transatlantic

buna de minatza- that really means good morning, but it is actually night here. we dont know how to say goodnight yet, so for now i will just stick with that. i didnt write yesterday because i was probably overwhelmed and exhausted so tonight is for both days.

sunday as a special day. want to know why? because it was the sabbath duh. and here in romania we like to celebrate that by going to church. just like many of you. we all attended the International Church of Bucharest. This church was very fun because though it was in romanian it was also translated into english. i felt it was so amazing though despite the language barrier that we were all able to praise the same god together. the worship music was amazing both in romanian and english. in the service though, it was funny, they had a guest speaker who was from southern california so actually the service was in english and translated into romanian. silly huh? his message was very powerful though and i enjoyed it a lot.

as for today. i woke up overly excited. this occurred as i was pulling up my blue jeans. i slid my brown leather belt through each individual loop ohh so carefully and as i finally arrived at the buckle not only did it go through the normal notch BUT through the next one smaller.... ohhhhhh yeah. this romanian walking sure has paid off already. today we walked EIGHT MILES but we are averaging about 4 to 6 a day. arent you proud? by the time i get home you wont even be able to recognize me! well hopefully not that intense, but you know it never hurts. i like a good daily eight mile walk... not. my knees are already killing me and i feel like i have arthritis in them and it hurts to sit down and stand up. does anyone have some good advice? id could really use some right about now.

but besides my weight issue... today was a good day. this morning we went to the People's Palace. It is an enormous castle like structure that is said to be the first or second largest in the world next to the Pentagon. It was constructed in 1989 by the communist leader with a C last name that i cant spell. and it only took FIVE years to construct. here we were able to take a tour and it was beautiful. almost everything seemed to be made out of marble and there was huge chandeliers and the most beautiful view of the city. before the tour as we were patiently waiting outside the these three young handsome men came gliding in through the doors. immediately, as we all stared at them, they walked up to us softly questioning, "Do you speak English?" They could obviously tell we were American and we were all thrilled to meet some people from the motherland. All three mormon boys from Salt Lake City. All were very friendly and clung to us for the entire tour making as much conversation as possible. It was so funny to see how instantly all of our personalities changed around guys and especially around American guys. We were all back in our element. Though that only lasted a short while, it was nice for that moment to have the feeling of home.

The rest of the afternoon for my team was spent in the girls orphanage Catilla. There we performed a skit, made bracelets, and played games. It has been so neat since we have been to this orphanage a few times to start establishing relationships with some of the girls. They have started to recognize us when we come in and immediately run up and give us hugs. it is such a joyful feeling. this orphanage has been such a blessing to my time here so far.

thats about it for now.

Nu vorbest romaneshtay (phonetically) - I dont speak romanian. something that ive learned very well over the last few days.