B.B.'s MONTHLY FROM BUCHAREST

OCTOBER '06 ISSUE





I took this picture in Warsaw. It makes me think of Ginny Flynn. These eggs were in a window of a great looking shop. It was closed, which was a good thing. I would have spent way too much money in it, I am sure.


THANKS EVERYONE, for the "Birthday messages".
It was wonderful to have so many emails to read on my birthday. Thanks, Ginny for passing the word.
You all made this one of my best birthdays. I had over 15 different messages to answer. It was great of fun.
As a beginner blogger, I have lots to learn about this art form. I just I saw the comments that some of you made last month. Sorry about that. I now know that you can make comments and that I need to look to see who is reading this.
The picture below the eggs, was taken from my entery way, which has three flight of stairs. I was on the second flight, leaning out the window, when I took this picture. It shows my mail box (the white one), the front gate, and the tile walkway to my front door. If I am lucky, I am able to park my car right in front of the gate. Often the son of the woman who lives below me parks there. Sense this picture was taken I have put down a "all weather strip" on the walk to help keep me from slipping on the ice and snow, which I hear we will have this winter.

The photo to the right is a shot of the stove used to heat my kitchen. I lit it for the first time today. If you can zoom in on it you will be able to see the picutre I have placed on it. It was drawn by Luke Carpenter. I am in the process of getting it framed. It if a fun, free flowing piece.


The picture to the left is showing the
heat stove in my bedroom. I have had to move everthing off of it before I could lightt it. I used it every night for the past week. It makes a soft hissing sound as it burns.




I have just past the three month mark of living in this; strange, exciting, nosie, busy, growing, "developing" city. It is still hard to believe that I am here. I keep pinching myself and say, " yes, I am alive and living in Bucharest, Romania", at least once a week.
It has not all be a bed of roses. I have found it very difficult to find simple things like vaseline and street signs. There have been a few times when all I wanted to do was to, turn and run to first Fred Meyers I could find. Those of you who know me well, know that I seldom shop at Fred Meyers. I perfer Trader Joes or small speciality stores. At these times I wanted some place familiar to get what I need.
The weather has been beautiful. A few days of rain, but they are even beautiful. There have been two thunder/lightning stroms, which I loved.
I was sad to hear that it does not snow much here. The snow they do get tends to turn to slush and ice within a day. The ice can last for weeks. I am still looking forward to the cold weather. It does mean that I will need to buy new shoes though. My favoriate pair os shoes that I can wear in the wet weather have cracked soles, and leaked during the last rain storm.
To date my main disapointment in Bucharest is that it is very expensive. The clothes and shoes cost more than they did in Portland. I have been told that most of the Americans here buy everthing in the US. They also tell me that sometimes they travel to Germany and Italy to shop. As, most of you know, I tend to have expensive taste and recently had found a great resell shop in Portland that had great clothes -- well the resell shops here are not quite like that one. It is my hope there will be some in Berlin.
I feel as if I have been complaining a lot in this writing. Please know that I am really very glad to be hear, even with the difficulites I have had in adjusting to living in a different world.
MY FALL BREAK ROAD TRIP
We had our fall break the week of October 16th. I went on a road trip with three other teachers from AISB and traveled north east of Bucharest for five days.

Our first two nights were spent in, Mikoosbar, which is a small village about four hours northeast of Bucharest. There were cows walking down the middle of the streets twice a day. On their way to and from the fields. In the evening the cows would go by themsleves to their homes. I did not see anyone hurding them. We saw 5 to 6 cows walking down the road, with cars waiting for them to pass. Every once in a while one of the cows would turn down a side road to go to their home. It was really quite thte site. There were few cars. Most of the local people used horse carts.
The picture above is of the house across the street from where we staid. Many of the homes had water wells that appeared to be closed up and not in use, as this one was.
We were in a house that a local count had rentivated. He is trying to help the local economy by bringing visitors to the village.

The picture to the left is the sitting area between two of the guest rooms on the top floor of the house we staid in.



This is the room I staid in. It was very cozy and warm. I was above the room that the count and his employees used as an office. I was privey to late night and early morning conversations that I could only understand about every thrid or fourth word, due to not knowing very much Romanian.

Down the road from our house was a 14th century "walled" church. It is a Unitarian church. This is the part of Romainia that was orginially Hungary. Most of the popultation is either Catholic or Unitarian.

This is one of the corner posts of the church, viewed from outside the wall.

The picture to the right was taken after we entered the wall and are listening to the prist tell us about its construction. He has his back to the camera. He was lots of fun to listen to. The woman facing the camera is Nancy Davis. She teaches high school English and TOK (Theory of Knowledge). Behind her is, Randy Wanless, the hgih school music teacher the person who suggessted we go to this spot. The man in blue facing the camera is Brian Roach, our upper school principal. He brought his car and did all of the driving.

This is the main enterance to the church. It was hard for me to believe that we were in a building that was built in the the 1400's. The church is always in the process of reconstruction.

In this picture the priest is showing us his pulpit. I am afriad that my skill with the camera does not do the beauty of his pulpit justice.


I was amazed by the detail and beautiful color in this chruch.

