Spring has sprung

Spring is arriving and so my feet have been itching to get out and see more of Romania. This weekend was tremendous! I met Alina, a teacher who was a Fulbrighter to Washington state in 2005 earlier in the week and was invited for Saturday afternoon to meet her family and do a bit of exploring. We had such fun and it was very late on Sunday when I returned home. We visited many beautiful places around and about this region which I had not seen before and have plans to see more soon. I will have to stop being lazy and get the postings I have already written as I am gettting behind. More soon!

Arriving in Athens

Imagine a winter holiday with no snow!

Greece. Never been there but certainly know a lot about the ancient sites. What an opportunity to see them first-hand. The flight is smooth. They even served breakfast and it is only a ninety minute flight. It is cloudy most of the way and so we are not able to see the geography at all until we are nearly there. Suddenly the clouds thin and the Mediterranean is as blue as I imagined it to be and the Greek islands come into view. We made it through customs with no issues and whoosh – we are out into the Greek sunshine.

A trip on the airport express train to the city centre and then we are off to find our hotel. We managed to find the absolutely busiest street in Athens to walk up. The taxi is outrageous. In Athens you don't share a taxi nd divvy up the fare. The driver is allowed to pick up as many people as he can fit in the car. Then he charges each one full fare and that is considered fair. Check the meter when you get in as you only need to pay from that point. Of course, if you don't, you will pay from the beginning of the ride. We have a map and the address. The shortest route is not always the fastest. Monastriki is one of the newest subway stops and it seems that it is already one of the most crowded ones also. We have arrived in town at 11 in the morning with our suitcases in tow. We find that everything is written in Greek. OK, that is not a surprise, but I did expect to be able to read the street signs. Unfortunately, they are not even close to what my English map says. It seems that the street names have been translated into English on the map. Trouble is, I am looking at the street names in Greek, not in translation. There is a huge YOU ARE HERE map across the road and so we trudge over to see if we can figure it out. Not a chance. Luckily, there is an American couple from North Carolina who head us off in the general direction of the Plaka where our hotel is.

I had purposely chosen a hotel in the heart of it all so that we will be able to walk anywhere we want. I have chosen the oldest, quaintest part of town because it is more interesting to wander through. I have also chosen the busiest street, the narrowest street, the street with vendors' wares laid out in the street, the street that is uphill all the way. There couldn't be a worse street to choose to introduce us to Athens. We pushed out way uphill, through hoards of people, over cobblestones that you couldn't see for the crush of the crowds. After asking for directions several times, we finally arrived, a bit bedraggled, at our hotel. The doorman offered to carry our bags, but it seemed silly at this point. We checked in and found our way to the eighth floor.

It was worth the struggle. We are supposed to have a view of the Acropolis, but we all know how those views can be. Well, this time we were rewarded beyond our wildest dreams. There it is, exactly as I hoped it would be.

Waiting in Bucuresti

Christmas was yesterday. Today is Boxing Day. It seems really odd to be wandering around Bucuresti with no one to talk to. Everyone I know is with family while mine is still in the air. I have arrived in the early morning and almost no one has ventured out into the frosty morning as yet.

I wander down streets that have become so familiar. The archways of tree boughs over the boulevards are covered with a thick ice that would leave many households without power at home. That does not seem to be an issue here. Everything is pristine white. The sparkling trees give the feeling of a fairy land of Christmas. It could not be prettier. The roads are shiny with a thin covering of ice.

It is very peaceful. It feels as if I am alone in this big city while I wait for my boys to get here. I catch the Metro to Unirii Piata to take a look at the tallest Christmas tree in Europe. Every country in Europe wants to have the biggest, the tallest, the first, the oldest, the only … Romania has its share of superlatives. In particular is this tree. I saw it being constructed at Thanksgiving. It is like a giant tinker toy, connected with bolts and wires.

I am here so early that the only place that is open is McDonald's. I stop in for a cup of tea as it is too cold to stand outside.

