Mâncare în Romăna

It’s a good think I’m walking a lot because the food here is pretty darn good and full of carbs!  (Just what I love!!)  Bread (pâine) accompanies every meal.  So...here'a rundown of a typical day!

For breakfast I usually have a yogurt, a slice of bread and some tap water (apă plata).  I was given a water filter that is attached to the kitchen sink.  The water in Romania isn’t all that bad, but the Peace Corps wants us to drink filtered water...I drink A LOT of water!

Lunch every day is 1 & 1/2 sandwiches, usually some type of meat (often “mystery” meat!) cheese and mustard, one banana and again... Lots of water!  There is a little store (magăzin) right next to our school and often I walk over there during lunch break and get a little snack for the afternoon...maybe pretzels or some type of Romanian cookies.  The women who work there, Elena & Claudia, are very nice and put up with all our attempts at speaking Romanian with them!

Dinner at home is usually soup (chiorbă), maybe some homemade french fries (cartofi prejiți) or mămăligă (a cornmeal like substance - pretty good!) and some type of meat: chicken or pork usually.  We often have a nice tossed salad, which sits in the middle of the table and we all just chow down on it!  The vegetables (legume) here are WONDERFUL and the fruit as well.  Here's a yummy plate of bruscheta (sp?)

On the occasion (okay...every Friday!) I go out with PC friends after class for beer and pizza.  Sometimes, when you don’t read the ingredients well you end up with this (below)...french fries on your pizza!  It was actually pretty good, once I decided to go with it!

Today, in language class, we walked to a local restaurant to practice our ordering:  “Aŝ dori un papanaŝ ŝi latte machiato, vă rog!”  (I’ll have a papanaș and a latte, please!) Papanaș is a traditional Romanian desert and it was AMAZING!!  Imagine a really awesome homemade donut covered in real cream and fresh fruit.  Yep...it’s a good think I’m walking a lot every day!

I am looking forward to being at my site where I’ll have a little more control of my eating habits...hopefully more veggies and fruit and less bread!!! :)  But definitely lots of papanaș!!!  :)

Update

Okay... I can't seem to figure out the whole picture thing, so I will add my updates with the pics and hope it works...I will continue trying to find out why the heck they aren't staying!  Ugh!!!  So, here are some updates!

Now the work begins!

We spendt A LOT of time in this school.  Peace Corps rented out an entire floor and we have all our language classes and group sessions here.  Since the spring has been unusually cold the rooms are COLD!  But we’re busy working, so the time goes fast.  We have a break room where we all eat lunch together and there is a little store nearby where we can go get a coffee or tea at lunch.

Cinco de’Mayo

Never let it be said that I’ll miss out on a celebration!!  A few of us went out after class to “The English Pub” to drink to Cinco de’Mayo!

Some of the sights on my way to school.

It was a beautiful day and I think these pictures in this weather really show off what a beautiful city and country this is!!!  There are lilac trees everywhere!  They are called liliac and this is also the word for “bat” (as in the flying around bat)...one word, two totally different meanings!

One week down... Nine to go!  Time to celebrate (again!)!

We were all so happy to make it through one full week of language classes that we had to go have pizza and a beer!  It was great!  Our only problem is that we are still too loud as a group and get way too much attention.  We (I) must practice being quieter!  :) 

An outing with my Gazda.

My Gazda family (Carmelia, Cezar and their son Vlad) took me out to lunch and then for a walk at the local park, which is lovely!  There is an area where they have busts of all Romanian kings along the sides.  There’s a zoo here as well, which I will have to get to one of these days.  It was another beautiful day, which made it all that much better!

My room!

To share with you how very hospitable the Romanian people are my Gazda has given me the one and only bedroom in their home.  It is quite cozy with a nice bed, desk (for all my homework!), and I have rigged a little clothes line to dry my towels, scarves, etc.  (Remember...it’s been raining a lot!)

A walk to the Sunday market in my neighborhood.

What an interesting experience this was.  Each Sunday people bring their items to sell to the local market area.  There was about everything you could think of...especially animals.  I saw some of the biggest rabbits and chickens I’ve every seen.  People come to buy live food for weekly meals, or maybe to buy some animals to bring home for eggs, breeding, etc.  There were peacocks, pigeons, rabbits, chickens of every sort, roosters, little chicks...it was something!

Saturday in the country!

My Gazda mother is best friends with the Gazda mother of another PC’er (Grant).  On Saturday Carmelia, Cezar and I went to the country to visit them.  What a day!  We sat outside all day, evening, and night...eating LOTS of meat, drinking tuica, listening and dancing to traditional Romanian music, and enjoying each others company.  It was great!

A visit to Manastirea Dealu 

I did Practicum at a local middle school (grades 1-8) and two of the teachers planned an outing last Sunday to walk to a local Monastery with some Peace Corps volunteers and any students who wanted to participate.  We had about 14 PC’ers and over 30 students!  It was a beautiful (and hot!) day.  We walked a total of about 12km up and down to the Monastery and stopped for a picnic along the way.  In the first picture you can just see the Monastery in the far background.  It was peaceful and beautiful!  The kids were so great...they practiced their English and we practiced our Romanian!  They are MUCH better than we are! 

Woops!

I will fix the pictures as soon as possible!  Sorry for the mix-up!!!  :)

Pictures!!!

Finally, some pictures!  I have a lot, so I'll post some now and more late!  :)

New Friends in Philly:

We spent one day/night in Philly where we had “staging” which was really just an opportunity to meet each other and prepare for the long journey!

Bus trip to NYC:

As mentioned...I was totally car sick on the ride into NYC.  Not a fun way to start a trip!

Finally, we arrive in Bucharest:

After a quick stop in Munich we arrived in Bucharest tired but excited!

Targoviste - My home for the next 10 weeks

The city of Targoviste has a population 90,000+.  It was the royal capital of Walachia from 1418 until 1659 when it was moved to Bucharest - where it remains today.  Targoviste is known for a famous tower ruin (below - I believe only the bottom portion and some surrounding walls are original) of the former royal court.  During the 15th century, the infamous Vlad Tepes held his court there!

In 1989, when dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife tried to flee the country after being charged of genocide they ended up in Targoviste where they were eventually arrested, tried, and executed a mere three days later (on Christmas Day!)

Walking through Targoviste for the first time:

We stayed two nights at a hotel in the center of town.  It was an opportunity to get over our jet lag and prepare to meet our Gazdas on Saturday.  We had time to take a few walks and see the town for the first time.  As mentioned, there are dogs EVERYWHERE!  I find them so cute, but have been reminded to ignore them as they are wild dogs...even if they look like pets!