! I am so bored! no one wants to do anything in this kind of weather, myself included. I am slightly sick, always tired and realllllly sluggish! I need a pick me up! Luckily I have my arnold palmer powers and romanian tv! It is fantastic, romanian tv. It is one my most valuable assets in language learning, believe it or not. They have english programs, duch as discovery, animal planet and plenty of movies, and they have the romanian subtitles to go with them! YOu watch the movie, and read what they are saying. For all visual learners, such as myself, this is wonderful! it is helping me associate words with sounds, pronunciation with spelling, and all that good stuff! And it is entertaining on a grey, very grey, very very very grey day. Top gear is that much better with the romanian subltitles! School is still interesting. I am still confused most of the time, still get headaches and still learning lots on the romanian front. Thanks deea! she is my deskmate and principle teacher of the romanian language. She is fantastic! all of my classmates are! I got really lucky in my placement! My friend geo is going to college in craiova, 30 minutes away, and i met up for coffee with him today. Things are going well with him, and it gives me an interesting insight into (haha that has to be some sort of alliteration) what i have to expect in the years to come at WESTMINSTAH! I am currently researching people of note, citizen whom i admire no matter their nationality or gender or anything. It is a hard process. IT is for a scholarship essay, which i really want/need to win. Who do i admire? what will people think of me based on who i admire? How do i express myself in words, the feelings i have and the reasons i admire them. For some, this process is boring, pointless and a task that is to be put on the back burner and left for another day. But for this essay, apart from the fact that it is worth alllloooooootttttt of money, has gotten my full attention and interest. I really do not know who i admire. I know i admire people, but what do i admire about them? what makes them so fantastic that i want to write an essay about them that is worth a college education? are they interesting enough to catch the attention of the reader? or will they simply render me another face in the crowd? The things i have to do for college vary from those that my classmates have to do. It seems so much simpler for them. From my standpoint, it seems as though they simply have to choose where in romania they want to study, assuming they do well on their equivalent of the SAT. I am jealous in a way. Jealous that they, to my knowledge anyway, do not have to fill out scholarship applications, do not have to fill out any applications at all to be honest. Again, this is to my knowledge, correct me if i am wrong! please! It is a very different way of life, they college process here as opposed to the USA. It is still somethign intimidating, but not something that a student worries about the moment after setting foot in his or her elementary school. I do not know if the system works the way i percieve it, but if it does, i am perplexed. It is so simple. I guess, it has its cons too, as does everything, but i feel as though i would have almost wanted it to be like the romanian way of doing things.
Well that was a rant, but still, it has been on my mind as of late.
I also want you all to know, that if you have any questions or comments, please comment! i would love to expland more on certain topics, ones that are more interesting to you!
Goals: Vocab, GET OUT OF THE HOUSE!, have fun

CLick on them to make them larger!

Octombrie~

Hey yall. SO here is another installment of my thought process, which throughout the entire week has been extraordinarily scattered and frazzled, but that is to be expected, even after being here almost a month. :D This week has been an amazing week, the kind i hope to get week after week here in romania land. I leanred lots, met new people and had fun! In school, i had a constant headache, which is a good thing i believe, because i am attributing it to my brain trying to get its act together and gear up to learn some more romanian! I went to Bucuresti, met my host aunt and uncle, who mayyyy or may not be taking me skiing in the alps this winter, whether it be in switzerland, austria or italy, they may also be taking me to venice, no word on that yet though. Thought i would just make you all slightly jealous of me there. I hope it works though. Haha, if the rotary prison says no i may just revolt. I played tennis this week as well, which was very fun! I am getting slightly better. My serves have room for definite improvement, but i would iagine that will come with all the practice i will undoubtedly get by playing with catalin, a rotary member and my host dad. When i come back, i may just be a rafael nadal, so watch out! I took pictures of slatina yesterday, some gorgeous panoramas of oltu at sunset. I was proud of them, but for some strange reason, facebook is being a jerk and will not let me upload them! Kind of pissed about that! I keep meeting people every day! everyone knows me. PEople on the street say 'hi greg!' and i say hi back, but i reallllllly do not know them! i feel bad, because i know i met them, but they have crazy romanian names and i will never in a million years remember them all after a first meeting! haha. My contacts lsit in my phone is growing by the day as well, which feels cool. I always have a person to hang out with when i need to keep my mind occupied, which is always. It is very dangerous not to keep my mind occupied right now. And probably for then next two months or so as well. I am glad my firends can oblige! My friend geo, ana-marias boyfriend, is starting to get really excited for his upcoming trip to america, which is in december. He will be visiting ana for three weeks in kansas, then go to new york city for a week, all on his lonsesome. It is a reallly cool tour de america, he gets to see the back country as well as the biggest and brightest city in the country. He cannot wait to see his girl, and i cant blame him! good luck waiting out the next two months my friend! i hope they go by quick for your sake! I am currently in the process of applying for scholarships, which i realllly do not want to do, but i must. I can only imagine how awesome it willl be if i come out of school with no debt whatsoever. But, it is such a pain, I do not have anyone here to edit really, and it is just... blah! haha, yes mom and dad, do not worry, they will get done! haha. So next week i do not know of anything big happening, will probably play more tenis, probably, and probably i mean will, learn more romanian, as well as have ore headaches. And i hope that next week will be one similar to this week. MY friends have noticed my progress. I am sending them text messages in romanglish. ABout half of the words are in romanian and the rest, what i do not yet know, are in english. They really get a kick out of this, though i think that they are glad and proud that i am doing it! I cannot wait till i can finally speak romanian! Goals for this week, learn the language, starting texting all in romanian, and convince my rotary councelor to consider letting me go with geo and his mother to austria in about three weeks.

