I Told You

One of the most unsatisfying parts of living in Romania's capital city is knowing what this place used to be like, before it got bulldozed. I've seen some pictures and read some articles that indicate how destructive Ceausescu's ego and plan for systemization was... but sometimes it is difficult to convey that point to people not familiar with the current state of affairs.

I've recently been stuffing myself with the content of a blog by the editor of Bucharest in Your Pocket, one of the most well-known and truthful magazines about Bucharest. Thanks to the good people at Bucharestlife.net, here are the following maps. Keep in mind these are the SAME areas of the city, the first from 1979 and the following from 2009.








That is the old part of the city they messed up. The pretty part, really.

Catch-Up

After my little misadventure yesterday, I continues to wander. It was a day of exploration.

Buildings here are plastered with advertisements and obnoxiously colored banners; as if to boldly declare (20 years after the fact) that the country is proud to be done with communism. These do serve to cover up the drab, boring bloc-style buildings that are everywhere here, but it seems this society is trying too hard to Westernize. Of course, this is easy to say from the perspective of a Westerner- we don’t need advertisements all over our buildings to remind us that we live in a free and greedy society. Perhaps Romanians do.

Regardless, I found a part of the city that I am sure I will grow to love dearly in the months ahead. If I walk out of my apartment building, and turn right and then right again, I find myself on the main commercial strip of the sector (which I finally discovered is Sector 4). People run about and cars drive everywhere, and this young American girl finds herself feigning confidence while crossing the street and shopping at the market and going to the bank. If I cross the main street (with a fair amount of trepidation) there is an expanse of concrete that at first appears to be just that- an expanse of concrete. But with further exploration, I discovered that it is actually a park. Like many other European cities and parks, there is a “boulevard” of sorts down the middle, and grass and trees on either side. The sides are pretty hilly, and you can climb to the top by way of neglected stairways every so often. There was a horse and a playground and trails everywhere. I ventured about halfway into the park (walking south) before I decided to turn around and explore another time. There were fountains everywhere, a great many children riding bikes, and couples in every corner of every glance.

The thing I was most struck by, though, is the tragedy of this place- the history that is everywhere. Because despite the beauty, it still seems that this is a country trying to make progress at any rate possible. I wish I could have seen this place before the war and the oppression and the hardship. I can imagine that it was quite beautiful. Once the “Paris of the East,” Bucuresti is now just a city playing catch-up, and I’m afraid it might never make it.

A Smattering

This posting will contain three separate writings that I did while offline today. Please don't try to connect them. My brain was sleep-deprived and lacking nutrients and kind of lonely. Just read :)

AND OH MY WORD. It will not let me copy and paste into the blog. For REAL? Sorry, then. You get nothing for now. Because the internet is about to cut out again (I can feel it fading) and I'm quite tired, seeing as it is 5:20 in the MORNING here. Wait. Nevermind. I found the answer.


After spending just four full days in Bucharest, I find myself incredibly antsy. Part of this is my trepidation about venturing TOO far outside of the areas I know, which is largely (I think) due to the language barrier. In Chicago, one of my very favorite things to do was to take a bus or the train to a new neighborhood, and just go exploring. But in Chicago, I could always get home, because I could always just ask for help. Here in Bucharest, I don’t even know what letters some of the words begin with when people talk. The language is beautiful and fluid and completely incomprehensible to my ears. I do not remember people speaking this quickly when we were in Oradea last year- this could be a regional distinction, or simply because we always had a translator with us. Regardless, I’m terribly afraid of getting lost and having no real course of action.
I have been thinking a lot about the kind of qualities I want to develop this year. If I allow it, these months could slip by with incidental growth and I will find myself at the end of the year with just a smattering of change. I want to be intentional about growth both in my own life, and in the life of my students. How to do this though? Growth is slippery and difficult and intangible- how can I be purposeful?
A few years ago, I compiled some words that I think define the kind of person I want to be, and the characteristics I hope to embody. In pursuit of growth (and in honor and deference to the nerd living in my soul), I have decided to choose one word each day to focus on and work for and discover. They are the following: affect, love, loyalty, desire, assurance, ambition, trust, hope, future, compassion, simplicity, optimism, wish, dream, humility, confidence, peace, empower, maturity, responsibility, heartfelt, and faith.
I know that to even think about walking away from this year with all of these qualities is a tad unrealistic and overly ambitious and even arrogant. However, perhaps I can strengthen all of them just a bit, in a search for the person I want to become.


