Church

I have been pretty busy lately getting ready for the holidays. I usually have some ideas of things that I would like to blog about, but lately I've been a little lacking in inspiration. It might have something to do with Christmas coming up, and my upcoming trip to France! If you ever have any thing that you would like to know about in regards to my life in Romania, please let me know. I will gladly take on quests or (small) research projects.
However, today I decided to write a little bit about the church that I am attending. I had the opportunity to play piano for the services today, and I am really thankful that I have found a place where I can do that.
It took me a little while to find a church where I felt I could have a place. I initially tried a number of different Romanian churches, but didn't feel like any of them were for me. Finally I joined my roommate and visited the international church that she was attending, and I really enjoyed it. They were even in need of another pianist, so I was really glad to find a place where I could be a part of the ministry. The international church is truly international and has a good group of people from all over the world. Last week we had our Christmas celebration and it included presentations of Christmas from Indonesia, Nigeria, and of course Romania. I included a little video of  our church's Christmas choir that I got to be a part of. Most of the choir did not know the songs prior to our practices, but I think everyone enjoyed it. Here is the link to the video:
Two more days and then I will be leaving for France to spend Christmas with the same family that I spent Christmas with two years ago. I'm really excited that I get to travel a bit and spend Christmas with a family, since I can't be with my own family.

Who let the dogs out?

Bucharest has a problem...and it looks like this.

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Stray dogs. There are over 50,000 of them in Bucharest according to this article, which also explains how there came to be so many in the city. This number is not at all hard to believe as I have come to recognize the stray dogs that live on my street, the ones in the park by my place, the ones by the metro station, and the ones at the park by the school. That's about 12 dogs that I see everyday on my relatively short, above-ground commute. The parliment voted to legalize euthanizing these dogs, which of course doesn't sound great to most of the western world, but if you have to live around all these dogs...you might feel differently. According to the advertisement on the metro, there are at least 30 people treated for dog bites everyday. There is a free rabies clinic in the city that sees plenty of patients. 

Although I have talked to people who were chased or even bitten by stray dogs, I thankfully haven't had any problems with them except for being barked at and sometimes followed around for a bit. However, what bothers me more than knowing that there are so many homeless dogs in Bucharest, is that fact that there might be the same number of homeless people in Bucharest. It's not uncommon at all to see a group of dogs taking a nap in a sunny area of grass, but neither is it uncommon to see homeless people doing the exact same thing. I may not always be comfortable in my apartment here in Romania. I don't have family nearby or even a lot of my things to make this place feel like home, but at least I have heat and a place to live. 

I have my visa!!

I finally got my visa on Wednesday morning! It was kind of an ordeal getting it. It involved lots of steps, two months of running around and figuring things out, and finally even an emergency trip to Bulgaria, but I can now legally stay in the country for the next five years!!

The first step was getting a couple documents translated and notarized. I spent a whole afternoon walking up and down the streets, and trying three different offices with a friend until we found a notary that was willing to notarize my documents for me. Then I had to go and pay a bill at the insurance office. Someone took me to find it, but we ended up spending another entire afternoon looking for this office. We visited two abandoned buildings before we found the right one. Then I had to drop off some of my documents at another office. They lost one of my documents so I had to go back and drop off another copy. There were a couple other steps as well...so needless to say it is so great to have it all done! I was really close to overstaying my tourist visa, so that is why I was 'exiled' to Bulgaria for a few days. When I finally went to turn my paperwork in at immigration, it went quickly and with no questions asked! This was a nice surprise, considering that this is Eastern Europe and the immigration officials often interpret the law the way they see fit. Now I am enjoying the great feeling of knowing that I am legal. As I said in my last post, my camera is broken, so I found a few pictures of the city of Bucharest to give you a little idea of where I do all my running around. 

