My Precious

I've been looking for a new perfume since the beginning of September (haven't had one I like for several years). I found one toward the end of September, but it was expensive...way more than I was willing to pay. But, it went on sale for Christmas a few weeks ago, and I snaped it up.

Here it is, "Precious" by Oriflame (a Swedish cosmetics company).



Can I tell you a secret? Although I love the perfume, the bottle makes me chuckle almost every time I see it. See the "design" on the top? It's a ring, right? So, every time I look at it, I hear (in the voice of Smeagol from the Lord of the Rings, of course): "My Precious..." And I smile and chuckle to myself. It's no wonder people think I'm losing it.

Sorry for the interruption...

...but I decided to take an unannounced break for Thanksgiving. So, now I'm home again and will catch you up.

Wednesday, Nov. 21 - The drive to Bucharest

Guess what happens when you are on a 2-lane "highway" thru the mountains and there is an accident? Traffic stops. And, since there is no where to go, everyone just sits. And sits. And sits. Until finally the accident is cleared away and traffic starts moving, ever so slowly, again. Five kilometers in 45 minutes isn't exactly what I had planned for the day. Until then, I had made good time and was looking forward to being through the mountains and almost to Bucharest before dark (5 pm, these days). Post-accident, there was no hope. Combined with unusually crazy city traffic...the 6 hour trip became 8 1/2.

But I arrived safely, and that's all that really matters. I stopped at the grocery store for the last couple of things, spent a little bit of time with the Postemas, and then baked my pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving dinner.

Thursday, Nov. 22 - Happy Thanksgiving!

I enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner, relaxing, and playing games with the Postema family, the Staab family, Terre Ritchie (Leah's mom, here visiting) and Donna Messenger (visiting on the journey from Singapore to the States). Lots of good food. Even more great fellowship with friends! Donna and I spent a long time talking tonight. Good times!

And I had my very fist Starbuck's, too! Hot chocolate of course. Cuz coffee still doesn't taste anywhere near as good as it smells.



Friday, Nov. 23 - Happy birthday, Allen!
Today was my "little" brother Allen's birthday. I tried to call to wish him a happy birthday, but he was gallivanting around Washington D.C. and didn't answer his phone. I haven't talked to him since June or July :(

I walked a lot today and played the bum for the rest of the day. It was great!

Saturday, Nov. 24 - Christmas already?

Leah cooked breakfast for us today...yum! I don't eat hot breakfast very often (and when I do, it's usually breakfast foods for dinner!) because I don't feel like cooking just for myself in the morning. So, that was a nice treat.


Postemas bought their Christmas tree and put it up today. While they were gone, I went with Donna to the pharmacy to pick up some antibiotics; she picked up some kind of respiratory infection, we think. Gotta' love the fact that I can just walk into the pharmacy and tell the pharmacist what I want, and she gives it to me without a prescription (doesn't work with everything...but with antibiotics, it's no big deal). After dinner, we all went to Staabs and played an out-of-control game of Pictionary. Rummeys were there, too, so it was a good size group. Note to self: Pictionary with this group of people is not suitable for apartment living, at least not during quiet hours. Man, were we loud! In fact, there were MANY times when I was shouting at the top of my lungs and couldn't be heard by the person drawing.

We ended the day back at Postemas' apartment where they opened Christmas gifts from Grandma Ritchie while she's here. Holidays are so much more fun with kids!


Sunday, Nov. 25 - Happy birthday, Dad!

Today my dad would have been 55. He died about 3 weeks after his 51st birthday, almost 4 years ago. In some ways, it seems like yesterday. In other ways, it seems like a lifetime ago. I know I'm not a little girl anymore, but I still miss my daddy.

Today was a beautiful day for the drive back to Targu Mures. Two of my friends from Tg.M. came to Bucharest on Friday and rode home with me. It was nice to have company, even if they slept most of the way home :). I made it back in time for the 1st choir rehearsal at 4, then the choir sang in the evening service. During the 2nd (normal) choir rehearsal after church, I had a tough time staying awake. I love to travel and had a fantastic weekend away, but I'm glad to be home!

