Well here we are at the end of it all, the final week, its all come down to this. This week not only saw the culmination of 2 months of work in the Drama show, but we also climbed Mount Brasov.
So on Sunday we went up Brasov Mountain, and mind we didn’t head up the safe cable car way up, no no no we decided that we would go up the icy snowy mountain pass, Yey! So we slowly clambered our way up there slowly breaking off into two groups, the group who moved quickly up the path and the other less bright group who through, “geez we better catch up to the others...”, “hey why don’t we just go through that snow, and up the rocks”, “... I like it!” One guess which group I fall in. There were also other dangers associated with the climb, being in the forms of ice, heights (yes I know that one was kind of obvious), lions, tigers and Bears ‘Oh My!’ Okay I did lie about Lions and Tigers but Bears is true. Speaking of heights when we managed to get to the Brasov sign I found that not only is it on the sheer edge of a cliff, but it also has a viewing platform which goes out right over this cliff, I majorly fear so that was great. Despite all the hassle the view from up there was beautiful and if you ever go to Brasov I highly recommend seeing it.
On Monday night last week after 2 months of rehearsal, Projects Abroad hosted its 3rd Drama Show in order to raise money for an underfunded mental health hospital just outside of Brasov, while we couldn’t charge for tickets we did leave a large box at the front of the stage which we asked people to leave money in through-out the night. The show consisted of 3 different segments singing, dancing and acting. The singers were trained by one of Romania’s foremost singers, and the Dancers, 2 Dances from a group called Salsa Brasov (inventive name I know), and the night closer from Alexandra (our supervisor) and her dance partner Edi. The acting was done by the Black Juice drama group, directed by Joe and I, they performed 3 different pieces with Joe and I also performing something. The show went really well and we managed to raise 16000 Lei, which is around 6000 Aussie Dollars, so a lot of money. After stressing out the whole day because, 1 We hadn’t ever had a full rehearsal before the show, 2 Some of the sounds refused to work and 3 Some of the guys were still fumbling over lines 20 minutes before the show it was really gratifying to see the whole thing go off without a hitch.
The last two days of my time here was the hardest part, it was difficult to say goodbye to everyone and to the place that had become my home for the past 2 months. If I had to say one thing about those final days is that 2 months DEFINENTLY wasn’t enough (although I think no matter how long I was there I would have said that)
So I guess this is it for the Blog, it’s been fun reporting on the events of my week, I hope you’ve all enjoyed it.
So long and thanks for all the fish.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Week 6
Hello world, yes it’s that time of the week again, where I ramble on about my time in Romania and you get to read it.
YAY!
Okay, so this week was a week off school for the kids so I had no classes, instead we had black juice every day, with the performance in a week we really had to crank up the heat. So at the start of the week we had 5 plays which were all pretty poor, but after a week of hard work we’ve gone from that to having 4 plays all decent, one was art-house sort of thing that was proving impossible to get right. It’s very different working with the Black Juice group than it is with the schools, these guys and girls not only value and listen to what we say, but they are all very talented dramatically.
This week also saw us all participate in a cooking night. It was a lot of fun and the food was all really good. The girls mad Brownies, Chocolate chip cookies and sugar cookies, Joe made some Macaroni and cheese (by hand, not from a packet), Josh made Brushetta, and I created fish fingers with secret sauce. Which has inadvertently led me to introduce this new segment:
FOOD I MADE FROM RANDOM STUFF IN THE FRIDGE!!!
This week I’ll be taking you though how to make tomato peanut sauce.
Tomato Peanut Sauce
Ingredients:
- 1 packet of salted peanuts (preferably 250 grams)
- 1 jar of tomato paste
-salami
- Pepper
- Basil
Method:
1. Get your bag of peanuts and puncture a small hole near the top of the bag, not too big just enough to let the air out. Now get something to crush the nuts with, I used a meat tenderiser but just a garden variety hammer should work. Not smash your nuts ... the peanuts until they are very very small, this has to be left to your best guess.
