This was Vivien and Rachel's last night in town. It was sad to have Vivien leave since I've spent a ton of time with her here! We had a good time though and it was fun to have everyone out. This picture has Pauline (Holland), Adam (England), me, Carla (South Africa), Vivien (China), Kevin (Scotland), Rachel (England), Jimmy (England), Betsy (England), and Reolof (Holland). I love that I've had the chace to get to know people from so many different parts of the world since I've been here!

Sighisoara

On Saturday I went with Pauline, Celine (new volunteer from England), Vivien, and Jimmy to Sighisoara. We took the train about 2 hours away to go sight seeing. There wasn't too much to see, but it was fun to get out of Brasov for the day and see something a little different.

Western Bar

We went to this little Western Bar that we found on a side street just to see what it was like. It turned out to be one of the most hospitable places we've visited in Brasov! It was really cute inside and the owner brought us all cowboy hats and a toy gun to play with. There was also lots of good old country music playing the entire night. We had a great time playing cards and hanging out for hours!

Vivien and me ........................................Jimmy and Carla











Betsy, Kevin, and Pauline

Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving in Romania was wonderful! An American missionary couple who live in a nearby village invited everyone to their house for a huge feast. They made so much amazing food; all the traditional things were there like turkey, mashed potatoes, bread, stuffing, and tons of pies. There were over 40 people there including all the kids that were around. It was a great day of relaxing and hanging out with friends!

This picture has the Crossley's (the wonderful people who put on this whole event) on the right and my pastor Keala and his wife Heather on the left.

This was just one of the rooms in the house where people were enjoying the delicious meal!
The little ones got restless in the house, so we decided to go on a walk. This is Steffi, Sarah (with Costel) and me on our walk through the village.
Bridget, Rebeca and Steffi

Sunday School

I started teaching Sunday school at my church over here a few weeks ago for the kids who are 3 years old and younger. They are all Romanian kids in placement with people who go to the church I attend. There are 4 three year olds (Andreea, Alin, Roxi, and Alex) and 2 almost two year olds (Costel and Rebeca). They are a lot of fun! I think I'll be doing it every 3 weeks right now. The current plan is to try to get them to perform a live nativity for the church the week before Christmas! I'm not sure how well it will turn out, but they will look really cute trying to do it!

Teaching English

Every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon I go and teach English to a group of Romanian kids. We do very basic things like colors and animals. They learned head, shoulders, knees, and toes and that seems to be all they ever want to do! They're pretty cute when they sing it since they don't really know what the words are and they just say something that sounds similar. We're working on it though!

Hiking

On Saturday, I went hiking up Tampa (the mountain that has the Brasov sign on the top). It was a beautiful hike up and I had a lot of fun. The views of the city from the top were well worth the walk! The journey down was a little more trecherous becuase it was kind of steep and the whole path was covered with wet leaves. Luckily I made it one piece and didn't fall!

New Hairstyle

On Friday I got to babysit for some friends of mine while they went househunting. They have 4 Romanian kids living with them, and I spent the majority of my time with the 3 year old twins, Andreea and Alin. They had a great time giving me a new haristyle!

Slow Week

This week has been a little slow because one of the kids at the orphanage where I work is sick. I'm not sure what he has, but he ended up in the hospital and they are worried about him being contagious, so no volunteers are allowed in to work this week. I had to get tested as well to see if I had caught whatever he has. Hopefully my test will be clean, as well as the other kids, so I will be able to return to work next week!

Roommate!

I'm no longer living alone in my little room at my house! A week ago today, Betsy arrived from England. She is 18 and is doing the care program as well and will be here for 6 months. She is very sweet and we seem to get along really well.

Harvest Party in Romania

Harvest Party was a tradition we started back in college and would have every October right before Halloween. Mary continued the tradition in Dallas this year, and I was so excited to see that there were people in Romania who have the same idea! Some of the people I have met through church got together to have a Pumpkin Party. It was a little odd with the blizzard conditions going on outside, but it was still fun! There was pumpkin carving, crafts with leaves, and a game that allowed all the children to get lots of candy. It was a crazy house because there were only about 10 adults and least twice as many kids! Everyone had a great time.

SNOW!

Well, winter officially arrived in Brasov last week! On Thursday night I was leaving work and there were little white snowflakes falling from the sky. The snow continued non-stop until Sunday afternoon! It was REALLY cold and made me miss the Texas heat. It does make things look really pretty though. This first picture is of the outside of the orphanage where I work. There are 11 beautiful children living inside that I wish I could show you pictures of. They are all precious and a complete handful at the same time.

These are just a couple of pictures of the town square looking really pretty with the snow covering the buildings. I love walking around here and seeing everything covered in white (even if it is freezing!)