Happy Easter!

 I realize I am a little late. Sorry! I have been busy with school and breaks from school and life in general. I will try to get you caught up this week on the things that have been going on this past month. I had spring break during the last week of March and traveled to Poland. I also attended a wedding and celebrated Easter...sort of.

 Easter in Romania was actually this week and not last week, as you probably celebrated. That  is because Romania is primarily orthodox and they celebrate Easter a week later than everyone else. Easter is a very important holiday in Romania and it's even considered more important than Christmas. See, there were even Easter lights up in the city

I didn't learn everything about Romanian Easter, but I did learn a few special traditions that orthodox Romanians observe. On good Friday people usually attend mass and walk around the church and under a table three times to signify Christ's suffering and death. On Saturday all orthodox Romanians attend midnight mass. (I am much more a fan of this then early sunrise services, for the record). I attended midnight mass with a few friends just to see what it was like. Literally everyone goes and police are out in force to direct traffic. The subway also runs at special times so everyone can get to mass.

 

The mass is held outside and unfortunately it was raining, but we made it through. The main goal of the mass is for people to receive light from the priest. So everyone brings candles. The priest sings some kind of liturgy and everyone sings an Easter hymn. The light is passed around the whole crowd, and at this point most people leave and the rest of the mass is finished inside the church.
One really special thing about Easter in Romania is the greeting that everyone uses during this time. You can say this to anyone and everyone you meet: Hristos a inviat  and they will respond with: Adeverat a inviat, which means Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Although sadly most people in Romanian do not understand what Christ's resurrection really means, it is exciting and makes it so much more real to be able to say that to everyone you meet.
The rest of my Easter wasn't that exciting. I had Chinese with some friends and attended midnight mass, out it. One thing I really missed, and will make sure to get once I am back in the US, is a giant brunch with french toast, eggs, bacon, etc. Now I'm hungry.

A weekend away

I finally got a chance to get out of the city for a little bit a week and a half ago! Although I really enjoy living in a city, every once in awhile it is just time to get away and take a break from all the concrete. My church had its annual retreat in a mountain town called Busteni, and it was about a two hour train trip from Bucharest.

There were about 70 people from our church who attended, so we had to be split up into two different hotels. I stayed in a two star hotel called Paradise hotel. Later I found this four star hotel called The Ghetto (What?!). Next time I will stay there.

We arrived just in time for lunch, and then went up the mountain for an afternoon of fun in the snow.

I was unadventurous and did not ski or sled, but I did enjoy the beautiful scenery. Many of our church people are from Africa and have therefore have never really played in the snow before, so it was fun to watch them discover sledding for the first time. 

In the evening, after supper, we had an all church quiz night. The international church is truly very international. We have people from all over the world, so some extra thought had to be put into the quiz questions to make sure that everyone could relate to them. We were also divided into very diverse teams, which helped a lot. In my team, we had a Romanian student, an Indonesian woman, an African pastor, an African business woman, and an American high school student. It turned out to be the perfect mix, because we won.

The next morning was Sunday, so we had a church service, took a group picture, and headed back home. It was a great weekend away from the city, and I had a great time getting to know people at my church better.

 

Try to find me :)

Women's day

I have decided that I really like March in Romania. The winter months get very gray, cold and dreary. Just when you think you can't take it anymore....it's holiday time! In my last post, I talked about Martisor which occurs on the first of March. Only one week later it's holiday time again! March 8 is international women's day. Although it is supposed to be international women's day, I only first heard of it while living in Poland. I think it is celebrated more in eastern European countries and takes the place of mother's day in some of these countries.

There are loads of flower sellers right outside of my metro station. I love it, because I always get to look at gorgeous fresh flower arrangements one my way to school and back home everyday. They really went all out for women's day, and the area around my metro stop exploded with brightly colored flowers. Everyone had flowers and by the end of the day I noticed some of the sellers were even starting to run out of flowers! I wasn't left out of all of this. Here are my women's day gifts from my students.

Along with March and fun holidays and lots and lots of flowers, warm temperatures have finally come. The snow is melting, spring is coming, and I am looking forward to being able to spend more time outside exploring Romania.

Martisor

The snow is finally melting, and it is a mess in Bucharest! Even though it is very wet around here right now, I am very happy that the snow is melting, because that means spring is on its way. Another sign that spring is on its way is the martisor stands that started springing up all over the city.  On every street corner there are people selling small trinkets with red and white string attached to them. At first I thought it was for women's day, which will take place on March 8, and I will blog about that later on. However, I found out that Romania celebrates another holiday on March 1 called Martisor. To be honest I'm still a little shaky on what it's all about, but this is what I have found out so far about the Romanian festival of Martisor.

