People told me Bucharest would be very different than America.

They were wrong.

It's an entirely different world over here.

My two-day "layover" in Budapest was lovely. It was absolutely wonderful to just relax (and speak English!) with my friends from home. I do love Diosd, the town they live in. And it's always great to see them and catch up and scheme up ways for me to work at the school they all teach at. It was a perfect little dose of Moses Lake before I had to get back on the train and go to Bucharest.

I managed to survive a 13-hour overnight train ride, complete with scoffing policemen who rolled their eyes at my huge backpack and my inability to understand neither Hungarian nor Romanian, grumpy old Romanian ladies who were very fervently telling me something, only stopping briefly to stare at me quite rudely when I said the only Romanian phrase I could: "I don't understand Romanian," and of course loud drunks. I never felt in any real danger, but not being able to understand anything definitely put me at a severe disadvantage. Needless to say I did not sleep very well.

The Romanian countryside is beautiful in that Eastern European sort of way. There were shepherds wandering the green rolling hills with their flocks of muddy, yellowish sheep. Horses pulling wagons and children with their dogs seemed to be the main form of agricultural labor, and it must have been laundry day, because all of the yards were shadowed by brightly colored sheets and clothing trying to dry in the foggy wind. Some houses were barely intact; I must say sometimes I couldn't quite tell which buildings were for the people and which were for the animals. And there's no way the rain didn't get through most of the roofs. And yet, there was one village with a satellite dish on almost every house.

At the train station in Bucharest, a man charged me four Euros to carry my bags for me, and I let him because my blinking backpack was so ridiculously heavy. If he managed to run off with it, I reasoned, he probably deserved to have it.

Cecilia, one of the ladies from the Fulbright Commission, and Vergil, an associate, picked me up and drove me to the place I'll be staying for the next six months. We almost got killed a few times on the way, I think. There aren't really lanes on the roads here. There are stripes, of course, but I guess they're just more like suggestions than anything else. I almost had a heart attack.

I am living with a woman named Nicoletta on the sixth floor of a communist-style cement block apartment building. My bedroom, which was previously the living/dining room, based on furniture, looks out to three of the dozen other identical buildings in this neighborhood.I had a minor meltdown when the reality of my living situation hit me, but I don't really know what I was expecting. This is Romania, after all. I should be glad I have hot water and electricity!

Nicoletta has been very hospitable. She fed me sour, salty meatball soup that her mother, who lives out in the countryside, made. It was really good, although I didn't dare ask what kind of meat was in the meatballs. Then she took me to the "Hypermarket," as they call them here. All the buildings look the same; I don't know how I'm ever going to find my way around! The Hypermarket was bigger than any Safeway or Fred Meyer in the States. I even think I saw some things that you can't get even in Austria. I was quite impressed, albeit entirely overwhelmed.

This evening I watched TV with Nicoletta in her room. The Romanians love American television, and they never dub, only subtitles. So I got to watch CNN and Law and Order in English. That was a treat. While we watched TV, we had a snack of yoghurt that her dad had made himself. We drank it out of mugs and ate some other meatballs that her mother had made as well. We'll just say that was an adventure! J

I have been taking plenty of pictures, and will post them as soon as I can access the internet from my computer. I am constantly overwhelmed with new sights, sounds, even smells, so I'm sure I will be writing again soon! La revedere…