We Arrive in Romania

11 Hours after departing Birmingham, Alabama, we reached Romania. Thankfully, the guard members collected our passports and were able to clear us through en-mass. Once we landed, we boarded a bus for customs/clearing, where we received our assignments.

As expected, I received the educational assignment, and am assigned a schedule that will take me to the Danube Delta area and several Delta area rural schools. The ambassador to this area of the world is very interested in distance education (which is what I do for a living these days).

Tomorrow, we start our visits, but for tonight, we will get to the hotel, check in, and relax a bit (and attempt to adjust to the new timezone.) Thankfully (I'm saying that now...) I did not get much sleep on the airplane. It should be a bit easier for me to adjust to the new locale once I get to sleep tonight.

Once I checked into the hotel, I set about to call the family to let them know that we landed safely and were in the hotel. International cell phone usage is at a rate of $3.50 per minute. I will have to set up Skype later!

Dr. Connell and I are going out for a bite to eat somewhere (first we will need to convert some money into the Romanian Lei at an exchange rate of $1 to 2.35 Lei.)

We wound up exchanging some money, then finding a restaurant on the Danube (apparently a LOT of our group found the same place). It was an adventure deciphering the menu. I had Keivskaya de pui (I think this was Chicken-Kiev, although it was VERY similar to Chicken Courdon Bleu).

After enjoying the evening, I departed for the hotel to sleep.

I get back the hotel and notice that they have free wireless! Bonus! I installed Skype, purchased the recurring $2.95 per month unlimited plan, and called back home. It works better than cell phone service, BY FAR!

I got to sleep around 11:00 pm Romanian time.