For someone who defines herself as an educator, both as a source of pride and an excuse for behavior, I know shockingly little about schooling outside of the United States. You could ask me about any current event in teaching or education in the States, and I probably have an opinion or three to share. I lug around the soapbox everywhere I go so that I can jump onto it in an instant, and I have worked hard over the years to avoid shoving my feelings down the throats of those who just are not hungry.
I think one of the most difficult things in moving to a new country is to avoid comparison. It is so easy to measure everything by the standard of what is known, and in my case, this is the United States way of doing things. I’m a little embarrassed, to be perfectly honest.
The educational system in Romania is just a wee bit different, and exploring it this year will be quite the treat. Remaining flexible and just understanding that this is the way things ARE, and maybe not the ways things could be… this might prove to be my biggest challenge.


One of the things I have been most surprised by is the admiration from others regarding my status as an American citizen. I wasn’t really prepared for this- I thought I would have to go the “other way” and temper down my citizenship in order to be liked. Perhaps this is just a feature of Western Europe that hasn’t caught up in Romania yet. Regardless, I have met people who would kiss my feet if I let them, and I am trying to be both appreciative and humble. It really isn’t as a result of my superiority that I was born in the United States, and that I am a native English speaker. This is the message I am trying to communicate.
With such a status comes an enormous amount of pressure. I hope that being the resident native English speaker at school is not accompanied by the assumption that I have the best teaching methods or amazing English techniques. My friends, I have so much to learn. For the first time in months, I am nervous about the teaching part of this endeavor.

Adjustments

There are many minor adjustments that accompany any sort of move overseas. Here are a few of mine thus far:

1. No shower curtains. As confirmed by D~ in his new apartment in Timisoara, Romanians do not use shower curtains, apparently. It works out alright, just a little adjustment.

2. Sleep. My sleep schedule is a disaster. I am awake late, exhausted in the afternoon, and have woken up between 5 and 7 am since Wednesday morning.

3. Time. I am still figuring out the time difference. I know it in my head, but it is odd to talk to someone and have them discuss the breakfast they just went to, as I am contemplating dinner.

4. Time. Romanians, even here in the bustling city of Bucharest, just take things... slowly. It works out, just not in my timing.

5. Language. I'm not even going to go here.

6. Streets and addresses. I have lived here since Tuesday evening and I still have just a faint grasp of where in the city I live, and what street I live on. I can figure out my way around the area, sure- but to tell you where I live? No way! I can't even pronounce the name of the metro station on the corner near my flat. And the map of Bucharest looks like a bowl of spaghetti noodles.

I am going to try and post a video a bit later of my apartment- hope it works!

Arrival

This is going to be a badly written and terribly boring post, just so you know. I am copying most of this from an email I sent someone because my internet connection is REALLY shady at the moment. I am supposed to have internet in the apartment, but I am currently stealing it from my neighbor (I think). Thank you, Lucian.

Travel was pretty good. I had to pay extra for my bags, but no biggie, I knew that was coming. The flight was delayed about 45 minutes, and we actually were seated apart. We asked someone to move, and so we ended up in the middle section- I was right in the middle and D~ was on the outside. As soon as we sat down I knew it was going to be a long flight- the seats were TERRIBLY uncomfortable- the plane was so old that there were still ashtrays in the armrests :) Poor D~ was miserable- he couldn't even rest his legs on the floor because his knees hit. We had a pretty good time, all things considered. Played a LOT of card games, talked a lot about politics and religion and everything else, and watched a REALLY terrible Queen Latifah movie called "Just Right." AWFUL.
Food was awful. I chose the beef (rather than fish) and D~ had the fish after seeing my beef- but then he ended up really sick at the end of the flight.
We were seated seperately on our flight from Rome to Bucharest, which was okay again. I ended up sleeping again for almost the entire flight- just a few hours, but really needed. When we got to Bucharest, we got a luggage cart to wait for our stuff, but it never came. All of a sudden we heard the words "Roma finished." I followed the parade of people over to the lost baggage office while D~ waited to see if it was anywhere around, and with all the carry on stuff. Everyone was yelling in Romanian and I very nearly had a breakdown. About 1.5 hours later our claim was in and we went out to meet two people from my school, and climbed in the tiny car to go to my apartment. In hindsight, it was a good thing the luggage was lost b/c there is NO way it could have fit into the car. We were met by my landlord, a parent from the school, and one of my students who brought me flowers. This was around 5:00 on Tuesday night- we were in the apartment for a while, and they showed us around. The apartment is beautiful- one main room with a tiny little kitchen and a decent sized bathroom. I have a really nice futon, two comfy chairs, a television, a few cabinets, and a really huge wardrobe. The kitchen has a fridge, sink, and range/oven, and the bathroom has a tub/shower, sink, toilet, AND... a washer/dryer!!! (This is a big deal). Oh yeah- there is an adorable little lift that works about half the time and I'm on the fourth floor- not too bad. Oh yeah- AND there is air conditioning :)