2. Next get you salami and cut it up into tiny pieces, so you can still chew on them, but also so you can mix it into the sauce.
3. Now this next bit is a bit of guess work, take what you want to put this sauce on and work out how much tomato paste you would normally need, now empty this amount into a medium sized bowl, and 10 grams of peanuts and 10 grams of Salami to every 50 grams of paste, also put in a shake over of pepper and basil for extra kick. Stir well
4. Voila you now have the sauce. As I said I put it on fish fingers, so all you have to do for this is buy a suitable amount of Fish fingers, cook as per packaging instructions and just lather he sauce over the top
I also discovered a new form of getting drunk this week, we all know the happy drunks, the sad drunks and the angry drunks, but now I have the pleasure of introducing *trumpet fanfare* the intellectual drunk, yes ladies and gentlemen, when you get my room-mate a bit tipsy on wine, he will defend his point of view no matter how outlandish, from god not existing (still an open debate) to 9-11 having been orchestrated by George Bush, he does it all. I will endeavour to put some video down of this (Don’t worry this one will work as someone else took the video).
I have one more video, Dagmar, who is from Holland, got us to try and read out some Dutch which she had typed out on a computer, follow the link to find my attempt.
Anyway that’s me for another week, now I’m off to clean my room before the other volunteers come over for a movie night and then... well who knows what.
Talk soon, Jackson
Friday, January 29, 2010
Week 4
Good morning/afternoon/evening ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls and welcome to another existing week of blogging. This week I was lucky enough to make my way to Bran castle. As well as seeing ever more of this wonderful city.
This week it poured down snow on Brasov, we were up to 5 inches thick of snow, it was also -30 degrees at the coldest. One of the good things about the snow and cold id that the best way of keeping warm is having massive snowball fights. As much fun as they are it can easily be ended when someone gets a massive snowball thrown at their face, which then seeps into their shirt. Really sucks.
Australia day came and passed this last week and with it came the emergence of Australia man, as you see the proud figure standing to the left, forged in the heart of a barbeque, I spent the whole day walking around like that, now before anyone (yes I’m looking at you mum) panics, I have 2 layers of thermals on down there, so if anything I felt too warm rather than too cold. It was also on this day that we bid a fond farewell to 2 fellow volunteers; it is always a sad occasion when people leave. So to celebrate my roommate Josh and I participated in a cheeseburger challenge. We sat down and competed to see how many cheeseburgers each could eat. Unfortunately it turned out that one of Australia man’s superpowers isn’t super digestion, I came in at 7 burgers while Josh managed to pull in a total of 8.
This week we also went to Bran castle. Bran castle is purported amongst tourists as the home of Dracula, and while there was a monarch in Romania called Dracula (which means son of Dracul) the castle actually says that it is unlikely that Dracula spent any time at the castle at all. It is however one of the must see attractions of Romania as it depicts what you would think an old style castle would look like, it was dark dreary and gloomy, and really really cold (did I mention how cold it was over here?). Sunday saw a great contrast to the freezing conditions of Saturday as myself and another volunteer, Dagmar, went to l’aquatic paradise, and large in door HEATED swimming pool. It was absolutely glorious heated swimming pools water sides, diving boards and (this was my favourite) an outdoor pool which was about 40 degrees in the water and -20 above, it was the starangest feeling of hot and cold, but if you had wet hair while you were sitting there it would actually freeze, so cool.
That’s it for another post, I do hope the 2 people who read these are getting a kick out of them, cause I am enjoying writing them. Well I’m off to practice a play and eat lunch, then... well who knows what.
Talk soon Jackson
This week it poured down snow on Brasov, we were up to 5 inches thick of snow, it was also -30 degrees at the coldest. One of the good things about the snow and cold id that the best way of keeping warm is having massive snowball fights. As much fun as they are it can easily be ended when someone gets a massive snowball thrown at their face, which then seeps into their shirt. Really sucks.
