ROME, ITALY

       Ancient Rome...It's not like home...


      This is the start to the song that Kristie and Jenny wrote during our trip that has been stuck in my head since then, and after you hear it, you pretty much don't have to even go for yourself.  We recorded it so you can probably check it out on facebook soon! 


     So Monday night, I spent the night at the Graef's, and we had to wake up at around 4am to  be ready to be picked up by 5.  We all packed super light and fit everything into just a bookbag.  I really didn't bring much stuff and the heaviest things in my suitcase were my camera and lens.  Our group consisted of me, Gela, Jess, Hannah, Leah, Grace, Kristie, Jenny, Becky, and Kathy. So we all piled into Hillary, went to the ghetto cheap airport of Bucharest that as Kristie describes it, has the feel of a bowling alley, and flew out at about 7am.  We landed in Rome at about 8 am their time with the hour difference, and waited for the coach bus to take us into the city.  On the bus, this man with the longest handlebar mustache I've ever seen sat down next to us.  We kept trying to sneak pictures of him and at the end Jenny finally just asked him to take a picture with her pig, and that picture is definitely one of the top picks of the trip.  Oh and Jenny's stuffed animal/puppet pig named Gravy is her travel companion who gets his picture taken every where they go together.  I started a collection of pictures of Jenny taking pictures of Gravy.  But anyways,  we got to the Termini bus/metro/train station, got on the metro towards where we were staying, and then tried to find the right bus stop.  Since we were behind schedule, Kristie came up with the bright idea that a couple of us should take all our bags and check in at the convent, while the others go ahead to the Vatican to make sure we get in on our tour. So Kristie, Jenny, and I loaded up with everyone's bags, went to the bus stop, and after waiting forever, decided to start walking.  We were quite the spectacle walking down the street each carrying 3 bookbags.  We finally asked a guy where a taxi place was, since you can't just wave one over in Rome, and the taxi driver took us to the convent.  When we walked through the gate of the Regina Pacis convent, it felt like a little piece of heaven.  There was a long straight driveway lined with big palm trees and flowers and lots of green grass.  The nun that helped us check in was adorable, and obviously didn't catch that we were kind of in a hurry.  We did our best to communicate with her in English and Romanian, and to our pleasure, the Italian language and accent is exactly what you hear on TV!  She actually said "mamma mia" quite frequently and when she kept saying "allora," (which I googled when we got back...it means "then" or like "therefore") Kristie said, "Laura?  I don't know any Laura's. We don't have a Laura in our group."  She also showed us that my friend Peggy had checked in earlier, so it was a relief knowing she found the right place, but she had already left to look for us at the Vatican.  The nun finally showed us our room and called a taxi for us to take us to the Vatican.  


      We got in on the 1pm tour of the Vatican, with still no sign of Peggy.  We got little radios and headphones to be able to hear our tour guide lady without standing right next to her.  It was interesting listening to her Italian accent and the stuff she was saying about the Sistine Chapel at the beginning, but eventually we all pretty much zoned out on her or took out our headsets while we took pictures and she droned on about every single painting and statue in the whole place. Once again, I can't even begin to describe the ornateness of the Vatican City, or country I guess, but every single room, hallway, ceiling, and door had some sort of paintings, carvings, statues, tapestries, or maps.  Of course I took way too many pictures in there, but there was just so much to take pictures of!  The Sistine Chapel was one of the main highlights of the tour of course, and although we weren't allowed to take pictures in there, I got some pretty good ones just from holding my camera at my waist and pointing it up.  I got pictures of the famous part with God and Adam touching fingers and of the side wall that was the Final Judgement.  I still can't believe Michelangelo painted the whole thing on his back for 4 years, and then came back 30 years later to paint the Final Judgement scene!  The tour ended at Saint Peter's Basilica, which was of course ginormous and ornate.  The statue of Mary holding Jesus was in there, along with the mummified bodies of some pope who died 40 years prior but whose skin was still in tact.  The whole tour was 3 hours long and we were plenty tired and hungry afterwards.


