VAMA VECHE
I have been incommunicado the last couple of glorious weeks at the seaside. At the moment I am in Mangalia a coastel port on the Black Sea but I just came from three days of camping and hanging out in Vama Veche..Romania's hippie capital (and quite fitting for the average Peace Corps Volunteer). Vama Veche is a tiny village no more than one kilometeer in length dotting the Romania/ Bulgarian border. People here are, well, frankly, naked. It was the strangest and yet not so strange phenomenon...men lying naked in the sand, father and son playing ball naked, women lobster red all over running down the beach. Not everyone was naked but a vast majority of people. You know what realization I came to? naked people are happy people. No one cared about fat or flab or hairy backs. I wish that I could be as confortable in my skin. I wasn't naked but after three days of camping, sand, sunscreen and salt water I was rank. We arrived in Mangalia on Sunday and the first thing I did was shower. I am at my mid service conference at a four star hotel with hot water and a swimming pool that uses chlorine!!! Our conference ended today, unfortunately but tommorrow I am going swimming until they kick me out!!! I love my group...this is the first time we have been together since our last conference in January. Right now the TEFL volunteers are playing football against the CED (community Economic Development) volunteers. My mind is so scattered, this entry is a bit here and there. Tomorrow I turn 24. Life is strange.