Bod Goals: How to spend two months in a remote Romanian village

It's been about two weeks since Allison and I arrived in Bod, and I already feel as if I've been here for ages (well, I suppose relatively two weeks is "ages", given the last five months or so). Colin picked us up from Brasov station in his Land Rover and drove us 30 minutes north to his house in Bod. For a week, Allison and I plunged into a crash course on house sitting, Romanian, and village culture.

The house has a storied history, which is one of the reasons I love it so much. It's been added to over the years, so it's one long structure, where you need to pass through each room to get to the other. Colin moved the kitchen and renovated it to fit his 6'5ish frame, so Allison and I feel slightly like hobbits each time we wash dishes or chop veggies on the counter. Don't even ask us the process for getting wine glasses off the rack, which is bolted to the ceiling.

Colin purchased his Saxon home almost ten years ago. The house was built in 1860, which is common knowledge to anyone visiting, because it is carved in one of the main beams in the front room:

Over the course of several days, Colin gave us the ins and outs of the house- which, due to some shoddy repair work, has some quirks. We've learned to listen for certain sounds, like the pump turning on; check the water pressure, unplug certain appliances, leave specific lights on, etc.; all to prevent the house from imploding or being burgled. Colin has cautioned Bod village doesn't attract many, if any, other foreigners, so we stick out a tad, and must do our best not to direct too much attention to ourselves.

Colin also introduced us to a variety of characters in the Bod/Brasov community, including our neighbors, ex-pat friends of Colin's, and a woman who met Colin as a child, when he was managing a home for children in the nineties. It was nice to meet this cast of people who will be a good support network for us as we spend two months here with no car and limited knowledge of the language, though we've been practicing! Colin sat us down each day and gave us a crash course in common phrases, verbs, numbers, and (my favorite) food vocabulary.

A few days before Colin left, we went grocery shopping to stock up on everything needed to survive in Bod. This was one of the most thrilling experiences for me, as I haven't long-term grocery-shopped for myself since I left the states. We found great produce at Lidl, a German-owned grocery store, including avocados and limes (Allison and I splurged a bit on this indulgence). At Auchan, a French-owned megastore, we perused the international section and stocked up on soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, tahini, and coconut milk. I was pretty much in heaven. Despite the fact that we bought basically all of our pantry items to last us over a month, including pasta, beans, oats, yogurt, cheese, eggs, fruit, bread, and every type of winter veg imaginable, we only spent about fifty dollars apiece- well below the several hundred dollars I'd expect shopping in the United States. Let the cooking begin! (Much larger post on that coming later)

First order of business: making kimchi

After we arrived in Bod, I had a general idea of what I wanted to accomplish while house-sitting. Since I accepted the position in November, I've had plenty of time to think about it. The entire thought of it sounds heavenly- staying in a house with little outside distraction, no major responsibility except to keep the house standing, and the time and space to work on whatever I please? When does anyone really get the chance to do that?

Here's a small list of what I've come up with:

Resume my yoga practice- after seven months of occasional yoga, I've aimed to practice almost every day. (If you have any recommendations for online yoga videos, please let me know!)

Study for the Graduate Record Exam (GRE)- I aim to take the test in Bucharest in March, which will allow me to apply to U.S. graduate schools for the 2017 start date.

Complete several open online courses- so far I'm enrolled in classes on the U.S. Food System, Basic Nutrition, and a crash course on the European Union

Begin writing for Trip101- when my screen cracked in November, I lost the ability to start writing travel articles right away. This will be a good time to catch up!

Build up my running abilities- I was running in France, but stopped until I was in Turkey in December. I want to use this time to regain the endurance I had last year.

Focus on healthy eating habits- I've been a little careless in what I've been choosing to eat, so now that I can cook my own meals again, I'm working to eliminate most processed foods, most dairy (save for the occasional yogurt or cheese), and focus on building up my repertoire of recipes! I'm really hoping to re-establish some of the habits I had in the United States, in hopes that they will continue while I'm back on the road. Again, I can write an entire post about this.

Making Dad's rosti recipe with our excess supply of potatoes

Allison and I usually wake up between 8 and 9, and go to bed around 10-11, which means we have a maximum of fifteen hours of "productivity." To keep ourselves accountable, we've created weekly goal charts to keep track of ourselves so we don't end up spending our entire days on Facebook (this is more my problem than Allison's). I've also started writing down my accomplishments each day, which range anywhere from "ran 26 minutes" to "made a pot of beans" to "finished Harry Potter 5"- I'm hoping when this house sitting stint is up I'll be able to look back and see all the stuff I accomplished without regret.

This leads me to ask this question: if you had two months to kill in a house in a remote village, what would you do?

Until next time!

Sophie