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For On August 10, 2014, five of us set out for a trip to Eastern Europe to the country of Romania. Our group consisted of four engineering students and our COE international coordinator, Judith Mallory. The four engineering students were Kelli Grissom, Bryan Eldreth, Robert Minneci, and myself.

When we finally arrived, it was Monday afternoon, August 11, and we were all exhausted from the long flight. A man named Maryan, who did not speak one word of English, picked us up from the airport, and drove us to the village where we were staying, Valea Screzii, founded by the organization Pro Vita.

The village was a two hour drive from the capital, Bucharest, and founded as an orphanage by an orthodox priest named Father Nicolai Tanase. It houses children, single mothers, and those with learning disabilities. Today, this village is run by Father Tanase’s daughter-law, Melanie, who gets some help from her husband, Mihail, who owns a construction company.

When we arrived at the village, we met Melanie and Mihail for a short orientation on what we would be doing that week. After the meeting, we had a short tour of the village and we met our chaperon. His name was Maryan as well, and he was going to be with us for all of the work days. We finished the day by climbing a hill with a tiny church on top and watching the sunset. We went to bed early that evening since we were all tired.

On Tuesday, we got up, ate breakfast, and headed for the construction site around 10 a.m. At the construction site, Pro Vita was in the process of building a dorm hall for the high school kids; it is located very close to their school. They currently live in Valea Screzii, which is about forty-five minutes away. Because of the distance and the routes the buses have to take, the high school kids at Pro Vita are spending an average of three hours a day on the bus, so this dorm hall was very important. They are also paying for expensive bus tickets, so living at the new location will enable them to take only a five-minute walk to school.

When we had arrived, the first floor of the building was already completed structurally. The floor plan of this building was U-shaped, with a rear courtyard. For the next two days, we spent our time on a concrete foundation for the second floor of one side of the U. On the first day, we mixed concrete and filled ten columns on the upper floor. We had a bulldozer that could mix cement, water, sand, and stone to make concrete. Robert and I stayed on top of the building and directed the driver of the bulldozer to dump concrete in the columns. The locals with whom we worked helped mix the concrete.

On the first day, we needed to be really precise and make sure the concrete was dumped into the right spot. After a load was dropped, we had to make sure the air pockets were gone. For this task, we had a concrete vibrator that was a little hard to use. The cord was loose, so one of us would hold the cord while the other vibrated the concrete.

On Wednesday, we left for the construction site at 9 a.m. Our goal was to fill the rest of the upper foundation, and Rob and I were on the roof again; however, a local villager was up there with us this time to help. Unlike Tuesday, we weren’t able to dump an entire load in one spot, so we had to fill up a bucket and pass it around. As a result, the process was laborious and a lot slower. It was a bit of challenge for me to balance on a single board, and carry a heavy bucket of concrete to dump.

As we were pouring it, we had to make sure the concrete was evenly distributed and that it was flattened. We also did not use a vibrator this time, but instead, hammered the boards that contained the concrete to make sure the air pockets were eliminated. We were a little less than halfway done when it was time to go to lunch. Mihail had driven all of us to the restaurant, and when we got there we were in for a surprise. It started with soup which was really good. As we were expecting our entrées to arrive next, we all got salads. By the time I started on my entrée, I was almost full, and as result, I barely finished. Just as I thought we were about to the leave the restaurant, the waitress approached our table with desserts for everyone.

As the day wore on and we got closer to the end, I started getting tired, and both Rob and I were covered in concrete. When we left, I was so happy that we were able to finish. As soon as we got back, we rested for a few hours and had dinner. After dinner, we headed up the opposite hill from which we had climbed the day we got there. This hill was higher, and it also had a little church on top. Here, we finished the day watching the sunset again.

On Thursday, we made concrete once again; however, we stayed in the village this time. There was a severe heat warning, so we were advised to stay in the village in order to be able to stop during the hottest part of the day, which reached 114 degrees Fahrenheit. We had a lot of people helping out on this project, the goal of which was to finish the end section of a large driveway. For me, the good thing about this project was that everything was on the ground, and I did not have to climb to the top of a roof and balance from a beam.

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To get the day started, I spent about an hour picking and shoveling an area of the ground which had to be made deeper before laying concrete. Later, I helped mix concrete at the ancient concrete mixer. To start one load of concrete, we would mix sand, stone, and water. Then we would add three half bags of cement to the mix, continuing to add sand, stone, and water until we got the consistency we were looking for. Once one load was complete, we used wheelbarrows to shuttle the concrete from the mixer to where the concrete was to be laid. After about five or six wheelbarrow loads, we would start on a new load. I spent much of the morning at the mixer, and then I spent the last hour before lunch shuttling concrete. After lunch, we all took about a five hour break due to the heat.