Bulgaria

Some people requested that I make a video blog post at some point in time, so I decided to give it a try this weekend. The quality isn't that great since it's my first try, but I hope you enjoy it. Also, my camera broke this weekend, so I wasn't really able to take regular pictures anyway.
Here is the link to my video.

babies

Romania is very much still a developing country, although it is now part of the European Union and is striving to become more progressive and modern, poverty is still a big problem in Romania. Because of poverty and the residual communist mentality that institutionalizing children is fine and normal, Romania has many, many orphans and abandoned children. After visiting an orphanage and seeing the horrible conditions that they grow up in, I really feel that there is nothing worse for a child than to be abandoned and to have to grow up in an institution. Most of them have severe developmental issues stemming from the fact that they have never had the chance to bond with anyone in their life time. The state-run orphanages are run-down and dirty. There often isn't enough money for basic items. The children are unfortunately heavily targeted by human-trafficking. It's a sad place. Thankfully there are people who go in and do their best to work with these children. I originally thought that  I would also be involved in this sort of ministry as well, but I have to confess that it completely overwhelmed me, and I didn't think I would be able to handle it.

However, God gave me another ministry to work in.  I've recently started volunteering at a baby hospital for a couple hours each week after school. It isn't easy either, but I am so thankful to be able to have at least a small impact in the lives of Romanian children.

In Romania, children are not allowed to be put into orphanages until they reach the age of two. Since there is very little foster care available in Romania, that means that most babies are left to live their first two years in the hospital.  In the hospital there are usually about three nurses to thirty babies, so not much interaction takes place. The babies are simply left to lay in their cribs all day. I am currently volunteering with an organization that goes into these hospitals and assists the nurses in caring for the babies.

About two days a week, after school, I take the metro to the opposite side of of the city. I enter the hospital from the back entrance, climb up two flights of stairs, past the stray dog that apparently lives in the stairwell, and into the abandoned baby ward. Every baby has a different story. Some of them were simply left at the hospital, some of them were found abandoned on street corners, and some of them have health problems that their parents didn't feel they could care for. There are about four rooms of cribs with about six babies in each room. The number is always changing. Volunteers are allowed in every room except the newborn room. The walls are covered in bright, albeit slightly strange, paintings of Disney characters and large orthodox icons. I usually just pick a room for the day and try to take turns holding each baby, playing with them, trying to make them laugh, and praying for each baby. At supper time we give them a bottle (that looks like it's been in use since1910) and prop it up in their cribs with a pillow so they can eat. Then I change each of them and put them to bed for the night. The Romanian nurses are often sitting in another room, smoking and watching TV during this time. It's just a job to them, and they don't put more than minimal effort into it. This is not true for all of the nurses, but definitely for some. Sometimes I cry when I leave for the night. Each child deserves to have someone to care for them all the time and love them, but I am glad I can at least put a smile on their face.

Getting into a Routine

The past couple of weeks have been very busy for me, but I do feel like I am finally starting to settle into a routine. I am obviously at school teaching everyday, and then on Tuesdays and Thursdays I have started going to a baby hospital and spending a couple hours playing with abandoned babies. (More on that later.) On Fridays I attend an evening Bible study, and there are usually other events that pop up to fill in the rest of my week. For example, I had the opportunity to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving a couple weekends ago with a Canadian missionary couple who live in another part of Romania.
Even though my days are settling into a routine, living in Romania is never routine. So, here are a few random things that have happened to me, or that I have observed.

1.  I have now lived in Romania a little over two months and I have already seen two dead bodies laying in open coffins. The first was on the street while I was walking to school, and the second was inside a bread truck that I was walking past. I may not be buying bread from that company again...
2.  A couple weeks ago I woke up to my bed shaking, and realized that I was experiencing an earthquake. 
3. I have learned that I must pay my electricity bill to a robot inside of a bank.
4.  I possibly broke or seriously injured my hand by banging my hand against the stair railing at school. It's been almost three weeks, and it is finally starting to feel better. It's just been a bit of a struggle since I can't not use my right hand. 

Here is a picture from one of my first graders. It apparently depicts his family, who all have smelly feet.

This is my life in Romania right now. I definitely am starting to feel more comfortable in my surroundings, and enjoy observing the random oddities of Romania. 

