Colorado Passes Law Allowing Returned Peace Corps Volunteers to Receive In-state Tuition

I am very proud to have worked with Representative Judy Amabile to pass legislation that allows all Returned Peace Corps Volunteers to receive in-state tuition in Colorado!

Colorado Law

National Peace Corps Association Article

National Peace Corps Association YouTube Video

Daily Camera Article

Vacanță în uimitoarea America! Vacation in Amazing America! 2019

Totul a început cu un gest amabil din partea părinților mei, gest ce a reușit să ne apropie, devenind prieteni. Probabil ați auzit de expozițiune, de întâmplarea haioasă din magazinul în care mama a lucrat...în cazul în care nu știți, nu dați skip, vă voi povesti pe scurt: obiectul magic din acest basm este chiar o pompă de toaletă. Presupun că acum vă întrebați: "Cât de vechi pot fi toaletele din România?",  iar răspunsul este: Foarte vechi! Anii în care Sarah și Theron au stat în România, datorită Corpului Păcii, s-au simțit doar cât o clipă de fericire, și noi voiam ca aceasta să nu se sfârșească. Prin urmare, au revenit de Paște, așteptându-i cu o masă plină de bucate românești. A fost așa o bucurie să petrecem timpul împreună, încât ei au dorit să împărțim America, oferindu-ne ocazia uimitoare de a merge și a vedea cu ochii noștri: "Lumea Nouă". În acest mod, am dat startul îndeplinirii visului american. Mi-am dorit dintotdeauna să trăiesc printre americani, să-mi pierd gândurile pe străzile aglomerate, să treacă în fugă pe acestea, fără să se lovească de clădirile înalte, sau de oamenii întârziați la serviciu, pur și simplu să prindă aripi, fiind orbite de frumusețea culorilor roșu, alb si albastru. Nopțile în care visam că zbor în S.U.A., s-au adeverit, în sfârșit. Nu am cuvinte să descriu cât de entuziasmată și fericită eram când am aflat acestea, dar reușesc, însă, să mulțumesc prietenilor noștri, din tot sufletul, sperând ca într-o zi să-i pot răsplăti.

It all started with a kind gesture from my parents, a gesture that managed to bring us closer, becoming friends. You probably heard the story, about the funny incident in the store where my mother worked...in case you don't know, keep reading, I'll tell you briefly: the magical object in this fairy tale is actually a toilet plunger. I suppose you are now asking yourself: "How old can the toilets in Romania be?", and the answer is: Very old! The years Sarah and Theron spent in Romania, thanks to the Peace Corps, felt like just a moment of happiness, and we never wanted it to end. Then, they returned for Easter, we were waiting for them with a table full of Romanian dishes. It was such a joy to spend time together that they wanted us to share America, giving us the amazing opportunity to go and see it with our own eyes: the "New World". In this way, we started to realize the American dream. I've always wanted to live among Americans, lose my thoughts in the busy streets, run through them without bumping into tall buildings, or people late for work, simply take wing, be blinded by the beauty of red, white and blue. The nights when I dreamed of flying to the USA finally came true. I have no words to describe how excited and happy I was when I found out about this, but I can, however, thank our friends from the bottom of my heart, hoping that one day I will be able to repay them.

                                                                                                        -Judele Mădălina

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În primul rând, vreau să mulțumim din sulfet prietenilor noștri Sarah și Theron, care au făcut tot posibilul să ni se îndeplinească cel mai frumos vis. Cât pentru fetița noastră, Mădălina, a fost cea mai mare dorință a ei de a-și sărbători majoratul în S.U.A. Am plecat din orașul nostru natal cu sufletul la gură, mai ales că eu și Mădălina nu mai zburasem niciodată cu avionul. Norocul nostru a fost că soțul meu, Cristi, a mai călătorit prin Europa și a reușit să se descurce prin aeroporturi. Zborul a fost lung, dar foarte frumos, iar după 26 de ore, am ajuns în Sacramento, California, unde prietenii noștri împreună cu fratele meu Vali și soția sa Diana ne așteptau cu nerăbdare. Sarah și Theron au închiriat o mașină pentru 3 săptămâni, pe toată durata șederii noastre și am plecat spre casa fratelui meu din Elk Grove. Întâlnirea a fost foarte emoționantă, deoarece ne-am cunoscut nepoțica Elizabeth, în vârstă de 4 luni. Încă de la început ne-a impresionat foarte mult căldura cu care ne întâmpinau oamenii, dar mai ales dorința de a sări în ajutor. Am vizitat peisaje și locuri de vis începând de pe Coasta Oceanului, până în Boulder, Colorado. Toate locurile pe care le-am văzut, au fost unice, cel mai mult, rămânând impresionată de plaje. Vinăriile din Napa Valley, ne-au uimit cu gusturile rafinate ale vinului, San Francisco, oraș mic, cu suișuri și coborâșuri, la propriu, de îți stătea inima în loc, Las Vegas, un oraș al luminilor, al jocurilor de noroc, conținea până și cele mai populare atracții turistice, precum: Paris, un hotel incredibil la care am stat 2 nopți, Venice, New York, Luxury, Cesar Palace, chiar și un hotel cu Flamingo. Tot în Las Vegas, am mers și la un circ uimitor: Cirque du Soleil, care ne-a impresionat până la lacrimi. Într-un final, pot spune că plecăm acasă cu un bagaj de clipe de neuitat, pe care abia așteptăm să le împărtășim familiei noastre. Această experiență va rămâne în sufletele noastre veșnic. Mulțumim Sarah, mulțumim Theron, sunteți o familie minunată cu prieteni pe măsură! Vă iubim!

