Flying By

Yet another week has flown by. "They" say that the older you get, the faster time goes. So apparently I am VERY, VERY old because time seems to fly by these days!

I don't really have much to say today. The last week has consisted mostly of meetings and bonding time with my computer and the photocopier. Not the most fun days, but really the meat of my life! Too bad you only read about the "fun days" here.

The most exciting thing that I have done this week is bake cookies. LOTS of cookies. Now my freezer is full and ready for summer. Hurrah for summer! (And, hopefully, a little less bonding time with my computer!)

As Promised

Amazing

As I was driving home from Arad on Monday (a 6 hour drive), I spent some time thinking about how privileged I am and how many things I take for granted. I have so much to be thankful for, and I often don't even realize it. This line of thought was prompted by the opportunity to visit Vienna this weekend with some friends. Really...who gets to just drop everything and visit Vienna for a weekend? Not most girls from Grand Rapids! I don't spend a lot of time or space on this blog with either serious writing or "devotional" writing - but I do want to encourage you to stop and think about all of the good gifts that our Heavenly Father showers us with. I had to stop and realize that I really am a spoiled brat, often wanting what I want and ignoring the good gifts I've been given. Ungrateful. Unthankful. Lord, change my heart.

For the first time since I bought this camera, I filled up the memory card (this is not due to the fact that I take few pictures, but to the fact that I almost always have my computer with me and download from the camera frequently!). Just a few pictures for now...maybe more to come later. The one above is actually a composite of 4 pictures of Schonbrunn Palace, the former summer home of Austrian royalty. The next two shots are of the "backyard" of Schonbrunn.




Also in the "backyard" is the Schonbrunn Zoo, "one of the world's oldest and most modern zoos." It was founded in 1752. A little bit different from the zoo I visited last weekend...


The jellyfish tank under black lights.


The giant panda exhibit is huge. Yummy bamboo.

More later...

My hero

After a weekend spent with the teenagers, this is my new hero. Or, at least, the "one" to whom I bear a striking resemblance.



I'll refrain from posting (or even taking) any pictures, but suffice it to say, yes, I am red, and yes, that hurts. The sun and I have a love/hate relationship...I love the sun (at least when I am inside), and the sun pretty much always hates me.

The youth group from a church in Alba Iulia came to visit with our teens this weekend, so we spent all day Saturday outside. The original plan included a picnic and hike in the woods. What actually ended up happening was several hours of sports, hanging out, taking walks, etc. where there was no shade. So, while I was thinking bug spray, what I really needed (and obviously did not have) was sunblock. At least I can say that I got the first "good" sunburn of the season out of the way!

Where's the Self-Respect?

On Sunday afternoon, we went to the zoo with the teenagers from church. I have to ask...where's the self-respect? Seriously, these animals are pathetic.


First, there are the monkeys who will take sunflower seeds straight out of your hand (ok...that's probably not too unusual). But then...,


...there's the buck who will walk straight up to you as long as you wave some leaves at him (forget the fact that he is surrounded by trees with leaves in his reach).


And what self-respecting lion willingly shares his cage with a dog? Although rumor has it that he is regularly fed the stray dogs picked up on the streets around town...


At least the tiger seemed to keep a bit of her self-respect. Like any good cat, she was napping away the afternoon. We figure she earned the right to do so since she had just given birth to 3 little tiger cubs the day before. If you look closely at the second picture, you can see one of them nursing and the other two up near mama's front paw.

Just what you always wanted to know!

I occasionally "browse" through the online version of The Nine O'Clock, an English language newspaper here in Romania. Most of the content is (bad) translations from a variety of Romanian newspapers. And every once in a while I learn something interesting...

Tonight I was reading an article about the town of Sinaia(really more of an extended travel advertisement), and I learned that President Gerald Ford was here in Romania the day that I was born. For your reading pleasure -

"If you travel by train, the first contact you will have will be with the Station. It is one of the places with an important historical past. The first one was built by the Demeter Cartner company in 1913 and the second one a little later and was exclusively reserved fro the Royal House and its guests, such as foreign heads of state. On the platform of the Sinaia train station you will find a commemorative plaque for the Romanian prime minister I. G. Duca who was murdered by the Romanian Iron Guard in 1933 here. The death of the Romanian high official could be easily turned into a crime film script. Immediately after election, Duca was mysteriously summoned to Sinaia to see King Carol II. He caught the first train without being aware of his assassins’ travelling in the next carriage. In Sinaia his talks to the king was reduced to two hours as the PM was needed back in Bucharest on the 9:15 PM train. At about 8:30 PM, I. G. Duca was informed that his train had been delayed for more than an hour. At 9:30 PM, while he was walking to the official carriage, a cracker was fired in front of him, and it caused a blast. In the panic of the moment, Iron Guard activist Niki Constantinescu tapped him on the shoulder and than fired five bullets into the back of his head. Duca died instantly. The first one to run away was exactly the man who had the task of guarding the President of the Council of Ministers. Niki Constantinescu immediately put his hands up and surrendered himself.

Apart from this episode, the place is an important stop, the halt of the Orient Exprses or Arlberg express in the beginning of the century. As for the Royal Station standing a few tens of metres away, it was built after the plans of architect Duiliu Marcu in 1939. It is a stone building in the Romanian style that used to carry the royal signs of Kind Carol II at the time. The building was designed in such a way as to accommodate the entire royal train. In front of the station there is a large square where the heads of state would be greeted. The central hall of the station accommodates a mural painting (5,50 x 5,50 m) representing a noble wild bore hunting scene with eight characters riding horses, in natural sizes, with an inscription in Latin: Basarab Voievod 14th century.

The station continued to be used during the communists as well. A presidential train took US President Gerald Ford and Nicolae Ceausescu to Sinaia, on August 6, 1975. The Royal train station is not open for the public."
by George Grigoriu

www.nineoclock.ro