     After the Vatican, we found a nearby restaurant where we sat in the sunshine outside and enjoying being off our feet and eating authentic Italian food.  Most of us hadn't eaten a thing all day, and somehow the like 8 ravioli's I got didn't quite fill me up.  We all described our Italian food as decent, but not life changing.  After dinner we walked to the Fountain di Trevi, where we got gelatto and enjoyed it sitting on the edge of the fountain.  We of course all threw in a coin to guarantee we get to come back someday.  We then headed to the Spanish Steps, which would have been a lot prettier if there weren't as many people there and you could actually see the steps, but I got some great night pictures there!  Then we started heading back to the convent, and of course after getting off the metro had to wait for the right bus for a while.  But we eventually made it back, settled into our rooms, which were very nice and clean and had comfortable beds, and then crashed.  I stayed in a room with Kristie, Jenny, & Becky.  I left a note on Peggy's door, but she still wasn't back when we went to sleep. The next morning we found out that she had been essentially following us around all day since she had the schedule, and had a fun time trying to get back to the convent by talking to many different bus drivers and eventually having an off-duty bus drive her there! 


      So at breakfast at 7:30 on Wednesday morning, I finally met up with Peggy!  I can't believe it had been almost a year since graduation when I saw her last!  For breakfast they gave us rolls that we could put nutella or jam on, yogurt, fruit, and they had a nifty coffee machine.  The 1st thing we did that day was go in the Castel Sant'Angelo.  It looked like your typical ancient castle with dungeons and hidden stairways inside.  It just blows my mind that it was built in 135 AD by Hadrian!  There was also a great view of the city and the Vatican from the rooftop.  After we explored the castle, we went and saw some cool fountains and churches, which were everywhere and I honestly don't remember the names of them.  Then we headed to the Pantheon.  It's basically a large circular church with a giant dome with an open hole in the top of it.  I really don't understand how it has been preserved so well with a column of water coming down in the middle of it every time it rains or snows!  We grabbed some sandwiches outside the Pantheon, then started heading towards the Colosseum.  On the way we saw a huge marble museum, some ruins of a portico kind of place, and a column that had carvings that described their conquering of the Romanian people.  

      Being in the Colosseum just seemed so surreal.  Although it wasn't quite as well preserved as most of the structures in Rome, you could still easily picture it like it would have been back in the day.  At one point, we all sat down and talked about all that had gone on where we were standing.  Gela and Leah challenged us to think about how many Christians were tortured and killed for sport in this arena, and if we would have the courage to stand up for our faith like they did.  It made me really appreciate the religious freedom we have today, and reminded me that I should live every day of my life in light of the eternal hope I have in Christ.  Outside of the Colosseum, we got some great pictures with the guys dressed up like Roman soldiers, and then walked over to the Roman Forum ruins.  Pretty much as soon as we started down the path, it started hailing!  And of course it would hail/rain at the only place that isn't a building!  We all got soaked but tried to hide out under some rocks or under a tunnel.  Thankfully it stopped about 15 minutes later and the sun came out again.  The Forum was a river, but it was still awesome to see the ruins of what used to be the large covered area where all the important things of the city took place.  Next to this was the church where supposedly Peter and Paul were put in jail.  Some of them went in to see it, and the rest of us sat outside and dried off because we didn't want to pay the entrance fee for a 10 min walk through.  


      We then went to the Mouth of Truth where we all got a picture of us sticking our hands in the statue's mouth.  Then we walked to the Circo Massimo where they used to have a stadium for chariot racing, or the ancient version of Nascar as I would say.  Leah said she would give 10 euros to whoever could run around the entire thing, and me and Hannah were the only ones who ran the whole circle without stopping.  I guess all this walking has been good for me, but my legs and feet weren't too happy with me after that run!  We found another little restaurant for dinner, and I got a 4 cheese pizza that was really good, once I added some sauce to it.  We did a little souvenir shopping, and I got a mug to add to my collection since they apparently don't have a Starbucks in Rome.  Everyone was beat so we started heading home, but I wanted some night pictures, so Jenny, Kristie, Jess & I walked to the castle & the Vatican to take some pictures of it all lit up.  We then waited for the bus for about 40 minutes which gave Kristie & Jenny plenty of time to add lines to their song and perfect it.  We got home a little before our nun curfew and once again did not have any trouble falling asleep. 