First of all, I want to say a big thank you to our friends Sarah and Theron, who did everything possible to make our most beautiful dream come true. As for our little girl, Mădălina, her biggest wish was to celebrate her coming of age (18th birthday) in the U.S. We left our hometown with our hearts pounding, especially since Mădălina and I had never flown before. Our luck was that my husband, Cristi, had traveled to Europe before and was able to navigate the airports. The flight was long, but very beautiful, and after 26 hours, we arrived in Sacramento, California, where our friends along with my brother Vali and his wife Diana were eagerly waiting for us. Sarah and Theron rented a car for 3 weeks for our entire stay and we drove to my brother's house in Elk Grove. The meeting was very emotional as we met our 4 month old niece Elizabeth. From the very beginning, we were very impressed by the warmth with which people greeted us, but above all by their willingness to jump in to help. We visited dreamscapes and places from the ocean coast to Boulder, Colorado. All the places I saw were unique, most of all, I was impressed by the beaches. The wineries of Napa Valley amazed us with the refined tastes of wine; San Francisco, a small city, with ups and downs, literally, your heart stopped; Las Vegas, a city of lights, of gambling, contained even the most popular tourist attractions, such as: Paris, an incredible hotel where I stayed for 2 nights, Venice, New York, Luxury, Cesar's Palace, even a hotel with a flamingo. Also in Las Vegas, we went to an amazing circus: Cirque du Soleil, which impressed us to the point of tears. In the end, I can say that we are going home with a bag of unforgettable moments, which we can't wait to share with our family. This experience will remain in our souls forever. Thank you Sarah, thank you Theron, you are a wonderful family and wonderful friends! We love you!

                                                                                                            -Judele Lucia

Voroneți Monastery 2011

Voroneți Monastery 2011

Voroneți Monastery 2011

Paș

cani 2014

Lunca Moldovei 2014

Pebble Beach 2019

Sacramento 2019

San Franciso 2019

Grand Canyon 2019

Dabbling in the Dinaric Alps

Since our European trip has come to a close, we're starting to think back on all of the incredible experiences we've had over the past two and a half months. We've been too busy to blog much on the trip. Vacation is hard work!

Don't tell anybody (especially our friends and family back in Colorado, who love their Rockies, or our Transylvanian buddies who can't get enough of their Carpați), but we discovered the most beautiful and awe inspiring mountains we have ever seen - the Dinaric Alps. The mountain range stretches along the Adriatic coast: from Slovenia in the north-west, through Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, into Serbia, and then covers the entire country of Montenegro until it drops into the sea.

We spent a month in these five countries, much of it in these beautiful mountains. Three particular days of driving stand out as highlights of our whole trip.

Perucac, Serbia

The first of these days was in Tara National Park, Serbia. Sarah wrote a little about our trip in a previous post, when we were looking for that medieval village.



View Larger Map

We camped in a pear orchard in the middle of nowhere near Kremna, Serbia but as we drove towards the Tara National Park and the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, we really started to feel the wilderness enveloping us. We saw fewer and fewer cars and the road became narrower and narrower until we weren't even sure if we were supposed to be there. The fact that the roads were perfectly paved and maintained gave us the confidence to push on.

We drove around aimlessly for a couple of hours, argued lovingly with Rupert (our faithful Peugeot 308 GPS), and finally found a lonely woman at the official National Park entrance a million miles from nowhere. It was the perfect place to sell overpriced maps, because we had no idea where we were, or how we had gotten there. Now with an old school backup for Rupert, we made our way through the beautiful park and back to camp. In the end it was a lovely day of driving, but not surprisingly, most of the roads we traveled that day don't exist on Google Maps.

Little did we know at the time that this was just the warmup for the next big mountain adventure: the road from Sarajavo, Bosnia and Herzegovina to Žabljak, Montenegro.



