Life in the fast lane

As you can imagine it was
 hard to take picturees

Well it's not actually that fast. Life is setting into normal... I can't tell if that is a good thing because I am becoming accustomed to Romanian culture or bad thing because it's a lot easier to get bored.Well my life still continues to be interesting most of the time. Hanging out with friends, going to parties, tea house the whole shebang. This weekend was actually fairly interesting. My friend Renata took us to a Glow in the Dark Party at a club. It was so much fun, we got to meet her boyfriend and dance.

Oana and Renata with the tower game

Earlier that day we went to Chez Marie with Oana and Renata. This was so much fun! Oana tried to teach us poker, I didn't understand. At least we can rule out a career in Vegas. They also played this game where you stack wooden blocks in rows of three and you try to take out a single one without tipping over the tower. I also lost at this game haha, It was so much fun, we also played many more card games. Later that night Lexi and I went out to eat at Toscanas yummmmmmmmmmmm.

The week however has been pretty boring. School is school. Although now I'm pretty sure some of the teachers just like to insult us most of the time, now that I understand more. We're doing gymnastics in gym, which I can't do so that is interesting. The most interesting thing I think that has happened this week is I got information about EURO TOUR!!!!!!! So excited. I didn't get very much, but now I know where the tour is going. 

1. Ljubljana, Slovenia

2. Venice, Italy

3. Munich, Germany

4. Strasbourg, France

5. Paris, France 

6. Amsterdam, Netherlands

7. Berlin, Germany

8. Prague, Czech Republic

9. Vienna, Austria

10. Budapest, Hungary

I'm very lucky considering I have been to two of these places, but I am still just as excited to go! I just hope it isn't the same week that my father is here 0_0. 

Overall the past while has been pretty good. Hope you enjoyed this post! Here are some random photos...

Ninge!

Valcea

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.... well I little bit late for that. Yesterday was one of the first times I saw snow in Valcea. Now it would be great, however I'm walking a mile into town and a mile back home in slush. Gross. Especially when your boots are black and not water proof, I call it reverse Michael Jackson syndrome 0_0.

Haha well the last few weeks have been interesting. Not exactly the best, but you know it's life. One thing many people don't know about exchange isn't the most wondrous thing on the planet. After living here for almost 5 months, one tends to get bored.

Renata

School is interesting. Shelby and I now understand more in classes. Not really. We can usually pick up words and some what guess what they are saying. If we hear "Women", "Equality", "Start", "French Revolution" we have a pretty good guess that he's saying women's equality started with the french revolution. It's a lot harder sometimes cause you will get words that don't connect at all. Though there are classes that I can say that I don't like. I really really don't like. Some classes that I do like. Most of all though I LOVE breaks in between haha. I feel like my speaking romanian is really worse, and that I should be mute, but my understanding is improving. We also have a new friends in class. Sebastian (He's in Interact) and Renata. Renata is very awesome and she talks to us! Marta, Dre, and Teodora are all also doing well :)

The other exchangers are also doing well. The other day due to the weather we almost walked a mile about in  the rain. We were cold to say the least.

Well that was fun hahaha it was. Another fun thing that happened, we spend a lot of time at Chez Marie :)

Shelby at Chez Marie

Also I have run into some ADORABLE PUPPIES

Isn't he so cute!

Also I have waited on Lexi... a lot

Cohi and Lexi

I have also seen some of the most beautiful things I think ever

Life in Valcea people is awesome! Hope you enjoyed! Also I got a new app on my ipod so I can update my blog more often! Although I can't guarantee anything, but I will try!

Last note: I just noticed my post is about snow, and my blog background is summary haha

Revolution in Romania!