      The next morning after our breakfast, we took the metro to this pyramid that we don't really know anything about, and there waited for a bus for over an hour.  The bus took us out of the original city wall on the Appian Way to the catacombs.  These were the catacombs where supposedly Peter and Paul were buried at one point, and where the Christian would somewhat secretly bury their dead.  We wandered all through the tunnels with rectangular holes cut out of the side of them where the bodies were once buried and covered by a stone.  The tour guide pointed out to us many of the Christian symbols of the fish, the anchor with the hidden cross, and the symbol of Christ.  The tour was very interesting and educational, and this was definitely a highlight of our trip.  We then headed to Saint Paul's Basilica, which was another very large and impressive church, where supposedly Paul was beheaded and buried.  It was gorgeous and had a lot of carvings or paintings that showed the stories of Peter, Paul, & Jesus, but it was also just sad to see how much they worshiped the saints or the pope more than they worshiped Jesus himself.  


      That was all the time we had for sightseeing, so we headed back to the main metro/train stop, bought our tickets, grabbed some food, and then literally ran to catch our train.  This was my 1st real train ride and it was actually a really nice 30 min ride out of the city to the airport.  We got on our plane at about 6:30 pm and got picked up by Hillary and Andrew at about 10 that night.  It was a trip of a lifetime, and I loved hanging out with that gang of girls and getting to know them better!  But I've also found that the more I travel out of Romania, even to the epic cities of Paris and Rome, that I appreciate living in Bucharest more and more.  I love that it isn't a big touristy city, even though I'm kind of a tourist, and that it's way cheaper and we use lei where I can divide by 3 to know the dollar conversion, that the public transportation is reliable and consistent, that there are pastry & bread shops every couple feet, and that they speak a language that I can somewhat understand.  So yes, Paris & Rome were so amazing to visit, but I'm so thankful that God's placed me right here in Bucharest for the time being! :]


      Oh and once again, I took about 1,000 pictures, which totals about 3,000 in the past 3 weeks... so please be patient while I try to go through them all and post them!

Between Paris & Rome...

      Well I was about to just start writing about my trip to Rome, and then I realized that some pretty big stuff happened in the 5 days I was home between Paris and Rome.  I got a roommate and a 5 year visa! 
     
      So on Thursday, I taught my 1st art class, and then had to have a sub cover my other 3 classes because we went to the visa office.  There weren't too many people in front of us in line until some crazy Chinese people kept letting more and more people in front of them.  So after waiting in line for over an hour, we got up to the window.  We had all the papers we needed, we just didn't notice the line in Tom's apartment contract that said he's not allowed to sublease to anyone.  So Jessica got her picture taken after showing them her birth certificate and proving she was Tom's daughter, but since I'm not family, I couldn't get mine.  So we started calling people and trying to figure out another another way to get me a legal address.  We called Mihai, my landlord, Kristie, and emailed Tom's landlord.  But none of those panned out quick enough because I needed to get this taken care of in the month of March, or else I had to go back and wait forever at the health insurance office again & pay for the month of April.  And then I would be cutting it super close to my 90 tourist days I'm allowed in the country.  So Gela ended up mentioning my whole situation to Delia, my language teacher, and she said she could help me draw up the papers saying I live with them.  So Monday morning, Delia's husband, Bogdan, and her mother picked me up and we ended up going to 5 different notaries before we could find one who would do what we needed.  Some said that since I didn't know enough Romanian yet and didn't know exactly what I was signing, we would have to get a translator involved, which would be a big ordeal and take a lot more time.  The last one we went to, Bogdan knew the lady because she does all of his legal paperwork, and she agreed to do it and have it ready in an hour!  So we went to Starbucks while we waited, but of course, this is Romania and nothing happens that quickly.  So we waited at the office for another hour or so, then signed and got everything stamped and whatnot.  And 3 hours after we set out, I had a legal residence!  I then went directly to the visa office, where miraculously there was no line!  This just doesn't happen here and I didn't know what to do because I was assuming I would have to wait for a while, and Pratt would have time to get there and help translate, and I could fill out the forms.  But thankfully I found a pen, filled out my forms, Pratt showed up, we handed everything over to the guy, and there were no problems!  I probably look ridiculous in my picture because I was just so happy it was done but I wasn't allowed to smile.  So praise the Lord because I officially have the little piece of paper saying I have a 5 year visa to Romania!! 


