Ramblings from Romania

Mmk... Well, this week I didn't have language lessons since my tutor is living it up on vacation to some tropical islands off the coast of Spain. Yeah must be nice huh? I could use some sunshine and beach about now, and I don't think my body is used to it being the middle of June and still not having seen the sun. Anyways, I've been reading Karen Kingsbury's Redemption or Racumparare in Romanian, which is my favorite author and favorite book series. It's just frustrating because I literally read that book in a day in English, but I'm only on chapter 5 after like a week! It's pretty slow going since I'm looking up and writing down the new vocab, and this is going to be a test of patience for me!

I'm up to chapter 6 & have tons of new vocab!

I went to the baby hospital 3 times this week, and got to bring Kristie and Rebekah with me. I don't know what more to say about it than I already have in previous posts, but I just love loving on those babies and my list of one's I'm stealing keeps growing.

Vlad with his Carolina tshirt to match his huge eyes

Vlad & Sammi swinging in the park

I also got some luxury treatment this week. My 1st ever professional haircut (although mom you do great & Stefi said you cut it super straight) at Manifest Salon by Stefi and Adi. They 1st wash/massage your hair and scalp for a good 15 min I would say, while you're sitting in a massaging chair. I could definitely get used to that. And then he blow-dried it, straightened it straighter than it's every been before, and then clipped it up in sections from the bottom to the top of my head. They kept talking about a "machina" as they were discussing what they wanted to do with my hair, and I was so confused because that means "car" in Romanian. But then, they brought out the buzzers and it all made sense. I told Stefi to just shave it all off, but they couldn't bring themselves to throw away hair with a color like mine that they didn't believe was completely natural. Then, the literally watched a DVD of how to do this technique, because they hadn't done it before. Real comforting, but I was up for the adventure. Starting at the bottom up, they would pull my hair up and alternated pulling it to the left and right sides. After making sure it was completely straight, they would take the buzzers and shave off the ends, then go back and make it choppy. Adi added the finishing touches, and voila! I absolutely love it! It's still long enough for all of it to go in a ponytail, which is def a requirement for camp, but it's thinner and lighter and layerier and choppier and just perfect.

Everyone's lookin so serious

Jess getting her hair massage

Stefi is the best :]

Sorry buddy... can't reach!

The masina masterpiece!

Also, Hannah, Jess and I got pedicures at Perfect Nails in the mall this week. All of us needed it desperately and it was a fun girls outing/belated birthday present for them both!

Mine are the hott pink, Hannah's are the French, and Jess' are the neon orange

Jam session after Bible study

And here's some not-so-funny anecdotes from this week... so me and Jenny went to the huge open air fruit and veggie market at Obor yesterday, and while we were buying some yummy strawberries and the dude was flirting with Jenny, somebody stole my phone out of my purse! I was dumb and had it in the front zipper pocket where I stuck it quickly after using it, and someone probably easily unzipped it and snatched it in all the bustle of the market. It was a super old cheap slide phone of the Graef's, so it's not too much of a disaster, but I need a new one now. I found a sim card I can use, and now I'm searching for another old used phone somewhere in this apartment. And on the same day, my washing machine broke. It washed my clothes, but it wouldn't spin or drain, and thus was still locked and wouldn't let me open it. After pushing all the buttons and kicking it, I had to just let my clothes sit there and mold until someone could come fix it. But Mihai came to my rescue again today, and him and Andreea came over to take a look at it after church. Mihai took it all apart and figured out how to manually drain the water to be able to open it. When he took the plug to the drain all the way out, he found a guitar pick that was probably the source of the problem. Wonder where that came from... thanks Dave!

One more thing, living alone can be rather boring. It's totally awesome in some ways, but it can also be lonely. I'm usually always busy with something in the afternoons, but the evenings I'm home and trying to think up something to do. I love the slow mornings, when I can take my time spending time with Jesus in my new reading nook on my balcony, and the chill evenings when I've spent the day with crying babies, but it still can be boring.

