The Christmas Letter

Dear peoples,
A year ago I was preparing to go to my northern relatives, the ones who have snow in the winter, tom and jerry's for christmas and cribbage tournaments. I was also substitute teaching almost every day a week because teachers get colds too, and I had recently received a letter from the Peace corps telling me they liked me and they would probably send me to Eastern Europe and to please hurry up and get my dental exam.
After the holiday seasons I "moved" to Chicago (does it count as moving if you are leaving your brother's apartment after 4 months there, to be living in a big closet in your friend's apartment?)
Do not move to Chicago after the holiday season if you can help it. The suburban shovel-your-sidewalks mentality does not transcend city limits and I walked over icy sidewalks for two months. I got called into temp jobs in downtown offices and spent an extra 20 minutes getting to the right office because who knew that the blue line doesn't go to that part of downtown? And then I started biking to work and the thrill of passing rows of cars in traffic was glorious - until I wiped out on State St. one morning. Good thing my five layers padded the fall. And I spent a lot of time crocheting, watching scrubs and arrested development, making lentil-barley stew and convincing the city of chicago that I was worthy of a library card.
Then I got a thick envelope from the Peace Corps.
"It is our pleasure to invite you to Peace Corps Romania. Please respond to this invitation within the next 30 days. Information about your job description and life in Romania is enclosed."
-Peace Corps is in Romania? I asked myself. Then I went onto youtube and looked up Romanian music. O-zone and Akcent are from Romania. Not too bad, I decided.
In May I left Chicago on a bus with two very heavy duffel bags, rearranged my belongings in Missouri, visited college friends in Arkansas, said good-byes to mom, dad, grandma and Daniel and got on the plane to Philadelphia for a couple days of meet-and-greets with the 40 other peace corps volunteers that were going to Romania with me.
After we had found out what everyone wanted to do in Romania (the common theme was skiing) and we had blown our fears of living in a different country out of porportion by drawing unskilled pictures of outhouses and strangers, we flew to Romania, spent 10 weeks together learning Romanian, learned more about each other than our fears, and head-banged at Iris concerts.
In August I moved to my village in Northern Romania and I have been teaching English at a middle school, finding a balance between appreciating and integrating into Romanian culture while still keeping up with my peace corps friends.
I seesaw between loving teaching and wishing I could just sit at a desk and be mindless. My beginning 5th graders can say what they want from Santa Claus now, and my more advanced 8th graders know words like tasty, rotten, unbelievable and dull. I made Christmas cookies with the math teacher at my school this week and I've gotten into crocheting hats. Romanian television plays a lot of bollywood and French movies with Romanian subtitles, so I read the subtitles and am always proud when I know what's going on.
The first half of my year was full of expectations and the second half of my year has been overwhelmed with guessing at what is going on around me. Either I've gotten better at guessing or I really do understand more of what is going on around me, but I am putting down roots in Romania and am content and glad I've come. There are lonely days and frustrating moments, but so far they happen less than the days where I smile for no reason and feel on top of my village.
So that is the wrap-up.
I hope your Christmas and New Years are what you want them to be.
Rachel