Ramblings from Romania: Another Wedding, Kristie's birthday, & Bon Jovi!

So this past week was pretty typical, until the weekend... I went to the baby hospital, had 2 language lessons, and of course a bunch of good times just living with Jenny & Kristie. Friday was Vera and Simon's wedding! I let myself sleep in a little later that day to prepare for the long hours of dancing and partying until the wee hours of the morning. I started getting ready around 3, thinking I could just take my time since we probably weren't leaving until around 6 for the wedding at 7. But as I was in the middle of curling my hair, Tom called & said they would be there in 5 mins to pick me up because the wedding started at 5. I freaked out and told him I'd just have to take a taxi because I couldn't just stop in the middle of curling my hair! So I finished up as fast as I could, threw on some makeup & my dress, and started walking down to Muncii to find a taxi. As I was walking, Tom called me again & told me that the wedding was pushed back an hour, and I was so happy I didn't have to miss the ceremony! I showed up with plenty of time, and found out that her wedding color was the same bright blue as my dress, so I conveniently matched! The ceremony was short but so sweet, and then we went outside to take some pictures. At the reception, there was a buffet with like 5 kinds of meats and potatoes and rice and fruit, which was really good & so much smarter than having a 5 course sit down meal! There were 2 bands composted to alfAOmega people, and for part of the time, we pretty much had a worship concert & sang Jesus songs... super misto! The rest of the time we danced to normal dance music along with a couple Romanian songs, and I learned another new traditional couples' dance. It was great fun but thankfully it started ending around 2 something, not 5 something like the last one! So I got home around 3 am, which wasn't too bad!

With the Graef & Tataru families

My adopted fam

"Pimpin it"

She's next to get married!!

Singing Jesus music... loved it!

Everyone praising God together!

Vera & Simon

The 2nd AO band

More circle dances!

The gals :]

Saturday was Kristie's 26th birthday! We had planned on surprising her & going to the beach for the day, but she doesn't do well with surprises so we ended up telling her our plan. But she's been pretty super busy with camp stuff lately, so she just asked for a day to do nothing & relax. So that's what we did! Jenny & I made pancakes and eggs for brunch, and then we literally laid around all day and watched a movie. We actually showered around 5 or so, then along with Jess, headed to the Hard Rock Cafe to get legit American burgers at Kristie's request. When we got home, we ate the cake Jenny made (and didn't burn!) which was a white cake mix from a box (from America because those are just starting to exist here) with 2 containers of Funfetti icing. Yum!

Blue pancakes for brunch

My roomies are pretty much awesome

Hard Rock Cafe

La Multi Ani!

Yesterday, was church at alfAOmega, which is always great, but since it was so stinking hot inside, it was difficult to stay focused on the pastor and translating. They have AC, but for some reason they decide to open the doors and windows and have 2 tiny fans running instead. Ioneven know. I helped with welcome and stood by the door saying "bine ati venit" & giving candy to everyone who came. In the afternoon, I dominated reading my book in Romanian and I think I read about 4 chapters! My goal for the week is to finish the last 6 chapters of the book, which I could knock out in like an hour in English, but it takes me way longer in Romanian. I've gotten kind of lazy at looking up the words I don't know, and I just read without using google translate and just try to figure out the new words along the way.

Then at about 10 pm last night, Jenny and I set out on an adventure... Bon Jovi was having a concert in front of the People's Palace, and we wanted to check it out/stalk Bon Jovi. We followed the sound of "Livin on a Prayer" as we sang it walking down the street until we found the massive crowd of over 50,000 people. We wanted to see how close we could get, so we just kept walking through the crowd until we got to the bleachers where we climbed a couple steps to get a better view. We caught the last 10 min or so, where he sang some awful slow song and then ended with "Twist and Shout"...random. Then they took a bow, didn't even say "bye" or any closing statements, and then it was just over. It was ok with me & Jenny though because we weren't really there for the music, just to say we've been to a Bon Jovi concert in Romania & take pictures. Well Jenny actually wanted a picture of Bon Jovi with Gravy, and she made a sign that said "Dear Bon Jovi, Will you take a picture with my pig?" So after the concert, we decided to get our creeperness on, and we walked to the Marriott hotel, which is super fancy so we figured he might be staying there and we would have a better chance of spotting him & getting a picture there. Unfortunately, he didn't show, but we had fun exploring the hotel, going up the elevator, and checking out the Louis Vitton & Rolex stores inside. We started the long walk back, caught a taxi at Unirii, & arrived home at about 1 am. (Mom, we were safe & there were crowds of people everywhere, don't worry!) So yeah, #782 of our list is checked off: seeing Bon Jovi in concert in Romania. I mean it wasn't really on our list, but it's a fun one to add & tell the stories of our adventure! :]