Snowridge Farm in the Springtime

Culture Shock in Reverse

Cultural Shock

Nancy and I have been home almost three weeks now. I’ve found employment and Nancy has begun a serious search for same. We’ve been welcomed home by friends and acquaintances and we’ve been busy putting house, home and farm back to our comfort level. Yet, there really is a culture shock, and in many ways it’s worse than the cultural differences of our first few weeks in Romania.

The reason for this, I think, is that when going overseas we expected things to be unusual and we were prepared to be surprised. In truth, we were amazed to find so many things so similar to the United States, but upon returning home, what is unsettling is that after 27 months away we had become used to a different lifestyle. The lifestyle we had gotten used to was less concerned with ‘stuff’ and more concerned with transportation, food and language.

For example, the other day I opened the silverware drawer and looked at all the forks. There must have been twenty-four forks. In Cluj we had started with two, then splurged and gotten a total of six. On those few occasions when more than four guests came to dinner, some were told to bring their own silverware and plates.

Soon after arriving home we started a big pile of yard sale material of the extra stuff we found we have no need for. We’ll donate it to our church or a community group looking to raise funds. Some one once told me if you haven’t used it in seven years you won’t ever use it. Well, as it’s been 2 ½ years since we’ve used most anything, and we have closets and a basement full of a life’s accumulation, that means it will be a pretty large yard sale consignment we’ll offer.

Not sure about the seven-year rule, though, as I was glad that 16 years ago our house builder put the left over roof shingles under the porch. We had a bad electric and windstorm last week and lost a few shingles from the roof, and now I’ve dug out their replacements. So seven years might not be the magic number but anything older than 16 years and still unused in that time definitely goes.

The farm is getting back into shape. The pastures look emerald green from the August rains that we’ve had. The aforementioned windstorm knocked a few trees and large branches down that I’ve been cleaning and cutting up for this winter’s wood supply. Thrilling Date, aka Momma, is still out on the pasture. She’s over 30 now, which is very old for a horse, thin and with a melancholy look, but she’s always had that look. She still jogs around with her field mate, Sparky, her youngest daughter. They’ve got 15 hectares of open grass all too themselves. I’ll attach a picture of the farm as it was before we left so you have an idea of our farm.

We are down to about a half-hectare of grapes. The fruit looks good this year, Chardonnel and Traminette varieties with perhaps three weeks to go before harvest. Brother Joe had been taking care of the vines in my absence and, time permitting, we’ll work together to rehab and renew that portion of vineyard where most of the vines are still growing. Perhaps we’ll add raspberries to go along with the grapes for next year.

I hope to continue this blog, perhaps with a different feel as the original purpose of letting friends know of our experience overseas changes to expressing opinions and observations of a life on a small farm in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Maybe I should rename this blog “A Country Journal”, but we’ll wait on that until after the yard sale.

On the Island of Korcula

The Coast of Croatia

The Long Journey Home

Long Road Home

It has been nearly three weeks since Nancy and I completed final Peace Corps checkout in Bucuresti. I am writing this entry on the Aer Lingus plane as we sail over the clouds that cover the Northern Atlantic Ocean. I can’t but think of the evening back in May, 2005 when, in a plane packed with fellow adventures, we left New York headed to a part of the world we were unfamiliar with. Our expectations where bewildered, our curiosity immense and our commitment complete. That evening, there had been severe storms along the Eastern U.S. coast and as our plane climbed about the clouds, the mass of them turned golden in the angled sun. While the clouds again blanket the space between plane and ocean, no particular atmosphere effects can be seen out of the window.

Our journey since our departure from Cluj has been an adventure in itself. We taken a bit of vacation through Budapest, Croatia, back to Hungary, a side trip to Baia Mare in Romania, a night train to Krakow in Poland, three days stationed in the pleasant Irish village of Skerries north of Dublin and now back to Washington and home.

Croatia was excellent, but hot. Particularly we enjoyed ferrying between the island of Hvar and Korcula. The further one got from the tourist center of Split, the better the prices and the more elbow space. We missed Dubrovnik, a highly recommended tourist center; we’ll wait for an off season for that.

A particular highlight was an afternoon in Split. The heat made strolling unpleasant so we went back to our little room – private homes with a room and a bath are a business for the locals – turned the air conditioner on (no such thing in Romania) and took a nap. Shortly after the nap began, I realized that our room was directly beneath the music teacher’s studio. I spent a pleasant hour listening first to piano and guitar and then to traditional Croatian vocal duets. Later in the trip we found a more professional vocal quintet singing outside our terrace in the town of Korcula and again in Vela Luca. I had never heard traditional Croatian singing before and it was very enjoyable; not as good as Irish, of course, but still much better than most of the performers that inhabited the many eateries throughout our travels. The sea was specatucularly clear and blue, filled with fish. If only the coast and some sand instead of the round pebbles that occupy their beaches. Perhaps they should borrow some sand from east coast of Ireland – there’s plenty of it there.

Eger in Hungary is a tourist spot but with a difference. Whereas Croatia was filled with travelers of all nationalities, particularly Nordic and Italian, Eger was almost completely occupied with Hungarians. Wine, the Turkish baths, an old castle where the Hungarians earned a victory of the Turks, and a quaint old town are the draws.

It’s hard to think that two years ago we had barely heard of Krakow in Poland. Around Europe it is one of the most talked about places to visit and with many good reasons. Nancy and I enjoyed our time there, particularly the friendliness of the people and their tremendous ability with foreign languages, especially English. The Hungarians are not nearly so fluent in language ability as either the Croatians, the Poles or the Romanians. Krakow has plenty of tourists but also plenty of space for them. All nationalities mix in the great square of the city and the monuments to a thousand years of city status surround the old town. We did not have time to visit either the salt mines or the concentration camp reminders of Auschwitz, but we walked beneath the window where Pope John Paul helped to bring down Communism.

Skerries in Ireland was picked off the internet almost blind. It turned out well, on a main commuter rail line into Dublin, not too far from the airport. Our B & B room looked out over the Irish Sea. Three small islands lay just off shore and the town had a paved walk along the beach and to the harbor. The Irish weather was opposite of the Croatian, almost chilly and, with occasional rain, but the food was great and the pubs lively.

Apart from one missed train connection – missed by less than a minute, all our actual traveling was routine. Nancy has given up on trains after a dreadful train from Miskolc to Krakow, while I say that plane travel is my least favorite method of getting from place to place. We are both looking forward to home – it’s been over 800 days.

Our trip is now coming toward an end, back in hot Washington. The adventure that we began on that flight over those golden clouds over two years ago is also ending. It’s two soon to sum up our thoughts and reflections on that adventure, too soon to reminisce. As then, now we know not what adventure we’ll encounter on our return home, only that we’ll try and keep our eyes, ears and mind open to whatever the road brings our way.

Many people have helped us make it through the last 27 months and we know that we’ll need their support in our next adventure. So here is a thank you to everyone who cheered us up with visits, packages, postcards, email, thoughts and prayers.

I’ll continue to write this blog from time to time if there seems some observation worth sharing. For those of you whose main interests where either Romania or the Peace Corps experience, I thank you for reading. It has been a joy for me to do these entries and I hope that you have gained a little from my jottings.