Story Time!

Hello again from Iasi! First let me say that this will be a long post. I have so much to recount, so much to share. Consider yourselves warned :)

This week, oh where to start? I finally began work at St. Andrew's/Section 2! Section 2 is an orphanage, where the majority of kids have handicaps or disabilities, but apparently here they feel the term "orphanage" carries a derogatory tone, so we call it Section 2. Anyway, we finally went for the first time on Wednesday and were given a tour. On Thursday we began our work. It was wonderful to finally meet the kids, they are the reason I am here, and I feel so much overwhelming love for them. There have been BYU students working at Section 2 for almost ten years now, with the exception of the last 4 months because of some changes BYU was making. Long story short, I felt like a million bucks when th e kids greeted us with so much enthusiasm. There are four of us working there, and we are each assigned to a specific room where we will be working. But on the first day we were able to spend time in every room to get a feel for where we'd like to be placed permanently and let me tell you, that was a tough choice to make. There's "Isolation" where the babies are (and there are so many that two of the four of us will work there), then "Mickey Mouse" and finally "Bambi." That first day was so hard on me though, seeing any child with a handicap is difficult, and there's just no way to give every child the attention they need. But we do our best. I almost broke down a few times as I was working with the babies in isolation though. I was holding one little newborn who was screaming and while trying to comfort her, three others began t o cry too (which I think may have been my fault, I was singing to the little girl in my arms). I was trying to comfort them, cradling the girl in my arms while bending over the other cribs too, to give attention and soothing to the other babies and I felt such a weight. It was such a difficult thing for me, but I know that I'm no superwoman and so I did the best I could. And of course there's no need to dwell on the hard parts, that first day of work was w onderful :) After we all talked it was decided that I would work with the Bambi kids (the boys specifically), who are anywhere from around 15 months to 8 years old. These are actually the highest functioning kids in Section 2, and I'm so excited to really develop a relationship with these kids. Plus it really pushes me to work on my language skills even harder, because when a three year old comes to you and with a huge grin asks you a question or points to something, it's pretty humbling and embarrassing to have no idea what they are saying. I've got a few things up my sleeves though :) they understand when I say "Hai, la mine!" Come to me! or "Unde i gura, unde este ochii?" Where is your mouth? Where are your eyes? or even "Nu fii rau, hai, te rog dat mingea la mine" Don't be mean, hey please bring the ball to me. And they know what I'm saying! Woohoo! Sometimes I do pretty well and I'm always learning. It's going to be great!

Another fun adventure of the week. We learned how to make a traditional Romanian dish from Mihai called Ardei Impluti (Ar-day oom-ploots) or in other words, stuffed peppers! Man, they were so good! We got all of the ingredients together and went to the villa to use the kitchen there. Just getting the ingredients was an adventure. Ha as you can sort of see in the picture below, we didn't know how to get ground beef because the market where we can normally get it was already closed, so after struggling to communicate to the lady behind the counter that I wanted "normal ground vitel" ha..."Am o intrebare, voi aveti umm...normal....vitel?" we finally gave up and just bought some sausage looking stuff that was beef and pork. Abby and I are taking apart the sausages below :)

And here's Erika and Mihai working on the sauce...

Drum roll... the finished product! Ardei Imputi! Served with bread and sour cream. Good stuff.

And the last story for today... I hope I haven't put you to sleep quite yet! Last night (Saturday) Ally and I went out with Aurelia (our friend from the branch) and her friend Daniel. They took us on their own little tour of Iasi. Daniel has a car so we were able to go farther from our apartment than we ever have before. Part of that was a visit to Copou Parc, the largest park in the city. Once again I recognize how I am not a city person. My favorite thing about New York City? Central park! City life has been fun, and certainly an adventure, but oh how I love the trees and the natural beauty of the world. The park is seriously packed with trees, and all sorts of lovely things.

Here is a picture of Ally, Aurelia and I in front of a beautiful monument (just one of many).
P.S. Look how long my hair is getting!!!!!

After driving through the city some more (which is an adventure in itself...seriously), we drove up out of city onto one of the "mountains" cough...cough...surrounding Iasi and I had an experience I will never forget. Iasi is a religious center for so many people and it is surrounded by monasteries. This was one such monastery, and it absolutely took my breath away. The central building was surrounded by a stone wall and this...

Every once in a while as I'm walking on the street, going to pick up groceries or whatever else it hits me. I'm in Romania! In Europe... I'm halfway around the world in a place so different from home. WOAH. This was yet another one of those moments, and I finally think I truly understand the draw of Europe. Yes, you read correctly on the sign. Built in 1669, this entire place was the perfect example of the beauty in history.

The chanting and singing of the monks filled the air as we walked up to the central monastery. It was an incredible sight. This is where the pictures end, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but even the doorway is breathtaking!

