Day Five:

Today is my last day in Romania, so I slipped on my shorts and took a jog in the 10 C˚ weather. Not as bad as it sounds, but I bet you not one of their countrymen puts shorts on until June. Peti and Livio followed me around in their car laughing at me, swerving at me, and throwing things at me.

My whole mission today is to buy some sort of souvenir. I went into one store and a sales lady started speaking FF (foreign and fast). This time I decided to stand my ground. I was going to grind this one out, so I could at least come out with something. I used an ugly face if I no likey and smiley face thumbs up if I likey. The lady started to catch on and we went through sizes and everything. I spent 145.00 RON (Oh yeah, call me Big Spenda).

I ate dinner tonight with Adrian and Ruth, they lived in America for 3 years. Ruth cooked a somewhat American meal for me. It is custom to use the toilet scrubber after every poop and they had a nice one with a wall holder and everything.

My last night downtown at the Sky Bar was a memorable one. Everyday I would go to this Tea and Coffee Bar to email and chill with the peeps of Oradea. I would usually sit by myself long enough for someone to start a conversation with me. By the way, there are cool coffee and tea bars on every corner. Tonights conversation started by this guy named Marios who asked me to come sit with him and his friends. Long story short, our little group in the corner ended up being close in age and we got to know each other for the next 2.30 hrs. There were times during the night when I thought, is this really happening here in some strange place. It was amazing to see how strangely similar people are all over the world. I thank God for this beautiful night.

Hasta La Vista Romainia.

Day FOUR:

I woke up this morning to some Romanian V8, it is called MultiVit. Good stuff, better than V8 twisters, no joke. My ITM friend, Peti, fixes me coffee every morning. He does not think he speaks good English, so he brought his other English speaking cousin to work with him today. He and his cousin, Livio, wanted to show me the city after breakfast. Peti is absolutely crazy. He drives for fun, not just to get somewhere. I videoed him driving ITMs car in rush hour, so I could prove his video game like driving skills. Not race car driving, but bang mirrors, honk, pass people on the left side, splash people, swerve at people type driving. Peti is the guy who knows French, German, Hungarian, Romanian, and English. He knows them all better than I know English. I laughed non stop all morning.

One of the most interesting places I have seen this whole trip is called FELIX. People come from all over the world, for what they call “thermal water”. My Romanian friends are very serious when referring to this thermal water. I figured that is was their version of hotsprings like in Arkansas, but each family I met talked of the healing treatments and hospitals that use this thermal water. Huge pools, like Hurricane Harbor without slides, covered the area surround by hospitals, hotels, and old churches. I still think it was a hotspring, but I say that hesitantly.

I can’t believe that Michael W. Smith, The Gaithers, and DC Talk are so big here. When I talked about music to the Romainians, it sounds odd even coming from their mouth. It took me a minute to regain composure. I mean, coming from the same people who pirate movies and music like mad (like 10mins is how long it takes them to download Superman Returns, I watched them). I quickly let them know that I do not listen to Christian music much. Not that I do not want them to not listen to Christian music, but I want to make sure they know me. The word Music is not the adjective, it is the subject. When referring to music by Michael Dub I just don’t get inspired anymore. I pulled out my ipod and you would have thought they had seen gold. Crazy how Romania is so technologically advanced, but they do not have the market for certain products. I picked up a wifi signal pretty much everywhere.

That night I got picked up by a family who fed me the nastiest lookin, best tastin mushroom soup ever. Plus they offered me sour cream and continued to rave on how they love sour cream. That was the second family that thought so highly of something called sour… cream… They told me to put it all on top of the cabbage and chicken. Same story second verse, so I wont bore you with the obvious. My new friends Andrew and Ansi are also new parents to a 1 old year girl named Hosi (misspelled I guess) and they were interested in how I parent in America. They were impressed by my Momman blog. Just kidding. After dinner they took me back to my space at 8pm, so I went out to top the night w/ an Irish Coffee and finish my blogging. I don’t remember the rest. Oh wait, yeah I do. I walked home in rainy 36 degree weather.