Saturday, October 21, 2006

Yesterday was a fabulous day! It started off with Shannon and I going to the cemetery. On Friday, after we bonded and made up, she suggested we do something that would be rejuvenating and not stressful on Saturday so that I’d be able to de-stress. At first we were going to just take some tram wherever we wanted and explore the city, but then I had the idea of going to the cemetery. I love cemeteries and ever since we’d seen this cemetery I’d wanted to go to it. Shannon loves cemeteries so we decided that the perfect activity would be to just go to the cemetery and read. Well, we took a tram there and got there about 11 and just started wandering around. I love cemeteries because they’re so peaceful and beautiful. They have such mystery about them and they make you wonder about everything, especially the meaning of death and the meaning of each life. Not only does each person buried there have a story, but sometimes their death and what has happened since their death has it’s own story in and of itself. A cemetery is the kind of place where it’s so big and so packed with things to explore I always feel as if I could never exhaust what it has to offer. There are always so many pathways to go down and so much down each pathway. I also think that this particular cemetery may have been my favorite cemetery so far. To begin with, almost every person in the cemetery was one of the cute old men or old women that we always love to see, giving it a great atmosphere right off the bat. Also, I just love the Romanian way of setting up a cemetery. It wasn’t organized whatsoever, which graves facing all different directions, trees and flowers sprouting up anywhere and with more creative tombs than I have ever seen. I also love how often times the tombs would actually include pictures of the person there interred. And there’s just something about good old traditional crosses that makes it all seem so picturesque. There were quite a few fabulously unique things we saw or experienced there. One of the first was turning around to see a large grave with a big curly haired white dog just sitting peacefully on top, almost as if he was content to quietly wait with his master until he too was visited by death. It was also interesting to come upon the tombstones of an artist, and actress and a musician. Each, it its own right, were beautiful and touching and most of all absolutely striking. The artist’s, first, was constructed out of a large, seemingly randomly cut stone. On the face of the stone was carved a torch, and a painters color board with paint brushes. The actress’s, possibly the most unique one of all, was made of a large, again randomly shaped stone. On each side of the stone were torches and toward the bottom of the stone, was carved a small compartment where family and friends place flowers, etc. This was carved so as to give the impression of stalagtites and stalagmites hanging from a cave ceiling. Around the tomb was a square gate of sorts with a large looped chain and crosses for posts. The entire thing was incredibly dramatic and looked like the grave of Dracula. And lastly was the very peaceful and simple tomb of the musician, complete with an actual composition, carved in marble. We did not of course see all of these right in a row, but spread throughout the morning and throughout the cemetery. Also of interest were the many startlingly beautiful sculptures, including two peaceful angels, one, lifesized and with arms outstretch toward the sky and with sunlight coming through the trees to light her. The other, kneeling humbly on the leaves, on a cramped path in between several tombstones, seemingly not belonging to any one grave and falling apart as well. We also saw one fabulously moving sculpture done in the classical greek style with two deeply passionate males, the one ripping the fabric of the other. Lastly, there was one with a giant statue of a woman that much interested a little boy and a little girl who were exploring the cemetery on their own. They went right up to it and stood on the gate that enclosed it and just felt all around the entire thing. On a much more mysterious and partly creepy note, were the often abandoned mausoleums. The first was in complete ruins. It not longer held a ceiling, was absolutely crumbling and was bodyless. It reminded me of an ancient ruin and was serenely gorgeous with it’s ambling vines and deep steps of stone. The next, however, had more of an Indiana jones and the last crusades feel to it. The outside was beautiful, but rusting and locked. There was, however an opening, in the form of possibly a window. The window opened up to a small, 3 or 4 foot passageway. One of the wall of the passageway was the stereotypical haunted house wall type. It was crumbling brick, so decaying that I felt it might come apart simply upon my touching it. It was covered in spiderwebs from top to bottom, so much so that it seemed like just a white film over it. The floor of the passageway was just a mass of dirt, plants, crumbled stone and trash. Anyway, we walked in through the narrow opening and after 3 or 4 feet came to a drop off where we could see the entire inside of the mausoleum. It was set up in a rectangular shape. The wall we were standing in and that directly opposite it were the longer of the 4. On each side there were two rows of rectangular box shaped tombs (probably 3 long on the short sides and maybe 5 or 6 long on the longer sides). The bottom row was as low as the ground and then there was one above it and then above the second was just a flat surface and then a roof a few feet above it. The lighting was, of course, pretty dim. The floor was covered in debris, just as the floor of the passageway was. There was a lot of dirt, trash and crumbled stone. We also saw quite a few rope looking things, surrounded by what looked like pine needles, which we later decided had