La Revedere (Good bye)
Last night I had a going away party. It was totally unexpected. I cried. Kids showed up from each of my classes and they bought a cake and gave me presents. The tenth graders filmed a video of valcea for me to take home. The eleventh graders gave me a "hope chest" to put all of my memories inside and they all signed a book with messages to me. They sang "For she's a jolly good fellow" and made speeches and i turned red and cried. I couldn't help thinking of my going away party two years ago. What a different person two years makes. I've gained so much from this experience, (including twenty pounds but we'll leave that fact aside). I jokingly listed for Vanda my newly gained attributes multumesc (thanks) to Romania. 1. I learned to use and love tampons without applicators They are compact and environmentally friendly. 2. I know how to push my up to the front of the line. 2. I have grasped communication via hand signals, smiles and nods. 3. I can eat almost everything except hard boiled eggs and pate ( dad forever ruined that for me one morning in seventh grade.)4. I can handwash clothes. Okay not such a good skill but somehow i feel this will be useful in my future (jobless and poor) 5. The ability to roll with the punches. I think that i stress less when things aren't on time and perfect. I have come to understand that somehow things will fall into place even if they aren't the places that you expected. You will catch the bus, someone will pick you up on the side of the road and happen to be going in your direction, you will run into your brother in the madrid airport, you will meet a rabbi on the corner of a bucuresti street the night before Rosh Hashana, things will happen. But the most important Romanian lesson learned is..6. I can make it on my own. I will make it on my own. That sounds so dumb but that's the answer to the question, "what have you gained in Romania? Was it worth it?" In retrospect i think that is why i joined the Peace Corps in the first place. I sheerly wanted to know, would I, could I make it? For better or worse i have lived with myself and learned to live by myself and manage on my own. Coming back to the US i am sure I will have to relearn American Nina, but Foreigner Nina fared pretty well. So I will leave Romania in one week (camp is next week and after camp I leave for turkey) and I will leave Valcea for good on monday and thus completes another link in the chain. I ate lunch this afternoon at Vanda's place. She asked me, "nina where did you eat first when you came to my house, in the kitchen? In the living room?" I ate in the kitchen and so we ate in the kitchen today for my last meal. Got to make it circular.

Plopeni
This weekend marked my two year anniversary in Romania. I appropriatly spent it in Plopeni with my host family, Monica, Victor and Aurelia. Good old Plopeni even after two years virtually nothing has changed. It was a nice visit. I saw thier chickens and turkeys , I said hello to the pig. He's little this year, but there is plenty of time before christmas for him to grow fat, Victor informed me. It was nice to see them, I hadn't been back to Plopeni in a long time. They just installed central heating in their apartment which is a huge investment. Now they can have all the hot water that they want (assuming they have water). Before they had a wood burning boiler in the bathroom and the kitchen always ran cold water, so washing dishes required boiling water on the stove. THey are really excited about it. I went running to my favorite spot in Plopeni. It's a road that winds through the forest and empties out into an apple orchard and a tiny village called Cocorasi Misli. It was nice to run without being yelled at and without smelling burning trash or deasel fumes. As par for the course we watched an exorbinant (however that word's spelled) amount of televsion and we took a walk around town. Monica got all dolled up and I looked my usually slobby self. We laughed at how i don't like milk or sourcream or branza (cheese) and how monica doesn't like vegetables. They asked me a million questions about how much everything costs in America. A weekend well spent. I left this morning with a punga (bag) full of food. Aurelia packed me an entire loaf of cozonac ( special christmas bread she made for me the night before), sarmale (stuffed grape leaves), jam, zacusca (romania's version of salsa), more food that i can eat in a week by myself. They are really good people and i am glad that i got a chance to say goodbye. i'll miss them and P-town. Some people from my group have already left. Sean one of the guys that i trained with is already home. i have so much left to do yet i can barely let myself think about leaving. i have a week to pack up these two years of my life and say goodbye.