      I also have a new roommate as of Friday morning at like 2am!  I found out she was coming for sure Wednesday evening when I got home, so I spent most of the day Thursday cleaning and getting everything ready for her.  Her name is Rachel Griffin and she's a 29 year old American, but has been living in Prague in the Czec Republic since October.  She's been teaching music classes and choir at a Christian school there.  And the reason she's now living here is because of her visa issues, and we nicknamed her the "visa refugee."  She's way over her 90 days and has turned in her paperwork and is waiting for word to come back if her visa came in.  Then she will have to mail her passport to a friend, who will go out of the country to pick it up for her, then mail her passport and visa back to her. She really has no clue how long this will all take, so she's just hanging out in Romania and helping out with music at BCA until she can go back to Prague.  It's been great having a new friend and showing her around the city some.  It's also kind of nice not being the newbie anymore and knowing more Romanian that somebody!  But after only being here for 4 days, I left her to go to Rome, but she was fine and did a lot of exploring the city and some parks and museums, so now she has to show me around Bucharest!  

PARIS, FRANCE

      Ioneven know where to begin!  I can't believe this story started a week ago already, so hopefully I don't forget too much!  Well we woke up at about 3 am Sunday morning, March 20th, got showered and finished our last minute packing, and were out the door by 4 am.  My friend Alin graciously agreed to be our taxi driver at this crazy hour, but one advantage to driving to the airport that early is there is no traffic on the roads, which is truly rare sight in Bucuresti.  I decided I love traveling light and only had my book bag and a small carry on suitcase, but I of course still over packed.  My parents on the other hand each had a huge suitcase to check (the biggest one FULL of all my winter clothes and shoes! which will help me greatly in packing to go back to the States in the fall!), and their carry ons and a book bag.  Our 1st flight was only an hour and a half or so, and I slept the entire time. Then we had a short layover in Munich, Germany, and thankfully dad caught that our gate was changed right as the boarding for our flight was ending!  The second flight was only an hour, and although I had the whole row to myself to sleep, I couldn't because I was getting so anxious.  As we started descending and flying over Paris, I could see the Eiffel tower just poking out of the layer of clouds!  It looks like a toy from the air!  We arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport, and got on the RER train from the airport straight to our stop, which took about 30 mins.  We got off literally right in front of Notre Dame, and then walked up about 3 blocks to our street, lugging all of our baggage on the sidewalks and totally looking like the newbie tourists.  We checked into our hotel, and thankfully we were on the 1st floor and didn't have to haul our luggage any higher on the spiral staircase!  It was a quaint very European hotel, and our room had a full bed, a twin bed, and a tiny bathroom with a sink and toilet because we had to share a shower with another room.  As soon as we set everything down, we headed back out the door to make the most of our daylight time!


      The 1st thing we did was find some food.  Along our main street, there were a couple little restaurants that had glass displays of a couple pastries, pizzas, and long paninis.  Even food at these little places were sort of expensive!  We grabbed some pizzas and pastries and headed to a church courtyard across the street where we found a bench to fill our stomachs for the long day ahead.  Then we walked back down the street to check out Notre Dame more fully.  It's a magnificent building on the outside, and thankfully it was free to go in so we could admire the ornate inside also!  I really can't begin to describe it, but don't worry I took plenty of pictures!  While I was there, I felt like I was in the Disney movie Hunchback of Notre Dame and kept looking for Esmerelda and Quasimodo and the gargoyles to come to life.  


     

After Notre Dame, we literally just wandered the rest of the day.  There are so many beautiful old buildings in that part of town, and slightly following our map, we walked to or by as many as we could.  Once again, I really can’t describe the feeling of walking through Paris, taking in the sunshine and the sights of ancient churches, buildings, statues, fountains, bridges, and the people bustling about at the flower and bird market or riding their bikes or having a conversation at a quaint little restaurant on the corner of a building.  I have no clue what some of the buildings or monuments we saw were called, but we made sure to see all the famous sights in that area, including the Louvre, the mini Arch de Triomph, and the Grand Palace.  The Louvre was one of my favorite spots, even though we didn’t even go in.  The building has 2 huge courtyards, and keeps going on forever it seems.  There’s a big glass pyramid and fountains in the middle of one of the courtyards, and a mini Arc de Triomphe at the end, and you can see the Eiffel tower in the distance.  We found a little cheap restaurant near the Louvre where we ate and waited for the sun to set so we could get pictures of it all lit up.  We also got banana and nutella crepes at a street vendor, which were amazing!  Then we headed back to our hotel to crash after a long day of traveling and walking. 

