Brasov

I think I have mentioned this before, but when you live in a city like Bucharest, getting out of the city every once in awhile is very important. Bucharest is a pretty big, busy city. The most wildlife I see during the day are some stray dogs and maybe a rat. There are some trees in the city, but it's mostly concrete. There are people everywhere, and they are all on a mission to get somewhere. So, it's just nice to get out every once in awhile and experience a little different environment.
The easiest place to get away to from Bucharest is Brasov. I've been there a couple times already, and it's really very nice. It is still a city, but it is in the mountains, and has a whole different atmosphere. Our church Bible study group planned a weekend trip there at the beginning of the month, and it was great to get away together. We left on Friday, and since I had to work, I had to catch the later train. The train was booked full, so we were not given seats. It was pretty tight, but there were a few nice people who gave up their seats for us, and we even met another American on the train. That doesn't happen very often here.

We spent the night in a cheap hotel, and then next day half of the group went to explore the city, and the other half went off to do something a bit more adventurous.  Since I had already been to the city, I chose the more adventurous option, which happened to be a high ropes course. The name of the place is adventure park, but somehow, while our group was discussing the options, the name got changed to the danger park. It's not really dangerous, but if you are scared of heights, it can definitely feel dangerous. 

Brasov is beautiful in the fall. I loved being able to breathe some fresh air and spend time with my friends. 

A day with Chen Lin

I have been tutoring Chen Lin since last year, when he came in as a fourth grader with no knowledge of English. It was a rough start, but he is extremely smart and determined to learn. He picked up English in no time and is doing really well in school. I still tutor him three times a week in English, and he is a very interesting character. At some point I will share with you all of my favorite Chen Lin quotes that I have collected, but for now, let me just share a day with Chen Lin. 

This particular day happened to be the last day of school in our old rented school building. I don't know if this made it an extra emotional day for Chen Lin or what, but he was pretty dramatic. 

We started off with him wanting to help me pack the classroom. I allowed him to pack one box of books for me before we started talking about homework. He decided he wanted a little bit more homework, so I took him down the copy machine with me to copy some more homework. He had never used the copy machine before, and was pretty intrigued with it. I let him push the buttons, and he asked me "Can I copy my hand?" 

"Sure, you could, but we are not going too," I replied. 

"COOL!!! Then I would have three hands!!" exclaimed Chen Lin. 

"No, Chen Lin, it would just be a piece of paper with a picture of your hand on it."

"Oh" (slightly sad face)

Next he pulls the paper out of the printing tray and starts pressing it against his face.

"This is hot!! Why is this hot!!!"

"That's just the way it is after coming out of the copier."

"But why is it hot??"

We go back upstairs, and the entire time he is following me singing some song about flying.

Back in the classroom I proceed to go over the homework with him.

"Ms. Fessel, will you stay here forever?"

"Probably not forever"

"When will you leave?"

"I don't know. When God tells me too."

"Will you stay here forever until you get married?"

"I really don't know, Chen Lin."

After this little interlude we continued class until it was time for him to go. As he exited the classroom, the door handle fell out. This has been happening all week, but we haven't fixed it since we are moving to the new school. I instruct him to pick up the handle and push it back on the door so I can get out of the room.

"Ms. Fessel, I would be so sad if I made you to be locked in your classroom so you couldn't get out. The would fire me from the school and I would have to go to prison and they would kill me!"

"No, Chen Lin, none of that would happen." I call out after him, but he is already on his way down the stairs. 

And that is a pretty typical day with Chen Lin.

Service day

One day each semester, the high school students at BCA get a break from their regular classes and get to spend the day volunteering at some sort of ministry in Bucharest. A couple weeks ago we had our first service day of the year. The students were broken into small groups and sent off to several different places for the day. Some of the students went to a church, or a clinic, and helped do cleaning and maintenance. Some students went to a home for mothers and helped do babysitting and food preparation. I got to chaperon a group of students who went to a ministry that does child evangelism through puppet shows throughout the whole country of Romania.

We spent the morning learning the puppet skits, and then we drove over to a christian bookstore. The bookstore has an after school outreach to neighborhood kids, and they had asked for a puppet team to come and do something special for them. It was a small space, but we were able to set up all the puppet equipment and put on an evangelistic show for twelve kids. My students did an excellent job with the puppets and really enjoyed themselves. It was a great opportunity to be a part of another ministry in Romania, and I was really proud of my students for using their talents so well!

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Nigerian Independence day

I have meant to blog about a couple different topics this past month, but somehow time has gotten away from me. It's been a very full month with lots of exciting things. So, I am going to start working backwards, and hopefully try to get caught up.

On October 1, Nigera celebrates its independence day, which never really meant anything to me before. However, this year, I received something that looked like this.

I know it's kind of hard to read, but it is an official invitation to the Nigerian Independence Day celebration from the ambassador (well, actually from my friend Sope). I never in my wildest dreams imagined that I would be invited to something like this, so of course, I had to go. I convinced my room mate of the same, and off we went.

As we approached the hotel, I noticed the parking lot was full of black Mercedes with flags from different countries on them. These were the ambassadors' cars. We entered the hotel, and I kind of felt like I was at some kind of UN meeting. There were people from all over the world in their traditional costumes, and I almost got run over by what looked like a middle eastern general. It was really interesting to be in a completely different atmosphere then I am used to being in, but it was also a lot of fun!

We spent the evening visiting with people from my church and trying a few Nigerian dishes.

A long weekend in Paris

One of the nice things about living in Europe is the relatively short and cheap flights from city to city. Since we had fall break in mid October, I decided to use my long weekend wisely and meet up with a good friend of mine from high school in Paris. She was doing a tour of England, Germany, and France with a couple other girls, so I joined them for the end of their vacation. It took a taxi, a plane, a bus and eight hours for me to go from my apartment to the middle of Paris.

Together again after two years!














The first day was beautiful and we enjoyed getting our first view of the Eiffel Tower, and enjoying crepes.

The next day was rainy, so we spent the morning at the Louvre. My favorite part was being able to see some artifacts from ancient history that I had taught the first and second graders last year.

In the evening we found some good spots to take pictures of the city of lights.

On Sunday my friends had to catch their plane early, so I went to a church where I knew the missionaries. It was fun to surprise them! I also met up with some short-term missionaries that I had trained with two summers ago, before I first came to Romania. It was a surprise to see them as well, and I really enjoyed it! I stayed for lunch after the service, and got to know a few of the girls from the church in English, French, and German. Then it was time for me to leave and go back home. This time it was the metro, a bus, a plane, and a taxi that took me from the church to my apartment just in time for bed!