Le copy of le update email
I don't know why my lj-cut isn't working. Weird.
Hello from Brasov, which has a little squiggle under the s which means it's pronounced "Brashov". It is very, very hot here, after raining for a few days when I first got here, and it's supposed to rain again tomorrow. Never any one thing long enough to get bored, at least!
My host, Elisabeta, is the sweetest grandmotherly lady. She speaks fairly good English, because her daughter and granddaughter live in California, and calls me and my roommate, Emily, "honey" and "baby doll". She loves flowers, and has them growing all over the apartment and outside. The only thing she's stern about is making sure Emily and I eat all of our toast in the morning--and she makes so, so much toast. Oh my goodness. I feel like I'm going to burst every day.
Her apartment is right next to the main square in town, which is probably the best location of all of the hosts for Projects Abroad. It's easy to walk home from wherever we go at night, and it's only a 20 minute walk to the office as well. Although on a day like today, a 20 minute walk in the heat feels like forever!
The drama program has been going slow, but well. One group is rehearsing a short play, and they've only had two rehearsal since I've got here since the actors schedules all changed for the summer and it's difficult to get everyone together at the same time. A new group is starting up tomorrow, though, so that should be good. The kids I've met (not really kids, older teenagers) seem really great. Their English is very good, and several of them are really talented at acting.
My roommate, Emily, is terrific. She's from England, and is very very British. She is also extremely outgoing and the life of the party, and from my first day here has made sure I'm involved in anything going on. She's doing the drama program as well. The other drama people are Vaughn, who's from Toronto, and Teo, which is pronounced TAY-oh and short for Teodora, who is Romanian. Other volunteers include Julie, who is 16 and from Maryland, Simone from England, Naomi from Holland, Mickey from Holland who's real name is Thierry, but no one can pronounce that so he decided on "Mickey" randomly, Michael from Minnesota, Sue from Texas, and Amanda who goes to Reed College in Portland and we actually have a friend from there in common! It's a really great group of people. We've been going out every night, which is getting both expensive and exhausting, so we'll see how long I keep up... but it's been all fun so far.
We actually went to see an opera a few days ago. It was called "Falstaff" and about the character from Shakespeare's plays. It was so-so, but at least because the plot was so simple (Falstaff cheats people, they decide to cheat him back, he climbs in a box and is thrown in the river, everyone dances) it was easy to understand even without any translation!
Another exciting trip was to Bran, which has a castle which is somehow linked with Dracula, even though it's not where Bram Stoker set his novel, and even Vlad Tepes, the real person Dracula is based on, only maybe passed through and conquered it once. I'm not sure what it's about really, but it's very pretty. Also Queen Marie lived there, and she was pretty cool.
And I got some pictures of it with my new camera! Check them out at
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001234&l=1b1ad&id=170800083 and http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001239&l=4f155&id=170800083
That's about it! Until next time.
Hello from Brasov, which has a little squiggle under the s which means it's pronounced "Brashov". It is very, very hot here, after raining for a few days when I first got here, and it's supposed to rain again tomorrow. Never any one thing long enough to get bored, at least!
My host, Elisabeta, is the sweetest grandmotherly lady. She speaks fairly good English, because her daughter and granddaughter live in California, and calls me and my roommate, Emily, "honey" and "baby doll". She loves flowers, and has them growing all over the apartment and outside. The only thing she's stern about is making sure Emily and I eat all of our toast in the morning--and she makes so, so much toast. Oh my goodness. I feel like I'm going to burst every day.
Her apartment is right next to the main square in town, which is probably the best location of all of the hosts for Projects Abroad. It's easy to walk home from wherever we go at night, and it's only a 20 minute walk to the office as well. Although on a day like today, a 20 minute walk in the heat feels like forever!
The drama program has been going slow, but well. One group is rehearsing a short play, and they've only had two rehearsal since I've got here since the actors schedules all changed for the summer and it's difficult to get everyone together at the same time. A new group is starting up tomorrow, though, so that should be good. The kids I've met (not really kids, older teenagers) seem really great. Their English is very good, and several of them are really talented at acting.
My roommate, Emily, is terrific. She's from England, and is very very British. She is also extremely outgoing and the life of the party, and from my first day here has made sure I'm involved in anything going on. She's doing the drama program as well. The other drama people are Vaughn, who's from Toronto, and Teo, which is pronounced TAY-oh and short for Teodora, who is Romanian. Other volunteers include Julie, who is 16 and from Maryland, Simone from England, Naomi from Holland, Mickey from Holland who's real name is Thierry, but no one can pronounce that so he decided on "Mickey" randomly, Michael from Minnesota, Sue from Texas, and Amanda who goes to Reed College in Portland and we actually have a friend from there in common! It's a really great group of people. We've been going out every night, which is getting both expensive and exhausting, so we'll see how long I keep up... but it's been all fun so far.
We actually went to see an opera a few days ago. It was called "Falstaff" and about the character from Shakespeare's plays. It was so-so, but at least because the plot was so simple (Falstaff cheats people, they decide to cheat him back, he climbs in a box and is thrown in the river, everyone dances) it was easy to understand even without any translation!
Another exciting trip was to Bran, which has a castle which is somehow linked with Dracula, even though it's not where Bram Stoker set his novel, and even Vlad Tepes, the real person Dracula is based on, only maybe passed through and conquered it once. I'm not sure what it's about really, but it's very pretty. Also Queen Marie lived there, and she was pretty cool.
And I got some pictures of it with my new camera! Check them out at
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001234&l=1b1ad&id=170800083 and http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001239&l=4f155&id=170800083
That's about it! Until next time.