8/13/06 - hey there all....well its official...i am in bucharest...i have been here for a bit more than a week....and am in the process of adjusting...my trip to here took longer than expected and we had a suprise stop-over in warsaw...which was just delightful...pictures and stories will be below...so far though i have been spoiled rotten by the school...we even had two days in the mountains...in transylvania...don't worry, we brought plenty of garlic to help us make it thru :) and yes...we went to bran castle...one of the many that proclaims that "dracula slept here"...but it IS the one many think of as dracula's castle...i am still trying to get a feel for dracula and vlad the impaler...i am hoping to borrow one of the other teacher's books....but let's start from the very beginning....as you know...its a very fine place to start :) just as a warning...no pictures seem to be posting today...will work on that for the post...sorry...
so the trip got started in philly...on a VERY HOT day...we actually hit 101 F....ugh....from philly i flew to chicago...and proceeded to get stuck in the airport with polish airlines (LOT) for 6 hours...what a mess....i have to say that LOT airlines seemed to be a bit confused...and when talking to an expat who has flown with them for 10+ years...he stated that 80% of the time they were wonderful and 20% of the time they were just horrible...i guess me and ten other teachers got stuck in the 20%...but unexpectedly we got a night's stay in warsaw, poland...on the airline's dime....what a great place....i was suprised that LOT remembered i was a veggie...and i got an aisle seat...so those were pluses...however, it was quite a small plane and the seats were not terribly comforatble...BUT...i have been told they are the cheapest airline usually connecting to bucharest...so it might be good for folks to look into them....
as for poland....wowowowowow...warsaw was GREAT!!! i was there with nine other teachers and two of them had lived in warsaw for 6 years...nothing like built-in tour guides...we stayed at a "posh" hotel out by the airport..nicer than many places i have stayed...let me tell you...we hopped taxis and headed for an excellent indian place that was one of carolyn and rick's favorites when they lived in warsaw...YUMMY!!!!! and then it was off to old town warsaw....this place was amazing...think about all the pictures you have in your head of quaint european towns...warsaw is one of them...cobblestone streets, with buildings that are close and three stories high...town squares with restaurants and bars that have umbrellas...gelato carts and coffee stands...and clean, clean, clean....it was overwhelming...the coolest thing about old town is that it was rebuilt from all of the destroyed bricks and cobblestones of "destroyed old town"...which happened in the 40's...all the materials in the "new" old town are the ones that were from the "destroyed" old town....all re-laid by hand and it took a long time to do this....just impressive to think about :)
we also stopped by the place where the polish uprising of 1944 (41?) occurred...rick was saying that the uprising came literally out of the sewers of warsaw by the folks who were fed up with the government...and the monument to this was incredible...we actually were there two days after the anniversary and got to see the monument with literally hundreds of candles around it...it was simply breath-taking....it was a fantastic night in warsaw and i am definitely going to head there for a weeked or so...i have also been told that krakow is even better...yahoo...so excited...new places to see and new things to do....gotta love it...after spending a good chunk of the night out in warsaw we headed back to the hotel to try and get some sleep before jumping the plane to bucharest the next day!!!!
and then it was time....it was a smooth trip to the airport, with breakfast included, and a short wait for a VERY comfortable, uncrowded, short flight to romania....it took about 3 hours all told...when flying over my home of the next two years, i noticed many regions of agricultural focus and that towns are small and spread far and wide from one another...no sprawl here...yet...it was a beautiful view and all of us were excited about what was to come....
as we came off the flight and some of us got our luggage, i was one of the lucky ones, we met our director of school and two principals...they were very happy to see us all together...all ten of us :) we split up for the trip to apartments and houses and made promises to see each other later...and luckily this was already planned...and then the trip into the city happened....one negative thing about bucharest seems to be the traffic...and right now its "light" because many folks are on holiday...ugh....we hit a bunch of traffic while heading into the city....and i was the last one to be dropped off...it was quite warm...95F and this is very unusual for romania....the driver was telling me we were in an awful heat wave....yuck....we finally got to my place and...
so far i really like it...its smaller than most everyone else's...but for me it is a good amount of space...i mean how much space does one person really need....BUT the greatest thing about my apartment is that everything...and i mean everything, is completely new...new appliances, new furniture, new floors and walls and ceilings, new rugs, even paintings that aren't half bad on the walls...although some of these will be coming down....i have taken pictures...but again nothing is posting so i will be back in a bit of time with those shots....but because eveything is brand spanking new...it all works easily....and then today i received my internet and it seems to be working too....i am in a GREAT location...the pub everyone heads for at the end of the school week is a block away :) and there are about 6 cafes and a bunch more restuarants in the area...i have a great supermarket and a fresh fruit, veggie and flower market next to it...its seems to be in the middle between the "center" of bucharest and school...so my commute, yes, i have been driving, is about 20 minutes....the school is quite impressive looking....clean and new (2001)...i am not sure what is happening with classrooms, but we had lots of meetings about what the school is all about and what is expected and such, with more of those to come this week...classes start a week from tomorrow...whoa...send good vibes :)
okay...i think this has been a good hi...i will be writing more this week and hopefully will figure out how to post pictures...although that could be a problem with blogger...we'll see....and so it begins...time for me to ask you for questions about where i live...next update will include and explanation of my trip to transylvania...there is just too much this tie to bring up...but suffice to say i am happy, healthy and have made it safely to romania...yahoo!!!! talk soon..hope all is well with you too :)
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