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.