View Larger Map

The drive through Bosnia and Herzegovina was lovely, but as soon as we crossed the border into Montenegro we knew that we were in another world. The embankments became cliffs and the valleys became gorges. It felt and looked like a wilderness that I'd never seen or experienced before. The mountains are mostly made of limestone which lead to amazing karst formations and gives a ruggedness that is completely unique. One of the coolest things about this day was that it was all a complete surprise - we didn't have any idea that we were going to be driving through mountains, much less the most amazing we'd ever seen.

Mountains Near Zabljak, Montenegro

After about twenty minutes of driving through these beautiful vistas with views of the incredibly blue (from the dissolved limestone) Piva river on our right hand side, Sarah saw an incredible bridge over the river. It seemed to be suspended only by the air underneath. To make it even more dramatic, we couldn't see where it started or where it stopped; it seemed as though it came from the mountain itself on one side and went straight into a mountain on the other. Sarah's heart jumped into her chest when she saw that there was a car stopped in the middle.

Piva River Bridge

I calmly and naively said, "Don't worry, honey. It doesn't look like we have to cross it." Ha! Just at this moment Rupert tells me "In 200 yards, turn left." What? There is no left. To the right is a cliff with the river below us, and to the left is the sheer rock face of the mountain. But Rupert was insistent, and as we approached the bridge, the road suddenly turned left into a tunnel. Sarah's stress level started to increase as we slowly realized that the bridge does in fact come straight from the mountainside and we were curving back towards the river. On cue Rupert said "If possible, make a U-turn." You've got to be kidding! There's no place to even think of turning around. We're in a tunnel and about to drive across a narrow bridge over this chasm! I quickly promised that we didn't have to stop on the bridge, but just as quickly reneged when I saw how incredible the view was. This was also why the other car had stopped. Our compromise was that Sarah didn't have to get out of the car. I couldn't help myself, though & had to get out for a closer view.

Through the Pass

The rest of the trip to Žabljak was one incredible view and experience after another. Every tunnel we entered was like a lottery ticket that paid off with dramatic vistas on the other side. And a word about the tunnels. These are not your ordinary American tunnels that are nicely finished with concrete. I am pretty sure that these tunnels were hand carved by dwarves from Middle Earth. It was like driving into a cave. They never had lights, and often we were engulfed in pitch dark, with no visibility in front or behind us except trusty Rupert's headlights.

Tunnel in Montenegro

Once we settled into Žabljak, we went to see the world's second longest canyon, the Tara River Canyon. It is second only to the Grand Canyon. Most people here raft through it, but we thought it would be more fun to see it from the rim instead. It felt like we had the entire world to ourselves that morning, as we didn't see any other signs of humanity until we got back to our car at the end of the hike.

Tara Canyon, Montenegro

 

Lonely Bench, Tara Canyon, Montenegro

Our last big day of driving was in Slovenia's Triglav National Park. Triglav is a huge three-peaked mountain in the west of the country, and our day was basically spent driving around it with amazing views the whole time. The national park is famous for its 50 switchbacks. Each switchback has cobblestones for added traction.



View Larger Map

Aside from the beauty of the park, it is also an important historical area. It was the site of many months of warfare during WWI. For two years the town of Kobarid and the mountains there were the front between Italy and Austria-Hungary. It nearly destroyed the town, and there were incredible casualties on both sides (totaling about half a million). Eventually the Italian forces were driven from Kobarid and retreated, but the region was given to Italy after the war. I'm not sure how I would have dealt with this if I were a Slovenian in this region. You win a two year battle against invaders to your homeland, only to lose the war and lose your homeland in the end anyway. Thankfully everybody's friends now, and there's an excellent museum on the subject in Kobarid with great exhibits in English, Slovenian and Italian. This was probably one of our longest days in the car, due to plenty of stops along the way to enjoy the view and the history of the area. But it was definitely worth it.

Triglav National Park, Slovenia

Switchback Number 50!

In the end, these days in the mountains just made us all the more homesick. Even though we had to pick our jaws up off of the ground a few times here in Europe, there's nothing like those Colorado Rockies. Thankfully we'll be back home before we can blink - tomorrow in fact!

Reposted by Serbia's Ambassador to the World

Our previous post about our time in Serbia was reposted by Serbia's Ambassador to the World and we've had almost 100 hits from Serbia since. I'm glad that we had an opportunity to let people know how wonderful Serbia and its people are.