Australia day came and passed this last week and with it came the emergence of Australia man, as you see the proud figure standing to the left, forged in the heart of a barbeque, I spent the whole day walking around like that, now before anyone (yes I’m looking at you mum) panics, I have 2 layers of thermals on down there, so if anything I felt too warm rather than too cold. It was also on this day that we bid a fond farewell to 2 fellow volunteers; it is always a sad occasion when people leave. So to celebrate my roommate Josh and I participated in a cheeseburger challenge. We sat down and competed to see how many cheeseburgers each could eat. Unfortunately it turned out that one of Australia man’s superpowers isn’t super digestion, I came in at 7 burgers while Josh managed to pull in a total of 8.
This week we also went to Bran castle. Bran castle is purported amongst tourists as the home of Dracula, and while there was a monarch in Romania called Dracula (which means son of Dracul) the castle actually says that it is unlikely that Dracula spent any time at the castle at all. It is however one of the must see attractions of Romania as it depicts what you would think an old style castle would look like, it was dark dreary and gloomy, and really really cold (did I mention how cold it was over here?). Sunday saw a great contrast to the freezing conditions of Saturday as myself and another volunteer, Dagmar, went to l’aquatic paradise, and large in door HEATED swimming pool. It was absolutely glorious heated swimming pools water sides, diving boards and (this was my favourite) an outdoor pool which was about 40 degrees in the water and -20 above, it was the starangest feeling of hot and cold, but if you had wet hair while you were sitting there it would actually freeze, so cool.
That’s it for another post, I do hope the 2 people who read these are getting a kick out of them, cause I am enjoying writing them. Well I’m off to practice a play and eat lunch, then... well who knows what.
Talk soon Jackson
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Week 3
Well hello there boys and girls, and welcome to another week of insightful blogging. It has been an interesting week, though that is mostly on the teaching front, and I think I’ve discovered a bit more interesting Romanian culture.
On Monday after coming home from School 4 (the schools here don’t have names but are designated numbers, they also are built off the same set of blueprints, it is an aspect still left over from the Communist times when everyone had to be getting an equal education) I was surprised to discover that a Romanian Orthodox priest had come to our house to, what I think was, either bless the house or purge it of spirits. Anyway he also blessed the people in it, so I was still trying to get my bearings about the place when this heavy set guy came up to me and hit me on the head with a crucifix, before I had the chance to protest he then waved a ‘holy’ twig in my face that was either doused in holy water or Vodka. Anyway as it turned out the priest was an old friend of Rodica’s (my host mothers) oldest sons, so he stayed to talk, all was going well until he turned to myself and my room-mate and asked us our religious preference. So Josh said to him “I’m Jewish”, there was a slight pause before the priest omitted a saddened “Oh”, he then looked at me expectantly and asked the question again. Well I looked him and said “I’m not really a religious person”. Needless to say he didn’t hang around for too much longer.
On Tuesday and Wednesday we began the gruelling task of going to the care centre. Now there is nothing immediately bad about the care centre, it is just the fact that Jenny and I have been asked to prepare some pantomime pieces with the children there. Still not understanding why this is hard, well the kids there are around 5 and 6 years of age, even in Australia teaching children the basics of miming is hard enough, but the other hard thing about these kids is that they speak nearly no English. This isn’t like the schools where the kids speak little English but it is enough for them to understand me without a teacher, these ones need a translator in the room with us. I must say that I’m a little worried about the likelihood of us getting this done.
Another project we have started working on this week is the Plays with the Black Juice group, these are the 18/17 year old drama guys and girls. We are doing 4 plays with them, 3 two people plays and one for five people. It is a lot easier with this group because they can read any English script we give them and give input on their own blocking.