My area of the city is really nice- everything within walking distance- supermarket, post office, bank, school, and a metro station. We went to dinner right across the street on the first night (sour cream chicken and paprika potato wedges) and then grocery shopping, just for some staples like fruit, bread, milk, and cereal. We crashed pretty early the first night, and went the next day to get our luggage, spending the rest of the afternoon just hanging out in the apartment, unpacking a bit and napping some. I got a mobile phone, so I am officially connected :) We had dinner the second night with people from SOL, but I messed up on the time- we were supposed to meet the country director O~ at 5pm outside my apartment, not 6pm. We had to run out pretty quickly- D~ was still in the shower and I hadn't yet gotten in... it was pretty miserable. We ran to the Metro station and I did what I do best- fell down the steps. I messed up my foot pretty badly- I could walk with an awful limp to the restaurant, but couldn't even bear weight afterward. Dinner was great, all things considered. We were there for nearly 3.5 hours, and we ate well. I had some Romanian chicken and mashed potatoes, beef soup, and carmel custard. We talked and talked (I was quite distracted by the pain in my foot) and it was a beautiful place. Afterward, we ended up calling a taxi to get back to my apartment, because there was NO way I could have made it otherwise. I felt really bad, but I was in a tremendous amount of pain.

Bucharest is big and loud and none of the streets run straight and everything looks the same. I crave the knowledge that I will have in a month, six months, a year from now concerning this strange place. It is pretty drab for the most part- it still reeks of an oppressive Communist regime, and Ceausescu's legacy is everywhere. I'm looking forward to finding little pockets of good, but it might take some searching.

We had orientation yesterday, and it was quite interesting. We met at the British Council, and were able to meet a few other teachers here in Bucharest, which was good for me. I got pretty drugged up for the day, my foot still in a lot of pain but not NEARLY like it was the night before. We talked in the morning about school stuff- more to come in a later post (the Romanian system is quite interesting) and then went to lunch, which basically turned into a 3 hour break time. I got a library card from the British council library (!!!!) I met a man named G~ who also teaches in the city, and he mentioned a few opportunities about teaching part time at a preschool (almost every teacher has to have a second job for money purposes) AND his project this year of going to a hospital and holding babies!!!

After orientation, D~ went to buy his train ticket to Timisoara (pronounced Timmy-shwora) and then we wandered around for a bit looking for something to eat, and ending up back at the same restaurant as the first night. It seems like a decent place judging by the amount of people there, and our waiter from the first night was all smiles about us being back.
D~ left this morning, and I have three days with nothing to do. Hoping that the internet holds out, and that I get my connection fixed. I find myself missing him already- he was my last tangible link to home in this strange, bewildering place. He has been incredibly fun, wonderfully comforting, and impressively strong. I'm not sure I could have done all of this without him.

My foot is feeling a lot better- I was honestly quite worried the first night. It is still quite painful, but I can at least hobble around now. I am hoping that this sense of lonliness transforms itself into excitement, but for now I am just overwhelmed and wondering if this was the right choice. I know this will get better when I have friends and school starts and I have the opportunity to explore the city a bit more- but right now is pretty difficult.

Haha- in other news, I apologize for the spelling errors in my postings from now on. Because I am in Romania, when I click on "check spelling," about 95% of the words are highlighted. Sorry!