I have been in Romania for 2 weeks now. I can speak in simple sentences and I am enjoying the countryside a little now.

My "gazda" family is a retired couple. They keep me well fed and help me with my speaking. He is truly a master gardener and I look forward to seeing his garden bloom. The whole front yard is either a vegetable garden or a flower garden. She is a good cook and works very hard canning and preserving their food.

My room is in the winter kitchen as she has now moved in to the summer kitchen which is not attached to the house. My room has a wonderful window that lets in a lot of light. I have a desk and bed and a lot of space for my clothes. I am just down the hall from the bathroom which is handy. The house has central heating, but they use their "soba" (woodburning heater) to heat the main rooms. The bathroom has a small gas heater in it that is turned on for the night. My gazda also has a washing machine and she uses only Amway products in it--a connection to Michigan.

In the beginning, we ate all of our meals in their formal dining room. I am now being fed in the kitchen with them and I take that as being accepted into their family.

I go to classes from 8:30 to 5:00 pm. I walk to school about 1/2 hour each way. I need to do that with all the food I am being fed. Breakfast is usually bread and cheese or meat and tea and lunch is a sandwich with fruit and dinner is soup, salad, meat and a vegetable with wine or beer. They are all quite large servings.

I have been to Bucharest, which is a large city with not many old buildings. Most of Bucharest was leveled by the earthquake in the 1970's. So most of the buildings are fairly new, but they kept the transportation structure. That makes for a lot of traffic jams and little parking areas.

This past weekend I went to Tragaviste, a small town to the east of Ploiesti. It has some old churches and an old monastery where the first book in Romania was printed. The architecture is influenced by both western Europe and Turkey. I has the look of "Dr. Zhivago" sometimes. I loved it!!!

Ploiesti, where I live for right now, is a city that the US bombed extensively in WW II. There were oil fields here and the US did not want the Germans to be able to access them. So once again, most of the city was destroyed and has been replaced with Communist Bloc houses.

The people are very friendly and kind. They love to try to speak English and it is hard to keep them speaking Romanian.

I am not able to post pictures right now as I do not have internet access with my computer. I am using the equipment at the school where we have classes.