As we walked inside I had chills cover my entire body. Really, words can hardly express the many emotions that filled me as we entered. You could feel the sense of reverence, you could feel that people had worshiped in this place for centuries. Every inch of the walls and ceilings were covered in cracked and fading fresco paintings of saints and so many other beautiful things. Being in that building and feeling the reverence there filled me once again with thoughts of my love of religion, and what it does for people. The other day in Section 2 we were lucky enough to see a baptism of the same little baby I wrote about earlier (I can't use her name, for confidentiality reasons). I was so excited to witness that, it was something I've never seen before. And though it was strange and new to me, it was beautiful to behold. You see, over time I've learned that I am really a very religious person. Worship in almost any form is something that I love and respect. I know for a fact that if I wasn't a member of the Latter-day Saints I would still be a Sunday church goer. Yet always I feel as I'm watching others worship in their way that there is something missing. This baby, this beautiful child was being baptized, but before that could happen they needed to "cast out the spirit of the devil" and did a series of chantings etc. to do so. Although I understand, it's incredible to see so clearly how the truth has been so misconstrued after centuries of apostasy. There are pieces, bits and pieces of the truth and every time I see this I'm so grateful to have a full knowledge of Christ's church. Needless to say this Romania experience so far has made me want to serve a mission more than anything ever has before. But, I digress.... :) The monastery was incredible and I absolutely loved it there. I really think I could have sat there for hours, in this place where so many sought to find God for so many years.

Well, that's it for today! I really could go on for so long about so many things, but those are the most important things I wanted to share today. I love and miss you all! Seriously...there are so many things I've taken for granted in my life, but I'm grateful to be learning and growing here.

Cu drag!

Here Comes the Sun....?

About a month or so ago I was having an argument with a friend about how cloud cover keeps temperatures warmer. All I can say is, it feels good to be right! Saturday morning we woke up so excited, the sun had come out! It was the first time I'd seen any blue sky in Romania and we were so excited. So we headed out to take pictures and just get out of the apartment. I was outside for about five minutes and couldn't handle it any longer! Here's a picture that Ally took of me, seriously frozen with a tiny scarf. After going back to the apartment and loading up on layers (the works, including long underwear!) here I am much happier in the same spot (that's our apartment building right behind me). But even with all of those layers, I still could only handle a little walk.

Since then it's only gotten worse. We are experiencing the coldest temperatures in 15 years, and the warning color is orange. Orange!! They say you should only go out for necessities, food and water. Current temperatures are around -18 degrees and will reach almost -30 tonight. I have never felt cold like this before! This morning walking to church...oh wow it was crazy. Frozen nose hairs are only the beginning. The cold bites into you, every step I took it felt like tiny needles were stabbing my ankle bones. And get this; when the cold air hits my face my eyes water and I cry. It's been that way my whole life, only here it's the worst thing that could happen! The tears literally froze to my face this morning, and I had ice droplets on my eyelashes that I went and picked off in the mirror in the church. Talk about crazy! Remind me why I came here in the winter again? Nah, it's an adventure and now I'll forever be able to say that I've experienced weather so cold that when you look into the sunlight you can see the ice crystals in the air. It's beautiful, but a bit hard to appreciate when you can't ignore the fact that it's hard to tell anyone because your face is frozen. Good times! Oh, and the pack of dogs that walked to church with us this morning was pretty exciting too. No joke, there were at least 14 dogs! But that's another topic for another day. I'll post some more pictures soon :)

Cu drag!

Lost in Iaşi

I got lost in this city today, literally and figuratively :). It snowed all day, and look how beautiful!


Life continues to be an adventure here in Iasi! We've all been pretty laid back so far this week, just basically wandering the streets when we want to and working on homework at the apartment when we're not too restless. Basically we're all waiting for confirmations to begin working in our respective areas (St. Andrew's orphanage for me). I should hopefully begin work there by Friday! Cross your fingers. Until then I'm enjoying a lot of freedom in my days and the chance to get a lot of things checked off of my to do list!

I have learned an important thing about myself, I am definitely a morning person! Yesterday was a good day, but it took a long time to become one. Want to know why? I woke up at about ten thirty! I hate that! It doesn't matter how late I get to bed (which was too late on Sunday, my bad) I still need my morning time, especially when I'm constantly with 5 other girls in tight quarters. So for much of yesterday I was inexplicably quiet and felt sorta grumpy. It was frustrating for me. I think it's the idea that half of my day is now gone, just wasted. With this realization so many things now make sense! Long story short, this morning when I woke up at 6:30 and had a couple of marvelous hours of "me time" and a fresh start I finally understood just how important that time is for me. Guess that's what having a morning paper route for seven years does to you :)

So back to current events, yesterday we spent most of the day with the missionaries as they went shopping for their p-day. They showed us how to use the tramvai (basically like trax) and we had lunch at an Italian restaurant. It was lot's of fun!
You have to punch your ticket every time you climb on, that's what Abby is doing on the left.

