The last few days have been extremely busy, especially since my parents arrived Tuesday afternoon. I haven't really had time to go to an internet cafe and this is my first time at Ovidiu Rom since last Friday.
In any event, I will start with last weekend, since it was really interesting and a bit different than what I've been experiencing and writing about thus far.
Late last week Sergiu and Mona (friends of my father's) invited me to Rucar with them, a village on the way from Bucharest to Bran (where Dracula's castle is supposed located) where they often go to stay with a family they got to know about twenty years ago when Sergiu was up there working on a hydroelectric plant.
Rucar is located near the Dumbovita Valley along the Dumbovita river.
Since I don't quite have the time to really get into the details of the weekend, I thought I would just post a bunch of pictures and describe them a bit in that hopes that it will transmit a least a little of the experience.
On the way to Rucar we past through a lot of little villages and then at a certain point began to climb into the mountains. This is a heard of sheep from the top of the first major hill we went up.
Dumbovita Valley (more towards Bran, passed Rucar, but worth posting nonetheless)
Main road up into the hills a bit, sharing the road with a horse-drawn cart.
Shots in the backyard of the house in Rucar:
one of these things is not like the other...
Sergiu's friend Nick after having just finished grilling the main course on the grill (seen behind him).
Pictures of Dennis "cel mai mare pericul"...ie Dennis the Menace - Nick's grandson:
Dennis trying out the tractor on his dad's lap.
The cow that provided cheese for dinner and lunch the next day. Thank you cow!
Rucar - the village:
On Sundays, the town dresses up and everyone comes to the center. They go to buy, sell, but most importantly to meet up with the other people in the town.
Mona in a cave a bit into the mountains that surround the Dumbovita Valley.
I really did want to go into more detail about the weekend, as it was really enjoyable, but as I said, it's not looking like there's going to be time.
On Monday I continued my little break and spent a lot of my day hanging out with more peace corps people that happened to be in town. We met up at a small international student festival that had been set up in Pta Universitate. Although it really was very small, it was interesting to see the booths and how different the different students represented themselves.
Tuesday, after spending the morning cleaning and preparing, it was arranged that I would go with a cab to pick my parents up from the airport. The cabby was extremely verbose and went on several different diatribes about life in Romania on the way to the airport. Once we picked up my parents he focused mainly on car models and politics...
Since Tuesday evening, my parents have been getting things together and planning meetings and 'get-to-gethers' with the many people that they are supposed to see. I skipped out on most of the action today in order to come here to the office to write and to do some work for them if they needed it.
Interesting political note - today, Romanian President Basescu was suspended as president by parliamentary vote. The Parliament has the right to suspend the president for a period of a month, at which point a referrendum is held concerning whether he will continue to be president.
In case you're interested.
At the moment there is a rally for Basescu (and against his suspension) in Pta. Universitatii, not that far from the office.
Again, I apologize for the choppy nature of this last one. Hope the pics made up for it. Now it's off to meet everyone for a big dinner. :)
3 comments:
wonderfull pics an great to follow your romania days kisses for you and your mom & dad ! are thry staying with you ?
hey ....keep trying to reach you
enjoyed the pics
Myra shalom,
My name is Veronica Rozenberg. I am an Israeli, former Romanian friend of your mother's friend Lena Weintraub, she is also the one who forwarded me your blog. I am also a very close friend of Irina P, your parents have lately met in Frankfurt, what a small village is the world :-)))
My other connection to you, except the fact that once long ago, I had met Janina in Lena's house, is Transitional Justice, a subject on which I had lately prepared some seminarial work for Haifa University.
The reason I write you is that I felt like telling you that I was deeply impressed by both your intelectual and mostly spiritual richness and diversity, as they can be easily seen and felt while surfing over your blog, perceptions, experiences and glimpses through your eyes at Romania. I wish you to ever be as available to others as you seem to be now and a lot of good luck in whatever you'll choose to do later.
Veronica
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