Yes, I'm Still Alive (it's just been awhile...)!

I know it's been a few days since my last post.... sorry! Not much is that different from last week so there hasn't been too much new stuff to add.

On Sunday, we had services in Severin (morning and evening) and Lupsa (in the afternoon). In Lupsa, I went down with Becky with the kids (all 3 or 4 of them) and we made friendship bracelets for awhile. That has started us on a friendship bracelet making trend here and we've gotten everyone involved! Chad, Becky, Dragosh and I have all been making them and just giving them to different people. I brought a ton of packaged of lots of string and I'm so glad I did that! We also performed Saturday night in Rogova, Sunday morning in Severin, and Sunday afternoon in Lupsa on the violin and mandolin. In Rogova, Chad and I played our instruments while Becky and Cathy sang and we also played with the group and sang with some of the teens (in Romanian). Sammy (who leads the orchestra) was like "if Chad can learn the mandolin in 5 days, you all should be able to play this song that you've had for awhile!" We got a good laugh out of that while some of the kids sulked off to practice more! In the evening service in Severin, Chad and I picked out another song that we might do tomorrow night (if we have time to practice some tomorrow).

On Monday, Becky and I had some fun in the morning and in the evening, we played volleyball again with the teens. Guess who was still as bad as last week?! I did manage to hit the ball a few more times than last time but not many of them (aside from my serves which were actually decent) made it the right way over the net!

Then, today we were busy with some manual labor! We spent the morning painting some of the rooms in the orphanage. The girls got a makeover from pale pink to a pretty light purple and the boys got a refreshing blue (the other rooms are getting done after I leave). We painted for a few hours and then came back to the house for orchestra/choir practice. I didn't join in this time since I won't be here this Sunday to perform but I hung out and worked on a bracelet while I watched them practice. Then, we went out and walked around Severin with Dorin, Dragosh, Sammy, and Becky. We went to this main area where there is like a pedestrian walkway and walked down to sit at the big city fountain for awhile. On the way back, we picked up some "donuts" and enjoyed them on the way home. We also enjoyed jumping over water fountains and pushing through the crowds (since cutting in line is like the norm here) while waiting for those donuts!

Tomorrow, we're planning a small shopping day. I need to buy some food stuff to bring home (if anyone wants anything, let me know!) and then we're just checking out some other shopping areas. On Thursday, I head out and so it's likely that this might be my last post from here (I might not have time to post again tomorrow). Sammy, Cathy, Chad and I will all be heading out to Bucharest early Thursday morning so that I can get to my 2:00 pm flight from there (it's like a 6, 7, or 8 hour drive from here to there; I don't know the exact time in the car). Then, I'll be back in the states around midnight on Thursday! I'm happy to be going back home but as always, I hate to leave. I totally wish that I could stay longer because everything is now becoming more routine and normal feeling here so it's such a bummer to leave when you feel start to feel like you're fitting in more :( And of course, I hate to leave all the awesome friends and teens/kids here that I've connected with. But of course, I see it only as an "I'll see you next time" rather than a goodbye so I've already started thinking about when I can come back again!

All About Food!

At this point, you would think I have learned my lesson regarding food here. I mean, seriously, I know better than to take a big portion of something that I'm unsure of. Yet, that still doesn't seem to stop me. Yesterday was an interesting food day. I started with french toast for breakfast. This french toast though was not as sweet as it is in the states (I've had sweet french toast here but this was different for some reason). It almost tasted like the egg was cooked in bacon grease first and then lightly placed over the bread (but didn't soak in at all). That was different but still ok. The interesting part came when I ate my third piece. It had salt on it. Now, that was weird. I've put salt on a lot here (that's kind of normal) but this was a stretch for me and I don't think I'll be repeating that anytime soon. Then, at lunch, I didn't really have anything unusual. I think it was soup (which was really good) and like fried squash (it looked like that but I'm not 100% sure if it actually was that; it was still good though). Then, I got offered Fanta. I'm not a fan of soda in the first place but I've had a lot here since that is what we've had at meals. Orange Fanta though is definitely not a favorite of mine. I drank the big glass of it because I didn't want to be rude and let it go to waste but I was working hard to keep a straight face and not a "echk" face! After lunch, we had some apples. I thought, yum, apples. I like apples. I got a bigger one (they were still all small though which should've been my first red flag) and realized with my first bite that it was ridiculously sour. Like Sour Patch Kids sour. I had to literally turn my head towards the wall as my lips and face puckered up! I only made it through a few more bites before I had to throw it away as all the kids were just munching away on their second and third apples!

Now, that was all the questionable food (aside from the bread I prepared for Claudia this morning that had the following layers on it: butter, pork liver paste, apricot jelly, and cherry jelly; my bread with butter and apricot jelly that had just been made the night before was fabulous). The really good food from Cathy, Becky, and Sammy has been awesome! We had eggplant salad one day that was delicious (with the eggplant grilled first) and then we just had tuna salad for lunch today that was also scrumptious! We have had all this fresh food and veggies with super fresh bread and it's been hard to stop eating!

Aside from the food, nothing too eventful has been happening. I went with Cathy to Rogova last night and shared some parenting information with the women there who meet for Bible study on Friday nights. It is always amazing to hear about the differences between countries, especially regarding parenting strategies, concerns/issues, and the kinds of resources they have (or don't have as is the case here). Today, we're headed back to Rogova in about 20 minutes for orchestra practice (finally there!) and services tonight. I'm for sure playing with the mandolin orchestra and Chad doesn't know yet if he'll play today. We're both playing a song though at some point tonight and tomorrow with him on the mandolin, me on the violin, Sammy on the piano, and Becky singing. It's going to be pretty awesome and hopefully, I'll get a good recording of it to post sometime in the next few days.

Off to practice for a few minutes. I hear Chad in the other room on the mandolin and he wanted to practice a little more before we leave!

Farmacia!

We've had some relaxing down time for the last two days (we've pretty much just been hanging out) and so I thought posting about one of the things I like the most about Romania would be good to do right now. And what is that thing you might be wondering? Aside from the obvious (everything and everyone that I've already posted about!), I like the farmacias (pharmacies). Basically, you can get any medicine over the counter here. Instead of getting a prescription from the doctor, you just go into the pharmacy and the pharmacists can tell you what you need and just give it to you right then. Can you imagine if it was like that in the states? Instead of wasting money to go to the doctor to have them tell you what you already know, you could just skip that middle step and go right for what will make you feel better!

Ok... on to actual trip stuff! Yesterday was fairly quiet. After the orchestra and choir practice on Tuesday night, Chad and I spent some time Wednesday practicing a variety of instruments and singing. I ended up playing a song on the violin at the service on Wednesday night and it wasn't great but it was still pretty cool. We picked a song we both really liked last night and we're planning on playing it at the services this weekend (me on the violin, Chad on the mandolin). Obviously, next time I come, I'll have to bring my viola with me!