      We got up at around 8 the second day, and after we got ready, we headed downstairs for breakfast, which every morning consisted of a long piece of bread, nutella, cheese and jam to put on it, a small cup of fruit, and orange juice and tea.  Then we searched for the bus stop and rode a bus to the Eiffel tower area.  We walked through the 2 big museums down to the Eiffel tower,  took a ton of pictures, and then down a skinny island to see the original Statue of Liberty, which was very tiny and anticlimactic.  We then walked to the authentic and supposedly cheap French restaurant that mom found online, and had a meal of sliced beef covered in this green herb sauce and fries.  It was pretty good, but not my favorite, and we actually got 2 servings which filled us up.  Then we headed to see the real Arc de Triomphe, which is at the head of Champs Elysees, the well-known main street where you can find normal mall stores, but also Chanel and a 4 level Louis Vitan.  After we walked down Champs Elysees and went in some ridiculously expensive stores, we walked to the Hotel des Invalides, and then back to the Eiffel tower area to wait for the sun to go down.  We were going to try to go up the Eiffel tower that night, but after seeing the lines and talking to the guy at information, we decided to buy our tickets online to bypass the lines for the next night.  So instead we just admired it from a distance and took a ton of sweet pictures.  When we finally got back to our hotel, after dad got us lost a couple times and I became the navigator, we again were wiped and fell asleep quickly.

      Tuesday morning after our usual breakfast, we got on the metro and took the 30 min ride out of the city to Versaille.  It’s a huge palace, another one that seems to go on forever, and has gardens, and lakes, and fountains (including the famous one with the horses coming out of the water) beyond what you can see.  I could definitely get used to living in a place like that with gardens and paths to explore all day.  We got some paninis at a quaint little restaurant in one of the gardens, and then headed back into the city.  We took the metro to the northern part of the city, saw the big windmill at Moulin Rouge, and then got lost trying to find Sacre-Coeur.  But getting lost turned out to be a good thing because we got to see the real side of Paris where the tourist don’t usually wander, found a cool huge cemetery where I’m sure a bunch of famous people are buried, and an awesome pastry shop where we got a real French croissant, a chocolate pastry, and a strawberry pastry.  Before this trip, when I envisioned Paris, I saw people always walking around eating bread and pastries, which they could get on every corner.  But this is not so!  They do eat a lot of bread, but it was difficult to find an actual pastry and bread shop, and we only found croissants at that one shop.  It just makes me appreciate living in Bucharest so much more with our pastry shops pretty much every other store with windows on the street, and all the delicious things you can get with only 1 lei (about 30 cents!).  So we finally got to the top of this hill near Sacre-Coeur, and found this amazing little square where all the artists had their easels set up showing off their artwork for you to buy, or for you to sit and have your portrait made.  The whole scene was so picturesque and I wanted to buy so many of their gorgeous paintings of Paris.  Just down the street at Sacre-Coeur, was an amazing view overlooking the entire city.  That is one of the places that I wish we got to go back to at night.  We got to go in the church, but they strictly enforced no cameras to my displeasure.  Then we made our way back to the metro and back to our hotel to bundle up for that night’s adventure to the top of the Eiffel tower.  We found a little restaurant that served the French onion soup I was told we had to try, and they were right, it was delicious!  Back at the metro, we met an American girl named Kate who was heading in the same direction so we ended up chatting.  Dad took us on the metro the wrong direction, and then we had to wait at the Eiffel tower for another 45 mins, so we actually got chatting with her for a couple hours.  She had just finished up a semester in Istanbul, Turkey and had been literally backpacking across Europe for the past 2 months!  She told us all about her journeys and this website call couchsurfing.com that connects you with free places to stay with people all over the world.  Dad and I were taking notes, and I would love to have an adventure like that, as long as I had a friend to go with me!  I’m available in the fall if anyone would like to join me, no joke!  After we said goodbye to her, we cut to the front of the line with our special tickets, and took the elevator all the way to the very top of the Eiffel tower!  You can see so far from up there and the city is gorgeous all lit up at night!  I took way too many pictures as usual, and a couple asked me to take their picture also.  We started chatting with them, found out they were from New York, and heard their life stories in the next 2 hours that we stood at the top of the Eiffel tower talking with them.  Thankfully it was only windy and cold on one side, and we were pretty sheltered for our long conversation overlooking the city.  I absolutely loved meeting all these awesome people, far away from home, and just randomly getting to know each other.  We then took the bus home, packed up our stuff, and got to bed really late.

