Saturday, March 28, 2009

On Tour

So Nils and I have all but disappeared these last few weeks. We've been traveling around Romania and Moldova giving presentations about a new English program Nils has been helping to redesign and improve. It's been fun seeing various cities, but most of our time, truthfully, has been spent on the train.

Going into the Republic of Moldova, we took a maxi taxi to Focsani and then boarded an old Russian night train to Moldova. Nils was so excited (this being one of many times for him being on a Russian train, my first). It was almost comical seeing how excited he was. Other people who have used this model of train have referred to it as "The Harry Potter" train. It was clean and actually had a comfortable feel to it... warm and welcoming. For anyone who's never used a sleeper car before, you receive blankets, sheets, pillows and pillow cases and sleep bunk-bed style. Nils shyly admitted he wanted the bottom bunk as he was afraid of falling off. I opted for the upper bunk. Going into the bathroom to brush my teeth was a bit of a shock, seeing the tracks move quickly beneath my feet through a mesh-metal floor. I didn't even think of using the toilet, eyeing the black seat which looked battered and partly melted. But no matter what train you’re on... most bathrooms aren't all that inviting.

Our last presentation was in Brasov and we're happy to be back home. Now all that's left is finishing the workbook that we presented on. Hopefully we'll get that done by Monday and be able to really relax, until our next adventure.