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Published: June 15th 2010
In my attempt to see more obscure parts of the countryside I contacted what turne out to be a rather eccentric American teacher that I spent a few days with. She revelled showing off her village. She graciously arranged for me to sleep in a spare room of her gazda's (host/landlord) house. There was some confusion in getting to her village because the auto gara (bus station) she was used to using was unmarked to anyone walking by - an unfortunately common thing in Romania - and when I asked a city bus driver where the autogara he took me to a completely different place. This set me off-schedule, but still close enough not to upset my host.
After a couple errands in toen we boarded the train for her village. Unfortunately, I just missed the graduation ceremonies at the schools she taught at and had to be satisfied with peeks into the school windows. We walked from one end of the village to the other, as she told me her interactions with the various townspeople. When she arrived at her school assignment here a year ago she hit the ground running and has so many things going on I almost feel guilty occupying her time. But she did invite me, so it must be alright.
The high point was an extremely challenging trek to a very high point up a small mountain. I have never been in great shape, but after seeing me walk for a couple days my host and her friend still welcomed my along. After a couple hours of hard (for me) work and searching, our friend/guide Ion found the shepherds' summer cabins. N. interviewed him in a casual way for a couple hours. They showed the entire cheese-making process from milking the sheep and goats (the milk is combined for this particular type of cheese) to all the steps of processing. In the end they gave us big chunks to take away.
As we were thinking of leaving the sky began to cloud-up and I thought we should leave, but N and I were having such a good time that they delayed too much. It was easier for them because they both knew the language. I was being charmed by the cheese-master's 6th grade daughter. Then the shy opened up with a thunderstorm with hail and a deluge. The shepherds continued their work milking and all the accumulated friends and relatives amused themselves in the leaking sleeping quarters. A couple hour later the rain subsided and we had a two hour climb down the hill. It would seem to be easier, but going down presented its own physical challenges to the knee joints and thigh muscles.
N was so worried about lightning that she was encouraging speed and I could only answer that I was giving all she'd get and they could just go ahead. I refused her hand offered often because I didn't want to take her down into the mud with me. We finally got back to I's place to try to rest and dry out a bit. In the interim, the bag of cheese that N left on the porch (because the bag was wet) was stolen by a local dog.
On the long walk back to N's place we ran into a friend of hers and with the friend's husband an son we stopped for a restful drink and more rain-watching. We finally returned 15 hours after we left and turned in.
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nancy koenig
non-member comment
Wonderful!
These are the side trips that I miss! I never really knew where we were going, who was going, how long we would be gone or what we were going to be doing. Even though I was usually the only non-Romanian, I learned that even they did not know or even have a detailed plan. Go with the flow and expect the unexpected. That became my motto then and even now I have adapted to not always being the person in charge and not always being the one making the plans. It sure is a relaxing way of life!