The First Assignment (Day 2)

So this week is full of lots of firsts.  On my second full day in Romania I was supposed to meet Cami at BCA (Bucharest Christian Academy), have a meeting with her and then help pack up the school because they just got a new building for the next year and they were moving there on the last day of school.  Although this was supposed to happen, since David hurt his ankle he had to go to the doctor instead.  While David was at the doctor I was to complete my first assignment in Bucharest.  I was supposed to pick one direction, make 4 observations and walk that way for 10 minutes by myself!!!! And if I was feeling daring to go on the metro somewhere else, then walk ten minutes one way.  At first I kind of thought Cami was crazy because me in a big city alone is not the brightest idea, but she said it was safe.  I only needed to be careful of pickpocketer's and dogs. Here in Romania they love dogs but have a lot of strays and some of them can get mean, but they usually aren't.

David went to the doctor with Dave and I started out on another adventure wandering around the city and making observations.  I ended going on the metro to Distror 2 and started walking.  At first I was a bit on edge because city life is so busy, but then I was disappointed because I forgot the camera.  I stumbled upon this amazing park.  I am definitely planning on going back to it.  I feel as if it was a children's park because of all of the toddlers and such there, but there were older people as well.  The park was surrounding Lake Titan and I walked around half the lake.  It was huge.  I spent about an hour there and then I figured I should get back on my walk in one direction.  The park had a dog park inside it, rose gardens (which this city apparently has the best weather conditions for growing roses), fountains galore, a lake, and a few animals.  It was definitely a park.  So when I was their I bought some fristic ice cream all by myself and it was really good.  Definitely recommended.  And the best thing was, it only cost  2 lei or $0.60.

When I left the park I probably walked about another 20-30 minutes and then turned back around to go home.  I did not have any trouble returning home.  On my walk I saw a lot of block buildings (which are like small apartment complexes) and many little shops.  The banks here are also huge.  Some are small, but I have noticed that a lot of the really tall buildings that are not blocks are banks.  There are of course a lot of other things here too.  It is such a huge city and I can't wait to explore it more.

Well my assignment was to make 4 observations and then draw some assumptions from them.  Four observations and assumptions included:  There was a lot of greenery in the city and it was there so that the city would look cleaner (it is kind of a dirty city), peaceful, and for privacy; People who own dogs owned small dogs and I thought that this was because people did not have enough room for bigger dogs and they had even less space to go outside and run around; Almost everyone carries something around and it is strange to have someone not holding something and I thought this was true because people have no reason just to be out unless they are out to get something or be somewhere; and I also noticed that practically no one wears tennis shoes but rather stylish or dress shoes (even the males) and this was because it was all about style and in no way comfort.  If you are dressed down people automatically know you are American.

The next day Cami and I were going to talk about my observations and assumptions.  When I returned to my place I found out that David had fractured his ankle and had a cast on. Apparently Romanians like to put casts on practically everything. :)  So I went to Mega Image, which is a grocery store, and bought some food all by myself and I learned the word for bag because here you practically pay for everything.  Bags, Ketchup at McDonalds and even water at fast food places. It's crazy, but I bought the cheese pretzels (Stickletti) and they definitely taste like gold fish back in America and have an after taste of Mac N Cheese, WHICH I found out that they do not have here in Romania!!!!!  So... I will be deprived for about three months from Mac N Cheese.

That was such a horrible thought to go to bed on, but I did anyway.  Unfortunately I do not think that this was the reason I did not sleep well that night.  It was an on and off sleep and when I was awake I was definitely thinking about stuff.  God definitely put some heavy family stuff on my heart, which I am still working through so prayer for that would be much appreciated.  Even half-way across the world there you can not run away from problems or just forget about them.