ENGLISH WITH ANGLOVILLE - Busteni, Romania Jul 2016

ENGLISH WITH ANGLOVILLE

Busteni, Romania  July 2016

While it was an extraordinary experience visiting "the homeland" in Botosani, we knew that the only way to really get to know Romanian people and better understand the culture was to find an appropriate volunteer opportunity.

Lovely accommodations

After an initial rejection (their volunteer quota was full) some persistent emails, and some fortuitous cancellations, the three of us (Mike, Eileen, and Simone) were finally accepted as volunteers for a week with Angloville in Romania.

 English activities

Angloville, which also operates programs in Poland, Czech Republic, and Hungary, is an English immersion program for native participants. 

As volunteers, we had free room and board at a lovely hotel in the Carpathian Mountains. The only requirement was that we speak English with the participants--and a lot of it-- some 12 hours of talking each day for five straight days.

Admittedly, the first few days were a little tough; the participants were nervous and the conversations were rather stilted. But as the week went on, that quickly changed. We soon became friends with the participants, an interesting group of people, ranging from a cardiologist to a female air traffic controller. The conversations, in turn, became less awkward and took on greater depth.

Hong, Breana with wonderful Sonia

We soon became a unified group.

Local strawberries, anyone?

The other volunteers made it fun as well--and a perfect match for the three of us in age and temperament.  

Breana, an American teaching English in Spain, and Hong, a Vietnamese doctor from Australia, were both Simone's age. Hong, who later visited Simone in Germany, even made it into the "friend" category. And, boy oh boy, could that woman down the super rich, sugar-laden desserts!

Arriving as strangers, leaving as friends

We also met Ruth, a widow from Colorado, and Brian, from New Zealand, an avid photographer who had planned out his next three years of travel to all parts of the globe (and a wife at home that wasn't going to join him--and probably would no longer continue to be his wife in the long-term).

The week culminated with our students giving presentations--in English, of course. Their tutors could not have been prouder.