      I had to wake up at 5 am on Wednesday to get ready and make it down to the metro by 6, and get to the airport 2 hours before my flight at 9.  I slept most of my 1^st flight and was once again thankful no one was sitting right next to me.  I had a short layover in Dusseldorf, Germany, and when I boarded, we had to go down some stairs to a bus which drove us to the middle of the airport to a tiny plane, which we walked up the stairs like famous people do to board their private jets.  But this was no jet.  My head pretty much touched the ceiling in the aisle and there were only 2 seats on each side.  And once again, due to my awesome seat picking abilities, I had the row to myself.  When I landed in Bucharest, we got off the way we got on the plane, and again took a bus to the airport.  Then I jumped on the bus and headed back to the Graef’s house to tell them all about my trip!

      It was an amazing experience and I definitely want to go back and explore some more.  But next time I’m not going with old people who can’t keep up with all the walking! Haha no offense dad and mom!  It was a great visit with my parents, and although we were all exhausted and kind of sick of each other by the end of it (and me and mom were annoyed with dad navigating us in the wrong directions and looking at the map at every stop), I’m so glad they actually came to visit me and see what my life is really like here!  It makes the 8 months away from home not seem so long now that I got to see them in almost the middle of it. 

      Pictures will come soon hopefully!  I took a total of 1,576 in the 2 weeks with my parents...and I'll probably take another 1,000 in Rome this week. So I'll post them when I get a couple free days! :]

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!  :]
      

Cernauti, Ukraine

      Well we just got back from our trip to Ukraine yesterday, and I wanted to blog about it asap so I don't forget anything about this totally new experience and our great weekend!  But be warned, this may be even longer than usual (I know they're usually long anyways)...


      So I got picked up on Friday morning at about 8:30 am, and we were on our way out of the city soon after.  Although I've only gotten the pleasure of meeting Hillary (the van, of course) once, when I was picked up from the airport 2 months ago, we had plenty of time to bond on this trip.  And yes, Hillary has quite the personality, which we all create for her.  So probably about 2 hours into our trip, we got pulled over by one of the about 20 police cars we saw that day.  Andrew was speeding, but who doesn't here, and of course forgot his Michigan drivers license at home.  We warned him to play dumb and only speak English to him, but I think he forgot and thus got a 280 lei ticket instead of probably a warning.  To entertain ourselves on the rest of the trip, we listened to music, which is new to Hillary, sang along to Disney songs, played catch phrase, and at every stop collected rocks for a prayer station.  We didn't have any more troubles until we reached the long line at the border, where we waited for 2.5 hours, and they interrogated Tom about his antique Bible he was smuggling in.  

      We finally arrived at the conference center in Cernauti where we stayed at about 8 pm.  Cernauti is part of the area of Ukraine that used to be part of Romanian until after World War 2, so thus most of the people in the region also speak Romanian at home.  We were greeted by Sandu & Pavel, our hosts for the weekend, and they had prepared a typical eastern European dinner for us of pieces of bread with butter, cheese, salami, and cucumber on them.  After discussing the logistics of the weekend, we all prayed together, and then pretty much went directly to bed.  


      The next morning, we had a breakfast of exactly what we'd eaten the night before, and then got to preparing for the conference.  We had about 50 teens show up, all dressed up in skirts and heels.  We had an icebreaker game, worship, and then Tom preached on Luke 6.  The theme for the weekend was "Listen, Watch out and allow yourself to be Transformed.  We then had games which involved a person blindfolded with a partner leading them and others distracting them, which illustrated that we need to be careful which voices we are listening to in life.  We then had lunch, and then came back together for a team drawing game, worship, and Tom's preaching from Luke 11, which is about changing your life from the inside out.  Then we allowed them to go around to the 8 different prayer stations to dwell on what they had be taught and to make any decisions in their hearts.  Some of the prayer stations included washing rocks which they could keep as a reminder, dwelling on the attributes of God, and writing areas in their life they needed to give to God and tearing it up and throwing it in a heart shaped box.  The whole program went very well and I think that the teens did some heart searching to evaluate what was really on the inside.  It was kind of out of their comfort zone, because these teens aren't used to playing games and such in church, because their churches are super conservative.  For me, it was encouraging once again to see the global church in action and to see more young people who love the Lord.

