Camps
On the 11th of July, Alex and I went to a camp for a few days - Alex as a helper. The place is run by American missionary friends. They had invited us to help with VBS and camps last year, so this year we were excited for the experience.
We held our own first camp at the same place at the end of July for the children from the Jina church. We had 11 kids from Jina, one girl from another village, as well as Alex and me. The camp was only three days, yet none of the Jina children had ever been away from home that long before, and none had gone to camp prior to this experience. We played, sang and learned. Our family got to the camp the evening before to organize, and the next morning the kids came, together with a few adult helpers: three other missionaries from the area, and the mother of two of the kids from Jina. During those three days, we had English and music lessons, teaching sessions on the fruit of the Spirit, games, and ultimate fun. (pics)

The hill
We live on a hill. The ground is held in place by the trees that grow there, but to build our house we had to cut down some of them last year. So the hill lost some of the stability the roots of those trees had provided. In order to make sure the hill wouldn’t collapse on our house, we had to build a retaining wall, so we had an excavator come and dig in the back of our house both to prepare the yard for some pavement (we'd been dealing with a lot of dirt before) and to get a ditch ready to pour the foundation for the retaining wall. But after the ground was flattened, cracks formed in the hill above; when the ditch for the foundation started being dug, the hill slid downward, closing the ditch, with huge pieces of dirt falling especially on one side where the excavator had just dug out. Inside the house we felt the ground shaking. Mom wouldn’t let us go near the place, for fear that the earth would suddenly swallow us. Again the excavator dug, and again the earth collapsed into the hole. They had to take dirt from farther up the hill to provide a big enough slope to ensure that the dirt wouldn’t fall in again. Eventually we got the retaining wall in place, even if a bit closer to the house than we had intended...

This struck us all with a sense of awe: not of the hill, but of its Creator. God controls not only this, but every hill, valley, and mountain. He made and controls every single molecule in them. And yet He cares about someone so simple as me.

ID card
A week ago I got my ID card. I went to take my picture for it in July, before my birthday, but the office was closed to the public until the middle of August. They took my picture and made my “buletin”. Everyone who is 14 and up in Romania is supposed to have this picture ID card, because that’s the age that you can first go around by yourself. When I was going out, a lady grabbed my arm and told me, “You have your ID card. You are an adult now.” I guess that’s what they want us to think, but it’s really so people can identify me if I die!

Trans ... something, something
For Alex's birthday, we went on a road through the mountains. It took 7-8 hours, because we stopped to take pictures at certain points along the way. There are two different roads around us that you can drive on through the Carpathian Mountains: Transalpina and Transfăgărășan.

We went on part of Transfăgărășan a few weeks before this trip, but the views weren't as breathtaking. Actually, the thing I remember most about it was seeing tons of creatively decorated cars in a group driving from Western Europe all the way to Mongolia, so we happened to be on the route they took crossing Romania and going East. One of the cars had a boat strapped to its roof, with a guy sitting in it!

Transalpina yielded some awesome sights. For the first section, we drove slowly upwards and passed two huge dams. At last, we were on the tops of the mountains we'd seen from a distance. We stopped every now and then at rest stops to take pictures. And when I say "rest stops", don't imagine something like a gas station with a bathroom. No, these rest stops are clearings on mountain ridges where people set up large stalls to sell things! Some sell food, like cheese or pastries, and some sell souvenirs made in Romania such as hats, rugs, and decorations. The journey through Transalpina took us through at least 4 districts (Romania has about 40 districts / larger counties).
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School... Work
In my last post, I described school like this: "School is great, because it's over." I would rephrase that now as "School is great, because it started again." And that's where I am...