On Saturday we decided to go skiing, now before I start the story I would like to preface it with the fact that I have only been to the snow once in my life (with Cameron Hull) and I’ve never skied or sledded, So we all rugged ourselves up really tight and took the train out to !@#$%^&*( it was all really white and beautiful out there. Now while I was there I took a lot of video so that is where most of the story is going to be told, but this is what you won’t find there. After 3 hours and 34 and a half times falling over (the half time is from when I fell halfway down and caught myself on my poles, this resulted in 10 minutes of trying to leverage myself up), I still hadn’t got the hang of this skiing business, so I thought I’d give sledding a go, I found this easier with Jules’ yellow sled and at one point I went down on a piece of plastic tarp, that was a lot of fun, but also frightening as the tarp would spin you around and end you up facing the wrong way, anyway here is the video:
Okay so there isn’t one up yet, but I promise that by next week I’ll have fixed the problems with my computer and get it up.
Well that is it for another week, for next week I would really like it if people would leave me any questions they have about Romania in the comments or message me on facebook, I will endeavour to have a fan mail session next week. Well I’m off to do some more writing and eat lunch, then... well who knows what.
Talk soon Jackson
P.s. Good job to everyone with their Uni placing
ROMANIAN WORD OF THE POST:
Gatta: this means stop, it becomes really useful to know as a teacher when you have been ditched by your co-teacher and your class is so loud that the principal is complaining… not that this ever happened to me ;)
On Monday after coming home from School 4 (the schools here don’t have names but are designated numbers, they also are built off the same set of blueprints, it is an aspect still left over from the Communist times when everyone had to be getting an equal education) I was surprised to discover that a Romanian Orthodox priest had come to our house to, what I think was, either bless the house or purge it of spirits. Anyway he also blessed the people in it, so I was still trying to get my bearings about the place when this heavy set guy came up to me and hit me on the head with a crucifix, before I had the chance to protest he then waved a ‘holy’ twig in my face that was either doused in holy water or Vodka. Anyway as it turned out the priest was an old friend of Rodica’s (my host mothers) oldest sons, so he stayed to talk, all was going well until he turned to myself and my room-mate and asked us our religious preference. So Josh said to him “I’m Jewish”, there was a slight pause before the priest omitted a saddened “Oh”, he then looked at me expectantly and asked the question again. Well I looked him and said “I’m not really a religious person”. Needless to say he didn’t hang around for too much longer.
On Tuesday and Wednesday we began the gruelling task of going to the care centre. Now there is nothing immediately bad about the care centre, it is just the fact that Jenny and I have been asked to prepare some pantomime pieces with the children there. Still not understanding why this is hard, well the kids there are around 5 and 6 years of age, even in Australia teaching children the basics of miming is hard enough, but the other hard thing about these kids is that they speak nearly no English. This isn’t like the schools where the kids speak little English but it is enough for them to understand me without a teacher, these ones need a translator in the room with us. I must say that I’m a little worried about the likelihood of us getting this done.
Another project we have started working on this week is the Plays with the Black Juice group, these are the 18/17 year old drama guys and girls. We are doing 4 plays with them, 3 two people plays and one for five people. It is a lot easier with this group because they can read any English script we give them and give input on their own blocking.
On Saturday we decided to go skiing, now before I start the story I would like to preface it with the fact that I have only been to the snow once in my life (with Cameron Hull) and I’ve never skied or sledded, So we all rugged ourselves up really tight and took the train out to !@#$%^&*( it was all really white and beautiful out there. Now while I was there I took a lot of video so that is where most of the story is going to be told, but this is what you won’t find there. After 3 hours and 34 and a half times falling over (the half time is from when I fell halfway down and caught myself on my poles, this resulted in 10 minutes of trying to leverage myself up), I still hadn’t got the hang of this skiing business, so I thought I’d give sledding a go, I found this easier with Jules’ yellow sled and at one point I went down on a piece of plastic tarp, that was a lot of fun, but also frightening as the tarp would spin you around and end you up facing the wrong way, anyway here is the video:
Okay so there isn’t one up yet, but I promise that by next week I’ll have fixed the problems with my computer and get it up.