Mmm... Ravioli. I love the girls I'm living with, but three of them are only veggie girls and I am definitely not...yup definitely not. There was beef in my ravioli and I was happy :)


It was sad to say goodbye to Sora Olsen, just right as we've had the chance to bond. She's on her way to Bucharest now so we'll see who replaces her. She and Sora Jones came and said goodbye today and after a lot of chatting and picture exchanging we took a few more goodbye pictures. Here's just a couple for ya. I love the sisters :)



I love how Kasey is looking at Sora Olsen in this one. She's the one in the back in the middle. Awesome... :)

Today Ally and I ventured out on our own, and it was a blizzard pretty much all day. We searched for a random place to buy lunch and found this adorable little shop. I can feel myself overcoming my barrier with the language, which is exciting! No, I haven't magically learned to speak fluently, I just think I've been humbled enough now that I'm not really afraid to say what I can and smile and say "nu inteleg" when I don't know what people are asking. Oh yes, and I thought I'd grown out of my clutzy stage but I may have reverted back. Sigh...On Sunday I slipped and obtained a few impressive bruises from the ice, I disjointed my pinky finger that night too. I do not want to be known as the clutz like I was as a teenager (hey I'm in my 20th year). I fell a few times today though too, I'll be careful. Ally and I laughed our heads off telling each other "ai grijja!" (be careful) as we wandered. Today as a whole has been wonderful, and cold! The high for tomorrow is 19 degrees F. That's not including the wind chill...mi-e foarte frig! I love it though, and I love the city (me? Love a big city?! That's such good news!). It was our first day out on our own without any assistance though, and I felt so empowered doing everything on my own, even if Ally and I did get a bit lost and I lost my camera case and extra battery...nuts. Worse things have happened though. Well, that's about all I have! Or at least, I just need to go to bed. Noapte buna :)

Cu drag!

Sigh... I love Sundays!

Seriously, if every day of the week could be Sunday I would love that. I know, I know, work must be done and I'm sure in a world full of Sundays I would get restless and need to put myself to a task. But this day is such a blessing for me. I got to go to church in Romania for the first time!! It was wonderful, and I actually did better with the language than I thought I would. I'm not sure how today was different. Maybe I know the topic of discussion better, maybe they were speaking mai rar (slower). But my guess is that I prayed for help, and it was mercifully given. It was so fun for me, in Relief Society the ladies are so talkative and fun and as I worked to understand I could even laugh and follow along as they made jokes. Thankfully I had a sister missionary sitting next to me, and when I didn't understand a certain word I could lean over and whisper and she helped a ton. Her name is Sister Olson, she is so great. She's probably getting transferred this week. Sad. I still can't figure out how I know her, but when we met for the first time we both said "Man! How do I know you?" Someday I'll figure it out. If any of you know a Sister Olson serving in Romania please speak up! She's been out for about 6 months now. Here we all are in front of the villa, where the branch meets. It's not the entire building, just the second floor.

From left to right: Abby, Erika, me, Allyson, Sora Olson, Kasey, Christine, and Sora Jones

Anyway, back to church! There were 24 people in sacrament meeting, so take out the six of us, plus the 4 missionaries and you've got about 14. They are strong people though, and happy. I was nervous that I would feel silly to sing out during the hymns, I really didn't know what to expect in that area. I was so happy to discover that they sing the hymns with gusto here in Romania and I was able to sing out all I wanted. I love to speak the words, it's such a beautiful language. So, add music to the mix and I was pretty much in heaven! Church in general was very rewarding and I can't wait for next week. I do get nervous about upholding the idea of the "BYU girls" that this branch has. There hasn't been anyone here from BYU for five months or so, and the missionaries told us just how much everyone has just been waiting and waiting for us to come. It's wonderful to feel their excitement about us, and I am anxious to as a group keep that "spirit that the BYU girls bring" in full force. I hope I can do my part and be a strength. And I have so much fun with some of the members already. There's Aurelia (aka JLo as she sometimes introduces herself) and Florentina, and many others. Long story short, I loved it today. I'm so grateful for Biserica lui Isus Hristos A Sfintilor din Zilele din Urma.

Sorry, last one today I promise...

Abby just posted pretty much all of our pictures so far on facebook. So maybe that will be easier to see than to look up Erika's blog. Ha, keep in mind Abby is a free spirit and she likes to play (as evident by some of the comments she has on the pictures) I feel silly assuming that you even care or that anyone even reads this :) but just in case...there you go!