Monday, Nov. 26 - It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
I have about 20 bazillion things to do in the next 2 weeks, and I have no idea how I'm going to get it all done. So, what did I do with my evening? Keep working on the book I need to finish? No. File expense reports? No. Respond to e-mail? No. Nope. None of it. I decided, for one evening, to be completely irresponsible and ignore all of that.

I cleaned my living room, moved furniture (I've been wanting to do that for 2 months!), and started decorating for Christmas. I don't go all out. Few people other than me will see it, anyway. But I did put up my tree and my nativity sets. They make me smile :)





Whew...thanks for sticking with me to the end. I won't let another week go by until I post again!

Let Me Be A Woman

That's the (English) title of the book one of my Bible study groups is working through right now. It is actually a collection of letters written by Elisabeth Elliot to her daughter as a wedding present. If you keep that in mind, it's got some really good content (don't expect profound theological insights or even Scripture-searching).

Tonight was my turn to lead the group (3 of us take turns), and something caught me off guard. The book doesn't have a study guide, so I read through the 4 chapters, jotted some notes, and then developed a couple of discussion questions related to the text. Toward the end of the meeting, 3 of the ladies all made comments about the way that I was leading the group, not just talking about it the text but trying to take it a step further, figuring out how it relates to my relationship with God and, even beyond that, how it relates to how I minister to others. Honestly, my style didn't seem like something all that unusual to me ;) . But, having sat through a lot of Bible studies here (with several different groups of people), I can tell you that it is kind of unusual.

My new mission? Helping the other 2 leading our group to develop "questioning" skills. Because, as any one on our team can tell you, I am the queen of asking questions! Now if I can just get everyone else to appreciate that skill as much as our Bible study group did tonight...

What? No. 2

I've got tons of these (odd pictures to post as "What?", that is). This one is much less obvious than the last one (that was just a warm-up). If the answer to this one seems as obvious as the last one, you probably need to guess again. I promise that it is not. There are 2 parts to the correct answer for this one:

1. What is the object?
2. Where is the object?




Again, there is a prize involved for the first person with the right answer!

Missionary Appreciation Night

This evening, our church invited all of the missionaries who typically attend the church to come and share testimonies, prayer requests, blessings and struggles of working here in Romania. There are quite a few of us (about 15 last night), working with several different organizations, and with varying degrees of involvement in the church. There are so many of us coming and going that, often, I don't think many people in the church know who we are or what we do. In fact, someone just asked me last week, "Aren't you a teacher at the English school?" I've only been here for almost 3 years...and yet there are people in our church who don't know who I am or what I do (the church isn't THAT big...probably around 100 most Sundays). So, I was glad for this opportunity to share with them what I actually do do. After being pressured for several months, I also sang again last night.



I don't enjoy singing in church here. Truthfully, I was spoiled by the soundtracks I used in the States and by the really good accompanists who spent time rehearsing with me ahead of time, etc. (I miss you all!) It's much more challenging for me to find tracks here with which I can sing. Anyone who uses them gets them somehow from the States. I have a lot of tracks...but not for songs that have been translated into Romanian (and my translation skills DEFINITELY don't stretch to translating poetry with meter!). So, I have to either sing acapella (hmmm...no) or use an accompanist with whom I've only rehearsed once or twice right before the service. So, I'm more nervous here than I was even when I first started singing in the States. Which means that my breathing stinks. Making the whole thing sound not-that-great.

Good thing I'm not singing for the applause of men anyway. Cuz they (and I!) would be sorely disappointed these days.

Temptation

Tonight I taught the lesson for youth meeting, a lesson from Genesis 2-3 about the strategies Satan used to tempt Eve into sin and how we experience those same things.

Before the meeting started, I had a bowl of chocolates sitting in the front of the room with a sign next to it saying, "Do not eat!" (in Romanian, of course :) ). I didn't ask him too, but our pastor did a great job of ignoring the sign and eating some of my candy (which the kids just basically ignored for one reason or another). I'm glad he did, because the illustration wouldn't have worked as well if everyone just ignored the temptation. Because life doesn't generally work that way...we aren't very good at just ignoring temptations that are sitting there calling out to us.

When I asked the kids why they didn't eat the candy, their answers were pretty simple. "The sign said not to." "I wasn't allowed to." (Even though I basically left the stuff there unattended and even left the room for a few minutes.) "I knew I couldn't have it, so I stayed away from it." Truthfully, I wish my response to temptation were always so clear cut and easy..."I know it's wrong, so I'm not going to do it. Period."

