Thursday, Nov. 19
I decided to skip my Romanian class (so bad, I know) in order to attend a monthly expat business meeting. I met someone from CIWC first for dinner and had a very strange fried spinach crepe (yes, weird). The meeting was in this neat bar that was underground. There seem to be a few places like that - old wine cellars, I think. A number of people from CIWC were there, and I got to meet a few new people as well. It felt a little "adult" for me, but it was still fun to get out and do something different!
My downstairs neighbors apparently are making wine. Kind of neat, but they just leave the grapes in this big bags to ferment and now it just smells....
Friday, Nov. 20
This was as pretty crazy day! I went over to Jan's house at 9 or 10am to start working on these greeting cards. The group is making a series of greeting cards in packs of ten called Celebrate Romania. People in the group sent in Romanian pictures that they had, and we had 1,000 prints made. On this work day, we adhered the pictures to cards, stamped the back of the cards with the group logo, and organized the cards into groups (rural life, churches, landscapes, water scenes, flora, etc).
All of the stamped cards lined up, drying.
It was a lot of work and was made even more complicated because the printing place screwed up the order. Instead of having 10 of each print, we got 7 of some and 15 of others and then random ones with just 1 or 3. Let me just tell you, that made it very hard to come up with sets of 10. I stayed working on that until around 8pm at night! But, it was still fun to be around everyone and to do something kind of crafty even if I was fairly grumpy by the end of the evening :) 
Not the best picture of me, but here I am in action!
Some of the finished products. They look great (and so professional - we even put little hand written titles on each one!!!)
See a separate post on Corund!
Sunday, Nov. 22
This was the annual international potluck/family day with the CIWC. What a fun event! It was held at a tennis club behind the BBU hotel that I stayed out for a couple of weeks (indoor courts and everything - very nice). Around 40 people showed up and each person/family brought a dish that they made from their home country. There was so much delicious food - I didn't know what to eat first. I am just glad I am a vegetarian because at least that helped narrow down some things that I could not eat! Otherwise, I think you would have had to wheel me out of there :)
How official - a banner and everything!
A few of the members enjoying the party - from Romania, Croatia (I think), and US in just this picture!
I left pretty soon after dinner when some dancing was starting (there was a DJ and even a karaoke machine) because I had tickets to see My Fair Lady at the National Theater. I wasn't sure what to expect - an opera, the traditional musical, in English or Romania? It ended up being the musical and was in Romanian (a little strange considering the base of the play is English dialects). It was interesting, but I was having a hard time focusing - perhaps because I didn't understand or perhaps because I ate so much food before! I ended up leaving at intermission, but I don't think I missed that much because intermission did not happen until 2 hours into the play!
This is a friend of Kalika's who came. She and her husband were Peace Corp volunteers here 1.5 years ago and stayed. She is applying to this really neat Fulbright program I found in Italy (an MA in food and cooking!!!). I want to go, too!
Monday, Nov. 23
The fun times with CIWC just don't stop! I recommend that anyone in a new place find a group like this. The days of watching episode after episode of Australia's Next Top Model on youtube are over (is it wrong that I am kind of sad about that?!) because this group keeps me beyond busy. On Monday there was an Indian Showcase (this makes sense if you remember the American Showcase for a week or so ago). One of the women in the group is orginally from India although now a US citizen. She held an Indian Showcase back in January and apparently got the whole country showcase thing started. But, Jan missed that event and since she is leaving on Dec. 1, Kalika (the person from India) decided to do the showcase again. What a lot of fun! There were around 20 of us there, and only 1 person had attended the first one.
I arrived a little early so that I could help prepare some of the food and get set up. Almost everything was already finished, but I decorated with some saris and then helped make samosas. Once people got there, it started with a little presentation about India (some history and culture and things people ask - like yoga and kama sutra!). Then we had the delicious food and learned a couple of dances afterwards. It was so much fun! Afterwards, I was able to relax at home for just an hour or two before heading to my language class. I was the only one there, which worked out pretty well so I could catch up from what I missed on Thursday.