Alderfers/Wolfingers:
What a joy it was to have the Alderfers and the Wolfingers visit us a few weeks ago. And, as in all cases, the time passed like the blink of an eye. That week was the best in the year.
                As soon as joyful greetings and hugs were exchanged, they told Alex and me to open up a few suitcases, which were full of gifts from the U.S., mostly food. I felt overwhelmed at how many things were there, and at how many people had thought of us and given freely. I would like to thank everyone who sent things to us. It made me miss you all more.
                On Tuesday the Alderfers and Wolfingers planned a graduation party for Alex, complete with cards, gown, plates, and all. We sent Alex with the men (or should I just say “we sent the men”? I think Alex would like that) off to work at Jina while we prepared a cake and decorated. He had no idea. Up until a few months from now, we had all thought we would go to the U.S. for Alex’s graduation next year; but ever since we found out he would graduate early, that put some change in our plans. I think it was special for him, coming home, tired from working, to a party thrown in his honor. He even put together a funny impromptu speech thanking everyone. I was proud of him, but it also made me feel old. My brother just graduated from high school!
                The next two days were our trip to Bucharest, the capital of Romania (and a couple of places on the way). I’ve been told I visited Bucharest before, in 2005, but I don’t remember it at all. When people find out I live in Transylvania (a district way more popular than its own country), usually the first question I get asked is, “Are there any vampires?” I can now say that I visited Dracula’s Castle, and no, there are still no vampires. We visited another castle, called Peleș Castle, and stayed at Timoteus Biblical Universty overnight.
                On Friday night, Mrs. Wolfinger and Auntie Gerri had a Cupcake Night for the women of the church in Jina. I don’t think any of them had ever eaten a cupcake before, so it was a new experience and a sweet ;) metaphorical lesson. And, of course, the cupcakes were delicious.

Death By Ciorbă:
                One of Mom’s attempts to integrate the Romanian culture into us is by making ciorbă. There are two kinds of soup in Romania: Supă and ciorbă (SOUP-uh and CHOR-buh). Supă is like American chicken soup, and ciorbă is any kind of vegatable soup. I love supă, and I like some kinds of ciorbă. But on one particular day, Mom made ciorbă with all kinds of veggies inside: celery, potato, carrot, zucchini, peas, and more :P. Some were chopped, and some were cut into small pieces. I had no doubt it was nutritious, but my taste buds obviously didn’t take that into consideration.
                Usually I can make ciorbă taste better by adding some sour cream, so I tried that. I accidentally dumped too much in, so now the soup tasted like veggie sour cream. Then my parents gave me some motivation: cake. I guess you all know what happened to the ciorbă after that. Like my dad said in his presentation two years ago: Romanian cake is worth crossing the ocean for.

School:
School is great, because it’s over (mostly). Alex and I only have some reading and Romanian to do over the summer. Romanian is becoming gradually easier. I still can’t understand sermons or speeches without help—because constant translation in my head is not that easy when my Romanian vocab is still limited—but I can manage in conversation, especially if the other party does most of the talking ;).
This past week was a busy one. We had VBS at Jina on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and then we went to a Pastor-and-family conference.
 
VBS:
This year, I accompanied the songs for VBS on the piano, and Alex on the guitar. Afterwards, I was Dad’s little (big?) helper with game time. Everyone loves that part of VBS. The older kids, and leaders especially, were very competitive. Dad had the leaders play too, sometimes—something some of them hadn’t done in years.
This year the theme for VBS was “Cartea Fară Cuvinte” or, The Wordless Book. We got supplies from AMEC (CEF): lessons and songs, mainly. I remembered singing the Wordless Book song in Sparks, so I noticed that in this program, the Wordless Book started with gold/yellow (heaven), while the version I knew starts with black and puts yellow in the middle of the Book. Alex and I learned the songs provided: they were easy and fun, especially when our parents sang along to practice. Each child, in crafts, got to make a wordless book, adding more on for each day. Finally this morning in church we put on a PowerPoint with pictures of the kids, and did a little program with verses and songs for the parents. (I say “we”, but it was basically Alex who put the PowerPoint together.)

Conference/retreat:
We went for a 3-day conference for pastors in the Sibiu Baptist Association (around  80 churches) and their families. It was about 3 hours away, in a district of Romania populated mostly by Hungarians. Many of the signs include both Romanian, and Hungarian. The retreat had sessions taught by Americans, but they were mostly for the adults (ministry, family, ...), so Alex and I mostly played games outside with some English-speaking friends.

     Since tap water is not that safe here, we drink and cook mostly with spring water---from the side of a mountain. Dad, Alex, and I went this past Friday (Jan 2) to fill up all our bottles with this spring water. 
     We drove around the mountains (about 10 miles from my grandparents' house) with truly breathtaking sights. Fresh snow that we had gotten over the past couple of days added to the effect.
     When we arrived at the spring, we saw two pipes coming out of the rock at the base pf the mountain, with water continually flowing from them. Underneath was a hole for water to drain, and a board on top to place the bottle on. We filled up about 30 gallons in all, so it took a fair amount of time, but it was a fun and exciting new experience! 