Adventures in Serbia

The Serbs are incredibly friendly and hospitable. We experienced this particularly when we camped in the stunning mountains of Western Serbia. We stayed in the pear orchards of an older man who makes his own booze from the pears. He didn’t speak English but still he greeted us with a smile and shots of rakia. We were lucky enough to be there at the same time as his children and grandchildren who all spoke English. We spent our evenings chatting with them about life in our two countries. We talked about the Yugoslavian war in which more than 130,000 people were killed. The ethnic cleansing of Bosnians by Serbs that occurred is considered genocide. Later, during the Kosovo War, America, as a part of NATO, was involved in bombing Serbia even though NATO did not have UN approval. Our hosts were very open with us about the religious and political conflicts that still exist among the former Yugoslavian countries. At the same time, they talked about treating people as individuals despite their religion. They were curious about how Americans manage (or don’t) to live in peace despite our diversity.

The view from our campsite

Theron in Tara National Park

While we were in the mountains, we drove through the winding, poorly marked roads of Tara National Park. Theron’s knowledge of the Cyrillic alphabet from his high school Russian classes came in incredibly useful. The lakes in this area were beautiful and we went for a swim. We also tried to find a medieval village down a remote road but we were unsuccessful. “Medieval village” has become a code word for any place with think might be non-existent (or hard to find). It’s a frequently used word lately.

The only well marked sign in Tara National Park

While we were in Serbia, we visited the cities of Novi Sad and Niš. Novi Sad has a great vibe in its beautiful town center with countless outdoor cafes. They also have a beautiful park along the Danube. Niš has some incredible historical sites. There are 4th century Roman ruins with mosaics comparable to those in Rome. There is a tower built of the skulls of Serbian soldiers by the Turks to celebrate a victory in 1809. Many of the skulls disappeared when family members recognized their fathers, brothers, and sons.

Evening in Novi Sad

In Niš, we also visited a World War II concentration camp run by Nazis during the Axis occupation of Serbia. In this camp, 12,000 Serbians were murdered over four years. The Germans instituted a policy in which one hundred Serbs were killed for every German who died, and fifty were killed for every wounded soldier. It was the site of the first successful escape from a concentration camp, involving over 100 prisoners. The guide told us that the tall concrete walls surrounding the camp were built after the escape. One of the strangest aspects of this camp is that there is a school built right next to it, since it is in the heart of a living city. I can’t really imagine what it must be like to be a student there, with the reminder of these horrors outside of the classroom window every day.

Crveni Krst Concentration Camp

This week in Serbia has made me spend a lot of time thinking about war and brutality, particularly after just serving two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer. I really believe that international peace is built by individual relationships. It is about having conversations with strangers, just like we did with our Serbian hosts. Only with these experiences will we breakdown stereotypes, learn to value our differences and, more importantly, recognize our similarities.

Church of Bones

Our post-Peace Corps European adventure has been amazing so far.  We're on Day 19 of 75. We've been to Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Serbia. Highlights include hiking in the Swiss Alps, discovering random castles along the way, strolling through charming towns like Lucerne and Regensburg, and spending time with fellow Returned Peace Corps Volunteers Stephen, Megan and Kevin.

Perhaps the most unique thing we've seen is the Sedlec Ossuary in the Czech Republic. It is a Catholic chapel decorated with the skeletons of 40,000 people. The graveyard had been sprinkled with dirt from the Holy Land in 1200s so it was a very popular place to be buried. The current church is from the 1400s. In 1511, a half-blind monk was tasked with exhuming skeletons and stacking the old bones to make room for new burials. This is a fairly common practice in Europe. Then in 1870, a local woodcarver, Frantesek Rindt, was asked by the Shwartzenberg family to arrange the bones. This is what he produced.

Bone pyramid

Bone chandelier using at least one of every bone in the human body

Six foot tall chalice

Schwarzenberg Coat of Arms made of bones

Schwarzenberg Coat of Arms

Romania, We Meet Again! (aka That Didn't Take Long)

Sarah and I arrived in Zurich, Switzerland on the 4th of July from Romania for a double purpose. We were renting a car from nearby France (as it was the most cost effective way to rent for our trip) and I scored an interview with Google. Zurich was the closest office that gives interviews.

Things started off poorly for us with a massive culture shock. We strolled into the five star hotel that Google had booked for me. The receptionist looked at me, looked at Sarah, looked back at me, and said "This is for a single, correct?" I said, "Yeah, but don't worry. We'll pay the difference in the room rate." She said, "I'm sorry sir, you don't understand. We are completely booked. There are no more beds." In Romania, we would have worked as a team to solve this problem, hotel staff and guests all working with a common understanding that it is in everyone's best interest that a bed would magically appear. In Switzerland, they have fire codes.

After I sold a kidney so that we could afford another hotel close by, I decided to walk to the Google office. I didn't want to stress about finding it the next morning. I got out my little map, which I had printed and starred with the office's location. I strolled past a lovely park; watched the Audis, Porsches, and BMWs cruise past me; and gaped at a ten year old Hasidic Jew go past on his push scooter while fully dressed in his suit and hat. All the while I was noticing a lovely palace on top of a hill on the other side of the park. As I followed my map and climbed that very hill, it slowly dawned on me that the palace was the star on my map. It couldn't be the Google office, could it? I had heard that the office was amazing, but a palace?

