Roman(ian) Holiday

Me with Zsuzsa's Christmas tree

Merry Christmas everyone!  Thanks for putting up with my lack of blogging skills...I haven't forgotten about all of you!  I spent the majority of the days leading up to Christmas maxing out the free space on my computer's hard drive with every Christmas movie I ever remembered watching as a child...well, the good ones at least.  And now I have to watch them all, or it was time wasted...I have a long way to go.

We had school Monday and Tuesday of this week...although we didn't really have classes.  On Tuesday showed up for my 9 am class, after that I had an hour break and then I have another class.  Well the teacher eventually gathered her belongings to head to class and as I moved to follow she told me not to come to class.  Ooookay, so I just stayed at school for two hours to not have class?  This happens often enough to drive me insane, I just have to remember to be patient in the name of cultural integration...on the outside at least ;)  Wednesday my Christmas tree was delivered to me from the forest by my counterpart's husband.  After I lugged it up 7 flights of stairs and plopped it in the middle of the living room, it took a minute (or fifteen) to figure out what to do next.  This was my first live tree ever in my life...that I can remember!  The first challenge was getting it to stay upright.  Eventually after many failed attempts, I found my mop bucket. 

Problem number 2:  there were some low branches that prevented it from fitting nicely in the mop bucket.  I grabbed the biggest knife I could find in my kitchen and sawed away.  The extra branches made a lovely centerpiece for my kitchen table.  Problem number 3: where to put the thing.  My living is not exactly spacious, and what space there is is in front of the TV or in the path between the two doors.  Well I found a place to put it, but the tree was too tall.  So I bent the top branch in half so it would fit, covering my hands in sap along the way.  And I was done!  Oh wait, I forgot about the big red monstrosity that is my mop bucket.  Problem solved.  Sorry Boo, you'll have to sleep on the floor for a few days, or weeks, while I use your blanket to drape around the mop bucket.  Finished!!!  Luckily I seemed to have enough patience on Wednesday to make enough paper snowflakes to make my tree look complete.  I must say, its pretty cute :)

The finished product.

Thursday my counterpart and I spent THREE HOURS at the supermarket doing our last minute shopping.  I bought a bunch of stuff to bake with, especially to bake frosted sugar cookies for myself.  During the car ride home I remembered that I'm still too scared to light my oven...darn it all I want those sugar cookies!!!!!  Later that evening, I went back to my counterpart's house with her sister to make gingerbread cookies and build trees with them.  Well, that failed too hahaha...at 10 pm we were still waiting for enough cookies to build with and decided to call it quits.  Oh well, there's always next year.  Zsuzsa did make a tree the next day though...super cute! 

Yesterday I celebrated Christmas Eve by watching a string of Christmas movies.  Later in the evening I went back to my counterpart's to help decorate the Christmas tree while her husband and son were out of the house.  Here, the angels bring the decorated Christmas tree and presents.  So her son had a nice surprise waiting for him when he got back.  We opened presents before heading to mass at 9 pm.  We were late, so we got to stand in the doorway.  Let me tell you standing in the cold, not being able to see, and not understanding a word of the language all add up to an hour of daydreaming...hmm.  I'll have to make up for it somehow, maybe I'll understand mass next year.  Or more likely, it'll have to wait until Christmas 2012.  After mass we ate a large meal that finished around midnight, then I went home to bed....eating late is a common theme here haha.

Zsuzsa's tree.

Today I didn't have much to do (my Christmas package is still not here :( ) so I watched some more Christmas movies before being picked up by my counterpart's family to go back to her house for Christmas dinner.  We sat at the table for 2 hours eating and talking...well, they talked.  I daydreamed...and then I came back to my apartment, and here I am! 

A few weeks ago I started writing down 3 things I am thankful for each day in my journal...a few days later I also started a segment entitled "3 things I now appreciate."  Here are a few examples:

December 15th:

Today I am thankful for:

            My super warm North Face jacket with its extra big hood…without I would freeze in the Romanian tundra I call home

            Cute boots that I can tuck my jeans into so I can be Romanianly fashionable…even if they leak.

            Colors.  They make for a fun class where I can laugh at my children and they don’t even know it :)

December 16th:

Here are today’s 3 things I’m thankful for:

1.       I have to go back to the jacket…I didn’t freeze while shopping today…and it leads into number two…

2.      My Grams, for helping me buy that super awesome warm jacket…and for many other things J

3.      My kindergarten meals…without them I would starve…or actually learn to cook for myself (here’s where you can snort with laughter).

And the “Things I now appreciate”:

1.       Long underwear.  You try waiting outside in the sub-freezing cold for two buses in one morning while also trekking across the town to do shopping, and then riding a bus back to your village without heat, and then walking across the village to get your kindergarten meal.  I can’t move my limbs.

2.      Cherry flavored pop/soda/coke, whatever you want to call it….I just love cherry, cherry’s my favorite.

3.      Being within a close proximity to a movie theater…I still haven’t seen Harry Potter!  It was only in Romanian theaters for a WEEK!  So weird, maybe it will come back.  But I refuse to watch a cam version of it!

And for today:

Today I am thankful for:

1.       Friends and family, old and new, who made the holidays all the more bearable.

2.      Romanian sales promotions.  “Why yes Cappy, a.k.a. Minute Maid, I will buy two abnormally large cartons of orange juice just so I can get that free glass.”

3.      Sugar.  Or the holidays because then its accepted that you will eat sugar, sugar, and more sugar :)

Things I appreciate more:

1.       The weather on the news.  Wait, I could watch that here too…nevermind.

2.      Pickle wraps…who knew they are what I would miss most about Christmas in the States.

3.      Energizer lithium batteries that last forever in my camera.  Every time I use my camera I’m careful to not use too much of the battery.  I don’t know where or when I’ll get my next stash. Haha.

4.      Package tracking…darn it mom, next package make it trackable, I’m going insane with all of this waiting!