Traveling and the like

Well this past week since my last post has been incredibly busy. I was out with friends, played pool and went to the roatry conference for inbounds in the city of alba iulia, a 5.5 hour trip north through the mountains. It is an old city, with roman ruins that date back to the 1st century ad. It has seen everything, from war to peace, from germans to romans to romanians. It has such a history. It also happens to be (if i have my history corect) the birth place of romania. It is where all the provicnes were united under one flag, that of romania. There is a fortress, palaces, statues and there is also a historical changing of the guard, which i am slowly trying to upload. The videos take so long to upload it is ridiculous. But it is in HD, so when you can see it, it will be good! To see my pictures, i have them in an album called Alba Iulia of FB, otherwise i will try to post some here. I do not if this will let me make an album or not.
The conference was fantastic. I met many cool people. There are currently ten students in romania from other countries. 8 of them are form america one form mexico and one from brazil. The brazilian came of friday, the day we left and therefore he was not at the conference, but i met him upon my return and he is a cool cat. I am in SLatina with both him and the mexican, carlos. It is a dense concentration here, but otherwise, the students are scattered across the country, north east south and west. In fact, one student, gavin from buffalo ny, life in a city that borders Ukraine. Ukraine is actually his backyard apparantly. His city is also the meeting point for our next conference in december, so i should be able to look forward to a 10 hour ride or somethign like that. fun. At the conference we talked about travel rules and the like. Basically i am trapped in romania. There is little chance of me going out of the country except on the Eurotrip, in april or around there. That trip sounds super cool. We take two weeks off of school and travel to all the major cities in europe, such as amsterdam, paris, vienna, venice, rome and more. We would be sleeping and average of five hours a day and having the time of our lives. Right now i am trying to devise ways to go on said trip. It costs approx 900 euros, so it is nothing to sneeze at as far as cost goes, but like i said, i am sure i will find a way! Travel is apparantley only possible if you are with your family or a rotarian, so my intended visit to meet with tobi and my austrian brothers is probably not going to happen. Which makes me sad. There are other students who went on exchanges where they could almost travel at will. But whatever.
Also, (excited pause), i traveled back from the conference with my second host dad, and i heard a rumor that i may or may not be going on a ski trip to austria, switzerland or italy this winter. it is not confirmed, but i almost pooped myself when i heard that. It brightened my spirits about not being able to travel. It is like a dream come true. I am trying not to get my hopes up in case it doesnt go through, but i cant help it. :D :D :D
Before i forget, happy early birthday cass! I will be sending you a romanian gift in the mail. Dont worry tor, you will get one for your b day too. :D
The language and school are starting to go along better. I am becoming more confident in trying to speak. Listening is so much easier than it was even last week. It is cool, being able to finally start to have a clue as to what is going on. I am almost used to being constantly in the dark! After a while, as hard as i try to listen and learn, you tune conversations out. I try so hard to listen, to join in if possible, but i start to zone after ten minutes! I am memorizing easier now too. My brain finally is saying, ok, i guess i will open up for you. i will let you learn something. Next week in history class i will be giving a presentation on american history. I am contemplating asking bowman for help. :D I am excited to teach them though! I will finally be able to teach the romanians something! Ps, they call indians redskins. Thought that was an interesting piece of trivia. :P
This week i believe i will be travelling to bucharest with me mum to see it. It will be the first time i have been there since i arrived in romania, and i am excited. I have heard mixed reviews form the romanians themselves as to how good of a city it actually is, but i will see for myself. And of course i will take pictures.
fyi for all of you. It takes about twn days or so for mail to reach me, as demonstrated by ninas letter. :D
Goals this week, learn more vocab and also see what i can do about the euro trip.