Across the street is the Bucuresti Mall. It is time to see what shopping can be like in Romania. It is similar to many other shopping areas. Lots of little shops, many with the same items and the same price. It is very frustrating. I do not want to look at the same things over and over, but see a variety of goods so that I can choose between them. That is one of the main differences between America and eastern Europe.

Rachel – This image is for you.

Finally, it is time to head for the airport. The plane comes in at 2:55pm. It is a little after noon and it seems like a good time to start heading out there. I do not ever seem to the times quite right and so I have a novel to read while I wait for the plane to arrive. I take the Metro to Romana Piata and then buy a ticket for the Express bus to the Otopeni. As I expected, I just missed the bus and it is a thirty minute wait for the next one. When it arrives, I hop on and ride forever to the airport. I am about a half hour early – perfect! Then I check the Arrivals board. The flight is delayed an hour and twenty minutes – good thing I have something to read. I wait.

Finally, they arrive. It is so good to see them. We collect all of their stuff and head for the hotel to get rid of it. The Christmas lights make it an even better evening. We walk around the city for a bit as we catch up with each other. We watch the skaters in Unirii Piata. And the tree all lit.

The things you see when wandering around Bucharest

I have found myself in Bucuresti more times than I care to mention. I had thought that I would get more traveling in but I am exactly where you can't get there from here. It is a seven to ten hour train ride to almost anywhere and then you take a plane. It doesn't make for weekending unfortunately. Thus all of my traveling has been in-country. There is actually much to see in this tiny little country. Every hamlet has something of interest. I have also run into some interesting sites in Bucharest on my numerous trips to attend meetings and take care of business.

It is Friday after Thanksgiving. You would think there was no room for any more food but we are starved. We find a delightful little restaurant with just the right ambiance. The tea was excellent, served with individual tea caddies. It was easy to find as it is right underneath a humongous sign advertising my camera. I am not open for advertising usually but I will say that this little camera has been excellent for me. It is advertised for over three thousand lei. That is about twelve hundred dollars! I splurged on this camera but not even close to that much.

Then it was time to head out for the day. Geademus is the book exhibition. It was fabulous, but so was getting there. I took a taxi because I wasn't sure of the directions and it seemed a good idea. Note that I took this picture from the back seat. The crucifix is heaving itself back and forth as it hangs from the rear view mirror. We are traveling relatively fast and to make it a shorter trip, the driver turns onto the trolley track. Note that we are alone on the tracks so we make great time, but I really hope he knows the schedule well. We go two blocks before he turns off onto another thoroughfare. He took us over the trolley tracks, through several truck yards complete with moving traffic, around the back of the building to the exhibition. He said it was shorter – it certainly was more interesting.

After a great morning permeated with the smell of new books, I headed back to the hotel to drop them off. I was ready for a bu ride because books are too heavy to carry. Buses are quite clean here. I bought a ticket and hopped onto the first bus. I found myself talking to a delightful lady whose husband had spent time in the Romanian Embassy. Her favorite posting had been China and so we talked for three stops about her life there and the state of affairs in Romania today. It would not have been such a memorable discussion had traffic been moving, but it was forty-five minutes to go five or six blocks. She was a dear and so the time passed ever so quickly. I hopped onto another bus and found a seat this time. Camera at the ready I snapped these next few.

The blocks go forever. Row after endless row of them. Having been in a few of them, I know that insulation is iffy at best. Cold concrete is my experience. This year I notice some enterprising apartment dwellers have covered their windows with tin foil. It is hard to tell if it is the thin foil or the heavy duty from this distance. I can think of only a few reasons for it. Maybe it deflects the cold air – although it would also deflect the sun's warming rays. Maybe it keeps the blustery wind from hurtling through the cracks in the sealant and the windows themselves. Maybe they are better than tin foil hats and they are warding off an alien invasion. If that is the case, then we are safe as I saw quite a few windows like this today.