Instead, I too often seem to be like our pastor (who really ate the candy just for the sake of the illustraton...or so he says!). "No one was watching." "What would happen if I got caught? It's not like there would be consequences." "It was sitting there, no one was watching, and I just kept looking at it, getting closer to it, until I couldn't ignore it anymore." It took a while, but eventually at least some of the kids began to understand that they use these same excuses for sin in their lives.

For example, cheating is rampant in this society. In fact, it's pretty much expected...by the teachers as much as by the students. Teachers allow (and sometimes encourage) cheating because good test scores make the teachers themselves look better. Even Christian kids rarely think of cheating as wrong. So we talked about how Satan lies to us, just as he did to Eve, making us believe that it something really isn't wrong even though God has forbidden it. And we looked at Scriptural principles regarding cheating (accurately translated as "stealing" in Romanian).

I love it when a lesson that I am asked to teach has a very strong, very practical lesson for the kids. Even though that lesson may not be easy to hear (or easy to put into practice). I love knowing that they can see how Scripture applies to their everyday life rather than just being a bunch of ideas and theories. Tonight was one of those nights!

Yummy

My options for dinner weren't quite as dire as these, but I have to tell you, it was a little disappointing to find the fast-food places closed this evening. Friday evenings are tough because we have Bible study from 4:30 until 7 or so, and I never feel like cooking dinner when I get home between 7:30 and 8 pm. Tonight I stopped at the grocery store on the way home to restock my yogurt and granola bar supplies. Then, I was going to grab something on the way home. But, apparently, "no water" also means "no fast food." Oh well. I'm probably better off without anyway.

P.S. If you come visit me, I'll take you to a restaurant where you really can order crap. Seriously. Don't believe me? Come and see! ("Crap" is the Romanian word for carp - we used to be able to buy cans of crap, but I can't find any anymore.)

The one thing I forgot...

...is that, in this land of hot-water radiators, "no water" means "no heat." There's nothing I could have done to prepare for it, but it was a rude awakening this morning. Especially since today's predicted high is only 39 degrees.

When my heat works, this apartment is VERY warm. But when it doesn't...well, it's like living in a concrete cave. There's no warming up until the heat comes back on. Whenever that might be. If you're looking for me tomorrow morning, I'll probably be the lump under the huge pile of blankets on my bed. Hopefully that lump will not be frozen solid.

You know you're in Romania when...

...you receive a notice in your mailbox saying that all of the water in the entire city will be shut off for 24 hours. Something about upgrading the system to meet European Union standards.

Not "don't drink the water for 6 hours or you might die." (I've gotten this message before.)

Not "you won't have hot water for the week of..." (I get this notice every summer; since the water is heated elsewhere and piped here, there's no hot water for a week in the summer while they clean and repair the hot water pipes.)

But "there will be absolutely, positively NO WATER for at least 24 hours" (the original notice said 48 hours). No washing dishes. No doing laundry. (Ooh, beginning to sound like vacation!) No flushing the toilet. No taking a shower. No swimming (the pool is closed). And, once the water comes back on, it will probably be cloudy and dirty for the first couple of days.

So, tonight I've been running around trying to think ahead & figure out how I can best prepare. Fill up the bathtub. Put a bucket of water in the other bathroom (for toilet-flushing purposes). Fill a pot of water to set on the stove (just in case I decide to make something for dinner tonight that demands water...I can't think that far ahead). Fill up the sink in the kitchen to put dirty dishes in, since I can't rinse them. Shower taken. Bottled water in the kitchen for drinking, teeth brushing, etc. The only left to do tonight is wash lettuce for the next couple of days' worth of salads.

I hope I'm not forgetting anything, because it won't be easy to "fix" it if I did. Since no one else in the city will have water, either.

Can't imagine what it will be like in the hospitals or restaurants here in town. I think I'll stay home for the duration :)

Wednesday, Nov. 14

Today I got to go back to the pool after the weekend away and then being sick. A couple of weeks ago I discovered the community pool here in Targu Mures and to my delight found that it is actually clean and chlorinated! I've been swimming 3 days a week & loving it. Proximity to the water is one of the things I've missed most here in Romania.