And.... I was in the wrong place. I hit the dead end at the top of the hill and found out that the palace was a business school. I wasn't lost, but I was officially out of ideas. I could walk back to the hotel, but it was getting dark, and besides I didn't want to give them the chance at that other kidney. Thankfully three joggers were relaxing and stretching after their hill climb. If the Peace Corps taught me anything, it is to swallow my pride and ask for help when I need it. I am officially immune to receiving the you-are-an-idiot face. But the joggers were extremely pleasant, spoke English, and pointed me right to the office.

After finding the building, entering into a fit of stress induced panic at the thought of the upcoming interview, and wandering in circles for about 10 minutes like a dazed bird after flying into a window, I started back to the hotel. Who did I see, but my newest friends in Zurich, the joggers! By this point my heart rate had returned to a normal level, and I noticed one of the women was wearing a Google Engineering jacket. So I asked the question with the obvious answer, but it wasn't her, but her husband/boyfriend who worked there. I mentioned the interview to put the pieces in place for him, and he wondered why I would be all the way in Zurich for an interview.

I said that I had been in Romania for two years, and this was the closest office, and his eyes popped out of his head and he blurted "Ești Român?!" (Which means "You're Romanian?!") I was just as surprised as he was to hear Romanian here and immediately switched to speaking Romanian to tell him our story. We had a wonderful chat, and I hope that I made his day better by speaking to him in his own language. Hearing your native tongue while living abroad is thrilling (even if it is as widely spoken as English).

I'm pretty happy to say that my first Swiss friend just happens to be a Romanian.

P.S. The Google interview seemed to go well, but I will find out in a week or two how I did. Țineți pumnii! (Keep your fingers crossed!)

Until We See You Again, Romania

Today is our official last day as Peace Corps volunteers in Romania and also the 4th of July! We had an amazing two years here that went by incredibly fast. We made lifelong friends, and I think we touched a lot of peoples' lives. I know that many people touched ours, if that's any indication. As teachers it is often hard to measure success, but based on the love we felt and the tears shed at our leaving, I think we should be proud. We still have blog posts to write about our experiences and about 15,000 more photos to edit.

In the short term, we have decided to go on a dream vacation by driving around Europe for a few months. We're focusing on the Balkans and will end the trip in Portugal to visit some good friends who live there. We plan to be better about blog posting and facebook updating! If you'd like to join us for part of our trip, you're more than welcome.

Our next step is unknown. Romania has taught us to be flexible and live in the moment. We're excited to see what happens. Wish us luck!

For your viewing pleasure, here is a short video that our good friend Mihaela made for us about our time here.

Too late.

Text message to Grant: Take the elevator to the 8th floor. The door on the 9th floor doesn't open.

Text message from Grant: Too late. Now I'm stuck at 9 and it won't move at all.

Poor Grant had the dubious honor of being stuck in our elevator tonight. I'm not surprised. Even Grant wasn't surprised. If you've ever seen our elevator, I'm sure you're not surprised.

A few fast facts about our elevator:

• You have to wait for the second "clunk" when the elevator stops or you'll be stuck between two floors. If this happens, you have to go back to the first floor and then back up to the ninth.
• As a "safety" feature, you must hold the inner doors closed or the elevator will stop immediately.
• We have ten floors in our building, but the elevator only goes to the 9th floor.
• For a full month, the elevator was shut off because no one had paid. We have a double amputee who lives on the 7th floor.
• Sometimes you push the button and the elevator starts. Sometimes you have to push the button and hold it. There doesn't seem to be a pattern. If you have to hold the button, you can't let go on the way up or you'll stop immediately.
• If one of the outer doors is left open on any random floor, the elevator will not work from any floor.
• Written on the elevator wall in permanent marker are two phone numbers in case the elevator is broken. No one answered one of them when I called today. The other is no longer in service.
• We learned tonight that there is a secret emergency handle that Grant could have used to open the door. Our neighbor was shocked that we had used the elevator for two years without knowing about this.
• Despite all this, people are still confused when we decide to climb the stairs if the elevator is actually running.

Two Years Made

I can't believe today marks our two year anniversary in Romania! It has been an intense ride that has pushed us beyond what we thought was possible. We've made new friends, learned a new language, lived on $600 a month, and hopefully brought a little more peace and understanding to the world. We never could have accomplished this without the support of our beloved Peace Corps Romania Group 28. We did it!

