It’s
been a mixed up week. The professors over our internship came so we traveled
around Romania a bit! Goodness gracious, it’s beautiful! This first few photos are just from a rest stop. I got out of the bus started taking as many pictures as I could! I was so happy that I started spinning with my arms out, just lovin' life! Haha then I stopped...looked over and sure enough, to Romanian workers were stilling not far away and looking at me like I was insane....
Acum e toamna da! It's fall here!
Mobile home? No, pet shop!!!
Puppy at a rest stop!
Look at that face! How can you not pet him!
First official stop? The Blue Monastery! It’s a really pretty
monastery built in the 13th century. Apparently there was a king in
Romania back then who made a deal with God that for each victory he had in
battle he’d build a monastery. This was one of the many products of that deal! The whole time we were there I had Sound of Music songs running
through my head.
View from the Blue Monastery Cemetery
I missed the mountains, this made me very happy!
The hills are alive with the sound of music!
Next stop? An egg museum…. Odd for sure, but it was actually
really cool. We went to the largest egg museum in I think the world…how many
others are there? I have always been so proud of my Easter eggs until I came
here. Some of the eggs take hours or even days to create. They’re decorated
with the styles and techniques of the area they represent which was cool.
Pretty pretty pretty! This is a church by the Egg Museum
Final stop was a salt mine. It was 10 degrees Celsius down
in the mine and it smelled a little funny…but hey, it was cool. I guess people
will spend time down there because the salty air is good for your lungs. They
have a basketball/soccer court, a dance hall and a chapel down in the depths!
Heigh ho! Into the mines we go
This is a lake...in the mine. Apparently you row across it when you get engaged to announce it publicly...
Mine tracks
On Friday, instead of going to Moldova, the group went out
to our facilitator’s parents’ house in the country about an hour drive from
town. They’re almost completely self-sufficient, plus they’re some of the
cutest old people I’ve ever met!
Romanian cellar, pretty legit!
Cute little garden
"There's a drop off there, be careful!" Haha ok...
This is actually pretty normal to see even in the outskirts of Iasi
Mooo!!! This little sweetheart is a week old
Kitty!! It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!
Fresh Romanian milk mustache
K, back to what y’all really want to hear about…the kids!
Last week I lost three of my kids at the orphanage. The two older girls went to
an orphanage for older children and one of my little girls went out to a
satellite apartment (the apartments help prepare the children for placement in
the foster care system). I was sad to see them go, but I think in all cases it
is a good move for them so that makes me less sad. Since I’m my mother’s
daughter (and thus I cry a lot), it was a good thing that with the older girls
I didn’t know that they were leaving until a few hours before. They sung songs for
everyone in a good bye performance that I didn’t know was their good bye. Since
I didn’t know, I was just smiling so big watching my two beautiful girls. This
week I got three new kids, all were originally in Room 5 so I do know them a
bit. They’re all really cute! The new little boy came over to me on Monday, tapped
me the shoulder and gave me a big hug!
Oh oh oh!! I have to tell you about this! One little boy I'm working with is ten years old and has severe cerebral palsy. He probably won't ever be able to walk because his legs are twisted and he can't really move them. However, he can move his arms when he tries really hard. I work with him on stretching most days, but today I got him out of his chair and put him on his stomach on the mattress. Then I would sit a foot or so away and call out to him "hai la mine!" (come to me!) Other interns have done this with him, but I'd never done it with him before. It was tough for him but he did it! He used his arms to pull himself to where I was. I was so excited!
So the orphanage has been going well and so has the hospital! I have one little girl who I visit each day I'm at the hospital and she's started calling us "mai fetele", my girls. She was asleep last Friday when I stopped by the first time and when I came back, the nurse told me that when she'd woken up, she asked where her girls were and was upset when she found out she'd been asleep when I'd stopped by. Instead of dancing to my music like we normally do, she just wanted to sit on bed and have me hold her. I love that girl! Last week I was in the baby area of the hospital (we take turns rotating through the different areas of the hospital) and we've gotten a few of them walking! One little boy was a little shaky at the start, but now he just walks around the room on his own holding onto the cribs. Another little girl I was working with has started walking too! She can still only go about a crib length even with holding on, she's not confident enough to grab the next crib yet because that means she'd have to let go. It's amazing though to see how quickly they can pick things up and improve!