Protest in Bucharest
Taken From "The Observer"

That's right there is a protest happening in Romania. "Revolutie in Romănia!" is all one hears now days. With protester lining the streets at night, and the news being covered in gruesome scenes in Bucharest one really has to wonder what happened? Romania government is a Republic and it's chief of state is President Traian Basescu. Currently, right now, the Romanian Economy has had a downturn; the rate of

Protest in Bucharest
Taken From Good Morning America

conversion from a US dollar to a Romanian Leu is about 1 dollar = 3 Lei. The conversion rate from a Euro to a Leu is 1 Euro = 4 lei. On January 12th the revolution started with the resignation of a highly respected government public health official Raed Arfarat, also the founder of the Romania's Emergency Medical Services. The protest started in the capital of Romania, Bucharest, and now has lasted a week and spread like wildfire. It is all across the country, even in my small town Ramnicu Valcea. President Basescu was elected December 20th of 2004 he was a, "Man of the people," but now people are frustrated with the public wage cuts, slashed benefits, higher taxes, cronyism in state institutions and widespread corruption.

Bucharest Protest
Taken from "The Observer"

 By Sunday thousands of people were storming University Sqaure in Bucharest in protest. Over a dozen are injured and hospitalized including journalists, policemen, and protesters. The prime minister gave a speech about a new health-care bill after visiting a policeman who was hospitalized because a brick was thrown at his head. In Bucharest the protest has turned from a peaceful protest to a protest in which now the media can no longer cover it. The press was forced to leave University Square on Saturday, due to the violence.  The news is filled with very disturbing scenes of violence and fires burning in the middle of the roads.  Policemen throw tear gas and flares into the crowd. Things since then have calmed down. The Revolution in Ramnicu Valcea was significantly smaller and significantly more peaceful. The protester gathered around the main clock, or the city center square. They held signs and Romanian flags, and then they walked down the street.  Overall it was a very eye opening experience to see the revolution; it shows how much Romania has suffered in the past couple of years. They have only been out of communism for 22 years and are still trying to get their feet back on the ground.

One week left

Now some of you guys might be thinking one week left until what?
School

Just hangin

Lots of you are probably thinking, "stop whining I'm already in school," but I still don't want to go! Three weeks of break have been so nice. So many hours spent at the tea shop or the mall. The holidays though were very interesting. Quick recap: Christmas all of the celebrating was done on Christmas eve, where I went to a party with my host family at a Rotarians house. I enjoyed but it was still very awkward. For about an hour the only interaction I had was them saying, "You understand romanian" O_O. Then after that they were questioning me about school. My bad, I don't know any of my teachers names. Christmas day my host father took me for a bike ride, it was nice bonding time, but awkward turtles were flying right

New Years Night

next to me. For the week after christmas I hung out with Lexi a lot. We spent countless hours at the Chez Marie (The tea house) buying probably 50 lei worth of tea. I also got to see a friend of ours, Ilinca. I also met some new people, including one romanian who I had seen before at the Talent Show. She was a contestant and a very good one. For New Years we went with my host family and a Rotarian named Fredi. Shelby told me we were all supposed to meet at Fredi's house at 8:30. Lexi and I made plans to meet at Mcdonalds (two blocks away from his apartment) and walk there together. I went there and she wasn't there. She got there at eight which is when I walked to his apartment. I rang up his apartment and I talked with him, but I stupidly enough thought he said, "9 o'clock" (in romanian of course) when in reality he said "etajul noua" which means floor nine. I walked around in the cold for a half an hour in which I went to the main sqaure and watched some traditional romanian singing. I came back at 9 o'clock to which I Fredi tells me he thought the elevator dropped me haha. New Years with Lexi, Shelby, and Liz it turned out to be an awesome night. There was karaoke, in which the adults found lots of entertainment with us singing. Especially Liz haha. Also dancing and a lot of drinking. Now for reasons untold I feel extraordinarily close with one particular exchange student haha. Now it's has been two weeks since and I have been going along in life. Getting three packages from home haha. Also I got to meet my future host sister Diana, who goes to school in Switzerland, she is very nice. I have been really just chilling and enjoying life.

It's a pig! (I think they follow us)

"Go to Jail" I always knew I would need to know how to say that in romanian.

Craciun Fericit

MERRY CHRISTMAS = CRACIUN FERECIT

Well happy holidays to everyone who reads this. Christmas in Romania is going great, but it's weird. It doesn't feel like Christmas. In America, we put up a Christmas tree a month before Christmas, and there are always Christmas movies on. Plus going to get Starbucks peppermint hot chocolate with my friends was a bonus also. While missing all of that one really does realize though how appreciative they are of things at home, and here. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now. I have come to love my new exchange family, the other girls in Valcea are my adopted sisters now. The kids in my class are all very kind, and they have been singing Christmas Carols for most of the week. Although being with my host family is new and awkward, all is going well. Ramnicu Valcea is lit up like no other city I have seen. There is a miniature market in the center, in which they sell this amazing round cake stuff that is covered in sugar. The only thing I would wish for now, is snow...