Today was also pretty calm and slow. Becky and Sammy had to go into Bucharest and Feli had to take one of the kids to get some glasses. So, for awhile, I hung out at the orphanage while the kids took naps (or really just played around in their rooms since I kept hearing random noises upstairs!) and Adina (the oldest girl) and I watched tv. Then, I came over to the house in the late afternoon to practice on the violin some. Right before Chad was going out with Rica, little Sammy had a bit of an accident (involving the couch and an end table) but everything is alright now and we're all just here just hanging out some more! Tomorrow, I think we might be trying for Herculane again since it's supposed to be warm.

I probably won't get another post up until Sunday or Monday. The weekends are pretty busy so I might just wait and get everything up at once when it's all over. This is my last weekend here so it will be my last time to see the kids in Lupsa and Rogova I think :(  That means.... lots of pictures to come I'm sure!

Hiking in Lupsa

Yesterday afternoon, we took all the kids out to Lupsa to go hiking through the woods. We left a little before lunchtime (since it's about an hour drive to Lupsa) and then we ate some lunch and hung out for a bit in the feeding center there before starting our hike. Then, like 2-3 hours and a ton of bug bites later, we finished our hike! We all had a pretty good time and the kids seemed to really enjoy running through the woods and seeing all the little bugs that we kept finding. When we made it out of the woods, we hung out at the feeding center for a little longer (we were snacking) and then came back with a bunch of sleeping children in the van (which by the way, I was totally right about the no car seats; we [the adults] were the car seats yesterday!). 

We got back around 6:00 and had just under an hour to recover before volleyball with the teens (Monday night is like youth night where they come over to the orphanage to play). Of course, the previously sleeping kids were wide awake 5 seconds after getting home and immediately put on their bathing suits to swim in the pool thing we have set up in the yard. They begged me to come in and even though I didn't bring a bathing suit, I jumped in with some of my quick drying running shorts and a t-shirt. I was in there for about 20 minutes and then sat on the ladder to provide towel service ever time water got in someone's eyes! At 7:00, we started playing volleyball and I think it's safe to say that volleyball is not my best sport. It's prob. not even my mediocre sport! However, I did manage to get the ball over the net some although I was never on the winning team (we came close a lot though)! After we were done playing, I came back over to the house to finish doing some work stuff and then wandered back to the orphanage around 10:30 pm (don't worry; Sammy and Chad walked me over... no walking by myself at night!). Around 11:00, it started to rain (hallelujah!). The wind was crazy and I think I might have finally gotten a bit of a breeze in my room.

The rain was supposed to continue today but it didn't. However, it's still "cold" (like 80) and a little windy so we've all been inside today. We were supposed to go to the hot spring pools in Herculane but the weather put a dent in that plan. All the kids were super bummed but we'll try to go again later in the week I think. So now, it's lunch time and I'm just hanging out at the house uploading pictures and my student's papers. In a bit (at 5:30 pm), we'll have orchestra practice here at the house (not in Rogova like I keep thinking before) and I'll get to try my hand at the violin! This should be interesting....!

Here are pictures from our hike in Lupsa!

Carrefour Carnival

Last night, Rogova was awesome (as always). Chad and I talked about our stories/history with the teens (when they broke off from the main service) and it was fun and funny! The teens in Rogova are and have always been my favorite so any time I get to spend with them there is the best! When we got back from Rogova, Sammy dropped us off at Carrefour and we picked up a few things for dinner. One the way back, we walked through the carnival that has been set up for the weekend in the parking lot. We picked up some hollow bread (there was a stand there) and we ate that and some cotton candy last night (and some more today!). When we got back to the house, Cathy was telling us that she was making sandwiches with yogurt for dinner and Chad and I both thought there was going to be yogurt in the sandwich. We later found out though that it was just grilled cheese with yogurt to drink (which was delicious)! I got back to the orphanage last night around 10:30 and everything was quite. I thought everyone was asleep but of course, I was wrong! Feli got back with the older kids just a few minutes after me; they picked up some food from Carrefour and we all sat around eating it. Well, I tried it instead of really sitting down to eat since I had already stuffed my face at the house. Plus, it was little fishies that had a very strong flavor so I only ate one little one! Around 11:00 or so, I went upstairs to bed and it was super hot outside (and inside). I was just laying there on top of the covers sweating profusely. And that was with the fan on me on full blast! I had the windows closed since the carnival music was so loud but fortunately, it stopped around 12:30 and I opened the windows. It was much cooler then because a cold front came through. Today, it was pleasant (figuratively speaking; it's still hot and we sweat all the time but at least it's like 85 now instead of 95) in the morning during the first service of the day but it's gotten a bit hot this afternoon. We're all resting for a little bit now since we took the kids to  the carnival earlier and it wiped us all out! We have about another hour and a half to kill before the evening service and I'm busy working on getting my pictures up and catching up on work stuff!

Pictures from the past two days!

General observations over the last two days:

1) I don't think there are car seats here.

2) People here are totally acclimated to the heat. When they turn the air on, they only leave it one for like 3 minutes and then turn it off. A woman in the service this morning was cold after the air was on for just a few minutes even though it was still pretty warm in the room.

Coco Puffs and Milk; You Can't Go Wrong There!

Actually, you can go wrong with coco puffs and milk. How, you might ask? Well, you can put the coco puffs in hot milk. Yes, that's right. Milk that was warmed up on the stove and wasn't just lukewarm, but was actually hot. Now, I could handle warm milk with cereal I think. But when you put hot milk with chocolate cereal and then let it sit for like 5-10 minutes while you get the rest of breakfast together, that totally changes things. That was breakfast this morning, along with bread, cheese, butter, salami ham slice things, yogurt (that was pretty liquidy) and I think that was it. Add that to the massive sausage and mashed potatoes for lunch (with soup and bread of course), and we're 2 for 2 on interesting meals for the day! Becky was trying to explain how people here don't really do cold things, like ice because there's a fear that it will lead to sore throats and sickness (or something like that). I can only assume that is why or part of the reason why everything (e.g., coke, milk, water) is typically warm. The soda isn't even kept in the refrigerator in most cases. What is even funnier is the fact that Feli (the house mom) wants to wait until later in the day when the water in the temporary pool is warmer to let the kids swim. I'm like "the cool water would feel so good!" but they still wait for the sun to warm it up a bit.

All for now... we're all about to head out to Rogova for the afternoon/night!

I Heart Rogova!

So I know I said I was going to post like every other day from now on but I just remembered a few things on the drive to Rogova and I wanted to post them now before I forgot.

1) Instead of honking at a car when it veers into your lane, drivers here simply just merge into the oncoming traffic (lane) instead to avoid it. I'm not even sure why they have lane dividers here. Literally no one follows them. Most people drive 3/4 of the way in one lane and 1/4 of the way in another!

2) I think I'm getting a tan. It's either that or I'm just dirty. I haven't been able to figure it out yet.

3) Men like to go shirtless here. Like a lot. I've see quite a few guys working on houses, in fields, or even just walking around sans shirts.

4) Adina and I walked to Lidl (another store here) to get bread today and we also ended up with some ice cream for the walk home. It was neat walking through a different part of Severin and seeing the differences in  the houses all around here.

5) There are super clear gender roles here that almost everyone follows. You almost never see the men with the children or in the kitchens/houses. The men mostly work I guess even though I have yet to figure out what  exactly it is that some of them do (like the men you see wandering around during the day and what not).