     Goodbyes are always hard. They were especially hard since I was bidding goodbye to the people and places that I had grown up around and just taken for granted would always be around me. 
     Nevertheless, I was excited about the trip. The plane ride was amazing, though I was sad watching my last view of America fade. 
     When we landed in England, we were worn out and tired. We tried to catch a few precious moments of sleep in the busy airport. I almost forgot--listening to those accents was great!
     The second plane ride was much shorter. We could see the path of the airplane on screens, but best of all was looking out of the window as we neared Romania. The tops of the highest Carpathian Mountains' peaks stuck out of the blanket of white clouds. 
     In no time, the ride was over and we were already landing. The first thing that I saw outside was the Romanian flag, waving in the wind. I was a little nervous, meeting relatives that I don't remember. Our uncle drove us from the airport. Wow, did we sleep! When we weren't in the Land of Nod, it was exciting looking out of the windows. Night started to descend as we traveled to our new home.
     Over the next few days, I noticed many differences between Romania and America. If anyone walks along the street, it would be amazing if he did not see at least one dog. Stray dogs are abundant here, and they may follow people (looking for food!) and occasionally bite them. 
     Living in the city in general is different. Along the sidewalk, there are huge gates connected to the sides of the houses that face the street. Usually, to get inside, there is a smaller opening that people walk through to get inside their yards. Often there are more buildings / homes behind the one that faces the street. Behind these are gardens, barns, sheds, and animal pens - my grandparents keep chickens.
     Some of the roads here are nothing but mud and rocks. Walking on them... when it is raining... with my church shoes on---not a very good combination! Once we were driving on a "main road" in a village and saw two cows lumbering along, in the middle of the road! My uncle jokingly asked if any of us would like hamburgers.
     One of the things that I will most definitely miss are "No Smoking" signs. Besides the airport (which is in the capital) I have not seen any such signs! Every government building that we entered smelled of smoke, because the people working there smoked constantly on the job!
    I was surprised the first time I went into the grocery store close to where we live. It is a big store compared to the ones that line the streets. Anyway, this grocery store has at least two security guards patrolling inside!
    An obvious change that I had anticipated, but had not thought would be this hard, was the language. When we first arrived, I thought I understood so much! But I had yet to learn that it is not that easy. Day after day, in social situations (especially church) people would recognize my parents and talk to me in Romanian. It is very awkward to say, "I don't know what you're saying" in English to someone who doesn't understand what I was saying!
    Churches was a major change. In most Romanian churches, women sit on one side, and men sit on the other. Older women usually wear a head covering. Also another note for women: when going to most church services (especially on Sundays), you must wear a skirt or dress! Services on Sunday mornings are 3 hrs, and evening 2 hrs; other services (such as Christmas day, or second day of Christmas, services are 2 hrs as well. What impressed me about the church, though, was the devotion and offerings of the young people. Young men around 20 or so stand up and give short sermons. Little children (from about 3-12) prepare a song to sing together, and sometimes a verse or poem. The choir sings regularly. 
    Well, Alex and I went to youth group for the first time and I was amazed at how different it was. Everyone gathered in the sanctuary, and started out with announcements. They asked a little about us, and sang songs. Then leader quizzed everyone and they had to answer word-for-word a random verse from a passage (about a chapter) they were supposed to memorize. All the youth stood up to pray, and each one of them prayed.
     The Carpathian Mountains look so close, especially when it is snowing on them. If I want to see them, I can just walk right outside of the house! 
   In the main square of Cisnadie (the town where we live) stands the biggest Christmas tree in Romania. Apart from the big cathedral opposite from it, that tree is the tallest thing in town (at 41 meters, we are told it is the second tallest Christmas tree in Europe). 
     Since my grandparents own chickens, we get to eat some fresh meat. One morning Mom called Alex and me to watch Bunica (grandma) kill a rooster for dinner. Alex watched the actual thing... I couldn't. But we all helped pluck its feathers. Negruț, the cat, watched all the while, meowing for some meat.
          A wonderful thing here is the food - especially the desserts. There is always homemade jam in stock, and because it is Christmas time, cakes are abundant. The slogan is "Please, eat more!"