Vlădeni Pulls Out All the Stops

This all started months ago when I had the idea that I would like to try to dye Easter eggs in the Moldovan style. I knew a fellow volunteer, Grant, had friends who were experts at this, and I hoped that they would enjoy sharing their heritage and tradition. It turns out that his village, Vlădeni, Botoșani, wanted to share much more than just egg painting with eight Americans.

An army of Americans invade Vlădeni!

As we walked through the door, each of us broke off a piece of traditional bread, called a colac. It was beautifully made, braided with care into a circle, symbolizing the infinity of God or the shape of the sun. We were warmly welcomed guests in this place. As I looked around, I could immediately see that they had pulled out all the stops for us.

Welcomed with Colac

In the center of the room I saw a table piled high with fresh fruit, cakes, bread and pitchers of wine and țuică (homemade brandy). Under this bounty was a hand stitched and embroidered tablecloth. The more I looked around, the more I saw small items that had been brought in especially for us to see, including beautiful pottery, traditional wall hangings, and an antique telephone.

Prepared Just for Us

We were given traditional, colorful bags, which contained a program in both Romanian and English that described our plan for the day and the tradition of dying Easter eggs. Then we were ushered to sit down and relax for a few minutes. There was a round of introductions and speeches, and we realized that our hosts included the mayor, vice mayor, school director, a priest, and even guests from Ukraine. There is an old saying here in Romania that the Americans would come and rescue them from the Soviet influence. The joke was that on this particular day both the Soviets and the Americans had invaded Vlădeni. Thankfully we both came in peace.

As I looked around the room more carefully, I started to discover the full extent of our options for the day. Over the past weeks, the town of Vlădeni had put together five different traditional activities for us to enjoy for the day. Set up in stations, we could choose from egg painting, opinci (shoe) making, weaving a traditional covor (rug) on an ancient stativă (loom), baking mucenici (a special type of bread), and last but definitely not least tasting the plăcinte (cakes) and băuturi (drinks) available on the main table.

When we were given the word, we all scattered. I went straight to the baking station and was immediately put to work cracking eggs. There were two women from Vlădeni who began to relate the story of the 40 Martyrs (sometimes called the 40 Saints). The holiday occurs every year on this day, March 9, and we were baking a special bread called mucenici (which means martyrs) to celebrate their life and sacrifice. The bread is rolled into long thin cylinders, braided, and made into an eight (some say infinity). Mine turned out quite plump and one of the women joked with me. She said “Oh! We’ve got a fat American, but it will work.”

After some time baking, I went to see what was happening at the egg painting station. I would have to be careful not to crack eggs here! I found here that Grant’s knowledgeable friends were four 5th grade girls, and they were dying up a storm. They had even prepared a cheat sheet of patterns for us. The secret to dying eggs in the Moldovan style is that you paint wax onto an emptied eggshell. The wax acts as a barrier to the dye, so you paint the wax over the color you want to keep. In other words, the first layer of wax will stay eggshell white. You can repeat this process as many times as you like, for incredibly detailed and colorful patterns. The girls, who have been practicing for more than half their
lives, have hands as steady as a surgeon’s. We Americans have years to go before we can make anything close to their amazing creations, but we gave it our best.

Egg Painting

Once I put my egg in for its first round of yellow dye, I went over to the loom. As I sat down, a wonderfully animated woman rapidly described all of the parts and their purpose. After all of it, I was able to remember one word – stativă, the word for loom in Romanian. I had previously learned the word război for a loom, but she assured me that a război was something else entirely. I’m sure she knows what she’s talking about! The loom was made of wood and held together with twine, and seemed about ready to fall apart. But when we got working, my guide insisted that I put my back into it. Thankfully the apparatus held up with no problem. I shouldn’t have been surprised, since most of the women present were stronger than me from a life of incredibly hard work on their farms. I never did figured out how the loom fit together; there were just too many moving parts, pedals, and threads. With her help, I did a few rows and headed back to check on my egg.

Jennifer Spins Yarn

Anthony Weaves a Rug

After another round of painting, I dropped my egg in the red dye and went to see what was happening at the opinci making station. Opinci are traditional leather shoes, and I found Jenn showing off her completed pair. With the pointed toes on her shoes, she looked a little elfin to my eyes, but beaming with pride all the same. I did not have time to make my own shoes, but I watched for a while as holes were made in the leather with a hammer and a large nail, and then they were sewn together with a coarse leather thread.

Finally, I made my way back to dye my egg one last shade of blue, causing the exposed red to turn purple! And then it was time to relax and sample the various foods and drinks available to me. Many of the cakes and drinks are very commonly found here in Romania, such as sarmale (cabbage rolls), plăcinta (a traditional cake), colivă (a wheat dish with the consistency of oatmeal), and homemade wine. Țuică is a brandy normally made from plums, but I tried two new kinds: one made from beets that smelled and tasted very much like its source, and another made from the leftovers of the winemaking process that was much more neutral.

