School was cut short on Thursday so I got sent home at 11 and Friday the students were only there for about an hour with their head teachers which was the official sign that winter break had started. A fellow PCV, Aran, that teaches in an elementary school in the city of Ploiesti came into town to visit and experience a Romanian Christmas in the country. Friday was spent just walking around town, seeing the local Friday market and eating some of the best tasting mici I’ve ever eaten in my life. Friday night Aran, Mary, and I headed out to Megapark which is the HUGE new club that opened up in Singeorz. It is something else and when you walk inside, you feel like you have stepped into a posh new nightclub in a big city, not in a sleepy little town int he mountains. The three of us, along with 2 of Mary’s friends spent the whole night dancing and hanging out with each other and whichever students decided to come and hang out with us as well.
Saturday was spent at Mary’s house waiting for carolers. Here the tradition is that all the students gather with their classmates and go from teacher to teacher caroling and then go caroling to each others houses until the early hours of the morning. Mary had Aran and I over for the tradition Romanian dinner of Sarmale with other dishes and the first carolers showed up around 6:30 pm. I ended up seeing classes 9A, 9D, 10A, 10B, 12D, and then when I got back home, I was called over to my neighbor’s and fellow student’s house where all of 12A had congregated. Since Mary’s mom is a kindergarten teacher, we got a lot of cute 5 and 6 year olds caroling to us as well.
Christmas day was spent with the other English teacher I work with, Varvara, and her family at her house in Maieru (the comuna north of us) I got to meet Varvara’s brother from Sibiu along with her daughter Andreea that is in the 8th grade. Her son, Tudor, I already know since he is one of my students in the 12th grade. She made a wonderful lunch and we ended up spending the entire day with Varvara and her family.
Today I woke up with a crazy cold and naturally, its the day that I have to leave for my trip. I’m headed to Timisoara to visit a PCV (Sara) that lives nearby and then headed on my Eurotrip and will be returning January 10th. So until next time! Va pup!
Jo in Ro 
That’s adorable to go to their teacher’s homes and sing christmas carols 🙂 it warms a teacher’s heart to know that their dedication is appreciated 🙂 the grading system ( 9A, 9D, 10A, 10B, 12D ) sure is interesting though, hum 🙂
Thanks for the slide show!!