Around 6 p.m., we headed back out to shovel and remove rocks from the edge of the concrete, to prepare for a lawn that would be installed eventually.

On Friday, the Orthodox Christians had a holiday, so no one was working. After breakfast, we headed to a church service in a neighboring village. The service, which was several hours long, was led by Father Tanase.

After we ate lunch with the congregation, we headed back to the village, and rested for a few hours. During that time, we had a lecture by the architect that designed many of the houses and buildings in Valea Screzii. We learned that Romania is an earthquake zone, and according to experts, half of the country’s buildings are expected to crumble in the next earthquake, since they did not meet proper building codes when constructed.

Later that day, Father Tanase decided to gather the orphans to hike up to what they called the Lone Tree mountain. The four of us, Kelli, Bryan, Rob, and I, decided to tag along. After we traveled about 1.5 mi, Father Tanase organized a group of vans to shuttle us the rest of the way up the mountain. However, none of the vans were able to make it all the way to the top, so all of us had to walk the last bit.

As soon as we got out, I realized that Bryan and I had to help carry fish up the mountain. We, along with two others, took turns carrying a big black pan of fish. On top of the mountain, we had a picnic with fish and watermelon, and we also enjoyed a performance by the Dutch group of volunteers that had joined us, and they played several good songs.

On the way back, the return trip got really exciting when Father Tanase let us ride in the back of his cargo van where we were joined by many others. Since it was a cargo van, there were no seats, and the door had to be held open to keep air in the van. It was really fun having to hold on as the van bumped and rocked all the way down the mountain. As soon as we got back, we ate dinner and finished for the day.

On Saturday, we got up early to head out for a castle tour. Anna, Mihail’s sister-in-law, took over as our chaperon and guide for the rest of the trip. She took us to the castles on Saturday and to Bucharest on Sunday.

The first castle we went to was the Peles Castle in the Carpathian Mountains. The area where the castle was located was very beautiful, and the dense forest reminded me of the Smokey Mountains. The castle itself was relatively new by European standards, and quite large; it was built in 1883, and it contained around 160 rooms, of which thirty were bathrooms.

One of the most magnificent things about this castle was the amount of arms and armor hanging on the walls. After we left the first castle and ate lunch, we headed to Dracula’s castle in Bran. The castle gets its nickname from Bram Stoker’s novel, as it served as the book’s inspiration. In this castle, there were a lot of cool things including knights’ suits of armor and a lot of swords. The coolest part about this castle was the secret passageway which led to a long staircase through a narrow tunnel. Climbing these stairs felt like walking though a cave.

After we left the castle, we headed to the nearby city of Brasov, where we walked around the market square, and later, had dinner. On Sunday morning, we got up early and left Valea Screzii and Pro Vita for the last time. Anna arrived around 8 a.m., and we left straight for Bucharest.

When we arrived there, we saw the Village Museum, which contains many different styles of buildings and huts depicting examples of Romanian life. We observed an old type of wooden ferris wheel. It had four seats and it looked like someone would have to stand on the side and use their arms to make it move. We also saw gardens, an old windmill, a few wells, and canoes.

We then proceeded to the House of Parliament, of which construction began under the rule of Romania’s last dictator, Nicolai Ceaușescu. Today, the building stands as the second largest administrative building in the world only being beaten by the U.S. Pentagon. As soon as we pulled into the parking lot, I gazed at it for a few seconds with utter amazement. It was extremely massive, and the inside was incredible. All of its hallways and rooms were huge. Also, the palace seemed to be lit almost entirely by gigantic chandeliers that were found in every room and hallway.

After we left the palace, we went to the old city of Bucharest and had lunch at a Greek place. I had a lamb gyro that was incredible. We then headed to the Hotel Michelangelo, where we would spend our last night in Romania.

Kelli, Rob, Bryan, and I headed to the mall to look around and shop a little. We also went to McDonalds, and to my amazement, it was much different than any other McDonalds that I had ever set foot in. The McCafe was its own separate entity; it was designed a lot like Starbucks. The inside was very nice, and it looked much cleaner than any other McDonald’s I had seen.

After we left the mall, we went back to the hotel to pick Judith up to go to dinner. Dinner was at another fine establishment, and I had pork with polenta. Polenta is a type of cornmeal popular in Romania that is very similar to grits in the southern United States. As soon as we got back, we said our farewells to Anna, the driver, and his wife. We got up at 4 a.m. the next morning in order to make our 4:30 a.m. taxi ride to the airport.