Here are some pictures in Severin and Rogova from today!

What Exactly Am I Eating?!

I think from now on, I'll prob. post every two days or so just because not much has been happening or will be happening (like nothing major). Yesterday (Thursday) was literally a chill day. We pretty much did nothing but hang out at the house and eat. We all needed a bit of recovery time after sightseeing and doing everything else with the group. Typically, I think that's what all Thursdays are.

This morning has been kind of the same way. I woke up early and have just been playing with the kids in the orphanage all morning and afternoon. So far, from last night to right now (like 3:00 pm), I've watched Aladdin and Alice in Wonderland two times each in Romanian. During the movies, it's like a reality show fight on who can sit or lay next to me. One minute, Adina is happy because she's next to me but if she gets up, someone else moves in and then Adina stops talking to me! Or Claudia cries. Or who knows what! I'm trying to balance my time and attention between them all but it can be tricky at times!

Yesterday and today, I've also eaten things that I'm not sure of.... like, I have no clue what they are! This morning for breakfast, there were eggs and a lot of sausage things and then I thought there were more scrambled eggs on a big plate on the table. I took a big scoop, tasted it and then realized, "nope, these are not eggs!" I'm still not 100% sure what it was but I'm guessing something with pasta maybe? Regardless, I ate it all anyway. I've also had a ton of coke since it's been offered to me and I didn't want to be disrespectful by saying no!

Right now, I'm at Cathy and Rica's just hanging out for a little before Cathy and I leave to meet with the woman in Rogova at 4:30. Not sure how long we'll be there tonight but my guess is 3-4 hours. We'll all be back in Rogova on Saturday for choir/mandolin practice, church and whatever else they do on Saturday afternoons and nights.

Bbbbbbb.... Bran and Brasov

So, for the past two days, we’ve been driving all over Romania for some sightseeing. We left around 8:00 am on Tuesday morning and made our way north (and a little east I think) to Bran. We stopped at (yep, you guessed it) McDonalds for lunch and then made it to Bran in the afternoon. We toured the castle there (known as Dracula’s castle even though that’s not really what it is) and we finished there around 5:30 and did some shopping. I wandered off and found the good hollow bread place (we decided to call it hollow bread since we didn’t know what to call it) and of course, everybody loved it when they eventually made their way over to get some. 

Once we were done with stuffing our faces with delicious bread, we headed out to the Wolf Hotel (where we stayed last time), checked in, and then had dinner around 8:00 pm. If you’ve noticed an eating trend so far, you’re spot on. We eat often and a lot usually. We are pretty certain that we have all gained weight already and it’s only been a week! After dinner, most of us (the “youngins”) all hung out in my room until we got too rowdy and moved across the hall to someone else’s room. We started coming up with prank ideas and ended up putting one in motion sometime late at night. It was a complete failure (i.e., Melody was supposed to go to John’s door with the camera and tape him as we would sneak in through the patio and hit him with pillows; unfortunately, John didn’t leave the door open long enough and he saw us coming so it kind of ruined the plan) but it was still funny! We reconvened and tried to come up with other prank ideas but we weren’t that creative as a group. Eventually, there was a knock at the door and it was John telling us that we should check to see if anyone is standing outside the door for 30 minutes listening to us plan and gossip, like he just was! After he shared some words of wisdom with us regarding pranks, we came up with another idea which was to just bust out in song (i.e., flash mob style) on the bus the next day. I started singing the Beaver Song (from summer camp) and we started recording those of us still up then basically laughing hysterically and trying to come up with a plan for how and when to sing it the next day. We ended up cracking each other up until prob. midnight or so and then I was up another hour and a half doing some work stuff in my room.

We got up early Wednesday so that we could head to Peles (which was one hour away maybe? Maybe two? I can’t remember) and we got in to the tour at 10:40 am. 

                                   (me and Emily on a lion)

After walking around there for a bit and doing a little bit of shopping right outside the castle, we were on our way back to Bucharest around noon. We stopped at a gas station to get snacks on the way since we were trying to drive back quickly so that Rica, Cathy, Chad and I could catch the 3:45 train back to Severin (instead of waiting for the lower quality train that would come next at 8:45). We got into the city around 3:30 and literally, we ran from the bus to the train station and then ran again to the tracks that our train was on. It was AWESOME!

We had already said goodbye to everyone on the bus and we were ready to hop off and go for it! We ended up on the train like 4 minutes before it left (completely on time) and then we proceeded to play Uno and sleep for most of the 5.5 hour ride. 

I think we only slept about an hour because Rica really wanted to play Uno so we did that for the rest of the ride. The train was not as bad as I had envisioned it. No one begging or smoking or doing anything else ridiculous like that but Rica made sure to check our bags at the Bucharest train station since pickpocketing is a huge problem there (we were all good). Sammy came to pick us up at the Severin train station around 9:00 and then we had dinner back at the house a little later. Afterwards, we hung out and talked for a bit and then we decided that I’d just stay at the house tonight rather than go back to the orphanage, so that I could catch up on my sleep and kind of sleep in. So, that’s where I’m at right now at 12:20 am… laying in the bed in the basement just relaxing!

Tomorrow, we might take the kids to some sulphur springs swimming area about an hour away or we might hit up Carrefour and run some other errands. On Friday, I’m heading out to Rogova with Cathy and Chad is heading to Lupsa with Rica to do some work. The Saturday, there are things like choir and orchestra (mandolin) practice and Chad and I are going to try to join in with both groups while we’re here. It should be a fun and busy two weeks for me and Chad is staying four weeks so he gets even more!

I think that’s all for now. It’s late (obviously) and I have some papers I need to grade for the class I’m teaching online now (yep, another thing to add to my already long do-everything-at-once list) so I might do that for a bit before officially crashing.

Just as an fyi, I have videos of the failed prank, the Beaver planning session, and the actual execution of the Beaver song but I think I’m going to post them on Facebook eventually (or link them on the blog through my pictures site… haven’t decided yet. I know you probably want to see them but the internet isn’t the most reliable and I haven’t really had time yet to deal with it all).

Here are the rest of the pictures from sightseeing. There aren't too many since I didn't pay to bring my camera into Peles and since I already took a lot of pictures there last time!

Bran

No post tonight since it's super late and I'm trying not to type a lot since my roomie is sleeping, but here are the pictures from the first castle visit. I'll try to post tomorrow night but we might be taking the night train back from Bucharest instead of leaving Thursday morning (don't worry, we'll be with Cathy and Rica).

Our Plans Changed Again?!

Today we did a lot of sightseeing (i.e., driving) around Severin. I took a lot of pictures but of course, as I’m going through them right now at 12:40 am, I can barely remember what some of them are!

We started this morning with a drive up (or maybe down) the Danube River which separates Serbia and Romania where we are at. After some curves, we stopped to see this little gate that was apparently around during the Roman Empire. I know this picture isn’t very good, but it was way on the other side of the river.

Then, we ended up at this mini-Mount Rushmore-esque kind of rock face thing. I don’t remember what the story was behind it other than the fact that it was worked on between 1994 and 2004 and it is not complete. They stopped building in 2004 when the main designer died and they are just now starting back up but it’s supposed to cost like over a million dollars so it’s not going very fast.