The commute

This week, I thought I would write about how I get to and from school everyday. I don't take pictures while commuting, because that is odd and I don't have time for that. However, I did do a quick search on the internet and found some pictures that I think will give you a pretty good idea of what traveling by public transportation in Bucharest is like. 

Since I am supposed to be at school by 7:45 every morning, I try to leave as close to 7am as possible. I begin by walking about five minutes from my apartment, past the flower sellers and down to my metro stop.

I go two stops on this line, and then switch at the main metro station in Bucharest. It looks something like this in the mornings.

Then I get on the other line and travel for another two stops.

Here I leave the subway system.

I catch a tram at this point. I couldn't find a picture for my tram stop...so if you feel like messing around with google steet view, you can see that my tram stop is about a two foot wide slab of cement in the middle of a fairly busy street. It's kind of an exciting place to be.

I take the tram three stops and then walk about another 5 minutes to get to school. Believe it or not this is the fastest way to get to school.

In the afternoons, I have found an easier way to get home. I simply take the bus from the school to the end of the line. It drops me off at another metro station, and from there it is only three stops to home. 

I tried taking this route to school and found that the bus does not get through morning traffic like trams and metros do. So there is your quick lesson for the day on Romanian public transportation.

The Mountains

Anyone who has lived in a large city for an extended amount of time knows that a trip to the countryside to  breathe fresh air and have some open space around you is much needed from time to time. Thankfully I had a chance to do just that this past weekend along with approximately 35  high schoolers and seven other adults. We took a bus four hours away from the city and into the refreshing beauty of nature for the annual secondary retreat.

We stayed at a retreat center near the tourist city of Bran. This city is famous for being the setting of Bram Stoker's book Dracula. Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to explore the town, but I didn't feel like I missed out on too much! On Friday we spent basically the whole day rock climbing and hiking with the kids. I definitely got my exercise in, and the scenery was incredible.

I know it's a lot of pictures, but I thought it was too beautiful not to show you ;)

The retreat was a lot of fun for me, as well as the kids as far as I could tell. We enjoyed being in the mountains, having fun together, and listening to some great speakers. Unfortunately late Friday night and early Saturday morning about half of the group, including me, started feeling the effects of some sort of food or water poisoning, and by Saturday afternoon it was time to return to the city. Riding a bus through the mountains with a load full of sick kids is not fun, but we made it! By the time we got back to Bucharest, pretty much anyone who hadn't gotten sick yet did. So, Monday ended up being a no-school day for all of the secondary students as we were all still recovering. I hope I get a chance to visit this area again...but next time without getting sick.

To the Black Sea and back

Last weekend I decided it was time for some exploring. Thankfully I found someone who was willing to be my adventure buddy. (She is also with ABWE in Bucharest.) We headed out to a place I have wanted to visit for a long time...the Black Sea. We caught the 7:52 train out of Bucharest and spent 2:45 hours watching the Romanian countryside go by. We got out at Constanta, a Romanian Black Sea port with the intention of finding a beach and relaxing the day away.

We had been told that we could simply catch a taxi at the train station and ask them to take us to the nearest beach. However, once we got there the taxi drivers seemed a bit too aggressive, which is not usually a good sign. So we decided to walk a bit first and see if we could find the sea on our own. As soon as we walked out of the train station, we saw this...a harbor. Obviously we couldn't go swimming here, but we figured if we headed in the direction of the sea we would eventually find it. 

Now it may have been a good idea to look at a map of the city before we came, or we could have checked our phones' GPS to see where we were, but we just didn't feel like it. So we wandered about 15 minutes and found some ancient Roman ruins.

Five minutes from here was the sea. It was that easy!

We spent the next couple hours relaxing on the beach and exploring a little bit. 

Yes, that is a mosque. Constanta is not that far from Turkey.

We caught the train back in the evening, and I enjoyed seeing a lot of shepherds with their sheep, goats, or cows while we road by. It was a fun excursion, although I am still peeling from the sunburn a week later. 