be funeral wreaths of the traditional type that we see being sold on the road from the hospital to Podul. Clearly then, we thought, the mausoleum had been in use fairly recently. The most curious part of it all, however was this. I’m not sure about the tombs in the side walls or the ones we were standing above, but in the wall opposite us, the tombs on the top row were completely cleaned out, while the row below it was not. As in, where there had before been a stone cover at the end of each tomb, to seal it off, now there was a partial stone seal, but each was broken and had a hole in one corner as if it had been punched through. We couldn’t entire see inside these tombs and really just weren’t sure whether there were still remains in them. Is it clear yet, why this experience was so creepy? I can see why Juliet was shivering with fright when she awoke inside a tomb, all by herself. Just after passing by a chanting group of mourners, led by a typical Romanian orthodox priest, we discovered the military section of the cemetery. This was the only ordered section in the entire place, and the only one without trash. The first section we came upon, was actual the Soviet Cemetery. That’s when you know you’re in a formerly Soviet Bloc country. It seemed to have a combination of regular, named soldiers and unknown ones for it’s inhabitants, but we still aren’t entirely sure what it all meant (as it was in Russian). The second second was for World War II veterans. Here, there was likewise and mix of known and unknown soldiers. At the back of this section there were a few other random soldiers. One of these was a young man who was only a month apart in age from Arron and who just died in April while in Iraq. It was very touching to see. The last section was for World War I and it seemed to consist almost entirely of mass graves as far as we could guess. There were simply quite a few large crosses, each with one letter of the alphabet inscribed on them and each standing atop a large mound of earth. It was very creepy as well. Another touching thing that we saw at the cemetery was a fairly new grave, with several very new funeral wreaths place atop it and atop one of the wreaths, perched atop a flower was a little butterfly. All these things we saw just by wandering through the cemetery. Well, at one point, when we were largely at the outskirts of the cemetery, we came upon a little water pump. It had a lever, which I pumped halfheartedly several times just out of curiosity, then Shannon and I began walking away when it didn’t immediately start working. Well, just as we start to walk away, this very nice older lady come walking rapidly down the incline towards us, speaking rapid fire Romanian, to which we replied simply “Da…da.” Well, apparently our “da, da” worked for she continued to speak as though we could understand all these words coming out of her mouth. She handed me this small class she’d brought with her and indicated that she wanted me to fill it up while she pumped the water. I did so and drank it up when she offered it to me, for how could I refuse even the most vile water when offered but such a well meaning lady? Then she had me fill it up again for Shannon, for several people that walked by and lastly for her. At the end we simply exchanged some very simple pleasantries and she was off back up the hill just as abruptly as she’d come. It was all so happy! Not too long after this we decided we’d wandered around enough and we headed back toward the first abandoned mausoleum we’d found and sat on it’s steps and read for a little while. And what better book to be reading while sitting on the steps of an abandoned mausoleum in a cemetery in Romania than the Transylvanian horror classic, Dracula? It was priceless. After leaving the cemetery we quickly headed over to the cultural palace to walk through one of its museums before Shannon had to practice a song with Melissa. We ended up going through the anthropology one and it was pretty cool. It was very unprofessionally done, by American standards, and it was all stuff that I’d seen lots of before, but it spawned a pretty interesting conversation about prehistoric peoples. Later that night, at around 5:15, we all met at Tirgu Cucu to take a tram to a different part of Iasi (close to the Dacie apartments) to attend a Catholic Baptism Mario invited us to. Holly was sick and didn’t come, so the 9 of us followed Jenna who’d been given the instructions. After getting of the tram we waited on a street corner in the cold for about 15 minutes and the whole time we just talked about BYU classes and about how there are way too many that we’d loved to take. Finally, a very late Mario, child in hand met up with us and directed us to a very unique Catholic Church building around the corner. By the time we walked in the service had already begun and Mario was already there and we just filed in and copied whatever everyone else did. Every once in a while Mario would turn around and nod approvingly at us. I found the service fascinating and it was fun to see Mario so happy! She was as confused as we were because she’d never been to a Catholic service, so she was just following everyone too. Also, she was the Godmother and so she was a big part of it all and you could tell she was just sooo happy about all of it. She looked fabulous too. Also, it was the first time for me to see her little girl who is sooo cute and was running around the church with Mario’s friend/sister/whoknowswhat trying to quiet her down the whole time. She actually looks exactly like the female version of this adorable little boy in Dacie named Marian. After the service, we all went over and congratulated the baby’s parents and took a peek at her. They were all sooo kind and welcoming. Mario was really happy too and you could tell she was happy to have us there as well. On the way home I had a really great conversation with Bri.