A Day on the Town

By Saturday, I think Sarah & I were both a little tired of traveling, so we stayed in the city and did the tourist thing. We visited "old town" Bucharest (or what's left of it...Ceaucescu had much of it destroyed to make way for new "modern" construction), Piata Unirii (the "Times Square" of Bucharest), and Piata Revolutiei, where there is now a large monument to the 1989 Revolution. I didn't take any pictures, since I already have lots from all of these places. But, never fear, there was still a lot of day left and a lot of space on my camera card :)
From Piata Revolutiei, we walked to the Romanian Athenaeum, a beautiful concert hall in the heart of the city. The interior is even more impressive than the exterior; I went to a symphony concert there not long I arrived in Romania.

Mihai Eminescu, one of Romania's most famous writers, stands guard at the entrance to the Athenaeum.

And the pigeons stand guard over the entrance.

From the Athenaeum in the center of the city, we drove to the Village Museum at the edges of the city. The village museum was constructed to exhibit the different styles of village houses, churches, etc. from all around the country and from different time periods. Actual buildings were "deconstructed" in their original locations, transported to Bucharest, and then reconstructed in their new setting on the edge of a huge city park. Some are furnished and decorated as they would be in the traditional village setting.

This was my first visit to Muzeul Satului, and it was the absolute best time of the year to visit. Each year during the week preceding Palm Sunday the Village Museum hosts an exhibition of traditional village crafts and music. So, craftsmen from all over the country were exhibiting and selling their wares - all in one place. Sarah had the best souvenir shopping opportunities of anyone I've taken shopping in Romania! We also saw traditional singers and dancers in Romanian national costume. The men's chorus from Bucovina had amazing harmonies and the dancers, well, they were Romanian dancers. They basically shuffle 6 inches in either direction and then back the other way. Sarah says they dance like Baptists :)

I'm not sure that the copper still really qualifies as a "traditional craft", but I guess...

The next shot is my favorite from the whole day (although some of the pottery shots come close). It might even make it into a frame and onto the wall in my black-and-white hallway.


Coming up tomorrow: Going home

Going on a Train Trip

One of the experiences I wanted Sarah to have here in Romania was riding the train. So, we rode the train...but not like the average Romanian. By some strike of luck (?) the train that we caught north to the mountain town of Sinaia was the "Sageata Albastra" or "Blue Arrow" train - the most modern and clean train on the rails here. Coming back, the train wasn't quite as nice, but it was still clean and relatively comfy. Oh well...she still got to ride the train, even if it wasn't quite the same as the "normal" Romanian train ride.


After an hour and a half on the train, we arrived in Sinaia. Sarah enjoyed the train, and I enjoyed missing the 2 1/2 hour drive and crazy Bucharest traffic!


I hadn't visited the monastery in Sinaia before, so I enjoyed seeing something new along with the "standard" Sinaia sights. These paintings are characteristic of all of the monasteries that I have seen thus far. Here, they comprise the domed entrance to the original church in the monastery.


"God bless our comings and our goings."


The "new" church built outside the original monastery walls.


Peles Castle, once the summer home of Romanian royalty.


Grave of "an unknown Romanian soldier" at the World War I cemetary and memorial. I was surprised to see graves of men killed in battles in nearby towns - I guess I need to brush up on my WWI history, because I had no idea there were battles fought in that area. There was also an interesting monument to American aviators killed over Romanian territory, but we couldn't read most of it because it was so weathered that the text was too light to read; I might go back and make a rubbing of it some day just to figure out what it says.



Next up: A Day on the Town

Back to Bucharest

On Thursday morning, we loaded up the car again and headed back to Bucharest. I'm trying to learn to enjoy the journey a little bit more and not be as "single-focused" on the destination. So, we stopped to take pictures of this church that I spotted in a little village on the way out to the sea. If this one piques your interest, check out Todd's site of church pictures from around the country.

After Sarah slept for, ummm...a few more hours...we went out around midnight to take the mandatory pictures in front of the Parliamentary Palace. Nice hair...

Tomorrow: Going on a train trip

Home Alone

For the first time in over a month, I'm home alone, and I'm not quite sure what to do with myself. Sleep would probably be a good place to start since I only slept about 2 hours last night (in 15 minute segments) before taking Sarah to the airport for her 6:20 flight home. But I think I have hit that point of exhaustion where I just can't fall asleep. So, I'll catch up a little bit here first.


Since my brain isn't functioning well (me without sleep is NOT a pretty picture!), this will pretty much be a travelogue. Enjoy your trip across Romania...


Our journey around Romania began with a quick trip to the Black Sea (just so that Sarah could say she had seen it...not recommending the Black Sea in March, in case you were wondering). It was beautiful but oh-so-cold!
The view from our room at the bed & breakfast on the beach (approx. $32/night!).
While in Constanta we also visited some of the ancient Roman ruins common in that part of the country. The wall Sarah is sitting on is part of the original city wall.

The cutest of the random gnomes outside our bed & breakfast; random statue in downtown Constanta (maybe not random...I just have no idea what it represents, and Romanians aren't always very good at labelling their statues).

Mamaia, the resort area where we stayed, is actually a strip of land between the Black Sea and a large lake. On Wednesday night, we watched the sunset over the lake. And then on Thursday morning, we woke up to this beautiful sunrise over the Black Sea.

Next stop: back to Bucharest.

Jet Lag by Proxy?

Is is possible to "catch" jet lag? I'm sitting here at 6:45 in the morning - on vacation! - and wondering what in the world I am doing awake. My sister Sarah is here visiting (arrived on Tuesday) and sleeping on some weird schedule, and that's messing me up. Of course, she's falling asleep at like 7 in the evening and getting up in the middle of the night. I'm staying up until at least midnight and then being woken up early. I think today might be the day to force her out of jetlag mode...