Tom preaching

Games

Telling their teammates what to draw

      After the conference, we had a meeting with Sandu and Pavel to discuss camp there this summer, and I did by best to try to listen even though my brain was tired of thinking in Romanian.  We then changed into jeans and headed out to a grocery store where we all bought vanilla coke and various chocolates!  Everything there is super cheap compared to the prices in Romania, but of course it wasn't cheap for Ukrainians because they have much lower salaries.  Then we went to a restaurant called Smile where we got pizzas with Sandu, his wife Marta, and Pavel.  Back at the conference center, we enjoyed our vanilla coke and played a hilarious game of apples to apples before we crashed.

With Pavel, Sandu, and Marta at Smile for Pizza

      Sunday morning, after we once again got all dressed up in skirts and such, we also enjoyed the same breakfast food again.  We split up into 3 teams for the day:  Tom, Boing, and myself; Kristie, Anca, and Andrew; and Dave and Felix.  Dave and Felix split up in the morning and between the 8 of us, we went to 8 different churches that day!  Tom, Boing and I were picked up in a Russian Lada by a member of the village church we went to that morning.  And by village I mean large houses in the countryside not near any shopping centers, not like straw huts.  It was beautiful driving out there and it snowed on and off all day.  Sandu is the pastor of that church so it helped us feel a little more comfortable having already met him and talked with him.  There were about 15 people in attendance, mostly old people and the pastor's 4 kids.  The women all wore head scarves and sat on the right side, while the men sat on the left.  Sandu played guitar and led us in a couple songs from their hymnal, and then Boing shared a testimony.  I then was pretty much put on the spot and shared my testimony about the importance of your personal relationship with God over the "stuff" we do for Him.  I shared a little bit about how I got saved, and my favorite verse that I want to be the story of my life, Psalms 118:14.  I wasn't really that nervous, but of course I turned bright red and everyone noticed haha.  Sandu thought it was because he was asking me questions about why I was here and that he had scared me or something.  Then Tom preached his classic sermon about Priscilla and Aquilla while Boing translated and Nati, Sandu's 2 year old son, ran all over the stage.  

Thankfully we didn't have to wear our head scarves like this, although some of the old women did!

Loving the head scarf

Sandu's church

Countryside where the village we visited was

      After church, everyone went downstairs where some of the women had prepared a meal for everyone.  I had my first sarmale, or cabbage roll, since being in Romania, some pork and potatoes, and of course bread.  There was also this jelly meat soup stuff that Boing had warned us about which is apparently a special dish, but knowing that the Romanian didn't like it, I wasn't brave enough to try it.  After lunch, we were driven to Sandu's house, where we met up with Felix and Dave and hung out with Sandu's 4 kids for a couple hours.  Tom had a great time practicing his Romanian with the kids and teaching them some English.  

Lunch.  On the left is the sarmale (cabbage rolls) and on the right is the jelly meat soup stuff

Tom teaching English to the kids

      We then got picked up from the house by the pastor of the 2nd church we went to, which was the largest church in the area.  They usually have around 150 in attendance on a Sunday morning, but for that evening service there were only about 50 people there.  Once again, I had to wear a head scarf and the women sat on one side while the men sat on the other.  I also wasn't allowed to wear any jewelry or excessive makeup, their churches are that conservative.  An American girl named Anna who I'd met at the conference on Saturday sat with me on the front row and translated for me.  We sang a couple songs, this time the words were on a projector, and Anna sang a solo.  Once again, Boing gave a testimony, I shared the same thing and probably still turned red, and Tom preached about Priscilla and Aquilla.  

The 2nd church and the biggest in the area

      The pastor and his wife then had us over to their house for dinner, and Anna was there too because she lives with them.  We had chicken and pasta, this Ukrainian carrot salad that Boing devoured, bread, and some cake for dessert.  We were probably talking with them for about 2 hours at the table and we all learned a lot about Ukrainian culture and the problems in the churches there.  Tom was very encouraging and gave the young pastor lots of advice and insight in how to bridge the gap between the old people and the young people in the church, and how to have a church focused on evangelism.  He brought us back to the conference center, and after swapping our interesting stories of the day, we went to bed.  

Dinner 

      We woke up bright and early at around 6am on Monday morning to get Kristie to the airport to fly to Kiev to visit some teammates.  We spend a total of about 20 minutes at the border this time, because thanks to Felix's smooth talking, we got to skip the line and go through the diplomat's line.  The trip home was pretty uneventful and involved lots of napping and staring out the window.  As we came back into the city, I was happy to be "home" and it felt like my home in a new way this time.  After looking at Ukrainian/Russian symbols and signs all weekend, I am especially thankful that Romanian uses "normal" letters and the foreign language I'm learning doesn't seem so foreign anymore.  At least if I don't know what something means, I can at least be able to try to pronounce it!  