I don't know how this is, but I didn't take a single picture of the showcase! I will have to wait to get a few from someone else and then add them later.
Tuesday, Nov. 24
I went out to the main public library in Cluj (not too far from my language school, actually) to give a presentation. The US Embassy has set up something called "American Corners" in several of the libraries in Romania. This is a reading room that has books and movies about the US. The selection of books is small but quite nice. Academic books, children's book (very good ones!), nice juvenile reading books, and even study guides for the English language exam, etc. Here is a link in case you would like to learn a little more about the program: http://romania.usembassy.gov/resources/american_corners.html
So, I gave a presentation on the US regions and Thanksgiving (yes, the same as the one for the CIWC) to a high school class. It was a lot of fun and went very well. I went through the books first and pulled some to pass around that related to the different topics I mentioned. I think they enjoyed it! It just seemed like the perfect time to do this since Thanksgiving is this week. The woman who works in that section of the library was so nice in helping me arrange everything (setting up the laptop and proxima, etc) and even gave me a nice side of "roots" music from the Smithsonian Folklife Collection as a thank you. The teacher of the class that came mentioned that I might be able to help them with a human rights class they are doing. That might be interesting to do, and certainly something to think about if I end up staying in Cluj for the whole year. We will see....it is getting more and more tempting :)
The students with the reading room of the American Corners section in the background.
Giving the presentation. Awwww.
My shopping. Yep, that is Tide laundry detergent!
You wouldn't even know I was in Romania. The checkout is all set up with candy just like in the US (it was in Cambodia too!) - the only thing missing are the magazines.
This is how you know you aren't in the US, and I love it! You have to buy your bags. Some people do, but lots bring their own. So great. I hope we start doing it soon, too.
Wednesday, Nov. 25
What a non-stop day. I got up and went to the American Studies department to print off some things for class and to return some library books. Then, I went to class. We talked a lot more about the papers and drafts - discussed a sample paper, citations, etc. I think they are concerned but at least feeling a little bit better about it. The first set of drafts are due next week, so we will see what happens. I really hope it comes together for them because I think they will be so proud of themselves once they have written the papers!
After class, I went down to my workshop (walking all the way back down past the Amer. Studies Dept. - you can start to see all the walking on this day!). We were talking about cv's and then went over the types of questions on the GREs. Only three people were there, but I think the GRE discussion in particular was very useful for them. It was kind of fun to go over, too. It would be neat to help people study for the verbal part of that test or the SATs. I really like the analogies and sentence completions - always feel kind of like a game to me!
Following the workshop, I hung out at the department for 1 hour and checked my email. Then, it was time to go all the way across town (back to the hotel I stayed at in the beginning) for a presentation about the Romanian National Day (Dec. 1) for all of the international students and professors. There was a history and geography presentation and then a really neat set of traditional songs and dances done by university and high school students. All of which was followed by some food - apparently students in all countries are drawn by promises of free food - it was crazy!!!
The history presentation. I actually met this professor in Arizona a year ago - what a coincidence!
Paying close attention. The is Michelle (married to Paul - the one of the Fulbright) to my right, your left.
What a great outfit.
Dancers. The guys did some stuff that was just like stepping (the stuff in the southern US) - how unexpected!
More of the dancers.
The singers - just high school students. They are braver than I was at that age!
I just love the old, traditional shoes in the middle!
After this presentation, I walked back to the center of town (Paul and some family visiting him walked too) and met some people from CIWC for a new knitting and fibre arts club. We met at a restaurant called Viena owned by an Austrian couple who have been in Cluj for a number of years. The food looks so good! We got this amazing imperial pancake dessert thing that fed all 6 of us! And, the knitting was good, too :) I finally learned how to knit, and even though it takes a rather insane amount of concentration, I like it. We will meet at the restaurant 1 night every two weeks, but I wish it was once a week. What fun!
Pania (left) from New Zealand and who started the club, and Simona (right) form Romania and who patiently taught me to knit!
The whole group that showed up for the first week.
So, that was my incredibly long day. I got home a little before 11pm! And, just part of my very long (but fun) week.
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