doua saptamana

Wow. Two weeks went by so quickly. This past week is somewhat of a blur. School was not what it seemed to be on the first day. After the initial shock and awe experienced monday. Things quieted down significantly. Classes were held, though quite frankly not much was accomplished, at least not in my eyes. Apparently it is custom to not do too much your first week. We mostly sat and talked among ourselves. But that was ok. I got to meet and know some fantastic people, some of whom i now consider blossoming friends. There is an interesting attitude among romanian teens. They want so bad to go to america, to have oppurtunity. They feel as though they are stuck here kind of, not able to live to their full potential. They say that romania is not that good of a country, that they are 50 years behind. In some ways, they are fifty years behind, but not in the bad ways. They do not have a developed highway system. It has been a project that has been on going for twenty or so years, according to one of my friends. Their are also the the communist blocks, or apartment buildings, that have yet to be renovated or beautified. But they fail to see the prgress they have made since the fall of communism, in my opinion. They have internet, great mobile communication capabilities, wonderful cars, television, and so much more. I am curious as to what it is they see in america. Upon asking this question, the answered that they can find better jobs in america, they can earn more money and live their life more fully, as i stated before. Having only lived here for two weeks, i do not fully understand, and perhaps never will, the economic situation of many romanians. I do not know why their lives can stand to be so much better. Maybe in a few years, when i heard they will be switching to the euro, they will be singing a different song. But for now, there is a great curiousity and respect for america. I think it is also worth mentioning, that romanians are very proud of their global contributions, of which there are a surprising number. And they should be. My friend made sure to tell me that romania is part of NATO, and they were a member of the forces that were in iraq. SOmething like 13 romanians died in combat there. They also buy US military supplies, such as secondhand f-16's. He told me these things with such a pride that it really got me to thinking. I had never before appreciated what i had, what so many people wanted, and i felt a little guilty. At the end of the ocnversation, i found myself a little different, more appreciative. So my exchange is already starting to have an impact.
In other news, the language is going well. I am recieving a lot of help from my friends at school, and during conversation between two romanians, i can kind of understand the jist of the story. It is extremely hard to speak it though, the words cannot come to mind in most cases, and the accent is so foreign to me, literally haha, that i cannot successfully say many words and have them understand. Such as "I Want" or eu vreau. Vreau, and Rau, or bad, are the two hardest for me. no matter how hard i try, they simply will not form in my mouth. but i have more faith now, after two weeks, i have made progress. Little by little i learn, i use less and less english and after a month, i hope to be able to hold a conversation, however basic, entirely in romanian, with now pauses to speak english. Oh and before i forget, i have bigger feet than many people here apparently. i went to purchase a pair of shoes i could runin. In need a 46 or 47, and the biggest i could find was a 45. When i told people how big my feet were they were amazed. So i guess some internet shopping is in order. So as school gets into the swing of things, and the weather (finally) gets colder, i look forawrd to leanring and growing ore and more as the year progresses. I can only guess at what i will learn next.