I am a teacher

Since I have already completed two and a half weeks of teaching, I guess it is about time to show you my school. As a first year teacher, and not having textbooks for all of my classes, it has been a big adjustment for me, and I have a lot of prep work. However, I am enjoying teaching, and I am sure it will only get better, as I become more comfortable in my role. So without further ado...here is Bucharest Christian Academy.

BCA is currently building a new school, so this particular building is just temporary. It has three floors and on the bottom floor are the offices, library, computer lab, and lunch room. On the second floor are the elementary classes, and on the third floor are the high school classes. Some of the classrooms are a bit cramped, but all in all this building is meeting the needs of the school quite well.



Here is the ESL room. I teach ESL grammar on Tuesdays and Fridays, and ESL reading everyday.
We have seven students in the ESL program this year from Korea and China, and they range in age from 12-24 years old. They are all pretty low beginners, but I am already starting to get more than just blank stares from them :)

My desk is in the hallway since we don't have a lot of room in the classroom.

Third period I teach study skills with the 7th and 8th graders. The textbook for this class keeps getting lost in the mail, so it's been interesting getting material together for them to do. In the afternoon, I tutor a third grade Chinese boy. I also teach 1st and 2cnd grade History three times a week, and tutor another 1st grader in ESL.  It's a lot of work, but I am really enjoying getting to know my students and the other teachers. Next week I am going along as a chaperon on a weekend retreat to the mountains with all the high school students, so I am sure I will have some interesting stories to report from that!

Observations, Adjustments, and Realizations

Observations

• Sewing needles, pens and tissues are readily available from peddlers on the trams.
• Anything can be sold on the side of the street, including baby bunnies.
• When walking in a busier area of town, it might be a good idea to have a tuba with you that you can play to let people know they are in your way.
• I saw a total of nine black people this past week.

Adjustments

• It takes 40 minutes, 2 subways, 1 tram, and some walking to get to school each day.
• I don't have textbooks for all the classes I teach.
• Simple things like buying food can be really intimidating when you don't have a clue what the cashier/vendor is saying to you. 
• I have students who are required to call me Miss Fessel...weird.
• The lock to my door is often stuck, so I need to figure an extra 5 minutes or so when going somewhere, just so I can get in and out of my apartment.

Realizations

• No matter how many different subway systems you've navigated before, you will have to spend some time getting lost and going in the wrong direction, before you've learned your way around.
• Romania and Poland are two different countries that, while more similar to each other than the US is to either, they will have different products in the grocery stores.
• No matter how many different countries you have visited or lived in, there is still a learning curve when moving to a new place. 

Conclusion: I wrote this about a week ago, when I was really getting discouraged about all the little things that I wasn't getting right away. It takes time to become accostumed to a new place, and I knew that in theory. I even knew that in practice....I had been through this before in Poland, but I still let it get to me. I really just missed the comfort of familiarity.
I have a lot of new things to get used to: a new job, a new country, a new language, a new roommate, etc. There really isn't one thing that is the same in my life right now as what my life was like a month ago. I am not writing all of this because it's easy to complain, it's easy  to get overwhelmed under the circumstances. However, God has been teaching me so much lately that I need to really depend on Him and His strength to get me through. Step by step and day by day I learn a little bit more and eventually my life here will become familiar. I am so blessed that God has chosen to bring me here to Romania, not only to use me as an ESL teacher, but also to teach me to trust in Him more fully.

A Short History of Bucharest

Disclaimer: The following information is what I remember from a free walking tour of the city that I took on Saturday night. Therefore, the information is a bit choppy and unconnected, but I think it will still give you a feel for some of the main points in Bucharest's history.

Sidenote: I would highly recommend taking a free walking tour of any European city, if the opportunity presents itself, as they are very informative and give you a good feel for the city, plus it's free!

Bucharest's Beginnings

Before Bucharest became the capital of Romania, and long before Romania even existed as a nation, Bucharest was simply a stopping point in the trade route between Budapest and Istanbul. Many travelers would come through the city and need a safe place to stay with their goods. In 1808, an Armenian man built Manuc's Inn for the traders.