It is an ancient festival that celebrates the beginning of spring and fertility. The name martisor apparently goes back to the original name of March which was of course named after the god Mars. The trinkets that are exchanged always have to have a red and white string on them. The colors either stand for war and peace, or innocence and fertility, or some other combination. I have heard several. Women were to wear these charms either around their wrist or pinned to their shirt for 12 days or until the first sign of spring with the blossoming of trees.

Now a days the tradition is simply for men, or women to give women one of these small trinkets on the first of March, and I believe that's about it. My friends and I went to a fair at the peasant museum that was full of these little trinkets. Most of them are handmade, and they can have just about anything on them. Here are some that I was given from my students and friends.

Here is one that I bought especially for you! Happy Spring!

More snow and more politics

The snow has continued to fall over the past few weeks. In all, we have had four snow days and two half days. I love snow days just as much as my students, however, keeping up with lesson plans has been problematic. Hopefully we will be done with snow days now and I can keep teaching the kids English at a good pace. Getting places is still really hard with the amount of snow on the ground. Here  is a picture of the cars near my house. If you compare it with the picture from my last blog post, you will see we have had quite a bit more snow. Luckily I have not been run over by a bus! The snow has started to melt this weekend, but it hasn't made getting around any easier. I am excited for the day when I can walk like a normal person, and not be continually worried about falling.

While getting around in the city is difficult, it is impossible to get around in the villages of Romania. Many highways have been closed and are not able to be plowed because cars were abandoned on the road. Delivery trucks can't get in, so food packages have had to be airlifted into many villages around Romania. They don't have electricity either. In the city there have been a few blackouts, but we only experienced one for about two hours. I am very thankful for that.

The demonstrations, that I wrote about previously, continued somewhat, even when the weather turned horrible. I had to run an errand close to where they were taking place, and I could still  hear people shouting 'jos Basescu'... down with the president. In the past few weeks some changes were made in the government, and from what I know things are running more smoothly. According to reports I heard, the entire parliamentary cabinet was dismissed and re-elected. Apparently people are happy with the results, and hopefully things will stay stable in Romania.

Snow days!!

Up until two weeks ago the weather here has been very mild. I don't mind that at all, but I think everyone was wondering what had happened to the snow once Christmas passed and everything was still gray. Well, we are no longer wondering. Last week the snow began to fall, and it did not stop. We ended up with two snow days. So, I decided to use those days wisely, and build an eight foot snowman with some friends.

The snow and cold has continued in Bucharest and the rest of Europe. Here's CNN's report if you don't believe me. The black sea even froze out to 400 meters, which doesn't always happen. 

The conditions for walking are pretty dangerous because the sidewalks don't really get cleared very well. Please pray that I don't fall in the road and get run over by a bus!

Today we got freezing rain along with the snow which makes things extra slippery. My roommate and I gave up trying to walk back from church and just got a taxi. I am hoping for maybe one more snow day!

In the news

It's a snow day today!! So, I have some unexpected time to update what's been going on in Bucharest. Romania has actually been in the news the last week and a half. You can read about it here, but basically people in Romania are protesting against the president and the austerity measures that the government is imposing on them. It started a week ago on Saturday night. I actually walked past about thirty people with posters that afternoon, but I didn't think anything of it. However as the evening progressed, apparently things escalated to this.

Things turned a little violent that night and the next, meaning tear gas and rocks were involved. Somehow I didn't hear anything at all, even though a group of protesters marched in the street past my house. (I didn't take these pictures.)

The following is a notice from the US Embassy posted on Thursday.

Continuing Demonstrations in Bucharest

Expect demonstrations to continue in Piata Universitatii and Unirii Square throughout the weekend.

Clashes between demonstrators and security personnel are possible; this could pose considerable incidental risks to those in the vicinity. You should avoid the demonstrations if at all possible and remain alert and aware of your surroundings at all times.

Normal pedestrian and vehicular traffic are affected. Please consider alternate routes and plan schedules accordingly.

Note: Soccer fans (supporting various teams such as Steaua, Dinamo, Rapid and Petrolul) have announced that they intend to join the demonstrations this weekend. Yesterday alone, nearly 100 individuals were arrested for violent behavior during the demonstrations

Note: Even demonstrations that are meant to be peaceful can become violent and unpredictable and you should avoid them if at all possible and remain alert and aware of your surroundings at all times.

They are continuing to protest, but I haven't really been affected by it at all. Other cities around Romania are also protesting, and at one point I heard that about ten percent of the entire population of Romania was protesting against the president. I haven't felt the need to go out and protest myself, especially with all the snow we are getting dumped on today. Instead I am going to go sledding!