Adventurous Day#2

An unexpected adventurous day. It's so full of stuff and sights that I can't write it all down, and I have to wake up early tomorrow so I don't want to stay up too late.

My day involved:
-seeing 15 people standing in the back of a truck drive
-going in the same direction as a herd of cows on the streets and I felt like we were on the streets of Spain
-playing red-rover with kids at a school
-eating snacks for 2 different kids' birthdays
-walking 1/2 km in the wrong direction to find bread, and this was my second trip, I tried once last night, and the shop is seriously, no joke my neighbor on the other side
-talking with a lady across the street and her husband who's pretty passionate about politics and she gave me a whole bag of veggies: garlic, onion, lettuce, pasley, etc...
-I went and visited an old folks home cause they're sort of my neighbor, and it was a fun to see the old peoples' faces when they saw me and I said "Buna Seara" (good evening) to them.
-I jumped in a car with 5 other people and ended up sitting in a political speech where my mayor (he's my mayor, he's my counterpart, and really I don't know much about the other dudes running, I want my guy to win, but as a foreigner, I have to act semi neutral about it) was talking. I tried to look composed and attentive, when I was hungry (I was...enticed to come as I was going home to dinner) and cold.
-I fed my left overs to cats and dogs of my neighbor (that's what we do with left overs here). Secretly I saved pieces of meat just for them cause they're soooooo cute and friendly! Even though they live outside and the dog is permanently chained.
-I tried to time how long it would take me to walk over 2km from my house to the Primaria (mayor's office where I will work 1 or 2 days a week), and people kept trying to give me rides. It was a nice day (I took lots of pictures), and I was saying hi to all the old people standing outside their homes, and I even stopped a few times to carry a conversation. After the Mayor passed me twice, I didn't argue and I got a ride the last half. I am going to guess it takes me 45 minutes to walk to work.

That was my day.
Tomorrow I am going to Chirafti #2 to listen to a Romanian class during an "inspection" by the government, and then to Mastacani #1 for a tutoring test run with a teacher there.

There are 4 primary schools in Mastacani comuna: Chirafti #1 and #2, Mastacani#1 and #3. Mastacani #2 is a gardanita [gar-den-eeezha] (kindergarden).

I also saw an engineer dressed in business clothes, with a briefcase hope into a horse drawn cart. That was funny.

My site visit

I am on the mayor's wife's computer in the primaria (city hall?).
I met my counterpart Ivan: the mayor who's on his 3rd term and going for his 4th this year, and his translator and friend/employee Cristea.
Cristea is a lawyer and he's also running for mayor in the communa next door.

After 2 days of presentations and many coffee breaks and orientation stuff, we left Wednesday evening for Mastacani. I'd go into more details, but I don't know how long I have here before I go on a tour at the scoli (plural scoala).

I enjoyed a fun ride by masina (car) [ma-shen-nah] with these two famous and influencial men. I learned words like forest (multe compaci....I think) which means many trees.
They are really cool men, kind of fatherly figures who want to show me everything.

Anyway, I was dropped off at Luciana's house, she's a girl younger than I by a few months, but she's way mature. She lives in her parents' house and she has many animals: 1 mean watch dog, 2 sweet puppies, multe chicks, multe medium chicks, and chickens, and more!

Her parents came over to eat with us and we had fried fish with lemon and pepper and salt, it's life fish from home. The two gentleman dropped me off and said they would meet with me tomorrow. Luciana speaks enough englez to translate for me, and as long as she gets my intentions across it's okay. We did have some awkward moments with mis-translations, but it's okay.
Her home is nice, and since it's 1/2 outdoors it's sort of of like camping.
People get their water from wells here and I'm using an outhouse right now. I don't think my apartment will be like this, but it's okay. It's sort of like camping, except much better.

Today I saw the mayor's office and I saw many many schools and visited I think almost every class and promised? them stuff? like I'd bring them all pictures of Disneyland, because there's where I live next to...and Scooby-Doo (I don't think he's from Disneyland...., but now he is).
I saw all the kindergardens, met school principles, I will be teaching short english classes tomorrow for 2 schools, and I will be teaching english at at least 1 school after 5 mai (may 5th).

Everyone's smiling at me, and welcoming and it's spring and the weather is beautiful. This village is on hills, so it's sloopy and there's a river and lake next to us. It does not look like the blocks of Ploiesti, and I feel sad for the people in the towns in a way. They do have more modern things there, here is more beautiful (disclaimer, I'm working on limba romana, sacrafices will be made for now)

Funeral outside. more later