While we were taking pictures of the stone face, Jerry and Rica were working out a price for us to get on the boats nearby and go on a tour up the river. We ended up spending the next hour or so going up the river between Romania and Serbia and we even stopped off at one of the caves we passed to explore inside (for 4 Lei; $1.00 = about 3.5 Lei). In these pics below, Serbia is on the left, Romania is on the right.

We did not get done until around 1:30/2:00 and we all thought we were going out to eat at a restaurant in Severin. However, when we ended up back at the house later, we realized this was not the case and instead, they had ordered pizza for lunch (yep, that's a veggie pizza with corn on it).

After lunch, we had a bit of free time. Most of us took a quick bus ride into Severin to exchange some more money and do some shopping. The first time we exchanged money, they wouldn’t take like half of our American dollars because they only would accept crisp bills with no markings, creases, or tears. This time though (at a different place), they took all our money (it was weird but whatever). Shopping wasn’t that great because there really weren’t that many souvenirs that people were looking for and the clothes stores really felt kind of like a garage sale, with a random mix of clothes from this decade and many others. We got back to the house between 6:00 and 6:30 and we were all like, “are we supposed to be eating again even though we just ate?!”We tried figuring out the plan for the night since we all wanted to do so many things but it took us forever to figure it out and then everything kept changing. Some of the group wanted to go play volleyball at the orphanage. Others were getting their eyebrows threaded by a woman they met in a church service who is really well known for that in the area. And another group wanted to stop back by Carrefour. We had a plan and then it changed and then we had a new plan but that changed too. This went on for a while until I gave up and just sat around waiting for someone to leave or something to happen (I wanted to run in and run out of Carrefour and then go to the orphanage). Eventually, I left with a small group and quickly browsed Carrefour for some snacks, toilet paper, and water. The rest of the group left before me since they were headed back to the house and I went the other way to the orphanage. A volleyball game was already in progress (the volleyball group had come by earlier) and since it has become apparent on this trip that I really suck at volleyball, I decided not to join in! Instead, I played with the kids for the rest of the night until our group had to head out back to the hotel. Then, we came inside, ate some cookies (yep, at like 10:00 pm) and then played a bit of paper football around the house (they love the little paper footballs that I made them). I helped the girls with their baths tonight since they were all gross from being outside and it was pretty funny. The light was out in their bathroom so I had my phone in there with my flashlight app on and they really liked that. Surprisingly, after the baths, it wasn’t hard to get the kids tucked into bed. I went and talked to them (or tried) for a few minutes and then said goodnight and spent a little more time talking to Felicia downstairs. Around like 11:15 pm, I finally came up to pack for tomorrow and shower.

In the morning, we’re leaving no later than 8:00 am (ideally; all depending on when the group manages to finish breakfast and check out of the hotel) and heading out to some of the castles. I think it is about a 4 hour drive, not including our lunch break and any others we might need. (ah hah! Just killed a mosquito on my hand finally as I typed this!) If we have time tomorrow, we’ll do a little shopping in Bran or try to get in on the last tour of Dracula’s castle. If not, we’ll hit that up Wednesday morning and then see Peles in the afternoon. Wednesday night, we’ll head out and stay in Bucharest since the group is flying out super early on Thursday morning while Cathy, Chad, and I will all be on the 8:45 am (maybe; we don’t know what time the train is yet) train from Bucharest to Severin. There prob. won’t be many more pictures to come of the castles since 1) I’ve already been and already have pictures and 2) these are the castles you have to pay an exorbitant price for if you want to bring cameras in.

Hopefully, after this trip, I’ll have an update on what the plan is for the next 2 weeks. We’ll prob. jot down some ideas for what to do with the kids and what else to see in the area so maybe I’ll be able to post that when I get back. I’m assuming we’ll have internet at the hotels in Bran and Bucharest but just in case, if you don’t hear from me for the next few days, no worries… we’re just on the road!

Here are the pictures from Severin!

On a side note, I dropped my camera on the bus and now all of my pictures are transferring upside down to my computer….. Not a good sign.

Severin Sightseeing (Before)

I'm at the house early this morning (like 8:45 am) and it's been the perfect time to update my blog and pictures. Here are the updated links with some pictures:

Orphanage and Rogova (Day #2)

Church Marathon and Orphanage (more)

I know there aren't as many pictures as last time and that's because I already have a lot of pictures of the house/church/community/etc. I'll be taking a lot more though over the next few weeks that I'm here since I'll be doing different things than last time!

Church Marathon

So, for a change, I actually wrote things down as they happened today so that I made sure not to forget them by the time midnight came around and I’d actually have a few minutes to type everything up!

I ended yesterday’s post at dinner and I really cannot remember what happened after that! Our days are all beginning to merge together so none of us can really remember when we did what and so on. I think it was like all our other nights. After dinner, we went outside to play modified volleyball in the front yard and then once the group headed back to the hotel, I hung out at the orphanage and played with the kids until like 11:15 pm (I think we’ve established that bedtime is non-existent although after tonight, I’ve realized that it just might have been that way because it was the weekend). Ah, wait. As I’m looking at my notes here, I think Becky (who is one of the missionaries here; my age) was telling us about the state of the hospitals here (either after dinner or before dinner). I knew it was bad from the last time I was here and she was like 6-7 months pregnant I think. We all pitched in and gave her and another girl some money at the end of the trip to help with the hospital costs. Yesterday, we got the specifics on why more help was needed. Apparently, in the hospitals here, you pay for everything individually. So, when Becky was about to give birth, she had to pay the doctor, the nurse, the woman who cleaned the floor in her room (yep), and the woman who took her up in the elevator (to name a few). She said you just name a price and if they don’t like it, they won’t complete the service. If they take it but it’s too low, they’ll do what they can to make it unpleasant for you, like the nurse will intentionally bruise your skin when starting an IV. Next time you think that our hospital system is not great in the states, just think about what it would be like to have to pay each person that comes into your room before you will even receive care (and questionable care at that).

Back to today…. We started today with a church service in Severin at the house. Before I walked over with some of the kids from the orphanage, I helped them get dressed and this included spraying underneath their arms with body spray which I guess was the equivalent of deodorant. I had to find a way to explain in broken Romanian that I didn’t need that for myself! Since the girls from the orphanage wanted me to come with them during the service, I ended up down in the basement with all the children (for a children’s service maybe? Not really sure since there was no translator). It was total chaos down there for a while until Dragoosh (who helps out here and was with us all this week and the last time I was here) came down and did some stories and games with them. We played this game with chairs, where you were either an apple, orange, or banana and when that fruit got called, you had to get up and switch chairs with someone else. One of the girls (Rebecca; who is absolutely adorable and kissed me about a thousand times yesterday in Rogova and today) kept trying to call the fruits that were not mine (I got orange) but that also had someone sitting next to me so that person would have to get up and she could sit next to me (she would like look at me and then at the kids next to me and would then call out the fruit of that kids). At one point in the morning, Claudita (from the orphanage) had to go to the bathroom and she refused to let anyone else take her but me. So we go in there and the entire time, she’s just chatting away to me in Romanian and I’m just chatting back “I have no idea what you’re saying to me” and it was all pretty funny. Around noon, church was over (it started at like 9:30…) and we had a quick lunch before heading to Lupsa for another service. I was planning on staying at the service in Lupsa but when I realized like 3 people were supposed to talk or give sermons, I didn’t think I’d make it awake if I stayed in there. So instead, I went down with Melody (one of the moms from Iowa) and watched as she led a little children’s story with the kids downstairs. After that, we all played games with the kids (Melody and three of the teens); games like Simon Says (which was pretty funny with a translator) and Heads Up, Seven Up. While we were down there, a little girl name Becca (I’m feeling like that’s not her name now that I’m looking at this sentence more…) was watching me and she tried to put her sunglasses on her head like mine were. Then, I took a drink out of my big water bottle and she strolled over to this big jug by the kitchen, pulled it down, and just drank right from it. Then, everyone else took drinks too! I was like, “Oh no, please tell me I’m not starting a trend!”

