Monday, February 20, 2012

More snow and more politics

The snow has continued to fall over the past few weeks. In all, we have had four snow days and two half days. I love snow days just as much as my students, however, keeping up with lesson plans has been problematic. Hopefully we will be done with snow days now and I can keep teaching the kids English at a good pace. Getting places is still really hard with the amount of snow on the ground. Here  is a picture of the cars near my house. If you compare it with the picture from my last blog post, you will see we have had quite a bit more snow. Luckily I have not been run over by a bus! The snow has started to melt this weekend, but it hasn't made getting around any easier. I am excited for the day when I can walk like a normal person, and not be continually worried about falling.

While getting around in the city is difficult, it is impossible to get around in the villages of Romania. Many highways have been closed and are not able to be plowed because cars were abandoned on the road. Delivery trucks can't get in, so food packages have had to be airlifted into many villages around Romania. They don't have electricity either. In the city there have been a few blackouts, but we only experienced one for about two hours. I am very thankful for that.

The demonstrations, that I wrote about previously, continued somewhat, even when the weather turned horrible. I had to run an errand close to where they were taking place, and I could still  hear people shouting 'jos Basescu'... down with the president. In the past few weeks some changes were made in the government, and from what I know things are running more smoothly. According to reports I heard, the entire parliamentary cabinet was dismissed and re-elected. Apparently people are happy with the results, and hopefully things will stay stable in Romania.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Snow days!!

Up until two weeks ago the weather here has been very mild. I don't mind that at all, but I think everyone was wondering what had happened to the snow once Christmas passed and everything was still gray. Well, we are no longer wondering. Last week the snow began to fall, and it did not stop. We ended up with two snow days. So, I decided to use those days wisely, and build an eight foot snowman with some friends.

The snow and cold has continued in Bucharest and the rest of Europe. Here's CNN's report if you don't believe me. The black sea even froze out to 400 meters, which doesn't always happen. 

The conditions for walking are pretty dangerous because the sidewalks don't really get cleared very well. Please pray that I don't fall in the road and get run over by a bus!

Today we got freezing rain along with the snow which makes things extra slippery. My roommate and I gave up trying to walk back from church and just got a taxi. I am hoping for maybe one more snow day!