In Romania, it is now:

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Week Three: Random Observations

1) Life is just a bowl, basket, bag, hat of cherries. It's cherry season in Romania! You've never seen so many cherries--everywhere: market place (farmers' market) and every little sidewalk shop. The teens at the high school where PC holds classes carry them around and generously offer them to us. I, however, have my own stash since Andrei and Stefon picked at their grandfathers' farm in the country last weekend. Love them in my lunch bag--along with country cheese and bread. I've been thinking all week of Alice Friman's wonderful poem "Cherries" about Catherine Hyde, Duchess of Queensberry who died of a "surfeit of cherries" and wondering just how many it takes! 2) The "wild dogs of Romania" are mostly sweet and docile, searching us out at break and lunch for scraps. They actually look pretty well fed and I've been told they're a significant part of Romania's waste management. They also provide demonstrations in acrobatic mating, questionable entertainment at lunch. 3) One can make excellent coffee with just a pan of water, a gas stove, and coffee. 4) My young colleagues give me hope in our country's future. 5) People laugh in the same language. 6) In addition to words having to do with technology, Romanians have adopted "weekend." ;-) 7) The second fastest train in Romania is the sageata albastra--the "blue arrow." 8) If you don't have a "name day" because you don't share a name with a saint, you get March 9, a day of great celebration nation-wide, complete with special round pastries like doughnut holes. Sort of a very merry unbirthday. I can't wait. 9) This weekend we visit a PC site where a volunteer will host us overnight. My UU friends will be interested to know that my hostess will be a fellow UU!! Ive met her and she's terrific. More later on our site visit.

5 comments:

  1. Hi Clela,

    I don't know if this will go through but I just want you to know how much I am enjoying your blog. It's great hearing about another part of our world and seeing it through your eyes. Jane Harper

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  2. Dear Clela,

    More interesting glimpses of your day . . . the waste management dogs, the blue arrow . . . the unbirthday. I love the photos! Thanks for taking the time to upload them. Now I know what you're wearing.

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  3. Mom, they say "weekend" here, too, but leading with a V, so "veekend". (The native term is too long - "kraj na nedelata".)

    Do the Romanians manage it with a W? I know the language isn't Slavic, so I guess they might.

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  4. Adam, the language teachers pronounce the w--don't know about other Romanians yet. Chip, we were on a picnic and I wore a t-shirt, but I don't usually wear that to class and certainly not to schools we visit or to "site." Dress here is much more varied and fashionable than I was led to believe. I need my polka dot shoes!

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  5. "LOL" on the lunch entertainment, #2!
    Loving the blog; I'm disappointed when I visit and there's no update! (not to pressure you!)

    lisa

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