Time to Get Serious

Well at least partly serious. It has been a good two weeks since I have written and a lot has happened. Maybe not a lot in the terms that we as Americans think in, there were no great accomplishments made, and I have not changed the outlook of the Romanian people single handed (yet). What has been happening is a slow shift from feeling like a tourist and this whole trip feeling like one big party with 70 new friends, to realizing that I will be in Romania for the next two years. Two years…sometimes when I say those words I think the time will last forever. Other times I fear I will blink and the experience will all be over.

Last week was one of those weeks that flew by and before I knew it I had been in the country for two weeks. I as I write this note I now have been here for three. With 13 days of language classes under my belt I am beginning to remember that I have a job to do, and that job for the time being is to learn the language. The days of feeling like a non-stop party is going on around me are quickly coming to an end, yet I still find ways to be comfortable, and avoid the reality around me. From reading books (without TV around I find I can kill a book very quickly), to listening to music I find myself procrastinating and avoiding the reality that is at hand. That I am stranger in this land, and while my physical appearance will always make me stick out the one thing that is in my control is how I prepare myself. It is about time to get down to business on that front.

Now that I have poured my heart out so to speak about the ups and downs of being a Peace Corps Volunteer allow me to regale you with an amusing story. I mentioned before that things are “different” in Romania. Well one of these things is the elevators. I am currently interning in the Mayor’s office in Ploiesti, with the Department of International Relations. Sounds pretty cool huh? Their main goal is to raise funds for projects in the city and the county, everything from Environmental to Public Works projects. The office is located on the third floor of city hall and being a typically lazy American I along with the rest of my group 4 and a security guard to escort to the door all got in a space the size of a very small closet. I remember thinking as we stepped in, man it would suck to get stuck in this thing. Well a short minute later we were stuck. We made it the third floor and when the doors were supposed to open they didn’t. What made for more good times is that apparently cell phones do not work in elevator shafts, so after some banging and shouting we finally got someone’s attention. During this time the power to the control panel went out, no bells, no possibility of choosing another floor, and with the handy dandy safe lock doors no chance of prying open the exit.

It was during this time that I remembered how much I hate confined spaces, and flashbacks of childhood sleepovers and trapping each other in the bottom of our sleeping bags “for fun” came rushing back. I wish I could say I handled those times well and it did not bother me, but I would be lying. I hated every second of it, and now stuck in an elevator with no room to sit, 4 other people and a rising temperature I was doing all I could to remain the calm cool collected 29 year old I have become. Inside however the little kid trapped in the bottom of his sleeping bag by his friends was screaming to get out.

A very LONG 10 minutes later the elevator started again with a slight drop leaving my heart in my throat and then proceed very slowly down to the 1^st floor. We all exited and this lazy American was no longer feeling all that lazy. As we filed out the security guard informed us we could get back on, just not all of us. Apparently the weight limit on this elevator was much less than we anticipated. Needless to say I was not first in line to get back in, besides I really did need to work on those calf muscles anyway.