On the drive back from Lupsa, most of us passed out on the bus or came pretty close (I dozed a few times and almost dropped my Kindle). We had about an hour to kill between the time we got back to the house and when the last service started. We were all so tired and were afraid we wouldn’t make it through the last service but surprisingly, we all did. The last service wasn’t as long and some of it was filled with thank-yous from people here and from our group.

I think around 8:00, we started dinner and afterwards, we had our typical post-dinner volleyball time, where I fortunately (for everyone else) sat out tonight since I must admit, it’s not my greatest sport. After playing for a bit, the group left for the night and I spent about an hour learning some new words in Romanian with the kids at the orphanage. Alberto and Danny thought I was only playing with the girls so I hung out in their room tonight and we played paper football in addition to my Romanian lessons.

Alberto and Danny

Marian and Felicita (house parents) with Adina, Anna, Claudita, Danny and Alberto

It’s amazing because I now can follow most conversations and I have a general idea as to what’s being said. I’m learning some common phrases and words too so I’m hoping to practice more in order to remember them better.

On a random note, all during the day today, Becky, Chad, and I were throwing out ideas about what to do with the kids from the orphanage for the next few weeks. Becky mentioned a zoo but that it was 2 hours away. I said that now was the perfect time to go since there’s extra help! We also talked about crossing into Serbia at some point and getting pizza over there since it’s supposed to be really good. Our last idea (so far) is to give the house parents a date night where they can go out and Chad and I will stay with the 7 kids and babysit. And, we’d do it with no translator because I think that would be hilariously fun.

I think that’s all for night. I have to go hunt down a mosquito or two in the room. They are fast and hard to kill and there are more now for some reason. So, I can either kill them or get eaten alive tonight. Tomorrow will be a relaxing day…. We’re driving to the Danube River, walking around for a bit, sightseeing a little in Severin, and then a woman is coming over to thread some eyebrows tomorrow night (apparently, this woman is really good and does it for cheap and one of our group mates talked to her today about coming tomorrow). Then, on Tuesday, it’s off to the castles!

Rogova - Part 2

Today was pretty relaxing when you compare it to all of our other days here so far. I got up late (I forgot it was Saturday and my alarm was only set for weekdays), especially since I was up until like 11:15 last night playing with three of the girls at the orphanage. After I got dressed, I opened my door and the girls came in and played with my new fan (Jerry got it Friday afternoon so I wouldn’t die in the middle of the night). They just stood in front of it and enjoyed having it blow their hair around. I ate some breakfast with the kids (an omelet with ham in it; I tried to be polite and just ate around the ham) and then I helped Bella (who is almost two) eat her breakfast. Once she was done, I headed over to the house right as everyone here was finishing their morning meeting. We reloaded the toy/game bags and walked back to the orphanage to play with the kids there. We hung out there for a few hours and at some delicious donuts that Felicia (the house mother) made. We came back to the house around 1:00 to eat lunch (cabbage, snitzel, French fries, and crepes) and then headed out to Rogova in the afternoon. We hung out with the kids there again for about an hour and a half and it was all much more low-key today. I gave a lot of the face paint markers and nail polish to the older girls and they did a lot of the face painting and nail painting for us. Around 5:00, we started a church service that seemed to last forever. There was a mandolin performance, some singing by the kids, and what felt like a lot of sermons and stories. That all finished around 7:15 and we hung around for a little bit longer “trash talking” with the guys who beat us at soccer yesterday! While everyone else said goodbye, I got Sammy to translate to the girls (who did not want to let me go!) that I would be here another two weeks and they were pretty excited! They also were like “dos semanas?” and I started laughing because some of them are the ones who understand Spanish from the Spanish soap operas they watch here. Right now, it’s about 8:30 and we’re just hanging around the house waiting for some dinner (even though we’re all pretty stuffed still from lunch).... 

Rogova, My Rural Home

Today was our first day at Rogova. I was up and moving by 8:00 and walked to the house (which I will post video of) for breakfast at 9:00. Cathy made French toast with strawberries and whipped cream. Very Romanian (J). Around 10:00, the rest of the group arrived and we had a brief morning meeting where we discussed our first impressions (especially those who had never been on a trip like this before before) and Shawn Sullivan (who is one of the European Directors who is also on the trip with us) talked some about Manna Freedom, their program to help reduce human trafficking. Around 11:00 (I think), we left for Rogova and spent the entire afternoon there. Some of the girls from 2009 were still there and I got to see them more grown up. It was amazing and my jaw dropped a couple of times! They all came right to me as if no time had passed since we had seen each other. A little later, more kids came and it was lightly organized chaos throughout. We had someone doing beads outside, the boys were doing balloon swords inside, and I had a small group of the older girls doing friendship bracelets in the shade. After doing that for a while, I realized I was the only adult outside anymore and was like “wait a minute, where is everyone?” I ran inside, realized the whole group was eating lunch and basically just asked if I could still eat later since I was busy making bracelets with the girls. It was no big deal for me to wait so we did bracelets for a little longer and then all the kids were gathered into the church area for a Bible lesson. That is when I finally slipped away to get some potatoes, cabbage, chicken, and bread. After the lesson, we passed out some of the Manna shoes to the kids and then took some pictures and just kind of wandered around. The boys all went off down the road to the school to play a game of soccer against the Romanian teens and a group of us girls followed to cheer them on. When we realized our team was not that great, the girls all joined in against the Romanians. Guess what happened then? We still sucked! We switched an American for a Romanian or two and they finally started to score for us. Then, like 4 random Romanians showed up and just jumped right into the game. We’re pretty sure that after all was said and done, we still lost. Even though some of us got bruised and battered, we still had a pretty fun time. We left around 4:30/5:00 and hit up the shopping center right in between the orphanage and the house to exchange money and buy some water. Most of us could only exchange like half our money because if any of the bills had creases or markings on them, they wouldn’t take them (we don’t know why). I grabbed a case of water and some Milka chocolate (supposed to be an awesome brand here; of course, it’s pretty melted though because I put it in my room which was prob. around like 80 degrees today!) and before we left, we got this great ice cream from a little stand. Chad, who is a college student who is staying for a few more weeks like I am, and I were joking about how we’d have to walk over there every morning to eat a breakfast of that ice cream! Jerry and I left the shopping area a little early to walk my stuff back to the orphanage (everyone else was going the other way to the house) and when we dropped it off, we were offered a “smart cookie” made by the house mother. Since you don’t really say no here to food offers, we sat down with our cookie and Pepsi and enjoyed. Of course, the “cookie” was really more of a custard cake and it was ridiculously delicious!