Theron's Egg

Of all the amazing things that I was privileged to learn in Vlădeni, what I will remember forever is the pride the community has in the traditions which they have passed from generation to generation. As our world becomes ever more modern and fast paced, we are tempted to forget the importance of culture and tradition. How easy it would be to replace hand painted eggs with paste-on decals. It is such a beautiful thing to see a place that not only keeps their traditions alive but thrills at the chance to share them. I am confident to say that we would be welcome back to Vlădeni as soon as we can return. They are waiting for us.

Jingle Bells

It started out like any other day. That is, until the phone rang at 7 AM and pulled us from our warm and happy sleep. Lucia was on the other end, urgently telling Sarah that we had exactly one hour to get ready to go to the country and kill the Christmas pig.

How to dress is always a question when we go to the country in the winter. We know it's going to be incredibly snowy and cold outside, but we also know that the wood stove is going to be baking inside. The key is to dress in layers so that we can find a way to be comfortable in any situation. I put on three layers on the bottom, five layers on the top, and two pairs of socks. It wouldn't be enough.

Time for a quick geography and civics lesson. Small towns in Romania are organized into communities, normally named after the largest village in the community. Lucia's sister, Mirela, lives in the community and village of Păstrăveni. Her parents live just down the rutted dirt road in the same community but in the village of Lunca Moldovei.

We stopped quickly at Mirela's to pick up her husband so that we would have enough manpower to handle the pig, and we started off for Lunca Moldovei. In the best of conditions, the road is rough, but we've been getting hammered with snow lately. Right now the road is just wide enough for a single car, with 3-6 foot embankments of snow on either side.

We were about 1/2 mile into the drive when we encountered a car that had been heading towards us, high centered and stuck, with a horse cart waiting behind it. This is the very definition of a Păstrăveni traffic jam. The car was easy to get moving again, but we were warned to discontinue our porcine pilgrimage so we turned back, defeated.

Defeated, that is, until someone thought of Ionel and his one-horse open sleigh. We stopped by his house to find his wife home alone. She sadly informed us that Ionel couldn't help us, because he was currently playing Santa Claus at the local school. I kid you not. If we were patient and played our cards right, we might get to dash through the snow, o'er the fields, in Santa's one-horse open sleigh. Would it be too much to ask that the horse would have jingle bells? No. It wouldn't. And I can personally attest to laughter all the way.

So, back to Mirela's for a few minutes while we waited for all of the Santa Clausing to finish up. Did I mention it was cold and snowy? So cold and snowy that in the span of 30 minutes the house lost power and the water stopped running. Mirela's husband, Costel, boiled snow on the fire to try to warm the pipes so that the water would flow again. Just another day in the Romanian countryside.

After a while, Lucia's brother, Vali, gave Ionel a call. Vali knows how to motivate. The conversation went like this: "Hey Ionel! I just got into town from the seaside. Come on over to my sister's. We've got beer! Oh, by the way, bring your sleigh."

"Ionel" means "Little John." Yeah, right. This man is a titan. A colossus. A giant. When he shook my hand, I remembered what it felt like to be a child whose hand was devoured by an adult's. After he arrived, we quickly hopped on the sleigh. As I was climbing aboard, the sleigh started to move and I immediately fell off. Since nobody noticed, I had to run for it and hop on before they were gone for keeps.

At this point I began to wish that I had literally worn every article of clothing that I own. The wind and blowing snow from the field was colder than anything I have ever felt. It couldn't keep us all from laughing and singing sleighing songs, though! Because the snow was high and the going was so tough for the horse, we could actually hop off the back of the sleigh and run a bit to keep warm.

When we made it into Lunca Moldovei, we cheered, and vowed to warm ourselves by the fire, pardon the pig for a day, and immediately go back home. The weather was too bad and the day was quickly turning into afternoon. We just didn't have time to finish the job. But you know how it goes. You get warm and comfy by the fire and you feel like you can do anything. The pig was about to be in for some bad news, and Ionel was the messenger, as he had been for 7 other pigs already this year. Time of death: 12:37 PM, December 20, 2012.

A pig slaughter is a long, complex business, and I had the stomach to witness the whole thing. If you want the gory details, you can read them on Jeremy's blog. In the process, I learned that there is a single word in Romanian that means "to burn the hair off of a pig" (a pârli). I can also say with certainty that you haven't lived until you have washed down a bite of fresh pig skin with a shot of moonshine, using the hollowed out hoof of said pig as a makeshift glass.