The first mention of Bucharest was actually appeared in 1459, in documents about Vlad Tepes, also known as Dracula, and his reign in the area. (Yes, I will bring Dracula into my blog as often as possible, and will expand on his history at some point in time.)

A Selection of Famous Landmarks

Romania is over 90% Romanian Orthodox, and their patron saint is St. Dimitri. Their patron saint has had some rough times, as apparently this church has been through every flood and fire that the city has experienced.

The old city center is going through a lot of construction and they are working on making it look nice again. Bucharest was known as the Paris of the East during the 1920-1930s and has a lot of nice buildings from that time period. However, they have not been kept up for the most part.

The reason most of the old city center is in need of repair, is because during the 1980s someone was doing a lot of crazy construction in downtown Bucharest. That someone was the former communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. He tore down homes and old buildings and moved churches (churches were moved behind the large concrete apartment buildings, because Ceausescu was trying to hide religion from the people)
to build a parliment building that is the second largest administrative building in the world after the pentagon. He also built a main boulevard leading up to the 'Palace of the People' that is one meter wider than the Champs Elysees in Paris. That makes for a lot of concrete in a relatively small area.The churches were moved behind the large concrete apartment buildings, because Ceausescu was trying to hide religion from the people.

The parliment building, formerly known as the people's palace is huge and build with only Romanian materials. It was built during a time when most Romanians did not have food...so all the decadence wasn't really looked on favorably by the people. Now the building houses not only the Romanian parliament, but also a museum, and many ballrooms and meeting halls that can be rented for parties. There are even many rooms that were never finished and have no floors or ceilings, but no effort is being put into finishing these rooms since the space is not really needed. The building also has many floors and labryinths below the surface of the building including a race track in the basement.

This is a side view of the building. I just realized I haven't taken a picture of it from the front yet.

This sad little river Dambovita was diverted for the building of the palace.

By this time in the tour it was dark, and I did not take anymore pictures, but the story of the Romania continues. Most notable is the revolution in 1989 that ousted their communist dictator Ceausescu is also important, and I will try to cover it another time. If you have any interesting Bucharest facts for me, or things that you would like to know about and have me discover...please let me know!

I am in Romania

The past few days have been packed full of all kinds of activity. I am so thankful that I have been able to get so much done in so little time. My first full day in Romania was spent looking at apartments and getting to know the metro system. My new roommate Cath and I decided on a place to live and got the details figured out all on my first full day in Romania! Cath is from England and will be teaching kindergarten.

Since I took it pretty easy on my first day...;) I decided to go ahead and increase my activities for my second day. I started out by visiting an orphanege with some of the missionaries. The orphanege is state-run and in pretty deplorable condition, however the kids loved seeing us and some of them even practiced their English with me, while I tried out my Romanian phrases with them. Some people from my school go there every Saturday, so I am praying about joining them on a weekly basis as well.

Afterwards, I was able to get some more errands run. I now have Romanian money and a bus pass...I can go anywhere. In the evening, I got to go to a string quartet concert in the park. It was very lovely and made me miss Susie.

On Sunday, I attended services that were translated into English for the benefit of all the Americans in the crowd, and in the afternoon I got to move into my apartment. My place is the very top of this building with the pillars at the windows.

Here are the dogs that watch the place...see they love me

already. 

Getting my stuff up the staircase was a bit of a challenge, but we managed.

The apartment is owned by an American/Romanian family who currently live in the states. They keep their apartment here, but like to have someone living in it to take care of it.

It's nice for us, since it is already furnished and filled with the things that we need, but sometimes it is a little bit too furnished and I had difficulty finding space for my things. Also, I now have Bob the builder sheets.

I spent Monday exploring the city center and the area around my new place. Cath and I also figured out where the nearest grocery stores are and filled our fridge. I am glad we were able to accomplish so much in so little time. I started teacher in-service on Tuesday and finally found out exactly what classes I will be teaching next Monday. My first few days here have been very busy, and there are no signs of it slowing down anytime soon. I don't feel as if I am really oriented to the city yet, but at least I haven't gotten lost yet. At some point I will have to explain my daily commute to school...