Hot Christmas

I had the amazing opportunity to go to Honduras and spend Christmas with my sister Susie this year. She has been living in Honduras and teaching at an international school there for the same amount of time that I have been in Romania. No one in our family has been down to Honduras yet to see her, so for this Christmas she, along with my parents, bought a ticket for me to see her.

I was so surprised and couldn't really believe it was actually happening until I got there. It was a really special time getting to meet her friends, see where she lives, and just getting to really know what life is like for her there. Honduras is different then any other place I've visited before, and I really enjoyed getting to see so many new things.

Susie teaches orchestra at Los Pinares Academy and she also plays in the Honduran Philharmonic Orchestra. I was able to go to three of her concerts that she had over Christmas. I'm pretty proud of my sister's accomplishments in Honduras ;)

I was also pretty excited that it was warm in Honduras. I love hot weather and did not miss the snow at all. I got to eat a bunch of tropical fruits and eat food that is completely different from Romanian food.

I also got to enjoy some American things we just don't have in Romania.

mmmm donuts!!!

After Christmas we took a short beach vacation to Honduras' Caribbean coast. We went swimming, snorkeling, and hiking through the rain forest.

It was amazing to see monkeys, tropical fish, toucans, and this animal I'd never heard of before in the wild.

What am I?

The trip from Romania to Honduras is a long one. I had an 18 hour layover in Panama on my way there, and long layovers in Atlanta and Amsterdam on the way back. So I was very thankful that I didn't have any problems or delays on any of my flights!! I think that was a miracle!

mini bonus trip to Panama City

Christmas Concert

Here is my high school Christmas concert. I was very proud of my students' hard work!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNsyNKfDqnU

The start of year three at BCA

I have just started my third year teaching at BCA!  After having two years of teaching and living in Romania experience, a lot of things are starting to feel familiar and I am starting to feel a lot more at home in Bucharest. As far as teaching goes, I really love my students, I finally have a real lunch break, and I feel much more confident in what I am doing as a teacher. It's still going to be a lot of work, but I am looking forward to a great year.

After a great summer catching up with lots of family in the US, I jumped right into taking advantage of some of my favorite things about living in Romania. First off I took a day at the seaside. I love the beach!

Last weekend I took in the outdoor opera concert that takes place about two blocks from my house.

Today I went to the market and bought all of this for $8.64.

That's 2 lbs pears, 2.5 lbs grapes, 2 lbs raspberries, 2 lbs red peppers, 1 lb blueberries. I've also been doing a lot of running at the park near my house, and just enjoying the now familiar sights of my neighborhood. 

And of course I have enjoyed getting back together with my friends after most of us have been scattered over the summer holidays. 

I'm very thankful for all of the things and people that God has given me here!

Christmas 2012

It's been awhile since I last posted. I'm afraid I haven't been very motivated to do much writing lately, but since I haven't even blogged about Christmas in England yet, I guess I had better do that!


Back in December I was able to go home with my roommate and spend Christmas with her family in Bristol, England for two weeks. My roommate, Cath, and her family made me feel very much at home and took me around to all sorts of exciting places. I was also introduced to special English delicacies such as Christmas pudding, mince pies, and fish and chips.

I visited the seaside, toured the city of Bath, and went on a pretty great shopping trip in Cardiff, Wales. Although I loved seeing new things in England, I also loved seeing familiar things in England. For instance, I got really excited when I saw the store Staples. It wasn't that I needed or  wanted to shop there. I was just thrilled to see something so familiar. I was also pretty excited to have this. (Don't worry, not all those donuts were mine.)

One of the most unique things I got to do was go to a pantomime. My roommate bought me tickets as a surprise, and I had no idea what a pantomime was. To be honest, I still don't really know what one is, but it was pretty amazing. Later on, I read an article in a magazine about the history of British pantomimes. The author wrote something to the extent of, "I have seen many an American or Australian watching their first pantomime with a look of complete bewilderment, but they always come out enthusing wildly." I feel that that sums up my feelings towards pantomimes pretty accurately. If you can imagine a play of a fairy tale, with lots of slapstick humor, puns, parodies of pop songs, break dancers, audience participation, and outlandish costumes, you will have a small idea of what a pantomime is like. I highly recommend them if you are into bizarre humor.

We also had the chance to go to London for a few days over New Years Eve. The city was crazy full of people, but it was really great to be able to see all the sights. My roommate, her sister, and I ended up standing in one place for 4 hours next to the Thames river waiting for the NYE fireworks. Although I probably wouldn't do it again, it definitely was an experience and some of the best fireworks I've ever seen.

I returned to Bucharest well-rested, well-fed, and ready for the second semester. I will let you know how that's been going next time!

International Christmas

Happy New Year!! I meant to write a few things about Christmas before I left on vacation, but that didn't happen. Right now I am enjoying my last few days of Christmas break in England before I head back and start school again on Monday. I promise to write all about England later, but for today I want share about some of my Christmas activities back in Bucharest.

I was involved in leading a choir for two different Christmas programs this year. It was something brand new for me. I have been a part of choirs for many years and I really enjoy it, but I have never led a choir before, neither have I had any training to lead a choir....so I was a little intimidated about it. However, I think both programs went very well.

The first Christmas program was at the beginning of December for our church. I was asked to lead the adult choir about three weeks before the program date. I put together some songs, and we had practice after church on Sundays. I always had a different group of people practicing, so I really wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, but in the end it was fine

 

The following week we had our school Christmas program. The elementary students put on the play "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" and inbetween acts my high school choir that I have been teaching this semester got to perform. It was their first performance as a choir, so they were pretty nervous, but they did an amazing job. I was very proud of them. I have really enjoyed teaching this class. Choir was probably one of the highlights of my high school career, and being able to pass that on to these students has been a privilege. Next semester I will not be teaching choir, but I will be working, with the drama teacher, as the musical director for our spring drama, "Annie."

 

The Opera

I love where I live. In a city of concrete apartment buildings, I am pretty lucky to be able to live in the top floor of a villa on a quiet dead end street in the center of the city. Some pretty important things are close to my house including the Romanian president's mansion, a very nice mall, and the opera house. Last year I walked by the opera house almost every day, but never looked into actually going. This past fall while it was still warm outside, I heard an outdoor concert playing and decided to check it out.
I dragged my room mate out with me and we joined a crowd of about 2000 people for a beautiful outdoor concert complete with fireworks!

I decided I needed to take advantage of being so close and look into going to the opera more often,  especially when I found out that balcony seats could be purchased for as little as the equivalent of $3!

I also worked with the drama teacher to organize a field trip to the opera with my music students. I made reservations to take my students on a Friday night, however when I called with the final number to book the tickets, they had changed the event and were no longer selling student tickets. It was frustrating,  but a very common occurrence in Romania. Thankfully, we were able to get tickets to another show, and I had a great time taking my students to see The Barber of Seville at the end of November.

This week I plan to go see The Nutcracker!

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.