If you're expecting a picture of me at the pool, well, don't hold your breath. It's quite the sight, I assure you. Swimming caps are required. You'd be impressed with my swimming cap. And it's not even one of the disposable shower caps they sell at the entrance for those without the real thing.

Unfortunately, swimming was REALLY irritating my chronic sinus infection. I looked everywhere for ear plugs, but none were to be found anywhere in town. Mom suggested looking at the hardware store which is very logical. If you live in the US where people working with power tools think about protecting their hearing. Here, the man with the jackhammer digging up the street is more likely to wear flipflops than steel-toed boots. No ear plugs at the hardware store.

Remember my trip to Moldova last weekend? We spent a couple hours walking around Saturday evening, and guess what I found at a little hole-in-the-wall in Chisinau? Yup, ear plugs. A very practical souvenir, if I do say so myself.



That ranks right up there with the dictionary I bought during my high school senior trip to Florida. Which I still use, by the way. That's right, laugh at me. But Webster is still helping me remember how to spell in English...almost 15 years later. And I haven't had a single problem with my sinuses now that I have my ear plugs.

Monday, Nov. 12 - Driving Home

If you want...

• to see sheep on a regular basis, this is the country for you. They're much cuter when they aren't walking down the main European highway.
  

your cow to come home on time, don't salt your roads. Because the cows will stop (again, in the middle of a main European highway) and lick every last grain of salt off of the road. Even with logging trucks trying to gently edge them out of the way. And car horns screaming in their ears.

to get carsick, feel free to ride in the backseat of a car across the aforementioned "European highway" - which is actually just a two lane road that winds its way through the mountains - for 20 hours over the course of 4 days. Sometimes the road is nice and smooth, and other times it's...well, not so nice and smooth. I did really well on the way to Chisinau and okay for the first half of the trip home. The last half of the trip...not so great. But I've recovered now.

to see some of God's great handiwork, drive across the aforementioned highway. No, the highway itself isn't the greatest of handiwork (God didn't make it!), but the views are pretty spectacular.

too see snow, come visit. I'll take you to the mountains. We saw LOTS of snow there. And, just after we got back to Targu Mures, the snow started falling here. It melted off overnight, but I'm sure more is on its way! Here's the Monday evening view from my living room window (you can just make out the falling snow in the streetlight). So, come on over. The guest room is waiting ;)

Sunday, November 11 - Happy birthday, Mom!

Since I archive all of my pictures every couple of months, I don't have many pictures of my mom on my computer (last time I saw her was April 2007). But I did manage to find one...one of the last pictures I have of Mom and Dad together (at my sister's wedding in May 2004).

And we drove back across the border into Romania. After a bit of hassle with my new passport, they let us back in and we spent the night in Iasi.

Saturday, Nov. 10 - Teacher training in Chisinau

Our colleagues Dave and Penny Winget, who serve in Kharkov, Ukraine, met us in Chisinau. Dave taught Saturday's teacher training workshop on using object lessons. He has hundreds of ideas! In this picture, he's balancing 10 nails on the head of a single nail.

This is always one of our favorite teacher training sites because the Sunday School teachers are always so receptive and eager to learn.

Friday, Nov. 9 - On the Road to Moldova

Cheia Bicazului (yes, that's snow on the top of those VERY tall evergreens)

And the newest addition to my collection of Romanian road signs that make me laugh...

I'm home

I'm also sick. And very tired. So I'll try to catch you up on the weekend tomorrow, okay? Off to bed...

A Study in Contrasts

I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel for pics to post...I think I need to take some new ones. I had to go back 6 weeks or so to find these.

The first, a sports car we spotted while driving back into the city from Ikea. I'm not even going to venture a guess as to the make of the car...I'm sure I'll get it wrong and then you'll all have to correct me. It's better that I just say "sports car" :) The second, taken earlier the same day as I came up out of the metro. That's one of the many contrasts in Romania...the flaunting of wealth alongside the desperation of poverty.

If you don't hear from me the next few days, I promise I'll be back soon and I'll even post "make-up" posts for the days I'll miss. We're off to Chisinau, Moldova early tomorrow morning for a teacher training session. Back to Romania on Monday, so I'll be back then!

