Tuesday 10/11 9:35pm Bucharest, Romania
Well, today has been quite stressful, but I'm now here so everything is good. The flight was fine and I got off the plane feeling good. I made it through all the taxi drivers hounding me to take their cabs and found my bus stop, I got on this bus just fine and this is where all the "good stuff" ended. What I thought would be a 30 minute bus ride kept going on and on and on and after almost an hour and a half, I was still waiting for my stop. Between rush hour and it being a bus and not the metro, we just didn't plan enough time for me to get to the stop I was supposed to meet Elena. The whole time I was on the bus, I was panicking because I knew I needed to meet her at 430pm in front of H&M in the big plaza, but after an hour and a half, I was no where near my stop and It was almost 5pm. So, I was thinking about all the things I could do and at that moment, we passed a metro station and the bus stopped, so I made a quick decision to get off and take the metro to the plaza I needed to get to, even though I had no idea which metro to take and which way to go. It worked out well, and I arrived at the meeting spot, but it was almost 530pm and Elena had already left (I later found out she had left maybe 5 minutes earlier). The H&M is the biggest store I've ever seen (like, the same size as a Macys), but I didn't have time to take it in because I was so worried. I waited about an hour, but I knew she had probably gone home to email me. I thought about all my options and I decided to get a cab (even though I was warned they might rip me off, but at this point I didn't care as much) and take it to their house, since I had the address. Well, I caught a cab, but after a few blocks, I realized he had no idea where he was going. or if he did, he was just taking me on a very long back route (he wanted to take me back near the airport), so I told him to take me to the next best (and closest possible) thing, a hotel. I knew that the majority of hotels would have someone who could speak English and would have a way for me to check my email, or would be able to call me a cab that would take me exactly where I needed to go, so he took me there, and luckily, the receptionist was the nicest person ever and let me get in touch with Elena and that was that. Maria, the mom, and Elena, the oldest, came to pick me up and they are just the nicest people. The whole ride back they told me how they wished Romania was a better country to visit and they were so glad to have me. Elena speaks English really well (she said she likes watching American movies and television so she picked it up, plus studying it all through school) and Maria is pretty good as well.
When we got back to the apartment, there were another three faces to greet me and for the next hour I felt like I was a television show myself. Diana, Ana, and Irina were all very curious to see me and I think they are all a little too excited to have me staying here. The house is interesting and it is going to be a very interesting month. While I had too much free space at the farm, I will have none here. The house is set up quite different and they later told me it was meant to be an office building but Maria turned it into a home/office so she could see the girls more. But there is not a set room for anything except the offices (one for Maria and one for the girls to study in). The kitchen is spread over three places, the only toilet is in with the laundry room, the bed that Maria shares with the younger two girls is also the dining room, and the room I share with Elena has the refridgerator... I was really surprised, but I think it is normal for them. All the girls keep their clothes in the room I'm in, so there will be no privacy. BUT, even though this is a workaway, they seem to be more focused on the fact that they are honored I am staying with them and that I am their guest (which I'm having issues with since I just got off a volunteer place where I had to earn my place to sleep). I'm the first "volunteer" here, so I keep telling them it will be a work in progress. At dinner (in the bedroom), Maria kept scolding the girls or more telling the younger two they have to practice their English with me, so I think that is one of the reasons I'm here. After dinner though, they spoke English when their mom wasn't in the room, so I don't think it will be an issue. They told me the names of all their favorite disney characters and were speaking quite well.
They told me to go rest after that, so I headed to the bottom of the bunk I share and what did I find?!... the two kittens have taken up half the bed I'm using... so I decided to let them continue sleeping there and I'll share it with them.
