A day in the life of Marie

It is not uncommon for me to get questions from people back home about what exactly it is I do. Mondays are pretty cool, which considering how much I used to dread the beginning of the work week, is quite a statement.

Monday mornings I wake up and drag myself out of bed sometime between 8 and 9. (Note: I have decided that any hour that starts with an "s", such as "six" or "seven" doesn't actually really exist. These are more theoretical hours that while technically pass us by, shouldn't ever really be noted as people should be sleeping through them.) After having a quick bite to eat and getting myself ready for the day, I go catch a maxi taxi to the "barrier" of the city. At the edge of the city I board another maxi-taxi. As I am typing this, I thought to myself, "Hmm, maybe you should post a picture of this," only to realize I don't have a picture of a maxi-taxi. This is something I will remedy shortly. This second maxi-taxi leaves the city of Galati and goes along a straight road and stops at various villages it passes through. This maxi-taxi doesn't have a schedule or anything, it leaves when it is full of people. When I say full, I mean each and every time I get on one of those things it could be in competition for "the most people you could possibly fit into a passenger van and still be able to move the thing forward." You don't pay as you get on but rather as you get off and the driver knows how far you have ridden and thus knows how much the fare should be. When you get to where you want to get off, you need to announce your stop to the driver and he will pull over.

The village I go to every week is called, Sivita. (Prounounced "Shee-veet-za) The difference between living in a large city like Galati, and a small village like Sivita is simple; running water, stores, and central heat. For those of you who are now thinking, "Those poor villagers! Someone needs to show them how to improve their lives!" stop. It is not uncommon to see a house that has to pull water from the well that has a satellite dish on the side. Its also not uncommon to see someone driving a horse with a cart while talking on a cell phone. For more "village" pictures, please see: http://picasaweb.google.com/mariemines/TantaSVillage These are pictures taken not of Sivita, but the village next door, Tulucesti. This is the village where my good friend, Tanta, is from.

As for the school, it is for grades one to eight and has less than ten teachers. The building has recently been renovated from funds received from EU sources, however, there is still no central heating. Each class room has a wood burning stove they rely on for heat through the winter. There is also no running water or bathroom in the school. To take care of such matters, one gets to visit a shack on the side of the school guarded heavily by no less than eleven stray dogs who aren't going to bite you, but will be happy to accompany you inside the shack. Once you are in there, all it is is a hole. Literally. A hole in the ground. Good luck ladies.

I suppose I have painted a somewhat grim picture but then you get to the students. They are darling sweethearts who always smiling and are happy to see me. It is really cool, when I come it means they get to stop working on their grammar lesson and play games. So it is not uncommon when I walk into a class for the whole room to actually erupt into a cheer. I think that is going to be a hard transition for me when I go home. I'm gonna walk into a room and say, "What? No cheers?" ;)

The activities I have with the kids are usually simply vocabulary lessons with an activity to reinforce the meaning of the words. Like for example, today we talked about weather. So I drew a picture of the sun, rain, snow, etc, and they had to come label each picture correctly. And then if they are good we usually wrap up with a game that has nothing to do with anything, its just fun. And we all enjoy it. Today we went outside, (my excuse was, "We've learned about weather, now we need to go and enjoy the beautiful weather outside) and played friendship tag.

Sometimes it is frustrating as my Romanian is extremely limited and their English is the same. Most days I have a teacher, Ani, there to help me. She has been an absolute delight to work with. I think it is people like her who are responsible for the progress Romania has made. She is a very positive person and very intelligent. But for the days when she isn't there, me and the kids struggle through. They make an extra effort to understand what I mean and like the saying goes, "If God had intended us to all speak the same language He would not have given us ten fingers."

Coming home from the village is interesting. I walk out to the main "highway" and stand by the side until either a maxi-taxi returns to the city or some kind stranger offers to pick us up. Before everyone hyperventilates about me hitch-hiking you need to understand, it is not the same thing here as it is in the states. Safety isn't really a concern when riding with a stranger here. When you hitch a ride with someone, you typically give them about half the price as a train fare would cost (unless you get a really nice person who just lets you ride for free. It happens from time to time). But mainly it is a sort of privatized transportation industry that everyone just understands the rules and costs. Since most people here don't have vehicles and the trains and not even the maxi-taxis go everywhere or often enough, people just rely on other people to get around. Personally, I think it is really cool. Anyways, the maxi-taxi or person will typically drop you off back at the barrier and lately I have been walking back to the center of the city where I live, about a 45 minute walk.

So there you have it. A day in the life of Marie. I keep meaning to take my camera with me and do a sort of "photo journal" in the city of Galati. Hopefully that will be coming soon.