About halfway through the process, the pig is covered in a blanket "to rest." This is the time for the photo op and for everyone to come out and take a ride. I think every family has a slightly different belief on what this accomplishes. Ionel promised me increased sexual powers for the new year. See how happy I look?

As the sun was getting lower and lower in the sky, someone made the astute comment that horses do not have headlights. Lucia had to work the next day back in Pașcani, so we had to get home. But there was still work to be done. Lots of work. I have learned to relax in seeming crises like this, because the Romanians are relaxed. But this time it was different. Lucia was visibly agitated, and Costel seemed downright worried. If the weather got any worse, and we were out after sunset, it could get dangerous fast.

Part of the "work" was eating the traditional first meal. Nobody would dream of skipping this, no matter how dangerous the weather might get. And if there is one thing I know about Romanians, a meal is never rushed. The first meal with the pork is called friptură, and it is a mixture of meat and fat thrown into a giant cast iron pot and cooked over an open fire. It is eaten with mămăligă (polenta) and pickled cabbage. The rest of the pork will be salted, smoked, turned into sausages or soap, or eaten right away for Christmas. Ionel gave a prayer before the meal, a few more glasses of moonshine were poured, toasts were said, and we tucked into a feast.

As we said our goodbyes and hopped on the sleigh again, dusk was just starting to fall. A plow had cleared the road. Costel and Lucia had been seemingly worried for nothing, but we weren't quite home yet. About half way home, we encountered an abandoned car blocking the entire path. We all jumped off the sleigh to assess the situation, and just as we did, the horse decided to go for it and take the most direct route through the 3 foot snow bank. He didn't seem to remember that there was 15 foot sleigh attached to him that also needed to clear the car. With a lot of heaving and hoeing and shoveling snow by hand, we managed to get the sleigh in the right place. It came within an inch of side swiping the car. Worse, Ioan was almost trampled in the process. But on we went.

Thankfully, on this cloudy night the horse didn't need headlights going through the snowfield; it was still bright, long after the sun had been extinguished behind the snowy hills in the distance. I took a moment to relish the silence and beauty surrounding us, a silence broken only by the soft jingling of sleigh bells and the quiet laughter of great friends.

Look Closer

Dumbrava Loredana

At the end of the last school year, I remember thinking that I was yearning to do something more as a Peace Corps volunteer. I was happy to have made it through the year as a teacher, but I felt like all of my secondary projects were either small or I was just helping out on someone else's project. If I had finished my service then, I wouldn't have felt like a failure exactly, but I definitely would have left unsatisfied.

Inside, Ioan Agripina

I tried to think of a passion of mine that I might have in common with some students, and so I started a photography club. Now, I can look back on the first semester and easily say that this project has made me feel like a successful and happy volunteer. (Thanks to Evie and RPCV Sara for their cameras - we use them every week!)

Toma Marta

Here are some things I have learned while doing this project:

• There is a reason that Peace Corps service lasts for two years. The first year I was getting comfortable with the language, culture, my job, my students, and my town. By the time I decided to start the club, everything was in place and it was easy to get it off the ground. 
• I prefer "teaching" English in an informal setting, outside of the classroom. The students are engaged in what we're doing and we end up communicating without forcing anything.
• My students are incredibly creative and talented photographers! I think I am learning more from them than they are from me.

Ionița Vlad

Every week we go on a photo walk looking for interesting images, and last week was my favorite one. It had snowed a little in the morning, so I was hoping that we would get our first shoot with snow on the ground, but unfortunately it melted. On our walk, we were milling about the town center and I was desperately looking for something to liven things up. I wondered aloud to one of the kids if they thought we could get into one of the rooms on the top floor of the hotel, just to see the world from a different perspective.

Loghin Elisei

None of the kids really thought it would work, and frankly I didn't either. But I also figured that it couldn't hurt to ask. The worst that could happen is that the receptionist would look at us like we were crazy and then say no. Instead, she looked at us like we were crazy and called security.

Muscalu Alexandra

Thankfully she wasn't calling security to kick us out. She was calling to see if they would help us. The guard actually took us up onto the roof and hung out with us while we were up there. And instead of missing out on the first snow of the year, we got to see it on the peaks of the surrounding hills.

Gabor Sabastian Alexandru

As we were finishing, one of my students turned to me and asked, "How did you know he would let us up there!?" I said, "I didn't know. I just thought it was worth asking, and what did we have to lose anyway? Not asking would have the same as if they had told us no." For me, it was a great moment where I got to teach the benefits of confidence and having the courage to try for something unexpected. The security guard told me that we were the first people that had ever asked to go up to the roof.

GuitarRobo', Panainte Maria

I hope you enjoy a few of the photographs that I have sprinkled throughout this post. To see more of their incredible work go to our Facebook page. Here's one from the hotel rooftop!

Doroftei Bianca