Happy Holidays!

Once again I am WAY behind on my blogging.  I still have to post about my awesome trip with Meg and Stephen!  The only thing that could have made the trip better would have been if Julie had been there too!  We had such a great time traveling through Romania, Serbia and Bulgaria.  Meg and Stephen were so very generous to me throughout the entire trip.  I can't thank them enough for being such great siblings!!!  How lucky am I?????  I promise I will put together a slide show soon and post more about the trip (of course, my external hard-drive died - I was able to get everything off it, but now everything is named "found..." and all my photos are mixed up and a mess...so it will take awhile!),

I do have some good news...I was offered and accepted a teaching job for next year - here in Romania! I will be teaching at the Lauder School in București!  (Lauder School)  This is a great, private Jewish school right in the center of town.  I will be living in the city and teaching mostly kindergarten.  Yikes!  I hope I have the stamina for this!  I will be home for two months this summer and then will be headed back here for a year of teaching.  I'm pretty excited as I hope this will be the beginning of more international teaching.  

If you had asked me two years ago what I would do after Peace Corps I would have said..."find another corporate job in safety/security."  Who knew that I would re-discover teaching as my passion?!?  I can't help it...even on crappy days, when I don't really feel like teaching...after I leave the class room, I just feel good!  Especially this week, after the tragic shootings in Connecticut.  It just breaks my heart to think of all those sweet children.

So...for those of you who wanted to come to Romania, but just didn't have the time...you now have another year to plan your trip!!  ;)

Tomorrow I leave for Ireland.  I'll be spending Christmas in Dublin and Northern Ireland with two of my Peace Corps BFF's.  My treat to the two of them is to go to The Nutcracker on the 22nd in Dublin.  How fun will that be?  I haven't been in years and never outside of Cincinnati, so this will be a treat!  After returning on the 28th I'm headed to northern Romania to a small town in Maramureș with my friend Flori and her family.  Then it's off to Belgrade, Serbia with my other BFF here, Grant!  He has a friend teaching there.  After zipping back after a few days there it's off to the mountains for some sledding and lounging with my friend Calina and her family.  Phew!  I'm already tired.  It will not be a relaxing holiday break, but it will be full of friends and fun.

I wish all of you the happiest of holidays.  Enjoy time with your friends and family.  Crăciun Ferecit și La Mulți Ani (Merry Christmas and Happy New Year) and a belated Happy Hanukkah!!

Barbara :)