Well that is it for another week, for next week I would really like it if people would leave me any questions they have about Romania in the comments or message me on facebook, I will endeavour to have a fan mail session next week. Well I’m off to do some more writing and eat lunch, then... well who knows what.
Talk soon Jackson
P.s. Good job to everyone with their Uni placing
ROMANIAN WORD OF THE POST:
Gatta: this means stop, it becomes really useful to know as a teacher when you have been ditched by your co-teacher and your class is so loud that the principal is complaining… not that this ever happened to me ;)
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Week 2
Hello all, I hope this reaches everyone well, down in nice and warm Australia. Up here it is wet and cold; the snow which has graced Brasov has picked today to melt, today being the day I had to spend about 2 hours standing at different bus stops.
On Saturday it was my room-mate Josh’s birthday, so to mark the occasion we went to a movie, Funny People, yhea I know it isn’t a great film but that wasn’t the great thing about the trip. The cinema that we saw it in was one of those really old cinemas that have a sheet screen and rather than chairs it had couches and tables. Another thing that I noticed was that the cinema hadn’t cut up the film to fit the screen, so not only was it still square, but half the time you could see the boom-mic fall into shot. But it was these little things that made the experience awesome. Following that we went out for another night of clubbing which was good fun, also for all those who are going out on the town, the best 5:30 am pick me up is a quick 24 hrs cheeseburger.
Monday was my first day of teaching, although there was no actual teaching per-say we just planned, Jenny (the other Drama volunteer and I were told that we would be working on a few small plays with some of the schools we are working with, and we also work with a group called black juice which is six year twelve students, we have to work on a self written play, yikees.
On Tuesday I got my first dose of teaching, we were off to a school known only as school 4. The class that we had there was Grade 4 who are best described as... Hyperactive. We then went out to this village known as Prejmere, There were fewer children here but these ones were a little bit better behaved. Now I know that before I left a lot of people asked me who I would communicate with the children, well In most classes all have some grasp of English, most of the TV channels over here are American ones with Romanian subtitles so they pick up a bit (the desk officer here taught himself English through this method), and there is always one in the class who speaks really good English, so anything difficult can be said through them.
Wednesday was the last day of one of the volunteers, Gabriel is from Singapore, so coming over here was a real dose of freedom from all the laws they have over there, so he was really sad to be leaving. We went to Deane’s Irish Pub for the night, we all had a good time listening to music and reminiscing, that we were all surprised when 4 rolled around and we were thrown out. After an emotional farewell he imparted his motto on us, Carpe Diem.
Friday was the last day of teaching this week and was also the day that I got to meet the infamous Black Juice. Black Juice is the group for 17-18 year old locals who are very good at acting, so it was very interesting to see them perform for the first time. I did think that without the equipment and stuff we have in Australia that the quality wouldn’t be as high, but it seems talent will always shine through no matter where you live, they preformed a piece for me which they had put together in 6 hours and not preformed in 3 weeks, and it was really good. I know have meetings with them 3 times a week, and I’m really looking forward to it.
Tonight we went to a club called ‘Black and Silver’ where we danced and had fun until about 5 in the morning, it was about this time that Ceaclia had the brilliant idea of going to Peles castle. While the others made up reasons such as seeing it and buying Shampoo to go home and sleep, I thought this would be a great idea and ventured off to the train station. Peles castle was the home to the Romanian Royal family until the soviet take-over of power the castle is stunningly beautiful on the outside and breath-taking on the inside. This probably all would have sunk in a lot better had I not been awake for the past 25 hours. It took us an hour on the train to get there, by this time my body was starting to wonder why I was still awake. So we got to the village and started to make our way up the hill, when Ceaclia made a new friend, one of the local dogs had decided to follow us all the way up. So with our new friend in tow we made it up the hill. We spent a good 2 hours looking around, now I took my video camera up with me, but I wasn’t allowed to take footage, so I was only able to sneak this little bit of the armoury room.
