It's Friday!

I don't think I've ever looked forward to a Friday so much before in my life. And the really crazy thing is that I've only been here for a week. One week. One puny little week that feels much more like a year. Last night, I walked home from the Hub school with some friends and on the way, we passed the Hotel Central, where we were staying just five days ago and it felt like a typical, every day hotel, no big deal, old hat, where five days ago, it was everything. It's all about baby steps. The Hotel Central was my world five days ago and now it's expanded by leaps and bounds, first to my gazda house, then to my language school and hub site, then to riding the bus alone, now to walking home from the school alone and not feeling completely hopeless and lost the entire time (thanks to beneficial landmarks not in the form of trashcans). It's amazing how much you can learn in just a week. The people here, for the most part, are wonderful and when they realize that you are foreign but are trying, desperately trying, to communicate with them in their language, they're nothing but smiles and happiness. I was worried about being in a city where Americans are common and not very welcome, but it doesn't feel like that at all. And the Peace Corps staff here is amazing. Every single PC person I've dealt with thus far has been nothing but welcoming, encouraging, and engaging. Such interesting people are here, especially the Romanian staff.

Today we had our al primul (first) practicum visit and I and three other trainees went to the county EPA office to meet and greet the staff there and learn a little bit about what we'll be doing with them over the next nine weeks. For the most part, we'll be working at initiating or continuing programs to increase awareness of environmental issues in the youth here and helping promote environmental campaigns, like Forest Month, which runs during April here, and Clean-up month, which runs mid-March through mid-April, but both are ongoing projects. There's also an electronics recycling program here that we'll be helping out with. I think it'll be a great organization to work with and the projects are right up my alley interest-wise. Also, I'm pretty impressed with the environmental initiatives and projects they've got going. There are alot of air, water, and habitat monitoring already going on. We'll see what us four trainees can bring to masa (the table).

Language classes are...going. I was able to buy some trinkets in the market by my gazda's house today without too much trouble. "Cat casta" means "how much?" and came in extremely helpful. The trinkets are for tomorrow, the first of March, which is a big deal here. It's a day to give all the women in your life a small token of affection, which typically comes in the form of a pretty lapel pin or some flowers. Sorry, guys. The trinkets are only for the ladies :) It's also the day of the dead and I'm not sure if my gazda mom will be participating in that, but she told me I can sleep in till noon tomorrow and I just might take her up on that. Last night was the first time I slept really hard and I have the feeling that's why I'm having a pretty good day. I've been so tired and anxious this week, but the strangeness is starting to wear off a little and a routine is taking hold.

Not too much is planned for tomorrow and perhaps I'll find an internet cafe where I can sit and drink coffee and type and study. Or do laundry. Or just take a nice long walk. A day slightly off...what a concept. On Sunday, some friends of my gazda are going to take us to Bram castle, which isn't too far away, and I'm totally stoked about that. So stoked that I'll bust out the camera for the first time and finally look like a tourist. Tonight, after dinner with the gazda, I'm going to meet up with some other trainees at a bar owned by a famous Romanian boxer and they'll drink some beer while I drink some coke and we'll finally get to kick back a bit.

Fridays rule. So do all the other days, but this Friday I am particularly fond of.

Hug hug hug kiss.