what to do when arriving in romania

here is a step by step explanation of what to do when you are first arriving in romania......

1. at your last stop-over, before you fly into the otopeni airport in romania, you should find an atm and take out 300 Euros. this money is to pay your rent for the whole four months that you will be living here. the reason you need to take it out before you get to romania is because we pay our rent in Euros and the atms in romania will give you Lei.

2. when you land in romania, get off the plane, go through boarder control and get your passport stamped, then pick up your baggage at the baggage claim (they have carts to put your luggage on, you don't have to pay for them, so it's really nice!), then proceed to exit the airport (follow the signs or follow the crowd of people that are probably leaving), when you are leaving the baggage claim area there will be people waiting to pick up those who have just got off the plane.....that's where i will be waiting for you. it's a small area so it won't be hard to find each other. this may sound confusing, but when you are actually there, it's really not - so don't stress about it! :)

3. once we are all together at the airport we will take lei out at the atm there so that you can buy your train ticket to iasi, food, etc. i will be there to help you so that you know how much to take out. after that we'll take a taxi to the train station, buy our train tickets to iasi, board the train and be on our way home!!!! the train ride to iasi is about a 6-8 hour ride. there isn't any room for luggage, so it can be hard with a big group and a lot of luggage, so try to pack as light as possible! one suitcase would be ideal, but you can bring more than one if you want.

4. once we arrive in iasi, mario will be there to meet us at the train station. we will take taxis to our respective apartments (again you will have help doing this all along the way). you can get settled in, sleep, unpack, etc. later on we will meet mario, she'll give us a few more instructions, we'll probably eat somewhere, and then we will take you grocery shopping. then it all starts, we'll jump right into things and get busy! i am already proud of you girls for doing this! it's worth whatever sacrifice it took you to come here, i promise! :)

*one final and very important note. the first few days you are here, especially when you first arrive in romania, it will seem like you are just handing money out to people, you don't really understand how much you are spending and you may not even be sure where it is going, but don't worry - it's normal to feel that way! between taking euros out and then lei and then paying for taxis and train tickets it starts to feel like a lot. but it's really not, so don't be too shocked if you feel that way at first. you'll get the money down and it will make more sense once you start using it yourself. you guys are great! any more questions? let me know.....

cu drag,

holly