Happy Belated Thanksgiving to you all! We hope you all enjoyed a warm, happy and delicious day. Our first Thanksgiving in Romania was a distinct pleasure celebrated with 35 new found friends at a cabana in the mountains. We missed you all and are thankful for your thoughts, emails, and support. Thursday, the Turkey Day itself, we traveled from home to Arad (30 km from the Hungarian border and home to several hundred thousand) and Friday out to Hasmash (pronounced Hah-shMahsh) where one Alecia’s program colleagues lives (size 1,200). Needless to say, the Peace Corps people in b [View Full Entry]

---

---

Greetings to one and all. As our first snow of the season falls on town and one begins to think of hibernation, we thought it might be a good time to update you on our somewhat frenetic fall travels. In the last three weeks, we have been to northern Hungary on a study trip, Bucharesti to work on a hurt foot of Alecia’s (pulled/strained Achilles tendon - perhaps she will treat you to a description of the local medical establishment at some time) and Chris headed to southern Bulgaria for a conference. For those with less time, the brief update is: [View Full Entry]

---

---

Alecia: The weather’s starting to change here. We see frost some mornings, and are starting to think about purchasing winter coats. The stalls at the outdoor market are bursting with tasty seasonal treats - apples, pears, grapes, walnuts, dry beans, fall spinach and lettuce, potatoes, dry herbs, home made paprika, popping corn, tomatoes, onions, eggplant, garlic and the like. Since our last posting we’ve had some adventures with traditional food processing. Two weekends ago, we spent the day with Zsolt - our host dad’s parents (the closest approximation of his name in Eng [View Full Entry]

---

---

Two festivals Chris: Taking a break from our increasingly full schedules, Alecia and I speant the last two weekends visiting two very different festivals. The first was the Rosia Montana Fan Fest to raise awareness about a proposed mining project and the second was the Homorodalmas Barlangfestival (read Almas Cave fest in the little village where Agora works). Rosia Montana: The Project: the Rosia Montana minig project proposal aims to put Europe’s largest open pit, cyanide extraction, gold mine in place of a mountain in the western carpathians. There has been a gold mine there [View Full Entry]

---

---

We are now real volunteers! After 10 weeks of training, Alecia and I swore in (upon the constitution, we vowed to “protect America against all threats foreign and domestic” “so help us God” - which was interesting) at the Tomas Caragiu theater in Ploiesti. In attendance were the Mayor, gazdas, newspapers, radio and 3 national TV stations. The American Ambassador is usually in tow but he was working on a state visit in Washington. Opening the state visit, maybe making US headlines though probably not, Bush addressed the Romanian president as the Prime Minister, someo [View Full Entry]

---

---

The pictures from Tirgoviste were taken the second to last weekend before leaving Ploiesti. Our gazda’s son, Ciprian, is an advisor to the archbishop of the town so we went for a visit and a tour. Tigroviste is a traditional capitol of Romania and is home to some beautiful churches and monasteries. The ruins of the old capitol itself (see Princely Court) house a beautiful church with an interesting tour guide. We were the only ones there at the time and he asked us “do you know why Romania is so messed up?” “No, why?” we asked, not having realized that [View Full Entry]

---

---

When I came into the office on Friday, someone had brought us an injured white stork (the kind that sits on chimneys and brings babies). Why? Because we are an environmental organization of course. We were supposed to go to Almas, the village where we are doing rural tourism work, but instead we speant the day with Storky. Feeding it, making a bed in our closet, trying to find a sanctuary, medicating… it was interesting so I thought I would share some pictures. If anyone has a better name than Storky, feel free to email. The stork is doing better, up [View Full Entry]

---

---

Alecia: It’s now July 16th, and we have 2 weeks of pre-service training left. At the end of the month we officially become Peace Corps volunteers, and depart for our new home. Last week we learned where that new home was: Odorheiu Secuiesc and we paid it a visit. Odorheiu Secuiesc is the un-official Hungarian capital of Romania. It’s a town of about 40,000 people (98% of which are ethnically Hungarian, or Szeckler as they call themselves) nestled in the rolling green hills of central Transylvania - - the bellybutton of Romania. The Hungarian connection is emphasized by three dai [View Full Entry]

---

---

Upon arriving in Romania after a long and uneventful flight, Alecia and I were among the lucky that had all of out luggage arrive. Funny enough, the hardest part of the trip was flying through Philadelphia, but after traveling around that fair city I can honestly say that all of my less-than brotherly feelings from the airport have been assuaged. Thank you Erika and Rob for being stellar hosts! Upon our arrival in Bucharest, we were greeted by friendly Peace Corps staff members. They loaded us on to a bus, and we sped off to Ploiesti (60 k from the Capitol), [View Full Entry]

---

---