I’m going to try to get a translation of the recipe so I can make it back in the states (I think it’s actually pretty healthy too).

When we were done there, we walked back to the house, had dinner (chicken, pork, beef wrapped pork, salad, and mashed potatoes, followed by a desert of that same ice cream we had earlier; obviously, no one is losing weight on this trip), and then all of us younger ‘folk’ went outside in the front yard to play volleyball for a bit. We played boys versus girls and it was a mess for us girls (still hilariously fun and funny though)! Before everyone left, we had a quick meeting about tomorrow and then Cathy and I walked back to the orphanage. Then, I stayed up until like 11:15 (I know…) with the kids (specifically three of the girls; Claudita, Anna, and Adina) playing games and trying to learn some words when really, I was just trying to keep them quiet and get them tired! Claudita ended up crying as I left her room because she really wanted to sleep with me tonight. After a couple of minutes though, I think she just passed out. Tomorrow, I’ll be up around 8:30 or so helping out with breakfast here and then I can either head to the house for the morning meeting or just stay here until the rest of the group comes over since we’re spending the morning here at the orphanage. I think I’ll end up over at the house for a couple of minutes in the morning so I can help organize the supplies/materials that we’re bringing over here for these kids. After we spend some time here (which we’ve already decided includes a volleyball game on the real volleyball court outside), we’ll head back out to Rogova around 3:00 to be with the kids some more before the 5:00 service that we’ll have there tomorrow night, which is where the choir will sing (I think) and the kids will have a small mandolin performance.

On a more personal note, today I saw one of the girls (Cami) from a few years ago and she was noticeably different (personality wise). Cathy and I were talking about her on the way home because I few years ago, I bonded a lot with her older sister Daniella who is no longer around. If memory serves me correct, Daniella either witnessed her mother commit suicide or was the first to find her mother after it a few years ago. As a result of that, we think she just kind of tried to ignore or become numb to any pain and ended up kind of straying after my last visit. Apparently now, she’s in a relationship with an older guy who claims to be her husband and who we think beats her. As a result, she doesn’t come around or see Cami anymore. From all of that, Cami has become even more introverted and quiet and I can tell it’s going to take a bit of work to really connect with her like I did before. Cami now lives with her dad (who came back after her mother’s death) and her grandmother who is disabled (which is one of the reasons Daniella left, since she didn’t want to deal with that). It didn’t sound like it was that great of a situation and Cathy is doing everything she can to help Cami kind of stay on track and not end up like her sister. I can’t express how badly I wish I could just bring Cami back home with me. I’ve never wanted to bring any children back from any trips until now, and that’s mostly because a lot of the kids do have decent parents and a good support system here. With Cami, I feel like she could teeter on the edge at any moment and she just needs a supportive, loving, stable home life. Her story and who she is, is another example of why I do what I do. If I can keep in touch (which I can and have done through Cathy and Facebook) and keep coming back to Rogova (this obviously will not be anywhere near my last trip here), maybe it can give her some hope or some indication that there are other people who care about her too and want her to do well in life. Talking about her with Cathy also got me thinking about seeing if maybe they want to have like a mini-girls seminar or workshop here where I could talk to the girls about things like dating, education, pregnancy, etc. I’m going to talk to Cathy tomorrow to see if that is something they might be interested in throwing together while I’m here. I think it always helps for kids (both here and anywhere) to have positive role models share their experiences and knowledge in order to show them that they have options and choices in life even when they think they don’t.

So, that’s all for now. Another long post (sorry)! It’s already about 12:30 am here and I think I’m about to crash so I’m off to bed. I’ll leave you with a few phrases I learned today/tonight:

Fermosa – Beautiful

Neboona – Crazy (we were trying to figure out if we were being called this during the soccer game)

Um plache – I like it

Sti – Stop

Sti putseem – Wait

Dragootsa – Cute (when saying it to a female)

Fuerte bine – Good job

And I’m trying to learn my numbers and colors too…

Picture Update

Here are the pictures from Thursday in Lupsa.

Here are the pictures from Friday in Rogova (blog post will probably come Saturday morning).

Lupsa (First Day)

I am sitting here ready to read in bed after getting situated in the orphanage when I just realized that I hadn’t done my blog post yet. Whoops, especially since there is no wireless internet in the orphanage and I’ll have to post this in the morning when I go back to the house.

Let me start off today’s post with something terrible. I know that’s not a great way to begin but I’d rather get it out of the way now and then be able to end with the good stuff. If you don’t want to read about the abuse I witness today, skip to the next paragraph. It was towards the end of the day today in Lupsa (prob. around 4:30 or so) and the group left the feeding center to walk around the little village there. I stayed back to keep making some bracelets with the kids since there were only like 4 of them and they were older and well behaved. About 5 minutes after the group left for their walk, a man holding a long, narrow stick comes barreling through the feeding center door yelling at one of the girls sitting next to me (the girl was prob. 14./15 years old). Immediately, I knew what was going to happen. He came over to the end of the table, yelled at the girl some more, and after she dropped everything (like left the bracelet she was working on; didn’t even bother to put it in her pocket or anything) and took a few steps away from the table, the man (who I assumed was her dad) hit her back with the stick. All of us in the room kind of had our heads down (as did the girl who started crying on her way out), as if we knew that it was not our place to interfere. As they walked the rest of the way out, he hit her twice more on the back of her thighs and her back again. You could hear the crying and yelling for a few minutes after they left and I had to fight back the vomit and the tears myself from witnessing that. Abuse like that happens everywhere and I know that. But seeing it first hand and knowing that 1) it’s not your business and 2) culturally, things might be different here in regards to behavior like that, torn up a little piece of me inside. I had that kind of feeling of “let me just take this girl home with me” because you can just see the damage that does (and has prob. done) to her and how  it will affect her in the future. This incident was one of those experiences where the memory of it will be seared in my head forever and it reinforces any and all of the work I do in places like this. Even if we only see the kids for a day, they are getting love, compassion, respect, and unconditional care from us for just that little bit of time. You never know how that tiny effort will influence their lives and that makes everything worth it (always and without a doubt). So if anyone reading this ever wonders why I do what I do and why I do it in places like this, that’s why. It’s to touch a life for even just a handful of hours; to show these kids that there is more out there, that there is something or someone good in the world. To give just a little bit of hope where it’s needed the most…

Ok, I know that was tough and it’s time to move on and summarize the day, so let’s backtrack. I got up early this morning, realized no one was up yet, hung out in the hotel room for a bit and then went down for breakfast around 8:30. We sat in the outside patio area (that was apparently open to the public and popular with some locals) and ordered either menu item #1-5 or the continental breakfast. I got the continental breakfast which looked like this (I forgot “fried” eggs are really boiled eggs):