 

Aren't my host puppies just so darn cute!

Well it's three days till Christmas, and I have been making plans in preparation. Actually no I have been sitting here and saying yes to everybody else plans. I will be spending Christmas with my host family and their friends. For New Years I was supposed to go party with Interact for five days! Then Mr. President of the Rotary Club cancelled our fun. Now we're hoping to go see Lucky Man Project in a club here! Still excited for whatever I do!

Well tomorrow I'm going to go Christmas shopping with Lexi, and then afterwards go ice skating :D. The ice skating rink is very cool because it is on top of the mall which is well over 5 or 6 stories. Although you will have to wish me luck, and I will probably need my Advil after this.

Turul de Romania!

 Well I got back last week from probably the most awesomest 10 days of my life. The other exchangers and I went on Romania tour! It was a tour throughout Transylvania. First we drove up to Alba Iulia. This was the meeting point for everybody. It looked like Narnia, and it was some of the first snow I saw here. Just for review there are 9 exchange students total. Lexi (USA), Liz (USA), Shelby (USA), Alex (USA), Milena (Brazil), Marco (Mexico), Louis (Mexico), Paul (Taiwan). We arrived there around dinner time and everybody was all happyish and yeah. We also got to go clubbing, mom don't freak out. I was safe.

 All the pictures on the left hand side of the screen right now are of Alba Iulia. We went to this really cool castle, which then again looked like Narnia. We also got to see a changing of the guard. That was very interesting to see, although it was FREEZING.

 Then there was a beautiful church, but I have learned that in Romania all church's are pretty haha. After we got to see all of this wonderful stuff we left for Sibiu! I have already been to Sibiu before but it was just as beautiful as before. We talked at some high school to teenagers. We got to go back to the Museums and go through the towers again

. They also had a "christmas" market in the main square of the city, which we got to walk around a little. We also got to go clubbing, again. It was actually pubbing. 

After Sibiu we left for Bran Castle....A.K.A Draculas Castle! AHH so exciting! Bran was so amazing I wish we had had more the 40 minutes in it! It was huge! Yet, the door sizing was more dwarfish people. Not really tall. For some odd reason there was a guillotine.... I don't know why.

After that we went to Brasov (my favorite) and we went to another ROTARY MEETING! oh so much fun. Only thing they had some weird tasting hors d'oeuvres.

The next day we got to walk around the city a little bit, which was so much fun! We also had an amazing lunch. We also realized that the day before, when we were at Bran we celebrated Shelby's birthday. We discovered she told us the wrong day for her birthday and that that day was actually her birthday... The next day we went to Targu Mures, which weirdly enough I didn't get any pictures of haha. We went clubbing there too and we got to see the new wing of the university. Marco and Alex want to go into a medical profession so they really enjoyed that because the university was for medically things. The next day we left! I don't think we spent over 12 hours in Targu Mures ha :D After that we went to Sighisoara, which we have already been to but I love it there! Plus it was winter...ish. No snow yet but thats okay. We ate lunch at Sighisoara and then we went to a church. Walked through a graveyard. Then we left :(

Fun Funs haha

This is probably one of the prettiest views in Sighisoara besides in the clock tower which sadly was closed this time.



After Sighisoara we went to Bistrita, which was fun, but there wasn't too much to see :(. The Rotary club there though was very nice and I enjoyed that night very much! After Bistrita we went Sighet. The last city. I loved Sighet because it had so much culture. We also went to a club here. The only not so fun part about this is we always get like 3 hours of sleep :(. The next day we went to a monastery which was AMAZING!

They also gave us funny hats... O_O

After that we went to a traditional house.... we watched a traditional pig slaughter......
We named him porkley :(


At first we ate some food, then we got hot wine. Yummy. Then we watched Porkley get murdered.