Until then, Peace out!

Cluj and the Merry Cemetery

For starters, anyone who is reading this has probably realized I am not one of those daily, or probably even weekly bloggers. I am going to try to post all of the exciting, wonderful, (not-so-wonderful), and weird things that happen to me. That will be, when it will be.

As for my most recent adventure, I had the chance to go to the north west part of Romania for vacation with two very good friends of mine, Karly and Kevin. (Hereafter referred to as K2.) Karly and Kevin are English teachers, also with the Peace Corps, in a town that is on the north-eastern boarder of Romania called Radauti. We all met at the same time, when we were leaving the states to come here, and they fell in love. They announced their engagement last spring and I am extremely excited for them. They will be getting married the summer that we all come home.

So anyways, getting to the trip. I left Friday morning at 6 am to head up to Radauti to meet up with them and make a battle plan for where we were going to go and what we were going to do. One of my many talents is that I have the ability to sleep in almost any traveling situation. Train, bus, car, doesn't matter, I can sleep through it. It makes the seven hour train ride seem like 2. Its wonderful. So as soon as I got on the train, I did my thing, stretched out on the seats and fell asleep. I woke up at about 10 am, expecting to be over halfway there only to realize the train wasn't moving. We were still in Birlad, a city about two hours north of Galati. The employees of the train company had decided to strike at 8 am that morning and no trains across the nation were moving. Wonderful. Just wonderful. Fortunately the train did get underway shortly after I woke up, and instead of a seven hour journey, it was only nine.






When I finally did make it, K2 and i decided to spend the night in their town and leave the next day for Cluj. Cluj is one of the largest (and most expensive) cities in the country. When it came time to find accommodations, K2 come through with the random hook-up. They had met a woman last summer at an English camp and called her up to ask if we could stay with her. This lady responded, "Oh, I'm not in town this weekend, but you can stay with my fiance." So this guy, who I had never met, totally let us stay with him for free. He was really sweet and tried his best to host us and show us around the town. We got to see several different museums and hot spots in the city. Two of the highlights for me were the ballet; we got to see the ballet of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, and I had the best hot chocolate I have ever had in my entire life. Holy smokes it was amazing.

We left early Monday morning for the town of Sighetu Marmatiei which is close to the Ukrainian boarder. The train ride was long, but we finally made it. From there we had to figure out how to get to the village, Sapanta, which was where we were trying to go to. We had to take a maxi-taxi (a big conversation style van that carries about 15 people or so. Correction, has about 15 or so seats. But then you cram as many people as you can in the aisles and such so the van is at twice the capacity of what it is built to carry) to get there. Once we arrived, we stayed at a "pensiune." People here in tourist locations basically open up their houses, a sort of "room for let" kind of thing to make extra money. The lady's house who we stayed at showed us the room, negotiated the price and then disaspeared for a minute; only to come back with a plate full of meat. I use the word meat loosely as one of the items was a pie-slice sized slab of pig fat. Logically I know that's all bacon is, with just a little bit of the muscle from the back, but here they don't have any of the meat, it is just the fat. It also didn't help that it wasn't cooked, it was smoked. K2 were more brave than I was and tried a taste. But we ended up sharing the rest with the local dogs.




We then went to see the Merry Cemetery (which was the entire purpose to going there). The Merry Cemetery is extremely unique in not just Romania, but I believe all of Europe. The wooden headstones are painted in bright colors and depict something unique about the person it represents. Sometimes it is how he/she died, sometimes it was about his/her profession, or even just a portrait. The little blurb on the headstone is written in first person and usually rhymes or is funny.

The next day we went to what is arguably the tallest wooden church in Europe. (Its up for debate right now because of the wooden base.) The craftsmanship and details were absolutely beautiful. We were told that monks and nuns live behind the church, but I didn't see any. Either way, the church was quite charming because of how isolated it is, and how much details went into every single square inch.

Coming home from a vacation is the worst part for me. I hate the ride home because all the fun is over and usually, that's when something happens, like you get a flat tire. This time was no exception. We boarded the train at 5 pm on Tuesday and I got home to Galati the next day at 2 pm. Naspa. Not exactly the way I had imagined spending the majority of my birthday. But the upside was I had a two hour wait in the Bucuresti train station and happened to run into several missionaries who were all coming in for transfer meeting. I got to see one of the elders who used to be in Galati, and meet some new ones.

All in all it was a great vacation and I feel really lucky that I have been able to see as much of Romania as I have.

For my pictures, you can click on the link in the upper right-hand corner of my home page.