By the time we got home it was 1 o’clock on Saturday afternoon, even though normally the slightest sound from my room-mate wakes me up, he could have brought in a ten-piece band and I would have slept through it.
So that’s me for the week. I again hope this reaches everyone well. Now I have to go work out 3 plays to do with the drama group, a short musical piece for one of my classes, then... well who knows what.
Talk soon, Jackson
ROMANIAN WORD OF THE POST:
Pa: This word means good-bye and is more a formality word to learn than one is necessary. However it shouldn’t be confused with Ba which means yes. This is sometimes is hard to discern between, so a lot “what?” and “Huh?” happens.
Pa: This word means good-bye and is more a formality word to learn than one is necessary. However it shouldn’t be confused with Ba which means yes. This is sometimes is hard to discern between, so a lot “what?” and “Huh?” happens.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Happy New Year
So last time I wrote I had just safely landed in Romania, so after a brief snatching of sleep it was out into the Romanian wild for my induction. Alex (the desk officer over here) and I took the bus into the city and he showed me some of the central points in the city, such as the Town Centre, Respublica Street and of course, and most importantly... Alex’s favourite restaurant. This is how I got my first taste of Romanian food, Now I’m sure a lot of you are expecting Broche and corn-mush (Yes, I am thinking of you dad), but it was actually really nice. I had some Romanian seasoned meat wrapped in a lovingly steamed cabbage leaf, with a side of bacon and hydrated cauliflower... but I swear that it was delicious. Alex then brought me back to my Host Family, it was here I met them all for the First time, My Host mother Rotica, is a lovely woman, she dotes on all the volunteers. She calls me baby Mic, which means youngest Child. Alexandra, my supervisor, also lives here she is Rotica’s daughter, she is really nice and a terrific Salsa Dancer. The last member of this little family is Josh, Josh is another volunteer over here from America on a teaching placement, he was doing a 2 months stint, but has deferred it for another 2 months meaning he will be here till the end of January, he is a really interesting guy, we’ve had great conversations about movies, and general fiction knowledge. He is also really handy to have around as his three months of knowledge means he knows all the shortcuts, and understands the Romanians better than I do.
After a beautiful dinner of assorted meats I was taken out to meet the rest of the volunteers, it was only then I realised the rag-tag bunch that we were. There is Gabriel, who is a 24 year old Chinese Singaporean, who has served in the Singapore army, and is a really cultured and interesting guy (okay I can’t publish it here, but if you want I great story message me with the words goat man in the title and I’ll let you in on the weirdest thing I have ever heard). Then there is Jenny, an 18 year old from Britain, Jenny more knowledge than the years would permit, she is also over here on the Drama Project, and is well established as the Drama Girl. The next in our group of six is Ceacelia, she is from Denmark and is over as an outside volunteer, she used to be with projects abroad, but is now working independently. She is the one usually getting hit on by the local Male populous, but after a trip to Serbia and a Brush with the Mafia there; we never have to worry about her. The last in out group is Juliana (Jules), she is “25” and is like the older sister of the group. She and Ceacelia share an apartment just opposite the central park of Brasov; she is here sponsored by a British aid group. After a couple of drinks and a short getting to know you session the day had come to a close, and we went to our respective homes to sleep.