We left around 9:45, had an orientation (i.e., this is what Manna does and how they work in the world) meeting at the house, then emptied all the toy bags and tried to organize and divide them some,  and finally we left for Lupsa around 11:15. It was about an hour drive and when we got there, the younger kids were just starting to eat so we helped serve the food and then played with them afterwards. The teen boys on the trip had a great time with all the sports equipment (playing Frisbee, football, and soccer) outside while the rest of us did coloring and bead bracelets inside. I spent a lot of my time outside face painting (or trying to) where we were drawing dogs, cat faces, fish, hearts, flowers, and a bunch of other random stuff all over the kids’ arms. After the younger group left, the older group of kids came but there were only a handful for some reason. They ate and then we started doing more of the friendship bracelets and bead bracelets with them. In the afternoon, the group went on the aforementioned walk while I stayed back to play and clean up some and then we left around 5:30. On the way back to the house, we stopped by the church that is being built by the orphanage and met the kids from the orphanage who walked over to say hi while we checked out the construction. After being there for a bit, we went back to the house for dinner and relaxation. We hung around for a bit talking and some of the guys went outside to play or learn how to play hacky sack and then around 10:30, the all left to go back to the hotel and Cathy, Jerry and I walked over to move me into the orphanage. Now, it’s about 11:15 pm and I’ve gotten all settled in. I have my own room, bathroom, and a self in the closet and here are a few pictures:

It’s about a billion degrees in here so I propped the windows open and just realized that is letting mosquitos in. So, haven’t decided which I’d rather wake up to yet… mosquito bites from open windows or sweat from closed windows! Fortunately, those three years without A/C in Virginia toughened me up so a lack of air is nothing I can’t handle! I’ll prob. read for a little bit and then pass out. Tomorrow, I’m heading over to the house before 9:00 so I can eat breakfast there and then I’ll prob. walk to the Carrefour around the corner (like a Walmart) to pick up some water and whatever else I might need (or really, whatever else I can afford since I haven’t exchanged money yet and don’t have much left)! As a group, we’ll collect money and exchange it all at once tomorrow afternoon. Once the group comes to the house around 10:45, we’ll have another little meeting and then head to Rogova. I am so ridiculously excited to go back and I think I’ve gotten everyone else pretty hyped up too! We have more space to run and play outside so we’re all dressing in like workout clothes tomorrow since we’ll prob. all be running around! When we leave Rogova, the plan is to come back and hang out at the orphanage (as a group) with the 7 kids here for a bit. That’s pretty much all for now. Having a great time and I’m so excited that I’m staying longer. The kids at the orphanage will get their break from school on the 22^nd and after that, it will be busy and fun. Cathy wants to plan a hike or some type of outing like that for later so that we can give the house mother a break. All I said was, “Great! Put me to work!” So for now, noapte bunâ (goodnight)!

P.S. I just got up to close the windows because a mosquito kept buzzing in my ear (I got the sucker eventually) and I realized they have screens. There’s still one more mosquito that is fast and loud that I just can’t get yet….

P.P.S. The half-finished bracelet that girl who I mentioned earlier didn’t finish? I immediately tied it up and attached it to my wrist. One small, concrete way to remember what happened, as well as my purpose.

We've Arrived

So, it is probably a good thing that our days are so long because by the time I have time to sit down and blog at the end of the day, I have already forgotton about half of the things we did. This saves you a lot of boring reading I’m sure (I still feel guilty about yesterdays massive post... sorry!).

Today was long but not really. I'm happy that I spent the night in Amsterdam because I think it helped me recover a little better from my jet lag. I slept on and off last night (waking up like every 30 minutes to an hour) since my body was a bit off but I still got enough in. I left the hostel around 5:30 am to make sure I got on a train in time and had no problem getting back to the airport around 6:45. Since the flight wasn't until 9:15, I hung around at the gate and mostly just read for a bit. Of course, I should backtrack with the little bit of drama from this morning. When I first go to the airport, they were like, "oh, you don't have a seat because you were randomly selected to be placed on standby for the flight since it's oversold." After making it pretty clear that I needed to be on this flight in order to meet up with a group for an 8 hour bus ride, I managed to get a seat. Granted, it was right next to a fidgety baby and a guy who got away with smoking a smokeless/vapor cigarette thing for half the flight (until the flight attendant told him to stop), but whatever. Even though we were all on the same flight, I didn't meet up with the rest of the group until we hit the baggage claim and I'm happy to say that my bags arrived with no problem (I was anticipating something disappearing due to my long layover). We loaded up the bus pretty quickly and it is way nicer and bigger than the bus we had here last time. We got on our way around 2:30 and then stopped around 6:00 for a bathroom break (with a real toilet; no holes in the ground yet!). A little later we stopped here for dinner (yep, bet you didn't see that coming)!

Once we got back on the road, it wasn't much further. It seemed like a much less painful ride then the last time (it wasn't in the dark, the middle of the night, and Bruce wasn't there to say we were almost there every hour!). We got into Severin around 9:00 pm and stopped by Rica and Cathy's house for some cake and to make a plan for tomorrow. I found out that instead of staying in the orphanage next week, I'll be there starting tomorrow night. I was going to stay there tonight but it worked out for me to just stay in the hotel instead and I have to say, this hotel is nice. 

Even though it would be nice to stay here awhile, that's not why I'm here and I'm ready and excited to be staying in the orphanage this early. And.... there is a new Carrefour (like a Walmart) around the corner from the orphanage so I can maybe go buy some stuff for them if need be! That is awesome, being able to come up with a plan and then actually go get the materials/resources needed for it.

I think that's all for now. I don't know much of the group yet but I prob. will tomorrow morning when we have an orientation at 9:00 am. Then, we're heading off to Lupsa to help with lunch and play with the kids there. We'll be doing a bunch of craft stuff like we did last time so I'll have a little time in the morning to sort stuff out at the house before figuring out what to bring. It should be fun and I'll have an update tomorrow!