Back at the main part of the hospital I found a little angle wrapped up like a baby burrito today. He's one month old and has these beautiful dark brown eyes! That's him holding my hand :)
I love my life!!
Remember how I told you I wasn't allowed to pet dogs here? How did I ever think I could make it three months without this! This puppy dog came up to me after the hospital today. Hehehe
Sorry it’s been so long since my
last post. Don’t worry, I’m still alive! All is well in Romania. Actually, all
is awesome in Romania! Are you ready for an explosion of pictures and videos?
As far as the videos are concerned….sorry that a bunch of them are sideways. I
don’t know how to turn them and I didn’t realize that I was taking them not
right side up. Ah well! Beware, since this post covers two weeks, it’ll be
pretty scatterbrained. Oh, and heads up, I can’t use any of my kids’ names, so
all the names in here are nicknames for the time being. You ready for
craziness? Let’s go!
In the orphanage, each intern has a
set room that they work in, thus a set group of kids. There are 7 potential
rooms that you can be assigned in the orphanage. We got to choose our room
after we had visited each of them (I wrote a bit about that in my last post),
but I was worried that I wouldn’t choose the right one. But I chose Room 4 and
the next day when I went out to the playground with the Room 4 kids, Ana (my
little girl with dark curly hair) and one of the energizer bunny boys ended up
sitting on my lap kissing my cheeks. That was one of many times that I’ve felt that
Room 4 is the place for me!! Goodness, my kids are sweet! I have 13 of them
ranging in age from 3-14. It’s been great to have that set group of kids
because then I’ve gotten to actually work with them. In the past few weeks I’ve
gotten to do some physical therapy with my kids, which has been awesome! At
first it’s really scary because with a few of my kids, they are really stiff. With
one of my boys, I massage his legs to loosen up the muscles and then we’ll try
to extend them. He can’t really use his legs so he is always laying on a bed
and on his own he doesn’t really stretch his legs. So far, I haven’t been able
to get his legs extended past a 90 degree angle from his knee and his muscles
are so tight that it’s makes me nervous sometimes. Another boy I work with made
me nervous at the start, but he’s been doing really well. His left foot
naturally rotates in so I have to hold it in the correct position while working
with him, which I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable with. Fortunately if I talk
to him and tell him he’s doing a good job, he’ll help me with the exercises by
not locking his muscles. He’s really fun to work with because he is one smart
cookie. He is nonverbal but man, he can still communicate. That boy has a
really sweet smile and I’ve recently found out that he and Charles, the boy I’m
trying to help to walk, love bubbles! Charles loves to be active, but he can’t
walk right now and he needs to be watched, so he has to sit in his wheelchair a
lot of the time. Sometimes the workers don’t want me to get him out because he
cries when he has to go back in the chair. He knows how to do the motions for
walking and when he’s supported he can stand, but he doesn’t have the muscle
mass right now to support himself. That’s been different for me because I’m
used to babies who just need practice balancing to be able to stand and
eventually walk. I have a section from a book that the PT gave me about the
steps to getting someone to be able to walk, but with Charles, his legs need to
be stronger before any of it could be a possibility. Do you remember that bell
tower in Florence? After I got done with over 800 stairs, my legs were shaking.
Each time I get Charles out of his chair, I’ll help him to stand by a table and
within 20 minutes his little legs start to shake a lot worse than mine did
after the tower.
I’m working on PT with 4 of my
kids. With others, I’m just trying to be a friend. I have two older girls in my
room (11 and 14) and they love doing girly things with me J A lot of time I’ll let
my hair down so they can run their hands through it. Two weeks ago we got to do
something extra girly, which I was so excited about! We painted nails! I
painted Laura’s nails first and afterwards she just sat there in her wheelchair
and giggled! I had four nail polishes with me and Rory decided that she wanted
all four of them! So we painted her nails pink, then added pink sparkles, then
multicolored sparkles (like Laura had on her nails) and finished with green
polka dots! With nails done, it was hair time! All the children at the
orphanage have short hair, so there wasn’t much I could do with their hair, but
I’d painted two bobby pins with pink sparkles so I just pinned back a section
of each girls hair with them. Ah, it was so fun! These two girls also love
dancing. That’s probably my favorite thing to do with the two of them. Laura is
in a wheelchair and Rory has a hard time walking, but we danced pretty well together
if I may say so myself J Both love spinning under my arm so we do that
a lot. One day I found out that Laura also loves it when I grab both her hands
and run around her chair as fast as possible making her spin. That day I left
the orphanage so dizzy because we just kept spinning in circles! It’s hard to
say no when the spinning makes her laugh as hard as it does, it’s adorable!