Some pics, i will type some captions later

Confusion and unfamiliarity

Haha, yeah, the title says it all. Today was my first day of school. My school is very different from the conval way of education. I got up today at 7, which was strange to start with because i am used to having to get up at 6 for school, and started the day with a pbandj with some fruity tea of some sort. Not bad if i say so myself. But inside, there was that pit. I have heard stories of people who have to move to a new school. The are an outsider, someone alien invading the homeland of the established way of life. Well that was me, only i was going to a class where they had been together for years, not changing class mates or even rooms for that matter. And, they spoke a strange language that i can only grasp at for the moment. In my mind, sorry mom and dad, but i have to be frank, I was thinking EFF MY LIFE! haha, i know, not very positive thinking, but i really couldnot help it. I was in quite a formidable position, one which i had no real way of preparing for. So my mother, laura drove me to school, we waited for some of my friends who would show me around and things were grand. I met the principal, a kind lady who also happens to be an english teacher (plus!) and i was introduced to my class... about 20 girls and 4 boys. Yeah. Ugh. These are exactly the kind of girls i do not enjoy. Cliquey, chatting away at light speed and dressed to kill. I was intimidated for the first 10 minutes in the class by this wave of estrogen. I quietly took my seat next to the two other boys i saw at the time and tried to take it all in without wanting to curl into a ball. The class was so LOUD! they would not shut up! it is a bilingual class, which means they all spoke english, but i still couldnt muster up the courage in the first ten minutes to really talk to them. Finally, when the teacher came in (this was really cool, they have a great amount of respect for their teachers, unlike in america. Upon the entrance of the teacher, every student stands, same when the teacher leaves) silence fell and i felt more normal, less like an ant in a hurricane. She started to speak in lightning fast romanian. I tried to keep up for ten minutes, then gave up and started to zone. She wrote the schedule on the board, i copied it, yadda yadda yadda. Then there was a break. I met with my firends, they showed me around and all was good. They intorduced me to new people, one of whom was in my class, alexandra. She was a good help. She wants to study english in college to become a translator. Cool! so we walked and talked. She showed me the cafe where they all go to smoke and drink coffee during break. She introduced me to another group of rowdy adolescents and all was well. We went back to class, but it being the first day, there was really not much of a class. We kind of sat around for almost an hour. A boy came in, a friend of alexandra's, and he had a guitar. "Hey! i want you do listen to this song!" talking to me. He proceeded to belt out a song in which he put my name. SOmething about me being greg christ, and the chorus going a little something like, "CAUSE I'M F****** GREG! I'M F****** GREG! GREG CHRIST!" a wonderful tune. It was really actually quite enjoyable, everyone had a good laugh, myself included and people finally stopped giving me a cold shoulder. Everyone came up and introduced themselves to me, we talked about which season of lost was the best (seriously... :D) and things like that. I finally felt like i could do this! I still do in fact. it is just going to be a headache language wise for a while. There is this one girl though. She is the most ungodly annoying person i know. I will call her amy pohler for now. I dont remember her name and she has that same strange look as amy pohler. It fits. She was so obnoxious. She seemed fake and I could kind of sense that she was, judging by the attitudes of the others. haha, but whatever. It is only one bad egg. It will truly be interestign to see what will come out of it. I am still confused, i will be following everyone like a lost puppy until i really get how things work, but it is ok. The first day is done. That is all that matters. It was the last big hurdle i have for a little while at least. We will see how it all works out in the end.

Language learning, or lack thereof

Ugh, romanian is so hard. Haha I have been here for I think 6 days now and so far, I have not accomplished what I wanted, learning how to conjugate verbs. There are four different ways to, depending on the last letter of the verb itself. But there are a couple deviants in the grammar section of my dictionary (which is my teacher right now, haha) that do not make sense to me! It seems like there is a unique rule for each and everything you want to say. I am sure I will get the hang of it soon, but I really want to speak in romanian. I feel bad everytime I speak english! I am not accomplishing my goal when I speak in English. Sure it is easier, and my friends can talk to me and learn more about me and america, but that is not what this exchange is all about. I know i am expecting too much right now. Like i said, i have only been here a few days and have learned a relatively good amount of things, but I still have these frustrations. OTher than the language, romania is fantastic. The people here are kind, generous, friendly to everyone and willing to help me. They say they have nothing to do here, but if you look, there are plenty of things to do. I am used to living in a town about a tenth or less the size of Slatina, so finding stuff to do is my strength! The town itself looks like it came straight out of a book on soviet russia. In many ways, it is modern, with clubs, shops and fashionable cafes and restaurants. But the first thing one sees when entering the city are the big cement apartment buildings. They are evverywhere. Cement was the main base for everything during construction as far as i can tell. And everything is also in a state of disrepair. There are potholes in the streets, sidewalks are crumbling, etc. But if you get past these downsides, the city has a unique beauty. It is situated on the olt river, which is giant, and is surrounded by flatness. Fields and farm cover the southern half of the country, through which i traveled in my way to slatina from the airport in bucharest. Another thing that would be shocking to many people is the amount of stray dogs running freely throughout the city. There are thousands of them. All sorts, living in the harsh city landscape, one which really does not provide for this many animals. Haha Mel, you would be so sad if you came, knowing you love animals so much. I feel sad too, but it is something that they live with everyday, and to the people who live here, the dogs are now all but invisible. So here i am, a new resident of Slatina, romania. It will be interesting. The language is my foremost goal right now. after tackling that, this city will truly be opened to me.