Thanksgiving

DISCLAIMER: This post was written by an American from a purely American perspective and, yes, with a bit of sarcasm that doesn't necessarily come through in writing. Rest assured, no offense is intended and I beg your indulgence for a few brief moments.

Romanians don't celebrate Thanksgiving, at least, not the way we Americans do (surprisingly, they don't quite get the whole pilgrims & Indians thing...maybe that's because some of them live in houses older than our country). Yet, since coming to Romania, I've celebrated more Thanksgiving than ever before.

You might remember that I have Canadian teammates. Being a bit strange in the north-land, they celebrate Thanksgiving on the first Monday in October (let's face it, Thanksgiving on Monday is just plain weird!). The turkey dinner is always yummy, and I don't mind eating it more than once a year. But I always get the urge to get my Christmas decorations out the next day. I have to keep reminding myself that I need to wait another six weeks until the real Thanksgiving ;) .

Romanian churches have somewhat adopted the custom, and many set aside a "Thanksgiving" Sunday some time in the fall. Every church has a different date; last year, Libertatii (our church) celebrated on the last Sunday of October while I was in Turkey, and this year they celebrated on the second Sunday of the month. Gotta' confess...sarmale, no matter how good it is, still isn't Thanksgiving dinner in my mind. But it is a good time of fellowship, testimonies, music, etc., followed by Romanian food in the church basement. (Sarmale, in case you do not know, is a cabbage roll stuffed with ground meat, rice & spices. The ladies in our church made over 1000 of them for Thanksgiving this year!)

But I'm excited for the real Thanksgiving this year. I'm excited for turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie (which I can't stand the taste of, but love the smell) and all of the other good Thanksgiving "stuff". I'm looking forward to traveling to Bucharest with some Romanian friends (who want a shopping weekend in the city) and then spending a day with American friends in Bucharest & not having to run back to my computer to get more work done.

Until then, here are some pictures from Romanian Thanksgiving this year.

Pastor Nicu Stremtan

Deacon Vio Gaga


Giving away all of the goodies...they asked questions from the different Sunday School classes and those who answered correctly got to take some of the fruits and/or vegetables home.

Edible decorations :)

What?

There's a prize involved for the first person to tell me what this is. Leave a comment.

Tineret

Youth group, that is. Or, more accurately (from a North American perspective), young adults. In Romania, "youth" = young adults. And here are some pics from an evening of just hanging out with the youth in the church basement a few weeks ago.




We'd love to do something like this more often, but there doesn't seem to be a good time. People are working, taking classes, going to Bible study, etc. most weeknights. Fridays are worship team practices, Saturday evening youth group (ummm...that is, adolescents...teenagers), Sunday evening after church is choir rehearsal. We'll keep thinking about it...if God wants it to happen, someone will figure it out at the right time!

More fun with Flat Stanley

I posted pictures of my adventures with Flat Stanley on Facebook a couple of weeks ago, but I'm aware that some of you aren't there. So, to let you in on the fun...

Stanley and I set out early one Monday morning & picked up the other 2 ABWE women in our area. We were headed on a road trip to the mountains just outside of Brasov.

Once we arrived, Stanley was banished to the hotel room for a while since this was a "girls only" trip. We did let him come out for a while at dinner time, however. Here he's eyeing the strange looking garnishes on my plate. Meanwhile, I was enjoying some amazing curry chicken & rice.



We were tempted to go for a swim, but decided not to when we saw the "danger of drowning" sign. Or maybe we were put off by the putrid green water and the freezing temperatures. Either way, we refrained.



Stanley had all kinds of fun inside "Dracula's castle" at Bran. We decided not to tell him that Dracula never really lived there. He was already misbehaving (who kept tripping those alarms & triggering the recorded "please do not touch the objects!"???) - we thought it was probably better if he was at least a LITTLE afraid of the vampires.



There you have it...the abridged version of Stanley's Great Romanian Adventure. Aren't you glad you stopped by today?

Everybody needs new shoes occasionally, right?