Amidst this rush of traffic, getting around can be an issue. I know I have been late now and again as it takes so much longer to get where I am going. There are two million people in Bucuresti and one million cars. Do the math. It is a slog during business hours. It lightens up after seven, but only a little. I wonder if some of these people don't have a flat and have to keep driving because they have nowhere to go. There are many beggars on the streets here as there are all over Romania. This one is rather enterprising. I notice he has a cane and a crutch attached to the back of his bike. He has a big cushy seat for comfort, but check out the mirror. His rear view mirror is bigger than the one on my car at home! I gather he must ride a long way to get to wherever he sets up shop everyday. As I am walking to the bus stop with all of my books in tow, he passed me up crossing the street. Maybe he was afraid he would get hit.

And as a last thought, it should be a cheery thought. It is Thanksgiving this weekend and so it must be on calendars worldwide that it is Toys for Tots weekend. There was a huge parade of motorcycles heading across our path. They were stopped at the light for us to pass. Even Santa was in on the ride. Maybe he was along to be sure everyone gets home safely. I have seen how some of these things go…

Wintry day in the Tower

I can only imagine what it must have been like to live in these stone buildings in the winter. This makes for an interesting image of a silhouette in the tower window. This window is built specifically for an archer. It has the narrow window for shooting through opening out into a wide standing area for the archer to peer from. He gets a full view of the outside, while those trying to storm the tower can only see a tiny slit with very little chance of getting an arrow inside and hitting the target. But he also gets the full blast of the weather coming in from the outside. What a hard life it must have been.

For three seasons it is great fun to imagine that time has stood still and there are knights and castles and dragons roaming the countryside. From the top of the tower it is not impossible to imagine all of those things looking out over the mountains. But today is Christmas Eve and it is mighty cold out. It is snowing soft, light flakes. I have managed to climb to the top of the tower once again which is quite a feat. During the times when this was an active tower there would have been people running up and down the stairs all day long. The passageways are very narrow and the stone steps are uneven and worn smooth and there are no lights even today. They would have been extremely dangerous if they were wet and you were in a hurry.

The sky is darkening as daytime draws to a close. I can imagine watchers of old peering out into valleys, looking for signs of marauders. The glint of a knight's armor would have sent the entire complex into a tizzy. A line of men with torches could easily be a dragon meandering through the forest. And there are certainly castles nestled all through the Romanian landscape. Looking out through the dusk, horses and carutes are wending their way home for Christmas dinner with family. It is not hard to imagine a time when these stone fortresses were active defenses.

Christmas dinner at Polchritui's

Today was one of the most difficult days so far. It is very odd to be so far away from everyone you know and everything you usually do at the holidays. It seems rather as if it really isn't happening, even though everyone else is getting ready for a feast and to see family and friends. This area is very family oriented and it seems that many of those who have left return for the holidays. There was much merry-making everywhere as people renew old friendships.

The chemistry teacher invited me to have Christmas dinner with her family. I am not sure se knows how wonderful it was to have a place to go to, regardless of the language barriers. It was very different from the dinners we have at home. There were so many different kinds of sausage that she had made. And beet salads. And potato salads. And cheeses. And meatballs. And sarmales. There was entirely too much of everything. I think that all Romanians have a hollow leg as they can eat and eat and eat, and then eat some more. I have never seen people consume so much food at one sitting and it happens all the time. And the food is so rich. I can't even come close. They are all sure that I am starving and will die if I don't eat more but I simply can't. It is not the cooking because I like the food, I simply cannot eat so much grease and fat. I guess I really do subscribe to the American no-fat diet. I remember when I first went to Lithuania; the food was very similar in fat content. It is simply way higher in fat than I am used to. I find myself shopping in the diet section of the shops.

