Winter Wonderland

Snow fell once again in Bucharest today. I love how it lands on the trees. They seem to sparkle and shine. It's beautiful to watch snow fall--drifting, silently landing beside you.I haven't often seen snowplows of any sort in Bucharest. It made me smile to see tractors equipped with plows roaming the streets today.

Parking

It might not be a sign we'd recognize, but the windshield wipers on this car are telling a message...

It seems that standard procedure when someone parks in your spot, blocks you in, or does something otherwise annoying with the location of their car is to flip their windshield wipers up. Seems like a very gracious way of sending a message.

Birthday Wishes from Around the World

As I was cleaning my apartment this afternoon, I came across the stack of birthday cards I'd received for my 30th birthday in November. As I flipped through them again, I realized they really did come from around the world:

-United States (from all parts)
-Romania
-UK
-New Zeland
-Burkina Faso
-Czech Republic

Kind of fun:)

Great Expectations

I've started a list of some things I'm looking forward to about my time in the US. I thought I'd share some of them with you...they might be different than what you expected :)

-at the top of my list--people--being able to visit leisurely and more than once a year, celebrating holidays and birthdays together, meeting my niece
-simplicity of grocery shopping with a car
-milk that I enjoy drinking
-the cereal aisle
-being back in school
-being in a closer time zone

I started thinking too of the things I'll miss from Romania...

-again at the top of the list is people--students, colleagues (at school and within ReachGlobal), small group, friends
-church--I've grown very fond of the church I've attended these past two years. I'll miss worshiping in Romanian and the joy of a service that is 2+ hours long
-walking everywhere or being able to take public transportation
-my apartment
-simplicity of life
-a schedule--my life next year will be much less structured than it is right now
-BCA and teaching (although I expect there will be many opportunities for teaching in MN, but it won't be the same)

Christmas 2009

Because I knew my time in Bucharest would be short, I decorated my tree shortly after Thanksgiving. It was wonderful to enjoy it before traveling to Prague to be with my parents.It was neat to be with family during my vacation! I enjoyed celebrating with them and many others during my time.
My dad and I worked to install new ceiling lights in their office. The vacuum is to help keep the inevitable dust to a minimum.













Doing puzzles is one of our Christmas traditions.












It's been a long time since we've played Monopoly. I remember as a kid that my dad always won. The three of us battled it out one night until my mom was declared the winner.

















We enjoyed having others join us for a Christmas meal and some games and crafts into the afternoon!

Poland Pottery

We started our time in Poland with a tour of one of the factories where the pottery is made. It was neat to see the many stages the pottery goes through before it reaches the shelves of stores around the world (recently seen in JC Pennys catalog). The pottery shrinks 10% in the first firing and an additional 20% in the second one. Once the items are removed from the molds they go through a number of steps before even reaching the kiln the first time.
Many of the patterns are done with stamps made of sponges. It was amazing to watch these women work! The pottery items are placed on turning platforms and they work with amazing agility and speed.
The display rooms/stores were overwhelming! These shelves are arranged with all items of one pattern grouped together, but some stores were arranged by item (ie all teapots together).I was excited about the huge variety of patterns and thought it'd be fun to have a set of dessert plates. I also found some mugs for gifts and some large serving bowls. The colors are stunning and it's wonderful to see the intricacies.

Cereal

I'm not sure I realized how much I took the cereal aisle for granted. It's full of an amazing amount of options--overwhelming before I moved to Romania, but even more so now. But, I'm a big fan of cereal. For my birthday I received some frosted mini-shredded wheat (a favorite of mine). From Christmas, I brought home a box of toasted almond crunch which has made breakfast more exciting the past few days. And in a Christmas package I opened this afternoon--some life cereal. It's going to be a great couple of weeks. :)

Never did it occur to me that when I found the trail again,
it would ruin my life forever.

For once you feel the breath of God on your skin,

you can never turn back, you can never settle for what was;
you can only move on recklessly, with abandon,
your heart filled with fear and your ears ringing with
the constant words of encouragement, "Fear not."

~Mike Yacconelli