The picture on the right shows six of the ten totmes in the side yard of the church. Each totme respersents 100 years. Can you imagin having 10 totmes in your city representing 1000 generations, who help build and maintain a church?
After two days and nights in Mikoosbar we headed to the beautiful town , of Sighisora. Our whole trip was spent in Transilvania, part of which was Hungary and where Hungaran and German is spoken as well as Romainan. In the schools studetns are taught in Romainan. The Romainan flag has to be flown, but Hungarian flags are seen flying next to it in most of the villages.

On the way to Sighisorar we stopped to take pictures of this church and its grave yard.

We were blessed with wonderful weather on our road trip. The area we were traveling through was at a higher altitude than Bucharest. We drove over the mountains. The tempreture was about 10 degrees lower (50's & 60's). It was great weather for traveling.

We had to stop a few times to let large groups of cows cross the road or get to a wide enough secton of the road were we could drive past them. One time we came upon a herd of sheep traveling down the middle of the road. I was very impressed by both, the sheep and the sheep herder. All he had to do was lift his staff and slightly wave it to get the entire heard to move to the side of the road so we could pass.

Sighisoara is beautiful cith that is built around a fortess. We saw three other teachers from AISB while we were there. On our way we stopped to take pictures of a old castel.

Along with wonderful old castels we found statutes of workers. This was one of the many symbols of the fight for freedom.

Randy took the role of tour guide. He w told us when we were close to intereresting places to stop. One was an old walled church full of great treasures.

The art work in this church was breath taking. I wish my abilities with this little cannon would do it justice. There was so many things I wanted to take pictures of. I hope these pictures give you a feeling of the love and care the members of the church give it. It is not used on a regular basis, except for tours. We paid abut $2.00 to tour it.


ON TO SIGHISOARA

I loved Sighisora. It is a beautiful small town, about the size of Hood River, OR. or Hinton, OK, sitting in the mountains. Cars are restricted in the center of town. It is built on hills, which makes walking a great exercise. There are lots of steps and some that are covered. It was like walking through a tunnel. The tour guide of the Lutheran church in the middle of the Fortress told me that the steps are all made in units of seven with the seventh one wider than the others, respresentin the seveth day of rest. The following are a few of the pictures I took in this enchanting town.

We met a American woman from the Boston area who has bought a small cafe and gift shop in the center of Sighisora. She is also a professor who works with an orgization that provides corses for college students who are studing abroad. It sounds like the program Catilin took courses trhough this spring and summer in Italy. This woman/professor teachs art histroy and social work.
That is Randy taking a picture of the colorful peppers at the Wednesday market in Sighisoara. He was busy looking for texture in his photos. Some of them turned out great.

During the second day of our two day and two night stay in Sighisoara we took a side trip to the village of Corund. It is known for it pottery. I bought a few small bolws and a plate there. We fell in love with Ilyes Uesati. She is the designer for the pottery factory, Fazekasmester in Corund.

This is the biggest oven I have seen. It is what they use at Fazekasmester to bake thier pottery and set their glases.

Ilyes treated us to home made wine and brandy here. It was lots of fun. She was a great salesman. We all walked away with at least one item.

I made arrangements with Rodrica for her and her daughter, Ronda, to take me shopping for kitchen items today. Ronda came along as our interrupter. She speaks English ver well, even though she only studied it in highschool.

This is Rodrica. She is he best maid ever. Twice a week she cleans my apartment, washes my clothes, irons, and cooks some food for me. She is even making my kitchen curtins. Her other job, which she has had foor over 20 years, is a working as a computer specialist for the Romanian army.

Ronda, Rodrica's daughter teaches computer science at the Blugarina high school of Bucharest while going to the University full time. She also is starting a internet party planning business.

Rodrica surprised me by bring her husband along, to go shopping with us. They brought their new used car. On our way to Plaza Romaina, Rodirca's husband asked me if I would like to stop at a wine store. Of course I said "Yes".

They took me to their favorite wine shop, Casa Vinului Dr. Pusca, which calls itself a real "Temple of Romanian wine". Besides bottled and bulk Romanian drinks, they had a collection of wines from the world's most famous vineyards. The owner, Dr. Puscan is a Engineer Economist. He is the creator of the Panciu sparkling wine. He is a doctor of Oenology and was named the "World Personality of the Year" in Oenology (Science of wine), in paris in 1986.

What a wonderful treat. This shop looked like a small convient store from the outside. Once we stepped inside all I could see was rack after rack of wine bottles. We stepped through a doorway with 4" wide strips of thick plastic hangning to the floor strung across it, into a room filled with large containers of wine. They looked like wine barrows. They are made out of a special matterial that keeps the wine fresh.

I ended up tasting five differnt wines. They sell several different wines in bulk. I bought one of the bulk wines. It was poored into a 2 liter plastic bottle.

I also bought a bottle of fine Merlow for Brian, as a thank you for doing all of the driving on our road trip.

After the wine shop we went on to Plaza Romainia. I was able to buy all of the kitchen equipment I needed. Now I can return the items AISB gave each of the new teachers to use through October. Today turned out to be a very productive day in shopping and writing.

I end this month's entry with the wonderful flavor of Romanian wine and good wishes for a healthy fall.