But the absolute best of all was the dessert. It was heavenly. A wonderful, moist yellow cake with a rich creamy center and a sweet whipped cream for frosting with lots of fruits. Everyone knows that I live for dessert and this was the best I have had since I arrived in Romania, bar none! I am going to have to get the recipe for this one. Maybe I can trade for my pumpkin pie recipe…

Christmas Eve sky

Christmas is very different this year. I have never been away from home before. I can only imagine what it is like for others in my predicament. It is not so much the away-ness of Romania as it is the away-ness of my boys and my mom. I do miss them today. It has been an odd day. There is nothing to fill it with as everyone is at home with their families getting ready for this evening and tomorrow. They are cooking and putting finishing touches on the decorations. Most people will put up and decorate a tree this evening. I have none of that and no where to be at all. No purpose at all. It is lonely living in a house where I am being shunned and so I am endeavoring to find other places to be. I am in much better shape now than I was when I first got here. I would call a taxi but where would I tell him to take me. I have no destination. I have determined to make the five kilometer hike into town as there are probably no maxitaxis running today.

It is early afternoon but the sun is already starting to set in the village. The sky is lit with brilliant clouds of blue and silver and white. Fitting colors for today. It is a lovely day to go for a walk. Maybe it is such a beautiful day that it feels warmer than it is, but I don't feel the cold today at all. The fresh snow is glistening on everything. I don't remember a prettier Christmas Eve. At least I have that.

I wander to up Toaca Mountain. It is such a peaceful place up there. One of my student's uncles is smoking fish for the festivities tomorrow. He has been tending the fire all day and will stay until they are all perfect for the feast. They have been intricately tied so that none of the meat will disappear into the fire. He uses this scooped out tree trunk to hold the fish and to move it from here to there as a sled. Quite an interesting tool. Probably has not changed in form in hundreds of years and still doing the job well.

Farther along I find an interesting tradition. The priest is walking from house to house. He is a priest I have seen at other occasions. There are quite a few priests that I see while I am out walking but there seem to be only three who are involved with school activities. I am not sure who the man is with the priest, but he is happy to take any alms that are offered. He has big pockets. Small boys scamper ahead of the priest holleringwhat sounds like, " Kies eleve!" which means, "Here he comes." I am not sure if they are referring to the priest or the Christ child that he embodies as he moves steadily from house to house down the mountain. Outside each house the family stand, passing the time with their neighbors as the priest gets closer and closer. They hold lit candles as part of the ritual. It is quite a sight to look up and down the street. There is a line of candles as far as I can see. He is dressed in his regular robes, although he dos not wear a coat on this blustery day. He carries an icon of the manger scene with him as he makes his calls. When he finally arrives, he enters the house and says a prayer to bless the house and its inhabitants for the coming year.

It is interesting that it is still broad daylight up here on the mountain, while it was getting to dusk in the valley some time ago. That just shows how really big these mountains are. The town is bathed in a pink glow that is cast by the setting sun.

Victor makes gravestones for a living. He also makes his own wine. He is quite a character. His back yard is full of unfinished grave markers in various stages of completion. They are an odd sight, out of place as they are.
The jingle of sleigh bells can be heard in the distance. Soon a horse and carute come into sight from farther up the mountain. The horse trots along with his red tassels flying and the bells on his harness jingling. This family is headed for a Christmas celebration with family somewhere nearby.

It is not until later that the sun starts to disappear up here. Suddenly it is night. I hadn't noticed it getting dark. The full moon casts a glow over the entire area. It will be peaceful for at least this night.

Students Caroling on Christmas Eve

A most interesting tradition…

Each teacher has a number of classes which get together on Christmas Eve. They go from one teacher's house to the next, caroling for as many as they can. Teachers in town have more groups than those in the villages simply because of logistics. I am five kilometers from town and it is too far to walk and so the students must find a ride (for twenty to thirty kids) or pass.

One group that hazarded the snow and ice was my 10A class. They brought instruments and sang quite well. The students then expect remuneration in the form of food and drink. The tangerines disappeared in no time.

Blessing of the Machina

Every place has its idiosyncrasies and one of the most outstanding ones here is the practice of the Blessing of the Machina. Machina is the Romanian word for automobile and so there is a blessing especially for cars. At first, I found this uproariously laughable. Note that I have arrived in a very religious land from America, the land where we don't ask your beliefs as it might offend you and so religion is not worn on the sleeve of every American as it is here. One of the first questions anyone asks here is what my religion is. At first I was taken aback and said I prefer to keep that to myself. Then I began to see that in this society, where religion is the only hope there is to look to in the horrific times many of these people have lived through, then it is not such a probing question at all.

