27 Luni

This past weekend I celebrated my 31^st Birthday here in Romania and quite honestly I can’t think of anywhere else I’d have rather spent it.  Even though I miss my friends and family back home, I am fortunate to be surrounded by incredible and thoughtful people in an unbelievably beautiful place.

Our PST class has established the tradition of singing a “surprise” round of “Happy Birthday” in the Romanian language when there is a Birthday in the group.  When it was my turn the experience was unique as I share a birthday weekend with another volunteer and had the honor of experiencing the song twice, back to back on Friday afternoon.

Saturday morning a friend came over to my Gazda’s flat with a fresh-baked homemade chocolate cake with fresh kiwi and grapes inside and out: it was simply delicious.  From there we walked across town to Chindia Park where we met up with several more volunteers for an afternoon of fun.  Chindia is an absolutely beautiful park.  There are old ruins, a rebuilt historical castle-like tower, gardens, a large pond for paddle boating, and dozens of statues depicting Romania’s many past rulers.  Entrance to the main park grounds is free, though there is a small fee to go up into the tower.  At the risk of sounding cliché the afternoon was somewhat magical.  The weather was perfect once a short-lived thunderstorm passed overhead and being that it’s spring, everything is in full growth mode.  Walking into the park was something out of a Tolkein novel as the trees were all dropping a whimsical white cotton type seed; it seemed as though it was snowing the entire day as they parachuted to the ground around us.  Adding to the experience was our backdrop, perhaps 50 yards away stands Chindia Tower and it’s adjoining historical buildings.  We set up camp at a small set of old ruins that appear to be the stone foundation of an old building in the shape of a “plus” sign missing one of it’s arms.  From there, we kicked around the soccer ball, enjoyed a few domestic Romanian brews, played Uno and made friends with a troop of Romanian armature Parkour athletes (Google it).

A little before dark our stomachs started to growl so we made our way to a restaurant that is adjacent to the park, called Alexo’s.  This place is written up in Lonely Planet as being one of the best and friendliest establishments in the city for tourists.  There is one main building to the restaurant with a dozen gazebo type structures out front that can each accommodate three or four tables.  We strung together enough tables and chairs for the ten of us and had an absolute blast.  The food was great, just what we needed after three weeks in country as it was largely Americanized.  A few of us ordered huge bowls of pasta, while I got the equivalent of a chicken and red pepper stir-fry with mamaliga.  This was also the first time that I tried Romanian wine since arriving.  All and all the wine was good, though they have a somewhat archaic method for categorizing their options, essentially separating them based on sweetness.  Oddly enough, since nothing here is served cold, the wine (red included) came straight to the table from a very cold refrigerator.  As the night wore on and the drinks continued to flow and the group decided to sing Happy Birthday again in Romanian, I was impressed with how well the group had remembered the lyrics.  From there the group headed to another park in the center to hang out some more, this was the point where I figured going home would be the smarter choice for me.

Sunday morning, my Gazda mother and Sister-in-Law warmly greeted me with a special Birthday brunch complete with coffee, a bottle of Romanian white wine, a full plate of mamaliga, half a roasted chicken, fresh (green) shredded raw garlic and leftover cake from the day before.  This is yet another example of the endless generosity and thoughtfulness of the people surrounding me here in Romania.

This upcoming week should be good, more language classes, and practicum (this time at another school, my third in three weeks of practicum).  Friday I had my first full class session of practicum where I ran the class from start to finish on my own.  By PST standards we are only required to run one thirty-minute session, so I’m somewhat ahead of the schedule but mostly on par with my colleagues.  It was largely a review of “Jobs” and “Parts of the Body” for sixth graders.  The class was attentive, well behaved and responsive, making my job easier.  One of the students offered me a chocolate afterwards, and indicated that her Birthday was on Saturday, what a coincidence!  Four of my fellow PSTs, one current PCV and the Romanian teacher who normally runs the class observed me.  I received generally positive feedback from everyone; what’s more I had a blast doing it.  My main weakness, as I see it, is still lesson planning and content generation, but with practice and experience I will get better. Thankfully the teachers have been very supportive and helpful to this point.  Next week will be my micro groups first sessions in a High School, so wish us luck.  The trip to the mountains that was postponed is now back on for this coming Saturday.  We were originally scheduled to go on a Field Visit trip to meet current PCVs at their sites, but due to the Federal Government’s cut to the Peace Corps budget, we have had to cancel these trips.  That being the case the privately funded trip to the mountains is a decently distracting substitution.