Welcome to Romania.

Tuesday, August 24:

From where I currently sit, I hear voices. Conversations flow below me on the terrace in languages I don’t understand—some Romanian, some French, some Spanish, some Italian… the sounds mix and melt in the hot late-summer air and float though the breeze up to our open window. My roommate Julie and I are taking naps in our little attic dormer room, each of us sleepy from jet lag. Our room is at the highest point of this mountain vila, with a little screenless window opening onto a meadow where, yesterday, two farmers cut and baled hay by hand onto a horse-drawn cart. A large tree obscures our view of the palace, which we visited this afternoon; in the distance, mountain peaks soar heavenward. Most of them are high enough to be bald above the treeline.

We’re currently in Sinaia, a beautiful Romanian mountain town full of tourists. The tourist part is a little unfortunate, but it’s charming and our rooms in the castle grounds are apparently extraordinarily cheap. I feel like I’ve been transported to the first Narnia movie, where Peter and Susan and Edmund and Lucy stay in their uncle’s rambling old house—the building’s hallways snake along, twisting all over the place and throwing in steep, curving sets of stairs at odd angles. The floors creak poetically, and it’s all quite charming: the Swiss ski chalet look of the building’s exterior, the slanted ceilings of our tiny attic room, the cobblestone streets, the bear warnings… oh yeah. Maybe those aren’t quite as charming. When we checked in, we were warned not to go walking outside past 11 pm; apparently bears here have become quite accustomed to tourists, who are too friendly and too well-fed for their own good. (I’m being glib, but it’s actually serious: I guess people have been killed by bears in recent years in Sinaia.)

Now, Mom and Dad, who I’m sure will read this and freak out—don’t worry, the bears around Lupeni are still wild and won’t come in to town to eat me. The stray dogs, however… just kidding. Sorta.

So, a word of explanation for anyone who happens to be reading this (kudos, by the way!). I’m spending the semester studying abroad in Romania with a group of four other students through a program of Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa. (No, I don’t go to Northwestern; I go to Calvin.) We arrived in Bucharest on Monday, August 23rd to begin the semester, which I’ll now try to summarize quickly. The semester is hosted by New Horizons Foundation, a faith-based NGO which focuses on the development of civil society through youth programs and outdoor adventure education. Thus, we’ll be spending a good portion of our time in Romania working with the two branches of New Horizons (FNO): first, we’ll be spending a week up at Viata; youth from all over Romania come to spend a week doing high ropes/teambuilding/outdoor adventure stuff at this camp. Many of these youth come from the other part of FNO’s work: IMPACT clubs. These clubs are scattered all across Romania, and pull in youth to do community service projects and other fun activities. Since the end of communism twenty years ago, there have been very little development of civil society in Romania—communism’s legacy of social mistrust and corruption, as well as forced community service, has ensured that. IMPACT’s goal is to raise up a generation of Romanian youth who see the world differently and are willing to serve their communities and work with other people, in the hopes that the next generation will prove to be better leaders for Romania than the current political elite have been. It’s a fascinating—and highly successful—model of social development, and I’m excited to be a part of it.

Besides those internship-like opportunities with FNO, we’ll also be taking three courses: Romanian History, Culture, and Language; Sustainable Development; and Eastern Orthodoxy. I don’t think I could have imagined a better fit for my interests, so I’m really excited to dive in! Dana and Brandi Bates, the founders and leaders of New Horizons, are fantastic, so being under their tutelage for a few months is an amazing opportunity, and Romania is absolutely beautiful and so, so rich in culture and history. Mm. I’ll try to keep you posted on how life progresses, though internet access will be really sporadic the first few weeks here due to Viata and a week of backpacking in the Retezat, etc. (Oh, what a price to pay…)