When riding the crowded maxitaxis, each time we pass a church everyone on the bus genuflects, sometimes once, sometimes three times, I havenlt quite figured out what the difference is. As there are quite a few of them on the way to school in the morning, it was amusing to watch. The buses are unbelievably crowded, and, yet, they all are busy making the motion. At one place there are two churches and a shrine jammed right next to each other. Imagine 50 people on a bus that says its maximum is 13 plus the driver, all genuflecting at the same time, three times in a row. It is quite a sight.

Life has been very hard on people in this part of Romania and they have not really kept up with the times. There are many who still subsistence farm with horses and hand-made plows. There is even a store here on the outskirts of town where you can buy a carute. A carute is the cart that the horses pull through town. I am told they last anywhere from 50 to 100 years. Can you imagine being able to sustain a retail establishment that sells a product with that long of a lifetime? These are not built to self-destruct two days after the warranty is over. Move over General Motors and Ford!

With this in mind, it is easy to imagine a society that feels the need for their God to look over them and give them even a little assistance on their way through this life. In earlier times, the carts and the horses were all blessed to have a long life as they had not the means to replace them as we do today. It was a bit of added insurance that we if took good care of their tools they would last just that much longer.

And so as this part of Romania moves into the twenty-first century, so has the Romanian Orthodox Church. There is a service specific to blessing cars. As I left the Christmas celebration in the Cantina at school, there was a blessing going on outside that I was able to participate in. Two of the religion teachers at school are priests and they were busy blessing the entire new school car. They blessed the trunk area, all four doors, the engine and the outside of the car. Holy water was flying as not only the car, but the Director and a few of the teachers, including the driver's ed teacher and we who were in attendance were liberally blessed with holy water.

What I had originally thought of as terribly funny, I have come to see as a natural transference of the blessing of the horses to the blessing of the horseless carriage. It is a hope for a prosperous life.

Legitimati finally!

Four trips to Suceava and I finally have my legitimati. This is rather important as I would not be allowed back in the country without it now. You are allowed to come to Romania in the first place and are supposed to apply for a legitimate shortly after beginning to work. I gather it is something like our Green Card. I have collected quite a bit of paperwork to put this in place. I did what I was asked to do at each juncture of the process. Without the card, I should have left the country before I had been here ninety days and then returned. It seems that you can leave the country every ninety days and return and the process period is extended for another ninety days. I had forgotten about this until the ninety days already passed and so I had to hope that the card would be there.

Each time previously, the policeman had asked that I return after thirty days. The last time, he did not give me a date and so I waited the thirty days and went anyway. It was a beautiful day and the ride was uneventful. IT was the Friday before Christmas when I arrived and walked to the police station and found the policeman still in the office. I asked if my legitimate was ready and he pulled an envelope from his drawer. I am not sure how long it had been there, but this time he did not call me to tell me. I wonder how long he would have left it there without contacting me.

I managed to find my way back to the hitch-hike place and get a ride back to Gura Humorului, and then a ride in the maxitaxi to Manasterii. Back to the peaceful horse and carutes. They have the sleds and sleighs out now and so it is even more like a picture postcard.

Primary classes Christmas presentation

All of the classes have prepared presentations for Craciun which are great fun. Even the little ones have traditional costumes. They have prepared a morning of singing and poetry especially for me. Many of them are dressed in traditional costumes. The third form class has made Christmas cards for me – in English – with pictures and delightful wishes for a wonderful holiday season. Some of them have included pictures of themselves so that I will know who they are. I had thought there was only the one class of them, but it seems that there are quite a few – maybe the entire primary classes. They really belt out the songs they have learned. Some are in English and some in Romanian. It is wonderful to see them. On the spot, a pair of boys decided to perform a skit. It is in Romanian and so I am not sure what they are saying, but the audience is having a grand time. Maybe they have a future as stand-up comedians.