Turda Fest 2008

Yes, there is a town named Turda in Romania. The name itself has been a great source of entertainment for myself on several accounts, so clearly I’m not about to miss attending the festival and the opportunity to get a t-shirt that states Turda Fest. Possibly my favorite Turda discussion stemmed from explaining to my counterpart why hearing Turda simply makes me smile. Speaking in English, I explained that turd means poop and she laughed so I thought she understood. A few days later, I heard her telling her daughter “te turd” and just about peed myself. In Romanian, “te pup (pronounced poop)” means I kiss you and is said quite often. So…when I said poop she thought I meant kiss and consequently had been telling her daughter that “I turd you.” I still reap happiness from that boob.

There are 2 PCV’s (Liz and Joe featured on the right) who work at the organization who puts on this Turda Fest, an agricultural festival, and they solicted the help of about 15 other PCV’s. I gladly accepted so I could finally make Turda a reality. Not to mention the organization stated they would provide us with a free place to stay and meals, so I obviously had to go. However, upon arrival we were informed that we would be staying at the center for people with disabilities. You can only imagine the visions that went through our heads. Fortunately, it ended up just being one big room with a bunch of mattresses so it wasn’t too bad.

In addition to helping with setting up and taking down stands until all hours of the morning, our biggest task was carrying onions. Some brilliant person had the idea of creating the world’s largest onion chain. I’ve never seen so many onions in my life. Bunicas had been braiding these chains for weeks. We carried these chains to the site and lined them up for approximately 10 hours. It was probably one of the most ridiculous “official” things in which I have ever participated. That’s probably a lie. Either way, it was a good time and I did indeed get a Turda t-shirt as proof. Oh yeah, we did make the new world record...5,800 meters.