Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Paste Fericit

Hello to everybody again. Well this is the third day of Easter in Romania. This was probably my favorite holiday here. First we went to the church the night before, and we listened to the ceremony and lit the candles. The "high" priest of valcea was there, he is 96 years old. I was really surprised to see him. Also about 200-300 romanians there and it was so interesting and amazing to see.

This is the church I went to for Easter
This is the second high priest of valcea


In Romania they play this "choc" game where you get two dyed eggs, and one cracks it against the other. The person whose egg doesn't crack wins! I have actually lost, a lot! Oh well. This is my second week of break and I am loving it. Although the weather isn't exactly lovely, it is nice to have a break. Also my father comes in two weeks! I am excited to see him.
Making brownies with Martha

My Easter Eggs
The second day of Easter, Monday. I went to my host parents house and we ate more food. So much food!

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Christ is alive!

Well this is the week before Easter, and lets just say Romania had been very busy. Today is Good Friday, but the Romanians call it Big Friday. Well it has been an interesting week. The week starts out with Flower day or Palm Sunday. First off, on Palm/Flower Sunday anybody with the name that has to do with Flowers is celebrated, including Floryn. That is the only name I know that has to do with flowers. Also we got to see the priests of Ramnicu Valcea "march" or "parade" however you would call it around to all of the different churches


The guy with a crown on his
 head is the Main priest of Valcea
Other than that though I didn't get to see much of the church services offered throughout the week. I also went to a Catholic celebration of Easter. I didn't get any pictures of that, but hey it's the same as in the states, however there were the cutest cats outside the Church. 

My God those are the times when I want to steal one and bring it back to the states :D

Also, this week, I have a lot of times to hang out with my friends here which is awesome. Yesterday, I got to make brownies with one of my friends Martha.
Yummyyyy. They turned out great! I did this with no measuring cups and not all of the ingredients. I am so proud of myself. This week has been pretty great actually. Everything is going normally, and Valcea is as pretty as ever. Tomorrow I begin the Easter cooking, which I am excited for! Although all of the cakes have already been started. I know traditional Romanian food for Easter is sarmale, mamaliga, and lamb. Sarmale (which I love) is meat cabbage roles. Mamaliga is polenta and is usually served with some sort of cheese/sour cream mixture. For Easter it is tradition to sacrifice a lamb, however not all families do this. They sure do love to eat it though! Wish me luck with this weekend I might be so fat, I cannot get on the plane.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Having the Time of My Life!

Well it is exactly three months until I leave today. The weeks are going by faster and faster. Each passing day I want another to stay. Everything has been great lately. Making new friends, eating, and school nothing to much. This week in Romania they have a "different week of school." This is where the students plan a week of fun with their teachers. Granted most of the time we're just confused, it has been fun.

Spring is Here!
Since I haven't given an update since I switched host families, I would like to say that I love them very much! They are a very kind understanding family. They have two kids which are in America and in Switzerland now.

The week of fun
boys playing football
Another weird fact is that in the United States I know all of you are enjoying your time with break. Well here Easter is exactly a week later. I am very excited for Easter. The biggest religion in Romania is Eastern Orthodox. For Easter the people go to churches and light candles. I am excited, but I don't know the details. Another little thing I have picked up on is that they love to eat lamb... not too excited about that.




Also on the last day of March it was Earth Day! It was very fun because from the hours 8:30 - 9:30 they turned the lights off in Valcea. A lot of the youth gathered in the main square to light candles. Interact and the Europe Direct put this on and there were some entertainment. It was all great fun :)