Pictures from Amsterdam 

Pictures from our ride to Severin

My Body Hates Me

Today (or really the past two days) have been long and eventful. Let’s start with the bad and end with the good (and tiring). Everything at DFW Monday afternoon was going smoothly with my first flight until we actually got on the plane. We were “grounded” due to bad weather in Memphis which meant that we got to sit on the plane at the gate for about 45 minutes until Memphis gave us the all clear to take off. I had a major freak out because I was just envisioning a domino effect of missing flight after flight after bus ride but my worrying was in vain. We landed in Memphis around 6:45 pm (my next flight was slated to leave at 7:25) and fortunately, I only had like 40 gates to go from one side of a terminal to another AND my second flight was pushed back until 7:50. On top of that delay, we actually didn’t even take off until about 8:15 since we were waiting on other passengers who were coming from delayed flights (so I probably would not have ever had a problem with the delay; now I know that they’ll hold an international flight when lots of people get delayed). The actual 8.5 hour flight to Amsterdam was super painless. Time flew by and it felt like it was only 4 hours or so. I chatted a bit with an Israeli my age sitting next to me but then he conked out for most of the flight and I read for 7 hours (and slept for only 1….). Amsterdam airport was a piece of cake and I was able to withdraw just enough Euros to get me through the day (I started with 70 and just have 5 left). I hopped on the train to Central Station (sans my suitcases; ends up my two big bags were checked straight through and then I locked my carryon in a baggage locker before going through the passport check; speaking of bags, only one of mine was overweight and the fee was only $75) and it only took about 15 minutes to get into town. From there, I began the walk of a lifetime (around 12:30 pm I think). I decided to just walk with my backpack too since I didn’t want to go a little out of the way to the hostel first. So (… I just had to go retrieve the map I used today in order to remember everything I did!...), I started with Dam Square and the Royal Palace. I walked down one of the major streets, stopped to take some pictures, and then thought “well, that wasn’t too far. Might as well walk the rest of the way down to the museums instead of taking the tram.” Remember how I mentioned that I have a perceptions problem in a previous post? That was confirmed (again today). It was about a 30 minute walk and even though I thought I’d get there quicker, it still wasn’t a big deal even with my backpack on (the weather was cool and I had sneakers on; can’t really go wrong there). I saw a bunch of museums (Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum, a concert hall) but didn’t go into any. I didn’t want to waste the money seeing things I wasn’t really interested in. The one museum that I really did want to see (Stedelijk, the modern art museum) was closed for remodeling until September. When I was done walking around that area, I thought about doing a canal tour but since I had already been walking around so much and I knew I would be walking more, I figured I had/would see everything anyway so I might as well save some money. After relaxing for a bit around the museums, I decided that I had a good amount of time left before my 6:00 pm Anne Frank House ticket to check in at the hostel and possibly see some of the sites around there. As I walked back towards where I came from, I walked through the Bloemenmarkt (the flower market) and then proceeded to get lost for about 10 minutes in the Red Light District. Yeah, I know. Best place ever to get lost. I finally found the hostel, got my bed and locker, laid down for about 2 minutes and then headed back out again. This time I headed east and went by the Jewish Quarter where I saw the Jewish History Museum and the Portuguese Synagogue. Then I backtracked through the Red Light District again to make my way to the Sex Museum which was near Central Station. Before I talk about that museum (which I actually went into), let me make a brief comment on the Red Light District. I was not surprised or shocked at all by what I saw. It was just like looking at a Victoria’s Secret ad in a window or on tv. I just walked through it and didn’t give it a second thought. Now, on to the Sex Museum. This museum claimed to present the history of sex. What I guess I missed somewhere in the advertisement was that the history is presented through pictures only. So, it kind of felt like €4 porn. There were hundreds of pictures of sex and very few explanations or descriptions or anything even remotely academic in nature. I was a little bummed because I was hoping for something new, fun, and different. I got done there around 4:00 pm (since I didn’t stay as long as I thought I would and the museum was tiny) and made my way over to the west part of the city where the Anne Frank house is. Since I had plenty of time, I decided to eat first rather than after my visit to the Anne Frank house. I went to Pancake Bakery and oh my goodness, it was delicious and ridiculous! I at the whole thing (more crepe than American-style pancake) even though I almost couldn’t because I was stuffed! I got done there around 5:00 and had an hour to kill before my “entrance” into the Anne Frank house. The line (which I didn’t have to wait in since I had a ticket already) was actually moving fast (like only a 20 minute wait) so after sitting out in the cold for 20 minutes, I went in and asked if I could just go in. They said sure and then I began probably the coolest thing I did today. The Anne Frank house was amazing! For some reason, I thought you could only see the bookcase door but not go further but I was totally wrong. You actually got to go into some of the spaces through the bookcase door. It was so cool to actually see the space and see the picture reproductions of what it looked like then.  I wish I could’ve taken pictures but it’s a policy not to in order to help preserve everything. Once I was done there, I was done. My body hurt so much by then and I was fighting to not collapse on the way back to the hostel (the area behind my left knee was going out, my right calf was burning, etc.). I made it back surprisingly quickly especially given how many times I got lost today (I had to walk around with my map out which I never do because all the streets curve and change names and I had no idea where I was half the time; I just knew the general direction I needed to go in and even that was wrong sometimes). So now, I’ve been here for about an hour (it’s 7:00 pm now) and I think I’m going to shower in a bit and then just read or fall asleep early tonight. Tomorrow, I think I’ll be leaving the hostel at 6:00 am (apparently, they can have my free breakfast ready early and to go which is pretty cool) in order to catch the 6:15 (or whatever time around then) train. I’ll make it back to the airport early, can get my final ticket printed, grab my suitcase and can meet up with the rest of the group who will probably either already be there or will be getting there right around the same time (from Detroit). I doubt I will get a post up tomorrow night because we get into Romania around 2:00 pm and then have a 7-8 hour bus ride to Severin. Last time I did this, it took like 10 hours and we didn’t leave the airport on time which caused us to get in at like 2:00 am. So, I’m just going to anticipate delays or tiredness now and we’ll just see what actually happens tomorrow.

Side note about the flights that I forgot… it’s a miracle that I didn’t throw up on the plane coming into Memphis. The whole last 30 minutes of the flight was spent in massive turbulence (like the flight attendants had to stay buckled in and passengers were smacking against seats). If I thought I got motion sick sometimes before, that was nothing compared to earlier today. Fortunately, I kept it all down but boy was it bad!

No pictures yet… the internet is way too slow and inconsistent here for me to get them uploaded. I could barely get on long enough to copy and paste this post from a word doc to my blog. L

Anne Frank House

I was just able to buy a ticket to the Anne Frank House for 6:00 pm! Yes!

Almost Out the Door

Well, I have to say that it's nice leaving in the late afternoon. I got up pretty early this morning, did a little bit of work (like job work), and then ran my remaining errands (like the bank, picking up the dry cleaning, etc.). I've been home since about noon and I've just been relaxing and planning my short stay in Amsterdam. So far, this is my planned itinerary (of course, knowing my luck with travel, I'll be massively delayed somewhere and this plan will get completely thrown out the window!):

1) Central Station to Museum Square (I don't think I'll go into any of the museums like Van Gogh or Rijksmuseum) but I'd like to see the area. I'll either take the tram almost directly or stop off first at the hostel I'm staying in to drop off my backpack.

2) Canal cruise through the city.

3) Take the tram from Museum Square to Dam Square/Royal Palace. Walk around there for a bit.

4) Walk from Dam Square to the Anne Frank House. I'm hoping that if I go late enough in the day, the line might go down (that's what my book says....).

5) Walk just up the street to the Pancake Bakery for dinner. I know, that menu looks delicious!

6) Walk back towards the hostel via the Sex Museum. Believe it or not, I'm going here to get some new information for one of my fall classes (e.g., history of sex, culture of sex). This place is open until late so it's a perfect last stop before returning to the hostel for some sleep.

I'll head back out to the airport on Wednesday morning around 6:00 am probably (which means I'll be up and making my way to the station around 5:30 am). That's way early but I have to go through the airport and deal with all my bags and that could take some time.

That is all for now! It's about 2:00 pm here and I'm just waiting for my ride to the airport at 2:45 (thanks mom!). At this time tomorrow, I will hopefully be doing a blog check-in before bed in Amsterdam (it's 7 hours later there; I'll be another hour later once I get to Bucharest). La revedere (goodbye) until then!