Was this how I was a year ago.
I just got finished hosting the new TEFL trainees. They tagged around and saw my school, talked to my counterpart and my kids. They were so wierd about money, which is funny because you are so rich in training and then poor when you become a volunteer. It's funny marking how far I've come in language. I felt like mother hen, helping all my chicks with transportation and menus. It was exhausting and although they were fun, I'm glad that it was only three days.
Maramures on the other hand was amazing. Beth and I hitchhiked around all of the little villages in the country. The day after we left to Sighet we wound up going to Vadu Izei, a tiny village by bus...the problem was Beth and I backpacks in toe boarded the bus and got pushed into the back. The aisle filled up with people and their various baskets of cheese, chickens, and assorted undecipherable plastic bags and we became entrapted. So of course, Vadu Izei passed by and we couldn't get out. So sadly we watched the road as the bus drove farther and farther from out destination toward the big city of Baia Mare. Three hours later, (instead of the 35 minutes our trip was supposed to last) we found ourselves in the concrete communist extravaganza, Baia Mare. Beth and I shrugged our shoulders and went for a drink to wait out the hour and a half till the bus back to Vadu Izei. I swear when we boarded the second time the same driver gave us the strangest look. This time we took no chanced and sat in the front. I also asked a buncia to yell out our stop. Bunicas are the most efficient people for getting what you want. We made it to Vadu and knocked on a local's door and found a place to stay. The women we stayed with was super. She made the best snitel I've had in a long time (most likely I was just starving). The next day Beth and I decided to walk from village to village in the Izei valley. There is a tradition of putting your pots to dry on the trees outside your house...so as we walk by there are tons of "pot trees" with ten or twenty pots hanging on tree branches. It's a novelty to see. The coolest about the morning was that we met an old man walking and he called for us to have coffee from his gate. So of course we went inside and had coffee with IOn. He was an eighty year old bachelor and his sister, a very stout, leathery buncia took care of him and his housekeeping. He told of his former life driving trucks. He made us eat, drink tuica with him and take a picture. "Mai veniti pe la noi." (come back to visit us) He was adamant. We continued down the road towards Guilesti a small village when we met another woman at her fence. She called us in for coffe before she would give us directions. She had five grandchildren, two of whom we met. She offered us a place to stay...she worried we weren't getting enought to eat at the place we had stayed in Vadu Izei. She was most amazed that we spoke Romanian. We walked on about 10 km, and finally decided to try and hitch back. Not thirty seconds did we wait when a tour bus pulled aroujnd the corner and let us on. It was a bunch of Austrians and they laughed as I tried speaking Romanian. It turns out the were coming from Baia Mare just to see a small town to the north and go right back to Baia Mare. They were heading towards Sapanta and that was exactly where we wanted to go...so they took us on a little of their tour to the town and dropped us right back off in front of where we were staying. But we earned our ride. They kept screaming "AMERICAN!" everytime they needed something translated. So from across the cemetary in Sapanta we kept running toward the frantic calls for the "AAMERICAN!" It was insanity...I couldn't stop laughing. Who would ever think that the American would be translating Romanian for the Austrian? Oh there is so much more to tell but...I can't make it fit into the time i have...no worries I will see you all soon!! i leave on saturday and I can't wait to kiss you all!!