My parents came to visit!

      Last week, my parents came to visit me for about 9 days!  I convinced them that they needed to take advantage of having a daughter living in Europe and thus a free place to stay and a free tour guide!


      Well due to a 2 hour delay in D.C. because of rain, they missed their connecting flight in Frankfurt and had to catch the next one 4 hours later.  But since I couldn't contact them, and although we were 99% sure they didn't make their original flight, we still had to go to the airport at around 1 pm to be there in case the magically made it.  But of course, they didn't show up, so Tom, Gela, and I headed to the mall to get some food, came back to pick up Kelly & his wife, and then waited for my parents, who got in around 5:30.  As soon as we loaded all their luggage into Hillary, we headed to Bible study and made it just in time.  My parents got to meet all the Alfa Omega people I tell them about, and now the Romanians know why I'm so blonde! Mom also delivered her goodies to Gela, the stuff we can't get here.  She brought us 2 7 lb bags of brown sugar, real barbecue sauce, maple syrup, ranch dressing mix, craisins, chocolate chips, walnuts, red hots, ibuprofen, and especially for me, a 5 lb block of real cheddar cheese!  It was like Christmas for us!  You should have seen how giddy Gela was! 

Gela's Christmas in March!

Happiness

      I let them sleep in on Saturday as much as they could to try to beat the jet lag early, but they still had problems falling asleep every night.  So when they finally got up, I showed them around my "neighborhood" at Obor (which they could NEVER pronounce right,  and it's the easiest one to pronounce! just like it looks!).  I got them set up with their metro, tram, & bus passes, and a phone in case they got lost out on their own.  We did lots of walking and exploring some second hand shops, then headed over to the Graef's for a little bit, then headed home for dinner and a chill night.


      My parents were very thankful that Alfa Omega church doesn't start until 1pm on Sundays, and I had to wake them up at 10:30  so they would get up and ready.  My how jet lag reverses the roles!  They got to experience my young, modern church in Romanian, and Cristi translated for them.  They were amazed that I could just listen to the pastor and know what was going on.  After church, we headed down to the mall and got them their 1st Dristor shaormas, which they are def fans of now too.  Then we headed back to the apartment and took naps before going to gym night.  It was hilarious to see my parents playing basketball and soccer, and I think they were a lot more in shape at the end of this trip than at the beginning!

1st Dristor shaormas

Ballin at Sala de Sport with Alfa Omega

      On Monday, Tom became our tour guide and drove us up to see the countryside of Romanian and to visit some of the castles!  We went to Bran castle 1st, which is sometimes better known as Dracula's castle.  It was a beautiful and complexly designed castle and the history there is amazing!  Then we went to Ransnov and visited this awesome fortress that had a gorgeous view of the valley below.  On our way back, we stopped at Peles Castle, but only saw the outside and didn't have time to go inside.  On this trip I also just loved taking in the scenery and the gorgeous snow-topped mountains and the villages laced throughout the sides of them.  I would love to spend some time in that area of the country at some point!

Gorgeous views in Sinaia

At Bran Castle, or better known as Dracula's castle

Kurtos

Rasnov Fortress

I <3 Romania!

The authentic old Romanian garb

Awesome hats at the roadside tourist shops

Peles Castle

      On Tuesday I had a language lesson at the Graef's in the morning, and just gave my parents directions to get to their apartment.  But we didn't know that their public transportation pass was out and I didn't give them any lei, but thankfully they had a phone to call me & then Gela came to their rescue!  We then went to Sun Plaza Mall and got some lunch at Pizza Hut, and they were amazed that here it's like a nice restaurant.  We then headed to the baby hospital where we got decked out in our scrubs and crocs, and of course dad got the pink bambi scrubs!  They fell in love with all the babies, and wanted to take some back with them to find them homes. Dad's favorite was a little boy who was also dressed in pink, and another who didn't have a name, so he named him Marty after himself.

This is Cornelia, or Corny, who works with Heart to Heart 

Sweet scrubs at the baby hospital

      Wednesday was one of my favorite days and I took a whole lot of pictures of my city!  After my language lesson, we headed to Unirii, which is the main huge city square.  We walked to the People's Palace, but due to a huge union demonstration or something outside, the didn't have any tours of the palace.  So we walked all around Unirii and then into Lipscani.  Lipscani is the part of the city that still looks ancient and quaint and beautiful.  There are tons of little shops in these old ornate buildings along winding cobblestone walkways.  It's my new favorite spot in the city and now that it's warm out, I'm totally going to be sitting outside at one of the little restaurants reading or something all the time!  After walking and taking pictures almost all day, we met up with the Graef's and got an authentic Romanian dinner and dancing show at Caru cu Bere.  It's a very old and ornately decorated restaurant and every 30 mins or so they have 4 dancers come out singing and dancing to traditional Romanian music.  And the food was amazing! We got this platter with like 4 different kinds of meats, including mici of course, and some yummy potatoes with bacon and onions.  And for dessert, of course papanasi, which is like a big doughnut with a sweet cheese & jelly melting all over it.  

I love the city at night!

The Romanian Dancers at Caru cu Bere

People's Palace

My parent's helped me with art class on Thursday by taking the kids into the hall and drawing their profiles on a piece of paper with the projector.  We then drew in the rest of our faces and colored them.  Mom did one of dad and it actually kinda looked like him!  The kids loved hanging out with my parents and after school and the baby hospital, mom and dad can't wait to have grandkids.  But they're going to have to wait a good while for them!  After school, Jess and I went to the clinic to get our physicals done for our visa requirements.  Then we went back to the Graef's and had a big Chinese dinner and meeting with most of the missionaries on the team, even those from the north part of the country and some from Isreal!  It was a great time of encouragement and talking to a bunch of other missionaries that I might be working with in the future.  

      On Friday, I had a lesson in the morning, and then we went back to the People's Palace to get a tour, but once again it was closed.  So we headed to the mall for a little bit, then went home to plan out our Paris trip and eat dinner before we went to Bible study.  


     We started packing and weighing our luggage on Saturday morning, and since they brought me a lot of food, they had a extra whole large suitcase empty, so I sent all my winter clothes and boots home with them!  That will help a lot when I pack to go home with all that I'll probably accumulate while I'm here!  We then went shopping with Jess, Hannah, and Kristie at all the cheapo stores where everything is 13 lei (which is about 4 bucks!).  We found some pretty good deals and I bought a new purse, some cardigans, and some sweet giraffe print rainboots!  Then we had dinner at the Graef's where Gela once again wowed us with her cooking and we got to eat chicken with the real barbecue sauce mom brought us!  


      We tried to get to bed early Saturday night, and then had to wake up at around 3 am to shower and get ready, be chauffeured to airport by the gracious Alin, and catch our flight to Paris at 6:50 am...  And I'll continue the Paris story in my next post hopefully soon so I don't forget anything!  Pictures will also come eventually, but I'm not promising them anytime soon because I took about 1,600 in the past 2 weeks!  :]