Page with John 3:16 in the Ukrainian Bible

     Overall it was a great trip ministering to the body of Christ in Ukraine, building relationships there for camp this summer, getting out of my comfort zone and speaking in front of others while wearing a head scarf, and getting to know the summer camp team.  I really enjoyed working/hanging out with our team and I can't wait to continue to serve with them this summer at camp!  :]

"Normal" life

      Well, had another busy yet "normal" week.  As normal as it will be for the next month, starting tomorrow!  Last Thursday in art class, we painted sunsets and then glued black paper on them as the silhouettes of mountains and cactus and whatever else their creative minds came up with.  Today, we looked at close up pictures of different flowers and they had to draw what they saw and all the little details.  I think they were all challenged by this, which was great seeing them accomplish something more than they thought they could do, but it also frustrated some.  Poor little Abby was literally brought to tears because she thought her drawing wasn't good enough.  Naomi was about at that point too, but after some consoling and encouraging, and helping them draw some petals on their flowers, they perked up and finished their beautiful artwork.  I love just getting to hang out with the kids and the comments like "I wish art was our only class"  and "Art is always fun"  always make my day! 

The goofballs

Aren't they just adorable?

Abby is in the grey hoodie... I think this was right before she broke down haha

      I also have some exciting BCA news... I get to coach a girls' volleyball team!!!  Starting next week we'll have a gym to use every Wednesday after school, and once it gets warm, we can play outside more too!  I talked to a bunch of the girls at lunch today and they seem really excited to play and to learn some new skills!  I can't wait to get to know more of the older girls at BCA and build relationships with them, and what better way than by teaching them my favorite sport? 


      This past Friday, we got a couple more things on the list of visa stuff done!  Thank you Pratt for assisting me and Jess with your guidance!  We should be ready to turn in the paperwork for the Baptist Union, and then while we're waiting on that, we can get the stuff at the health insurance place taken care of.  And then hopefully we're nearing the end of the crazy process!  It is kind of nice that since I'm leaving the country 3 times in the next month, I'll get another stamp that's good for 90 days, but it still would be great to get all of this out of the way and behind us!

Amazing funnel cake/doughnut things called gogosi :]

Chillin on the bus as we run around taking care of visa stuff!  Pratt stole my camera and took a millon pics 

      This weekend I spent a lot of my free time working on Romanian homework.  I'm really trying to make the most of the little down time I have in the evenings to soak in the language, since I know my studies won't be as consistent in the month to come.  I had lessons 3 days in a row this week, which was a lot to take in, but I won't have another for about a week and I have plenty of homework to keep me busy on the long van ride to Ukraine!


      I've gotten to go to the baby hospital on both Monday and Wednesday for the past 2 weeks!  I really love that ministry, and of course have fallen in love with the babies.  I found out that Corny works there every afternoon, not just Mondays and Wednesdays like I was told, so I'll be trying to go on other days too, especially now that I'll have volleyball on Wednesday afternoons.  I have a confession to make though, I was totally judging this couple that came into the hospital last week to see Katia, my favorite one that I decided to steal.  They were there with her for about 20 min, and in my head I was thinking "Her parents can only give her 20 min of their time and just leave her at a place like this, how horrible."  And then I found out they were looking to adopt her!  And they did!  On Monday when I came in, she was already gone, and although I'll miss her, I'm glad she found a home and people to love her!  


      So tomorrow morning I'm leaving for Ukraine at 8 am!  Our team, consisting of myself, Tom, Kristie, Anca, Felix, Boing, and Andrew, had a meeting on Tuesday to discuss the plans for this weekend.  We will be going to a church where they had camp last summer, and putting on a seminar/retreat for 40-100 teens/adults.   There are still a lot of questions about the logistics that we really won't know until we get there, but flexibility is a necessity in missionary life!  I'll fill you in on everything when I get back, but all I really know right now is what the theme is for the weekend, and that I have to wear a skirt and a headscarf the entire weekend, so thus will be out of my usual comfort zone and a totally new experience!  Please be praying for safety as we drive (in Hillary! yes they named the van), for no problems as we cross the border, that the people's hearts will be soft, that we will be an encouragement but also challenge them, and that we will build relationships that we can invest in again this summer at camp!