Down by the Sea Side

Only a couple weeks before school starts and field work is on hold for a couple weeks, so what a better way to get mentally and physically prepared for a long school year and harvest season than a trip to the Sea Side...the Black Sea Side that is! After the combined 21 hour journey (15 hrs to Bucharest then another 6hrs to the coast, all by train) I finally arrived in Eforie Nord where another volunteer from my group will be for the next two years, that sand bagging son of a bitch..Literly! The beaches were very nice, with the exception of all the cigarette butts, and the water was very warm with small rolling waves. Not big enough for surfing, which I am sure makes my mom very happy! Luckily, the weather cooperated for the days I was there and I was able to tame down my wicked farmers tan I got working in the fields. My buddy Adam and I chilled at the beach during the days drinking cold Romanian beer for super cheap and snacking on salami, bread and potato chips...they have Lay potato chips over here but they have totally different flavors than the ones in States, such as paprika! Yes, the rumors turned out to be true, a lot of women go topless on the beaches in Europe! However, it is not always a good thing, but it was different that is for sure.

Now I return back to the Village life, which I miss terribly. Always worrying about pick pocketers, cars running over you and how much money you are spending gets old quick. School begins in a couple of weeks and there is a wedding in the village the weekend before school starts! When someone gets married in the village the guest list is automatically 1,000 people (well now 1,001) and they tend to last all night and into the next day...eat, drink, dance...eat drink, drink, dance....drink, drink, eat, dance! Needless to say it should be an experience and I will be dancing whether I want to or not! I really feel at home in the Village now...most everyone knows me by now and I talk to everyone I can as best as I can. They are beginning to realize that I am not just a tourist staying for the summer and they are feeling more comfortable with me.

My parents sent me a package with a Frisbee, Tootsie pops, gummy bears, flour tortillas and a bottle of salsa. While my friend Mary (another volunteer) was visiting we made the family I live with chips and salsa. We just cut the tortilla chips into triangles and fried them in some oil. I can not tell you how much they loved them, we made two batches and they eat them all up. They could not really understand what salsa was but they sure did love it! As for the Tootsie pops and gummy bears, I think every kid in the village swung by the house to get some candy from America, even a few grandma's stoped by to see what all the hype was about...word travels very fast in the village! I wish I had a camera out for every ones reaction when they bite down on the Tootsie pops for the first time and found the Tootsie roll center, it was truly priceless! The kids loved Frisbee and now they want to play it every night, after soccer of course. Who knows, maybe I will start the first ultimate frisbee team ever in Romania!

The purple and yellow plums from the endless number of trees in the fields have been taking priority over the nectarines and peaches as of late. All the apple trees are getting a little heavy but they are still a bit too sour, give them a month and they should be perfect...all this according to the grandma in the family and I defiantly believe her! I think I have eaten the family out of pickles for this summer...they are so damn good I can't stop when I start. They just sit back and laugh, never thinking something so simple as pickles would be my favorite...its all about the little things in life!

Hope everyone is having fun with their life and all that comes with it...Keep Smiling!

