Well I got back last week from probably the most awesomest 10 days of my life. The other exchangers and I went on Romania tour! It was a tour throughout Transylvania. First we drove up to Alba Iulia. This was the meeting point for everybody. It looked like Narnia, and it was some of the first snow I saw here. Just for review there are 9 exchange students total. Lexi (USA), Liz (USA), Shelby (USA), Alex (USA), Milena (Brazil), Marco (Mexico), Louis (Mexico), Paul (Taiwan). We arrived there around dinner time and everybody was all happyish and yeah. We also got to go clubbing, mom don't freak out. I was safe.
All the pictures on the left hand side of the screen right now are of Alba Iulia. We went to this really cool castle, which then again looked like Narnia. We also got to see a changing of the guard. That was very interesting to see, although it was FREEZING.
Then there was a beautiful church, but I have learned that in Romania all church's are pretty haha. After we got to see all of this wonderful stuff we left for Sibiu! I have already been to Sibiu before but it was just as beautiful as before. We talked at some high school to teenagers. We got to go back to the Museums and go through the towers again
. They also had a "christmas" market in the main square of the city, which we got to walk around a little. We also got to go clubbing, again. It was actually pubbing.
After Sibiu we left for Bran Castle....A.K.A Draculas Castle! AHH so exciting! Bran was so amazing I wish we had had more the 40 minutes in it! It was huge! Yet, the door sizing was more dwarfish people. Not really tall. For some odd reason there was a guillotine.... I don't know why.
After that we went to Brasov (my favorite) and we went to another ROTARY MEETING! oh so much fun. Only thing they had some weird tasting hors d'oeuvres
.
The next day we got to walk around the city a little bit, which was so much fun! We also had an amazing lunch. We also realized that the day before, when we were at Bran we celebrated Shelby's birthday. We discovered she told us the wrong day for her birthday and that that day was actually her birthday... The next day we went to Targu Mures, which weirdly enough I didn't get any pictures of haha. We went clubbing there too and we got to see the new wing of the university. Marco and Alex want to go into a medical profession so they really enjoyed that because the university was for medically things. The next day we left! I don't think we spent over 12 hours in Targu Mures ha :D After that we went to Sighisoara, which we have already been to but I love it there! Plus it was winter...ish. No snow yet but thats okay. We ate lunch at Sighisoara and then we went to a church. Walked through a graveyard. Then we left :(
Fun Funs haha
This is probably one of the prettiest views in Sighisoara besides in the clock tower which sadly was closed this time.
After Sighisoara we went to Bistrita, which was fun, but there wasn't too much to see :(. The Rotary club there though was very nice and I enjoyed that night very much! After Bistrita we went Sighet. The last city. I loved Sighet because it had so much culture. We also went to a club here. The only not so fun part about this is we always get like 3 hours of sleep :(. The next day we went to a monastery which was AMAZING!
They also gave us funny hats... O_O
After that we went to a traditional house.... we watched a traditional pig slaughter......
We named him porkley :(
At first we ate some food, then we got hot wine. Yummy. Then we watched Porkley get murdered.
 |
Porkley after
|
 |
| Porkley before |
--------------->
Then we got to watch some traditional singing and dancing which I loved. Then we did traditional fire dance ;) haha Overall it was a pretty good night!
The next day we sadly had to say goodbye to each other :( I miss my exchange family soooooo much!
Life in Valcea: CHRISTMAS TIME! There are lights everywhere and it is very gorgeous. We also just celebrated my birthday :D I'm switching host families today. Also I met my third host family last night and they're very very nice and I'm excited to have them! Wish me luck today :D
Well happy holidays to everyone who reads this. Christmas in Romania is going great, but it's weird. It doesn't feel like Christmas. In America, we put up a Christmas tree a month before Christmas, and there are always Christmas movies on. Plus going to get Starbucks peppermint hot chocolate with my friends was a bonus also. While missing all of that one really does realize though how appreciative they are of things at home, and here. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now. I have come to love my new exchange family, the other girls in Valcea are my adopted sisters now. The kids in my class are all very kind, and they have been singing Christmas Carols for most of the week. Although being with my host family is new and awkward, all is going well. Ramnicu Valcea is lit up like no other city I have seen. There is a miniature market in the center, in which they sell this amazing round cake stuff that is covered in sugar. The only thing I would wish for now, is snow...
