Welcome to Roman, Romania

Today a nice couple and their son from Roman took me on a tour of some of the local scenery. We went to a place called the Bicaz (sounds almost like because) Gorge. It is an area where there is a river that flows at the bottom of a gorge. As you can see from the pictures the sides are very steep. It reminds me a little of Yosemite Valley, except that it is not very wide, just really steep. In some places it is barely wide enough for two cars to get through. They call it the Romanian Grand Canyon. It is the only place like it in all of Europe, and I got to see it today. My hosts were very kind and spent a lot of time and did a lot of driving just for me. See how nice the people here are? My classes start on Monday. So when you log on Monday morning I should be through with the first day of class. I will have one class at 9, one at 10:45, and on at 5. Each of the classes is for 1 1/2 hours. So I will let you know how it goes.
We went also to a place called Piatra Neamt (with the last t the one that sounds like the ts in rats). This is the clock tower just outside of the church on the main town square. As you can see I am in the picture, so now you know I am really here and not just doing this from my bedroom where I am holed up with a book about Romania and a lot of Diet Coke.
And last but not least this is a picture of my new home. My apartment is the one right above the doorway. Here they say it is on the first floor, they call the ground floor the parter, but we would say it is on the second floor. The window just above the entrance is my kitchen window, on the right is the living room and to the left is the bedroom. It is a nice building, in a nice neighborhood and best it is like two blocks from the school where I will teach two of the classes and around the corner from where the other class will be held. So I will post some more from this trip, maybe tomorrow and I will let you know how the first day of classes goes. Talk to you all later.

Mark