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!

Tuesday Traditions

Anybody watch 'The Voice'? It's an American singing competition where four judges, who are famous artists,  listen to contestants and chose from them people to be on their team based on their voice alone. (They are not allowed to see the contestants.) Then these teams are coached by the judges that chose them and compete against each other to earn the title of "The Voice." Anyway, Romania has it's own version of the show called Vocea Romaniei, and it became kind of a Tuesday night tradition for a few friends and I to get together and watch this show. 

We looked at it as kind of a cultural experiment to see if Americans and Romanians have different tastes in regard to music...they do. Our little group usually consisted of three to four Americans and one to two Romanians. We Americans often did not agree with what the judges deemed as good, while the Romanians usually did. 

At some point in the show I usually would end up laughing so hard I cried. It was either from the interesting outfits, or the strange back up dancers that also always seem to be wearing something ridiculous and doing some sort of choreography that had nothing to do with the style of the song. Unfortunately the show ended at Christmas so now we have to find another show to pick apart culturaly...or just laugh at.

I did catch an episode of the Turkish version of 'The Voice' and it was interesting to see that while Romanians usually sang popular American songs, the Turks sang mostly their own Turkish pop songs. 

Here is an excerpt of one of my favorite contestants on Vocea Romaniei. He made it pretty far into the show. You can decide whether he would have made it very far in the US. He was one of my favorites, mostly for the unique costumes, interesting facial expressions and the fact that you can never guess what note he will song next. But really, I could listen to him a lot ;)

One of the judges from Vocea Romaniei gave a free concert at the mall near my place at the beginning of December. Just like the show, the concert went on and on. This guy, Horia Branciu, has a lot of energy and really knew how to get the crowd excited. 

We never knew what was going to happen next, just like the show. This may be partly because we don't understand that much Romanian, but at one part of the concert, this happened. It was some kind of dance involving a giant hamster ball? We certainly weren't expecting that. 

In conclusion, Romania is never boring!

A French Christmas

Bonne année tout le monde! I just got back from spending Christmas with my French family in a little village near Strasbourg. It was a great way to spend the holidays. I was really missing my family right around Thanksgiving, and not looking forward to spending Christmas without them. Thankfully I was able to make arrangements to go to the same place in France where I spent Christmas two years ago. It was familiar and I really felt like part of the family.

 I was in the Alsace region of France, which used to be a part of Germany at various times in history. The people are very proud of their culture, and most of them actually speak a German dialect as their first language. I enjoyed being able to understand so much more of what was going on and being able to communicate with people in both German and French. 

The Christmas market in Strasbourg

The family that I stayed with has a background in the restaurant business and serves some of the most delicious food I have ever tasted. So, here are some pictures of my favorite thing about France....food.

In conclusion, my vacation consisted of sleeping a lot, eating a lot of amazing food, and taking walks in the fresh air and beautiful countryside. I really needed this time to relax, and now I am back in Bucharest and ready to start school again on Thursday.

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.