Okay, so "need" is probably not the right word here, but I really wanted some new shoes. A lot of my clothes these days look better with brown shoes than black, but my fall/winter shoe wardrobe hasn't kept pace. I own several pairs of brown sandals (like I said, "need" is not the right word!), but no brown shoes. I stopped wearing sandals a couple of weeks ago, mostly for other peoples' sakes; it was making them cold to look at me. I also did it to protect myself from the constant stares while walking down the streets or the question I must hear at least a dozen times a day: "Nu ti-e frig?" (Aren't you cold?) Nope, if I was, I woulda' worn something else. Nonetheless, for their sakes, I put the sandals away. Along with the half of my wardrobe that no longer had matching shoes.

But yesterday I finally broke down and bought my first pair of dress shoes here. Not because I can't find shoes I like. Who wouldn't like a $100 pair of Italian leather shoes? It's just pretty rare to find (1) a pair of shoes I can afford, (2) in a style I like, (3) in a size that fits my fat feet. Add to that my perfectionist tendencies (ie. "I am NOT spending $50 on a pair of shoes that I don't REALLY like!") and maybe you'll understand why it's been a while.

But, here they are. Not really my style, I don't think. But I like them. They are somewhat stylish (in a retro kinda' way). They fit. And I didn't have to bankrupt myself to buy them.

Too Much Pressure

So, apparently I put myself under a bit too much pressure with my promise for more "beef". It's not that I don't have things to write about. In fact, I'm starting a pretty impressive scrap collection with the beginnings of different writing projects. It's just that I don't have time to develop most of those ideas right now. As much as I love writing, it's not my highest priority at the moment (if it were, I'd be making time for it!).


Guess you'll have to settle for more pictures for now. I found quite the random collection on my camera when I downloaded pics earlier tonight.

Which of these things is not like the others? Which of these things just doesn't belong? Flat Stanley joined me on a road trip earlier this month (if you aren't familiar with the Flat Stanley project, look here). Stanley was surrounded by ladies the whole trip since it was a short retreat with all of the women on our team and 3 visiting ladies from Northridge Church in the Detroit area. While they were all shopping (cuz that's what a group of ladies does!), I amused myself by taking pictures of Stanley for my friend Jenny's 3rd grade class in Atlanta.

This is the first decent picture I've gotten of traditionally painted eggs.

Iulia and Hilya at Bible study last Friday evening. We're studying through "Experiencing God" right now. This study is a mixed group of young adults. Earlier in the week I have a study with young women from church (half married, half single); we're planning to begin studying an Elisabeth Elliot book next week (I'm not sure what the English title is).

Last Saturday night I went to the National Theatre here in Targu Mures for the first time, even though it's right in my back yard (if I had a back yard). The occasion was a concert given by the Messengers, a group of Romanian Americans, ie. they were born here but moved to the States 20 years ago. They return to Romania every year for a tour. I appreciate very much the fact that they write almost all of their own music (instead of translating and recycling English music...which doesn't always work so well, since what takes 2 syllables in English might take 5 in Romanian or vice versa). I'm not sure who to compare their sound to in the American Christian contemporary music world...maybe Phillips, Craig & Dean.

The colors are almost gone now, but I saw more beautiful colors this fall than I have in the past. I would say that we still have more variety, more rich colors in Michigan than any that I have seen in Romania. At least on the trees. I spotted these colors on a climbing vine of some sort on the apartment building next to mine.

Last, but not least. This one boggles my mind. Romanians always seem to have a disparaging word to say about Americans' love affair with fast food. But, if you go into an American fast food restaurant here (in Targu Mures, we only have McDonalds, but Bucharest also has KFC and Pizza Hut), they are always packed with people. I don't ever want to hear another Romanian talking about lazy Americans eating at McDonald's instead of cooking for themselves. Why? Because a couple of months ago, the McDonald's in our little town starting offering free DELIVERY!!! Yup, as long as your order is worth 20 lei (approx. $9 - 2 medium size value meals), you can get it delivered to your door. Unbelievable!

NaBloPoMo

Know what that is? National blog posting month. I'm guessing that "national" doesn't refer to the nation in which I live. But probably to the nation from whence I come. Nonetheless, the idea is to try to post something every day of the month. You are probably going to see lots of pictures from me. Just think...if I post a picture that I actually take each day, you'll get to see what I see for the month (not sure if that will happen...might have to reach back into the archives some for old pictures I never posted). Or maybe I'll come up with some words of wisdom some day. Don't hold your breath.