Culture

As my time in Romania draws to a close, I have to think of all the experiences this has given me. Before coming to Romania I'd never been more than a long drive away from my parents and my home. Now I've lived in a foreign country for 3 months. A country where I barely speak the language with only a handful of other native English speaking people. I'm not going to say that it was easy, sometimes it was really hard knowing that none of the people I love were so far from my reach. It's not just that either, when we first got here everything seemed like a challenge.

Time has flown by literally; today marks just eighteen days until I am home. It is so crazy how much I have done and what I have seen. As I reflect on the past couple months I think back to the first full week we were in Romania. An unfamiliar environment, new people, a new language, new food, and a new chapter began in my life. To be completely honest I had no idea what to expect being here; the reason I initially came here was to full-fill my language requirements and to live outside of Orange City.

On October 29 the Romania students returned from a ten daylong fall break.  The break was full of travel and sightseeing.  While the trip was wonderful and full of amazing sights and experiences we came home exhausted and ready for some normal days again.  We had this for a week and then we were on the road again, this time for a week of learning with the organization.  While we were still a little tired we were excited for this next experience.

This last week we spent in Cluj and Maramures. We stayed a few days in the village of Breb. It is in the northern part of Romania in the Maramures county. It is a village that wasn’t affected as much by the industrialization of Communism. The village shows what the traditional Romania looked like. The town has just started a green IMPACT club. The club focuses on preserving nature and historical landmarks. We got to meet the children that are in the club; we taught them games we have in America and they taught us a Romanian game.