The Work Begins

The top two pictures are of the salt mines I wrote about at the end of this blog.

This is my apartment. The first pic on the left is my entrance hallway with a refrigerator and a washing machine. The next pic on the left is my balcony. My kitchen has a stove and sink and a table with 3 stools. My chair with the ottoman is my favorite place in the apartment. I do my computer work there and enjoy the window that overlooks my balcony. I have a larger TV here than I have in the states!!!

My apartment has a living room, kitchen, bathroom, hall, and bedroom with a balcony going the full length of my apartment. My apartment is located in one of the many blocs in Romania. Blocs are cement apartment buildings that were built during the communist era.

On Monday this week, we were sworn in as volunteers. I moved into this apartment Monday night and all the volunteers left for their sites. I am now alone in Ploiesti, a town of 200,000 people. However, I do have a site mate who teaches English at one of the schools I attended for classes. He lives about 1/2 mile away.

Everything here takes a longer time. To do grocery shopping is not a simple task. I live near a supermarket, but I can only carry a certain amount of food as walking is the method of transport. Also, the supermarket does not have a very good selection of fruits and vegetables. So, I go to the open air market or piata for those items. That is about 1/4 mile away in a different direction.

Because of my meager salary, I walk everywhere although public transportation is good. Walking is better for me. I even walk in the rain without thinking about it. It is just a part of what I cope with. I hope when I get back to the States I will continue walking to do my errands.

My work is about 1/2 block away. But I present at a lot of different schools, so I have a lot of walking that I do for that as well. I am about 1-1 1/2 miles from the city. There are no bars where women go or restaurants in my area, so I have to go to the city center for that. But since I don't have a lot of extra money, that is good that I am not near where I can spend a lot of money.

In my office, are 4 other people. Three speak English very well and 1 speaks no English. Right now, when we are talking about technical things, we speak in English. Otherwise, I am trying to speak in Romanian.

Since the last posting, I went to town called Slanic with other volunteers the Saturday after my language test and just before swearing in. It is a salt mine. The patterns in the walls and ceiling were gorgeous. They had salt sculptures and carvings in the walls. But the thing that was different for me, is that they played in this structure. The cavern was 10 stories deep with very wide halls. People were rollerblading, playing soccer, playing badminton and swinging or teeter-tottering. Instead of it being a museum, you played amongst all the wonderful art. Just like people walk on the Roman ruins. They not only see things, but they feel them.

I will be staying for the next couple of weeks as I need to get to know my surroundings better and get to know some people. Hopefully, I will update this blog more often as I have internet in my apartment. So long for now.