I haven't uploaded pictures from my camera yet, but we went out to the Black Sea (at the port city of Constanta) Wednesday & Thursday. There's nothing quite like a dead resort town! The city itself was still bustling with activity, but the resort area of Mamaia was like a ghost town. Many of the hotels didn't even have curtains hanging in the windows. Such a contrast to the summer months when the place is choked with so many people everywhere! But Sarah got to see the Black Sea, and that's what she wanted.

Today we head to Sinaia, home of Peles castle & a monastery. We are going by train (another cultural experience she must have) and I am very thankful since I've driven about 25 hours in the last week. My car and I will be enjoying a day apart from each other =)

For your viewing pleasure, a few images from the last week...

Teacher training in Tulcea on Saturday; leading a devotional at the beginning (all in Romanian...yay!).
Teacher training in Bucuresti on Saturday

Piata Traian, one of the markets here in the city.

Epuizata

Exhausted. That's the only word I can find to describe me tonight. It's barely 10 o'clock and I'm fighting to keep my eyes open to post this (since I know you are all waiting with bated breath).

First, it's time for a celebration! Tonight I taught my first lesson completely in Romanian! I had intended to teach a Sunday School lesson last month in Romanian and was prepared to do so until, just before class began, a whole big group of Americans walked in; if I had taught in [bad] Romanian, someone else would have had to translate into [bad] English...and that would have been doubly frustrating for me. So, yay for having finally jumped the hurdle! Not sure that I will teach Sunday School this week in Romanian, but we'll see how tomorrow goes.

Second, a bit of an explanation. The Budapest picture from my last post wasn't completely random. I actually spent all of last week in Budapest at an ESL conference led by Michael Pasquale. In the evenings, we did a little bit of sightseeing & picture-taking. Now more than ever I would like to switch to a digital SLR camera...maybe someday! I've been looking at film SLRs on eBay since so many people are now switching to digital & getting rid of their film cameras. Until then, my Canon PowerShot does the job with a little bit of coaxing.

Oh, yeah...we were there for a conference, weren't we?





I drove back to Romania last Friday and brought a colleague from Slovakia with me. Nancy is helping us for a couple of weeks with our quarterly teacher training sessions; I'm sure the teachers are enjoying having some fresh ideas and a fresh face in front! Nancy stayed with me until our Monday night team meeting and then moved to another family's home for the week.

This week has been crazy busy with finishing a promotional brochure for the teacher training conference in September, helping teammate Jeff Broome pack up his family's belongings to ship back to the US, and being sick the last couple of days. Between all of that, I didn't have a lot of prep time for teaching tonight (probably good...no time to freak out about teaching in Romanian; just jump in and do it!).

For Kris' sake...here are a couple of pics from the container packing this morning. Sadly, I was in the container helping with the baby grand piano, so I have no pictures of the piano on the forklift. Or maybe that is for the better...

The loading crew...

Closing the doors...

And that's the short version of the saga that was this week. Maybe if I write more often I won't have quite so much to pack into one post, huh? Ok, it's off to bed for me. Have a happy Friday evening!

Budapest

Bursting At The Seams

When we started our Friday night youth meeting last October, we averaged around 15 teens each week. By December the numbers had dropped to 10-12 each week, and I was a little concerned.
When we went to the youth conference in Bucharest in December, we took the Friday night kids, the Sunday morning kids (some of whom never came on Friday nights), and a couple of teens who had been to camp with our teens before.
Over the last couple of months, these different groups have started to integrate a little bit more. We still have a sizable group that comes on Sunday morning but not Friday night (most of them orphans from either group homes or mentor apartments...they have their own "youth meeting" on Thursday evenings). But we don't really have a "Friday only" group or a "camp" group any more; they've all started coming on Sunday mornings. And another new group of boys has started to come as well. Last week we had 27 teens and 7 adults stuffed into a little basement room. Last night we had 24 teens and 8 adults. We're bursting at the seams!
Even more exciting than experiencing growth in numbers is watching spiritual curiosity and growth in the teens. It's fun for me to hear their questions and see their excitement for learning things from Scripture that they have never heard before. Two weeks ago, our pastor ended his sermon with a very direct salvation invitation, which is pretty rare here. Four of those teenagers (3 of them "camp only" kids and one a sibling of a "camp only" kid) responded and made decisions to repent of their sin and make Jesus Christ Lord of their lives! That makes giving up my Friday night "veg out" time not just a sacrifice, but a true joy and blessing to me, too!

Halfway!

Today we hit a major milestone - the halfway mark in this huge translation/publishing project that consumes most of my days.


The 6th (of 12) student manual came back from the print shop a couple of weeks ago, and today we finally finished the printing and binding of the accompanying student manual. We do the set up for both books - "we" being Gabi and I...she does the student manuals (much more complicated!) and I do the teacher manuals. The cost of "professional printing" for the teacher's manuals is prohibitive, so we do these pretty much "in-house." The student manuals are printed by MultiMedia International in Arad, a print shop started with the help of EBM personnel. Our print run for teacher's manuals, however, is only 65 - not worth firing up the big presses! So, when everything is ready for print, my trusty flash drive and I make a trip to the local copy center, get the original printed and copies made, and then head back to the office.


We use plastic comb binding for these books to help keep the costs down and make the manuals teacher-friendly at the same time. The binding machine and I have passed many hours of "bonding" time together. It's good for the arm muscles :)

We're going to have a celebration time soon with all of the translators and proofreaders who have worked on the project so far. I want them to know how much we appreciate their investment and how important this "halfway" milestone is. Now that we're halfway done, I'm starting to figure out how this whole translation/publication process works!