These kids really know how to enjoy little things in life and it’s wonderful!
Speaking of the little things….we played with bubbles! I couldn’t seem to blow
them fast enough! They loved it!
There are a few of my kids that
were easy to bond with, but with others it’s been tougher. It’s for that reason
that these next few stories are so fun for me! A lot of the time it seems like
Ionela’s in her own world. It can be hard to communicate with her and I often
find it hard to make her happy. But each semester after the interns leave, they
write about each child. In Ionela’s write up, an intern had mentioned that she
likes music. So a week ago, I just sat with her and spent 10 minutes just
singing. It was so great! She was smiling and laughing and I loved it! So my
plan is to keep singing with her each day. Ha, speaking of singing, I’m
learning two songs in Romanian! Up to this point I’ve only known an elephant
counting songs in Romanian, my poor little kids! But now I’m learning two other
songs so variety is comin’!
So
remember my little elephant I was talking about above? His nickname will be
Tantor (the elephant from Tarzan). I call him this cause one of the other girls
on the internship taught me how to make an awesome elephant sound! So I taught
Tantor and now each day I’ll say “elefant?” Then he’ll say “da!” (yes) and we’ll
both start making elephant sounds! He’s also the one who love that elephant
song I know the most. He’ll come sit on my lap and say “du du du” which is his
way of asking for me to sing. Then I’ll bounce him up and down on my knee and
sing the song J
Oh man he’s a sweetheart. I say goodbye to each of my kids when I leave at noon
and Tantor will blow me kisses or kiss me on my cheeks J
K, so we’ll do a story sandwich. We’ve
done kid stories, now I’ll tell you some Romanian adventures and then back to
the lovely little ones!
There are a million and one dogs in
Romanian and I’m not supposed to pet any of them! I did really well until last
week when I saw a puppy outside of the hospital. We’re not supposed to pet them
because if they bit us, we may end up in the hospital for 3 days being treated
for rabies (this has happened to a girl on a previous trip). But you see, I
figured that a puppy wouldn’t break the skin, so I petted him and I was SOOO
happy!
Adorable sleeping dog outside where I buy my produce! Typical Romania
Another happy/ funny moment… I met
a Romanian celebrity! We got into an elevator with him…didn’t know who he was
and was kinda creeped out by him! The elevators here are really small and we
had a foot perimeter around this man, causing the 7 of us to be smooshed up
against the walls. We later found out that his name is Smiley and he’s a HUGE
star here. He’s as famous here at Justin Beiber is in the states….woops!
Us with Smiley
More stories coming soon! I don't have enough time to write everything today! I'll add it in next time, but here are pictures as a sneak peek!
All of the interns with the wonderful Claudia! This was at her baptism
Sorry, just had to show you another sunset!
So I don't quite know why, but there was an outdoor symphony/opera one night! The park in front of the opera house five minutes from my apartment was packed with people! It was such a neat experience! When the symphony played their first song, I was so excited it took my breath away!
Outside symphony! In this picture you can see the choir and the opera house in the back!
FIREWORKS!!! Best way to end an outdoor symphony
Me and Heidi+Random symphony/opera =Awesome!!
This is the opera house lit up like the Romanian flag
So by the orphanage there is a city park. I took my kids there one day and then took my friends there the next! I think we had more fun playing on the playground then my kids did :)
Me and Britta on the creepy duck see saw!
Carousel!!
Moriah and Debra on the see saw!
As part of this giant festival that's happening this week, there is lots and lots of food! Not all healthy...but hey, it was good!
Gogos! (pronounced gogosh) Deep fried donuts covered in chocolate!
Gulash! The giant pot was the reason I got it :)
We're gonna make a 80's workout video in these for a roommate project :) Haha gotta love livin' with these two!
Roommate matching outfits!
Finally made a successful pyramid!
Iasi days!
Success at Iasi days!
First rainy day...we got soaked!
After playing a game with kids at the hospital! My hair was even crazier during the game :)
Giant snail!!
The country :)
I love Iasi!
Can't wait til these leaves are yellow and red!
Before I petted a Romanian dog, I pet this Romanian goat!