Village Living

I am now in my Village, officially here for one week. In this time I have worked the fields, making feeding posts for the animals and painting a fence! Life here is much much different than anything I have ever been used to. There is no such thing as a watch or a clock, just when the sunrises and when the sunsets. During that time you must make the most of it to get all of your work done otherwise you work in the dark. The roosters wake me up every morning at sunrise then moma cow really wakes me up at 8 am. I do not have internet access yet at my house but the mayor keeps promising me it is on the way! Right now I am in the mayors office using his computer and he has no problem letting me use it but it would be easier to get it at my house. No one here expects me to help them in the fields or paint fences but in reality there is not much else to do and I have enjoyed my time working with the people. Because I am American they dont think of me as a worker and every 5 min they ask if I am ok or need a break...I just smile and laugh and keep working. I have become fluent in the workings of a pitch fork and one day I hope they will trust me with an ax but as for now grandma wont let me use it! I go on a lot of hikes in the hills and to neighboring villages and the people I have met are wonderful and friendly. None of them can understand why I would ever leave the States for Romania to not make any money but at the same time I think they respect it and me for it, especially when they see me walking the streets with a pitch fork over my shoulder coming back from the fields! There is one small store in the village that has all of the essentials, beer, chocolate, chips, bread and Cognac! For anything else I have to travel to other villages or cities which is not always that easy to get rides. Thus my legs are getting strong and my waist line thin but it is a great way to practice my Romanian. I do not speak english at all unless I run into a French tourist who speaks a bit or sending text messages to some of the other Peace Corps volunteers, needless to say my Romanian is getting pretty DAMN good! I wont lie, it does get a bit lonely here all by myself, but then I go for a walk and get invited into every persons home for a shot of horlinka...moonshine brandy that is at least 120 proof and considered good for the digestive system and some bean soup and sarmarle, cabbage rolls! It is impossible for your perspective on life not to change living with these people, working hand in hand and communicating in their native language...I have only been here a week and it has already begun to happen! Such a simple lifestyle...family, hard work, church and laughs aka horlinka!

La Multi Ani...

Training is coming to an end!

My 10 weeks in Ploeisti, Romania and training are coming to a rapid end! As long as I passed my language exam today, which was a 30 min. conversation all in Romanian, I will be leaving for my village on Sunday and will be there for the next two years. Friday will be a swear-in ceremony where I will become an official Peace Corps Volunteer. The US Ambassador to Romania will be the person who swears us in, so that is pretty cool. Life has been very good here in Romania, although it has been extremely hot! It has been in the low to mid 100's everyday for the last week and half, and obviously air conditioning is not at all common in homes here. There have been a lot of heat related deaths all through out Romania and the Government has placed the south of Romania on a "code red" alert, I am not to sure what that really means but it is pretty serious, especially for the elderly and young baby's. So needless to say, I am even more excited to make the 14 hour trip north to my village and hopefully to some cooler temps. One part of my Peace Corps experience is coming to an end and a new one is just getting ready to begin! I hope to have Internet access at my house in the village, however I am not certain when that will happen so I may be out of contact for a while, but please continue with all of the great emails, I will get them eventually and I love hearing how everyone is doing back in the States!

"Keep Smiling..."

"It is easy in the world to live after the worlds opinion, and it is easy in solitude to live after your own. But a great person is a person who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect Sweetness the independence of solitude"
-Emerson

"We will figure it out...."

I knew the Peace Corps would be a great fit for me but it has proved to go above and beyond my wildest dreams! These past four days have been amazing! This past weekend myself and 5 other volunteers from my group hiked 5,000 feet to the highest cabana, cabana Omu, in Romania! We started the Saturday at just under 3,000 ft. and ended the day just under 8,000 ft. It took us about 8 hours but we made it to the top where we camped out on Saturday night. It by far was my best weekend since I have been in Romania! At the top on Omu was a cabin where they had a small little kitchen and we enjoyed the best bowl of soup and cup of tea I have ever had in my life. Luckily, we had great weather and everyone in the group made it up and down the mountain safely. I think that offering of water last time would prove to be helpful somewhere down the road! There are many more hikes planned down the road before I leave training for my permanent site.

With my Mountain climbing high, still in full effect, I found out today where I will be living for the next two years. I will be way up north very close to the Ukraine border in a small village called Poienile Izei! It will not be on many maps but it is in Maramures county north east of Baia Mare, all of which is in the region of Transylvania. It is a village of about 1,000 people. I do not know any of the details except that I will be the only english teacher in a school of about 80 students, it is a large tourist attraction for the holidays and the closest train station is about an hour away! I will be visiting the village...about a 12 hour train ride from where I am now, next week where I will meet my counter part as well as the rest of the village. From what I have heard from my host family and my directors, Poienile Izei is supposed to be one of the most picturesque places in all of Romania. Also, the Carpathian Mountains are not too far way, which means I can continue to feed my hiking addiction this summer and fall and maybe get some skiing in this winter. I am soo excited for the opportunities I will have and realize too that there will be some major challenges ahead. I was looking for this kind of small village experience when I decided to join the Peace Corps and now it is about 3 weeks away!