The next day was New Years, we spent the day in the city centre sucking up the culture of Romania, that was until they took away my crazy straw and then we could only look. One of the more interesting things that we did find was that there were people walking around with goats in slings, one of Josh’s Romanian friends named Stef (pronounced Sh-t-ef) told us that you were meant to pay these people to touch the goat, which would in-turn bring good luck for the new year. In the evening we went to Jules and Ceacellia’s apartment where we had a small celebration over a couple of bottles of wine, and as things do over a few bottles of wine, things escalated and we ended up trying to shoot a cork out over into the park, well we yanked on the cork trying to get it out and shook up the bottle really well, but all turned out to be for nought, as the final expulsion saw it only go two meters of the top balcony and nearly knock out a passerby travelling bellow. So just before midnight we packed up and headed into the city centre, where it seemed all of Brasov had gathered there, but no matter how crowded it was there was still room for people to let off their own personally bought fireworks, we were unfortunate enough to walk right into the middle of two lots, meaning we couldn’t move away, else get hit by the other. There was also proper government fireworks set off a top the black tower, they were stunning against the dark Romanian night sky. We did complete a different Romanian good luck tradition when the first bell of 2010 tolled. We threw one of our bottles of wine, all together, into the centre of the square, shattering out bad luck of the next year as it hit the ground. We then all proceeded to a nearby Romanian club (Project 80) and danced until the first rays of sunlight licked the street.
Talk Soon, Jackson
ROMANIAN WORD OF THE POST:
Multomesk: This means thank you, and is probably the most used word amongst the volunteers, but never use it in a restaurant before you get your change; otherwise you can kiss that cash good-bye
Friday, January 1, 2010
Flying High
Hello world, yes never fear I have survived the perilous trip to Romania. My plane left Melbourne airport at 11:15 on the Monday night, we flew for 14 hours, during which time the sun never seemed to rise, I ended sitting next to Lesley from Britain who was very nice, but her snoring made it hard to get more than 4 hours sleep.
Arriving in Abu Daubi as like stepping through the looking glass, the place was built on the rich oil wells of the UAE, and you can see why it is called the jewel in the Emirates crown. One of the more beautiful sights was to watch the sun rising over the sand covered runways of the airport, the low sun giving the impression of never ending desert. Anyway after a 7 hour layover there I was on the way to Frankfurt Germany, at one point during the flight I managed to sneak my way into the business class area, I’ve got to say that the business class are of Etihad is really really good, you get to spread your legs out in a decent sized pod area with a bigger sized screen than the cattle (economy) class. My enjoyment was cut short however when I saw the lady with the beverage cart coming down, so I scurried back to economy for the last 3 hours. 
When I arrived at Frankfurt, we were pushed through security and thrust into the transfer area. Now Frankfurt isn’t like Abu Daubi, While Abu Daubi is nice to look at and casual, Frankfurt is full of metal cages and cold grey surroundings. One of the interesting things I did notice in Frankfurt was this idea of Smoke boxes. In the actual airport smoking is forbidden, however they do set out these glass boxes in which people can go and smoke. I thought that these would be a great way to combat smoking, imagine down in Lygon Street a glass box which is the only place you can smoke, would you go in there and light up? Anyway after one security check, I was forced to do another to get to the boarding gate, so as I put everything down and stepped through and for the first time in the entire trip I was pulled up for an item of luggage, it was a rocking snowman I had bought for Christmas next year, now they took it off me and walked it around a corner, however they didn’t go far enough and I could still see them. They patted it down a bit and wiped it with a cloth, I was beginning to wonder why they had bothered when they pushed the play button and just sat back watching and laughing, when it finished they call over more of their friends and played it again. They had only wanted to see it play. So I finally got my connection to Bucharest and arrived at my destination. I was picked up by Alex, the desk officer at Projects Abroad, we piled all my stuff into his small, dirty and kind of beat up car, we set off for Brasov, now the trip from Brasov is supposed to take around 3 hours, maybe closer to 2 on a clear night as you slow down to go through the mountains, Alex managed to blitz the whole thing in one hour and forty-five minutes, as he told me, “in Romania you have to be aggressive or you go nowhere”. So it was at 3:00 in the Romanian morning that I finally arrived at my accommodation, I met my lovely host mother Rodica, who showed me my room, it is a small 4 x 4 meter room which I’m going to share with another volunteer called Josh, he hasn’t arrived yet from Belgrad, he and 3 other volunteers have gone there for 4 days. I just hit the hay straight away dead.
So that was the trip across, this morning I’m off to an induction session with Alex, and then.. well who know what.
Talk soon, Jackson
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