The girls of Casa Elisabeta made my 'la multi ani' (birthday) so special here surprising me with a card they had all made and sang Happy Birthday to me in Romanian and English. The boys also gave me a card they had all helped to make at workshop and serenaded me once again. It was a very memorable birthday spent in little Nicoresti to say the least.
My 4 day trip to the north was...well an experience, a great one at that. I practiced my Romanian LOTs! Almost every train I took (10 total) the friendly Romanian next to me wanted to strike up a conversation-lots of fun to be able to put my Romanian to the test. I was able to get by successfully and travel around quite a bit-the advantage of making no reservations or plans before leaving-just bought my first train ticket there. Needless to say I have TONS of great and funny stories from those 4 days. The monasteries were gorgeous, set in these picturesque little villages surrounded by hills and fall colored forests, they look almost like they would have in the 15th and 16th centuries when they were built...Stephen the Great (Stefan cel Mare), Romania's most revered Romanian king as he defeated the Turks time and time again in the 15th century, started the tradition of building a church and dedicating it to God after a victorious battle-many of the churches that Stefan built had extensive exterior paintings and most (if not all) were soon after turned into monasteries with the monk's cells serving as a protective exterior wall to the church, hence the famous painted monasteries. All of my pictures can be found here.
Sucevita: the largest of the painted monasteries, village is only accessible by walking the 18km from the nearest train station or hitch-hiking...
View of the entire Sucevita monastery compound from above (went on many little hikes around the monasteries for some exploration and views)
Voronet: famous for the blue dye used on its exterior frescoes
Putna: burial place of Stefan cel Mare and destination for many Romanian Orthodox pilgrims, inside is extensively painted (though the outside is not)
Halloween: pumpkin carving, costume making, and candy eating-to sum it all up. We made some Jack'O'lanterns Monday afternoon with everyone and have lit them every night in preparation for Halloween yesterday. It was great fun to watch everyone scoop out all the seeds (woohoo no rain this week!) and plan out how they wanted us to cut the faces.
My girls of Casa Elisabeta standing proudly behind their pumpkins: (left-right, Verginica, Maricica, Tina, Adina, Rodica, Marianna, Catalina, Anca)
Yesterday (Saturday) we had our Halloween party-everyone dressed up in their costumes for dancing, games, and of course candy in Casa Jacob. We had a best costume contest with different categories judged by Tata Bruce, played 'pass the parcel' and split into teams to have a mummy making contest with toilet paper! All of the kids got very creative with their costumes including a snowflake, a movie star, Dracula, an elephant, super woman, and one of the house women (from Casa Hannah) came as a crazy bag lady...I think she might have had the most fun...Pictures from Halloween, and actually all of my (and other volunteers') pictures from Tanner Romania Mission are posted aici.Gypsie Dani with Super Soupa (volunteer joke) volunteer Amy, and Charlie Chaplin Florentin:
Caine/Dog Catalina and Clown Ciprian:
Other than that we have been going to workshop every week day and spending many afternoons raking falling leaves (when we weren't inside making Halloween decorations of course). While it hasn't rained all week, it has been bitingly cold and is rumored that snow is around the corner....
Costel and I having some fun in Workshop making cards:
Philippians 3:8-11
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