FYI

I know this seems silly, but I'm still new to this blogging thing and it takes me longer than I'd like. So if any of you are interested in seeing more pictures or hearing more about life for us in Iasi, you can certainly go see one of my roommates blogs. www.mybyu.blogspot.com It's Erika's and she is great at posting tons of pictures and tales of our adventures. Thought you might like to know! You'll hear more from me sometime soon though. Yup, that's all I have to say!

Culture Shock...for real people.

So, here we are sitting in the living room discussing how best to deal with the difficulties that we all face with our research and culture shock etc. It's such a real thing! Christine commented that she thought "I'll be the one in a million who isn't affected by it" and we all just laughed. There is no way it can be avoided, although it still hasn't hit me like a sledge hammer quite yet. Wait, I take that back, the first day it kinda did. Since then however, I seriously have found myself adjusting. The first day I felt so much irritation with things. Just to give some background knowledge they say that there are four generally accepted stages of culture shock: honeymoon, irritation, gradual adjustment, and biculturalism. Now, these are not set in stone. They can easily interchange, but they help to outline the feelings one has. Stage 2 happened for me at first. The toilet and fridge don't work. Everywhere smells weird, there's no microwave (I need my beans!!), everything is different. Now I feel as though I'm entering the honeymoon stage :) I got excited about the prospect of figuring out how to heat the leftover pasta, and the eggs here are so fresh and delicious!! I love the branch members already, and I've only been to the villa (where the branch meets) twice. Yesterday we went for a game night, and tonight we went to institute. I love listening to the language and although I can only understand the gist of things I love the excitement I feel when I understand. It's silly that I've only been here two days and can already tell how hard it's going to be for me to say goodbye in three months. I had another exciting find today, we met a friend in the branch named Mihai who speaks perfect English and is really helpful to all of us. We asked him, and it sounds like he's got some extra time and he'll be happy to either translate or help me find someone who can for me. Words cannot express how much that lifts a burden for me. Being here is intimidating and finding a friend is marvelous. Seriously though, I am really excited tonight for the adventures that are waiting for me. Tomorrow we are going to go map out the city and traipse around town, which will be fun, and cold! It's snowed every day since we flew in, but I love the snow as always. It makes everything pretty :) Need proof? Heres the view from our apartment the other night, the Christmas lights are still up...

Anyway, back to culture shock. There is no way to avoid it, but I went a bit backwards, and stage 1 is feeling great! Here's my first golgosi (goalgosh) from the street vendor. It's a yummy dessert, kind of like a donut/scone but even better. SO GOOD!

Our taxi to the mall to go on a shopping spree (for groceries, don't worry Mom)...

More than anything and despite the shock I'm dealing with, I'm learning to just figure things out and find a way when a challenge arises. No fridge? Well who needs one when you've got a window sill? :)


Today I'm feeling good and to the future I say "Da, eu pot!" (Yes, I can!...no reference to President Obama...it bugs that he stole that phrase).

Cu drag!

Day One in Romania!

Hello to anyone who reads this! I have now made it safely to Romania, and am still working really hard to adjust. No doubt this will now top my list as the biggest challenge I have ever had in life, it's already begun. I'm sure it will also be added to the top as one of the most rewarding and growth filled experiences as well. I feel as though I understand the challenge of serving a mission so much more, plus I really can't complain with what I've been given here (or I won't :), I'm actually positive that I could). Anyway, I'll stop rambling on about things like that. It was a great trip here, I love flying! Although admittedly the nine hour flight was rough. I was so excited to be on my way though! There is no doubt that I am on the other side of the world, it's SO different here! Ha, and I thought I'd be able to speak at least a little Romanian but I didn't consider the fact that attempting to say something in front of a pure blood Romanian man at the tiny Iasi (pronounced yash) airport would be so intimidating! He knew I was American obviously, and I just couldn't get a "buna" or "multumesc" out at all because I felt so silly. Courage to do that will come to me hopefully the next time I go out :) Anyway, long story short here I am halfway around the world. This is going to be quite the adventure!! Here you are, a few pictures of the adventure so far.

On my way! Goodbye Salt Lake.....

Goodbye good ol' Wasatch Mountains....

Hello Austrian Alps!!!!!!!

Holy Cow...We're in EUROPE!

We then took this small plane (with propellers!) to Iasi!

So we made it safely, and just getting to the apartment felt like an adventure in itself. The apartment is great. Complete with a mattress on the floor, one bed, and a couch. The six of us make it work :) I'll have to get pictures for y'all (I hear this a lot these days thanks to Erika and her southern ways) of the apartment some other time.

Living in a foreign country requires courage in many ways...look at the size of that plunger! Don't be grossed out, but my hand was not dry after that picture was taken.

More to come!

Cu drag.