Porkley after

Porkley before

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Then we got to watch some traditional singing and dancing which I loved. Then we did traditional fire dance ;) haha Overall it was a pretty good night!

The next day we sadly had to say goodbye to each other :( I miss my exchange family soooooo much!

Life in Valcea: CHRISTMAS TIME! There are lights everywhere and it is very gorgeous. We also just celebrated my birthday :D I'm switching host families today. Also I met my third host family last night and they're very very nice and I'm excited to have them! Wish me luck today :D

Vienna and Budapest

So I just took an email I sent out because I am lazy now :) I included pictures :D

Sunt leneşa = I am lazy 

this is only for females

We planned to leave Ramnicu Valcea at 1 oclock, straight after school, but Romanians and their timing skills meant we left at 3 oclock. We arrived in Timisoara around midnight. Timisoara actually has some historical significance because it was where the revolution started in Romania in 1989. As always once we got there instead of sleeping, we ate. After not so much sleep we got up the next morning and started the trek to Budapest. We probably arrived in Budapest around 1 ish. Then after we checked into our "rented out" apartments, we went to go eat...again. We went to a restaurant the the guy at the "apartment" suggested. It was very nice there, and the food was amazing. The only downside was that we stayed at this restaurant for 5 hours! We might have had to order dinner if we stayed longer. After that we went for a walk through Budapest. We went through the main square around the little side streets of shopping. Then we went for a walk next to the Danube that has the perfect view of the palace. We then went to the palace, it was very cool because to get there you walk on one of Hungary's most famous bridges. It connects the Buda side of the city to the Pest side of the city. Once we finally got to the palace it was amazing. I learned that even some of the most famous Emperors had lived there including: Maria Theresa and Franz Joseph. After this we walked home and it was probably close to 2 am. The next day we took an all day long bus tour. It was quite fun, but for some odd reasons my host parents thought I was cold the WHOLE time I was on the bus. We got to see everything including the palace, the main orthodox church of Hungary, the main Basilica of Hungary, and the Parliament Buildings. Buildings? Budapest, Hungary is the only city in the world that has three parliament buildings that a person can see all at once. After an all day bus ride throughout the city of Budapest we stopped and ate...again. Then we went on a boat ride. Which was really beautiful but some creep sat next to me on it, this little section leads to more awkward stories that I won't get into. The next day we were on the road to Vienna. We arrived in Vienna probably around 4, but we ate before we crossed the border in Hungary. We had all the time in the world to see Vienna. Thank god we actually did. We walked around for 6 hours, which was amazingly fun. By the time we stopped we were at a pub called the Centimeter. At this particular restaurant you can get 1 liter beers, and 2 meters worth of sausage. There was a lot of beer.... The next day we went shopping for the WHOLE ENTIRE DAY.... I have never spent 6 hours at a motorcycle shop before. We went to the mall, where I have eaten the best mall food in the world, and we shopped some more. At this point though they were just dragging me along and trying to convince me to let them buy me things, but I still refuse. We went to a different restaurant that night one that was a lot closer. Now an insight to my host family and I's relationship is that I can never order for myself, I can never go find a bathroom for myself, I can't do anything for myself. So he orders me this huge meal, in which I happily eat. The next day, my favorite day, my host father took me to the Empress Sissi Museum. The Museum was split into three parts; their silverware (OH MY GOD), Empress Sissi, and the royal apartments. You were only allowed to take pictures of the silverware. It was very interesting to learn about the young empress. It was my host dad's birthday that day, and he kept getting phone calls. I waited an hour for him in the gift shop.... After that museum my host parents took me to a famous wax figure museum. I got pictures with Empress Sissi, the Pope, Freud, the Queen, Mandela, Gandhi, and of course my host parents made me take a picture with President Obama. Also all the famous actors and actresses were there including; Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Will Smith, and Lady Gaga. After that we went to the apartment for an hour to look at other pictures that he had taken of the city. I don't get romanian thinking half the time. After that we went with the other family we were with for another walk. We walked backed to Centimeters....where interesting things happened. The next day we left early in the morning and had a LONG car trip back. It was wonderful weekend and I attached some pictures for you!