So exactly 5 months ago today, I landed in Bucuresti, Romania and thus began my adventure of living and serving in a foreign country. Some days it feels like I just got here, and others I feel like I've lived here most of my life. But thinking back, the time really has flown by and I'm so grateful for the time I've had here & all that God's been teaching me & how He's been using me. The part I don't like thinking about though is that I only have about 3 or 4 months left here, and they're going to be the fastest ones yet! For all of you in America, this doesn't mean that I'm not anxious to be "home" home, and that I don't miss all of you dearly. And honestly lately I've had moments where I just about go crazy when I can't escape the sirens, car alarms, people yelling, and street dogs barking, and when I start talking about the country life, the pool in my backyard, and the strawberries that are in season & waiting for me right outside my bedroom window in my parents' house. And there's so many times after skyping with y'all and hearing about your lives & the big changes happening that I can't be present for physically, that I just want to get on the next plane home and give you a huge hug. But, at the same time, this has become my home. The people here have become my friends, and even like family. I've grown & learned so much here, and leaving is going to be one of the hardest things I'll ever have done, especially not knowing when or how I can come back. (But don't worry y'all, I'm coming back, Lord willing!) And when I get back, it's also going to be one of the hardest times in my life, feeling that everything there has changed & moved on without me, and that no one can really understand the experiences I've had, let alone all the decisions I'll have to make about my next steps. So yeah... that's my emotions about all that.

Last Sunday was a fun one, I mean they always are my favorites, but I have some fun pictures to share! This is my Alfa Omega family, which just celebrated it's 8th year as a church today! Lisarius even wrote an awesome song based on the church's mission statement, and we all got riled up today praising God for our family of believers and singing "I am Alfa Omega!" But last Sunday, 2 orphan girls in our church got baptized! They literally brought in a big bath tub and baptized them in that! After church, I went to the park with my American friends and along with people watching & eating park junk food, we actually studied our Romanian. Then I went to another park to hang out with the girls and watch the boys play fotball, which is the summer version of sala de sport (which is kind of not as fun because we don't have a volleyball net & only the boys get to play soccer).

The 2 with the big flowers in the front got baptized!

Gotta have a jumping picture :]

So you know how I was talking about what I was going to be doing in the next couple weeks before camp now that school's done & the baby hospital is too busy for me? Well of course, God's got it all planned out, but after my "last day" at the baby hospital, I got a friend request and a message on facebook. I met a girl at the baby hospital named Sarah, who turns out is an American, but you could never tell with how awesome her Romanian is, and she actually went to Liberty and we have a bunch of mutual friends both here & in Lynchburg. She's been working at the baby hospital almost every day & wanted to know if I had any other friends who might want to come and help out too. So this means I can still go help out pretty much whenever I want, and even more now than before! :]

She reminds me of my baby pictures all dressed up exactly like this!

Estera's big brown eyes make me melt!

Briana is one of the one's I'm stealing :]

They love to hold hands :]

Andrei is my little buddy who cries every time I put him down, so thus he usually falls asleep like this.

Even Catalin sleeps with a body pillow!

This is Corny who works with Heart to Heart & is the one I help out .

BCA is completely over and they're moving into a new building. I went over a couple times to attempt to help packing up the insane art room, and whatever the teachers could find. We had field day Thursday morning, which started at 9 and ended soon after due to the torrential downpour. My team was called the Pink Panthers & we totally would have dominated if we could have finished out the day! When it started raining, we all crammed under 2 tents, and then half of the kids decided to just get soaked and play in the rain and use up the rest of the water balloons. I would have definitely joined them if I wouldn't have had to spend the next hour getting home on public transportations while soaked to the bone! I sure do miss those kids, but thankfully I'll get to see most of them at the beginning of next school year when I go visit!

Claudia & the Postema's

We had some hula hooping experts.

Jucam, Luptam, o sa Castigam! PINK PANTHERS!

Leah was our dedicated & prepared fan!

Oh how I'll miss my hug buddy Abby when they go to the States!

Best buds!

Love these girls!

Random insert here... Bucuresti sure does know how to do their flowers. All spring the tulips, pansies, & whatever other flowers that I don't know the name of have been planted and blooming everywhere. And now the roses are in full bloom! I've never seen so many roses as I have in this city & it makes me so happy! Also fountains make me happy, and I'm just waiting to get a picture of the street kids playing in them!

The fountain at Obor aka my neighborhood piata.

There are literally like 50 fountains like this in a straight line from the People's Palace.

A first for me this week was the civil ceremony of Vera & Simon! For some reason, the legal wedding and the church wedding are separate things here, but it's kind of fun you get 2 celebrations & reasons to take pictures & get dressed up! The whole Alfa Omega gang gathered at Obor all dressed up and with flowers in hand. We waited our turn while another couple was finishing up, and then all went inside to a big room with a desk on a small stage in the front. The mayor's (or whoever the chick was) little speech was less than 5 minutes, then they said "I do," signed the papers, kissed, and it was over. Then we all formed a line and congratulated the couple then went outside to wait for them to come out under our bridge of flowers. Of course, the guys all pelted them with rice. Poor Simon on crutches with his broken ankle, but they still were an adorable & attractive pair!