"Aint No Mountain High Enough..."

There's only one way to the top of a Mountain...UP!

Life is great here in Romania! The weeks seem to be flying by...I have been here now for a month, which blows me away! In typical Kuch fashion I have been on the go every day especially the last two weekends. Last weekend, I spear headed a group to Brasov, Romania, which is about a 2 hour train ride north from Ploesti. It is a great great city! All of the travel books consider it the new Prague. It is very Bohemian, with a lot of young people, a beautiful downtown and a very chill vibe. We explored the town and found some great hole in the wall bars with friendly patrons & bartenders. Also, while in Brasov, I climbed my first mountain. It was not very high (we climbed about 1000 ft) but we stole some beautiful views from the top. I even found a guitar shop and purchased a classical guitar, which I have been playing any free chance I get. All in all, Brasov is a great city that I will frequent during my next two years in Romania.

This past week we started our "practice teaching" training. Myself and 3 others had a class of 11th and 12th graders for the week. I was responsible for 3 hours of lessons. The kids were incredibly bright, creative and talented. They blew us away with their maturity and english speaking ability. I have to say my lessons went very well...especially one on Public Speaking! The kids really got into it and had a lot of fun, which is not always the case when speaking in front of a group in a language that is foreign. This week I will be with a class of 7th and 8th graders, so I will get the other side of the spectrum.

This weekend, a couple of friends from my group and I ventured north a bit to a city called Busteni. It is smack dab in the middle of some of Romania's largest and tallest mountains. We hiked up about 3,000 ft before a thunder storm chased us down the other side of the mountain. I had a great time and am planning on making a trip back very soon! The hiking community is very close and friendly here in Romania, we meet people from all over this past weekend, all of whom offered their words of wisdom and friendliness (not all of which could be interpreted but its the thought that counts!) On our way down the Mountain we came across a group of Romanians who spoke English and were charging to the top dispite the storms. They asked if we saw any fresh water up where we were because there supply was running low. I told them no and offered them the rest of my water supply since we were heading home, they were very appreciative...I figure this offering is good Karma for the Mountain which is never a bad thing!

My language is really coming along, I am not such a stranger in a strange land anymore and I love having Mountains to play in! I hope to find out my site for the next two years in the next couple of weeks, which I will let you all know ones I find out and I am planing more trips to other parts of Romania...Black Sea, Mountains and more!

"...Just Living the Dream!"

Habitat for Humanity Trip

This weekend was my first official trip outside my training city! A group of us went to a neighboring city to help out at a Habitat for Humanity site. We took a train from Ploiesti to Bucharest, then another train from Bucharest to Pietsti. Pietsti is a great city with a lot to do and a beautiful downtown area. We even found a Guinness Pub, but oddly enough they were out of Guinness! I spent Saturday morning and afternoon hammering nails, using a table saw and digging ditches at the Habitat for Humanity site. They are building a Bloc style apartment complex and barn. Are group was in charge of the barn...I think this was on purpose, because it is pretty tough to screw up a barn!...but anyway we were able to pretty much roof it, divide it into 10 separate rooms and put doors on each unit. It was great to get some fresh air, sun and dirt under the finger nails! Sunday morning I woke up early and took the first train to Bucharest (the capital city of Romania) and did some exploring. It is a very large and busy city with a lot of concrete. With in the city, you can find many museums, fashion shops such as Gucci & Lacoste, pizza huts and coffee houses! Unfortunately, not many of the stores or museums were open on Sunday but it was nice to in a large city. The Parliament building, which is the second largest building (square footage, I think) next to the Pentagon is very impressive! Naturally you can see it from all over the city! Bucharest is very modern with a lot of young people and the traffic makes New York look tame! The Rolling Stones will are coming to Bucharest in a couple of weeks and naturally I am trying to gather some troops to head down and check out my first European concert experience. It was a great weekend after a long week of training and language classes. Now that I have the train system down I plan on taking full advantage of it and exploring new areas of this great country in the near future!

"Love the Madness..."