On my orientation day at the beginning of my trip I went to the Projects Abroad office and met the staff who work there. There is Alex who is the desk officer and generally makes sure all of the volunteers have what they need while in Brasov. Daniela is the supervisor of the care and teaching projects. Alexandra is the supervisor of journalism and drama. Razvan supervises something (?) and works in the office. And then Mircea (pronounced meer-cha) is the Country Director for Romanian Projects Abroad. They are all great and really fun-loving. When I was introduced to Mircea and told him I was from Texas his response was, "You're from Texas? That means you can line dance. You can lead the next workshop!" To which I replied, "The next what?!"
Once a week all the Projects Abroad volunteers that were available would get together for a workshop that was presented by one of the volunteers. It was really a fun time because there were people from all over the world and people who did all sorts of neat things. Kay, from Australia told us all about traveling through her entire country by RV. Crystal, from Canada told us all about the way the brain works and some of the research she has done in grad school. Eloise, who lives in New York but has a Romanian father and French mother, had her dad come a tell us about escaping from Romania during the Communist era. (He tried five times and finally made it across the Danube!) And then there was me, the Texan, who was supposed to teach everyone how to line dance.
So I did! I also decided it would be fun to teach the Cotton Eyed Joe. Everybody caught on really quickly, and even though we didn't have the biggest space or best sound system, we had lots of fun! I also spoke a little bit about what I do as a music teacher and some of the things I know about child development and music. All in all, it was a very fun afternoon. But don't take my word for it... see for yourself. :)