Your Guy Quotient

I keep meaning to post a blog about my recent travels but just haven't had the time. Until then, please enjoy this little test from Dave Barry which I throughly enjoy.

(By the way, apparently I'm a REAL guy, I totally scored 15 on this. ;)

Are You a Real Guy?

By Dave Barry

Take This Scientific Quiz to Determine Your Guyness Quotient

1. Alien beings from a highly advanced society visit the Earth, and you are the first human they encounter. As a token of intergalactic friendship, they present you with a small but incredibly sophisticated device that is capable of curing all disease, providing an infinite supply of clean energy, wiping out hunger and poverty, and permanently eliminating oppression and violence all over the entire Earth. You decide to:
a. Present it to the president of the United States.
b. Present it to the secretary general of the United Nations.
c. Take it apart.

2. As you grow older, what lost quality of your youthful life do you miss the most?
a. Innocence.
b. Idealism.
c. Cherry bombs.

3. When is it okay to kiss another male?
a. When you wish to display simple and pure affection without regard for narrow-minded social conventions.
b. When he is the pope. (Not on the lips.)
c. When he is your brother and you are Al Pacino and this is the only really sportsmanlike way to let him know that, for business reasons, you have to have him killed.

4. What about hugging another male?
a. If he's your father and at least one of you has a fatal disease.
b. If you're performing the Heimlich maneuver. (And even in this case, you should repeatedly shout: "I am just dislodging food trapped in this male's trachea! I am not in any way aroused!")
c. If you're a professional baseball player and a teammate hits a home run to win the World Series, you may hug him provided that (1) He is legally within the basepath, (2) Both of you are wearing protective cups, and (3) You also pound him fraternally with your fist hard enough to cause fractures.

5. Complete this sentence: A funeral is a good time to...
a. ...remember the deceased and console his loved ones.
b. ...reflect upon the fleeting transience of earthly life.
c. ...tell the joke about the guy who has Alzheimer's disease and cancer.

6. In your opinion, the ideal pet is:
a. A cat.
b. A dog.
c. A dog that eats cats.

7. You have been seeing a woman for several years. She's attractive and intelligent, and you always enjoy being with her. One leisurely Sunday afternoon the two of you are taking it easy-- you're watching a football game; she's reading the papers--when she suddenly, out of the clear blue sky, tells you that she thinks she really loves you, but she can no longer bear the uncertainty of not knowing where your relationship is going. She says she's not asking whether you want to get married; only whether you believe that you have some kind of future together. What do you say?
a. That you sincerely believe the two of you do have a future, but you don't want to rush it.
b. That although you also have strong feelings for her, you cannot honestly say that you'll be ready anytime soon to make a lasting commitment, and you don't want to hurt her by holding out false hope.
c. That you cannot believe the Jets called a draw play on third and seventeen.

8. Okay, so you have decided that you truly love a woman and you want to spend the rest of your life with her-sharing the joys and the sorrows, the triumphs and the tragedies, and all the adventures and opportunities that the world has to offer, come what may.How do you tell her?
a. You take her to a nice restaurant and tell her after dinner.
b. You take her for a walk on a moonlit beach, and you say her name, and when she turns to you, with the sea breeze blowing her hair and the stars in her eyes, you tell her.
c. Tell her what?

9. One weekday morning your wife wakes up feeling ill and asks you to get your three children ready for school. Your first question to her is:
a. "Do they need to eat or anything?"
b. "They're in school already?"
c. "There are three of them?"

10. When is it okay to throw away a set of veteran underwear? a. When it has turned the color of a dead whale and developed new holes so large that you're not sure which ones were originally intended for your legs.
b. When it is down to eight loosely connected underwear molecules and has to be handled with tweezers.
c. It is never okay to throw away veteran underwear. A real guy checks the garbage regularly in case somebody--and we are not naming names, but this would be his wife--is quietly trying to discard his underwear, which she is frankly jealous of, because the guy seems to have a more intimate relationship with it than with her.

11. What, in your opinion, is the most reasonable explanation for the fact that Moses led the Israelites all over the place for forty years before they finally got to the Promised Land?
a. He was being tested.
b. He wanted them to really appreciate the Promised Land when they finally got there.
c. He refused to ask directions.

12. What is the human race's single greatest achievement?
a. Democracy.
b. Religion.
c. Remote control.

How to Score:

Give yourself one point for every time you picked answer "c." A real guy would score at least 10 on this test. In fact, a real guy would score at least 15, because he would get the special five-point bonus for knowing the joke about the guy who has Alzheimer's disease and cancer.