Tuesday, November 28, 2006

This morning I got up and took and shower, used the computer and then Shannon and I got out on time. She bought a gogosi and we bought more tickets and then headed off to Dancu. Dancu was alright today. Now Mihai and Petrica are sick. I spent the first hour or so with Mihai and had quite a nice time. He’s so cute! It was great because I never ran out of ideas on what to do with him and he was always happy. I blew bubbles, blew on his face, bounced him around, laid him on me and brought him close to the toys etc. etc. etc. I spent a pretty short time with Iuliana, a goodly amount of time with Costica and some good time with Petrica, who was just a doll again. Nuti and Dada were working and unfortunately at one point Nuti blew up at Mihai. He’d done that thing where he pulls the table cloth off again and she didn’t think it was quite so funny as I did. She came in and just started railing on the poor boy. He started just sobbing and it was sooo sad. I mean, he barely ever gets yelled at and definitely not like that so his poor little spirit was so hurt. After she left I went over and gave him a hug and the water bottle to play with and he cheered right up. My two favorite parts of Dancu were these. For the first one, at one point Petrica fell off the couch and got stuck in between the chair and the couch and was just wedge in there with his sides all squished and his arms all up and I looked over at him and just started laughing and he just looked at me like, “um, I don’t know what to do or what’s happening.” It’s hard to imagine without knowing the boy, but yeah, he’s just generally really clueless and that made it classic. The other favorite was swinging Mihai in the blanket. At the hospital, I started off with Nicu. I was with him for a good couple of hours too. I fed him and then he fell asleep for a few minutes and then was awake the rest of the time. After I left him I went down with Gigi on the first floor. He’s so cute! When I got there the poor guy was crying with his head down on the mattress. I went over and wiped away his tears and picked him up and gave him a toy and he was fine. He’s really easily upset though. Like all I’d have to do was turn around and he’d start whimpering. Holly came in and told me something really interesting though! Apparently he was there here first semester here (a year ago) and he was just a newborn and this one girl fell in love with him and spent like every day with him. So, I took pictures and we’ll send them to her. That makes me sooo happy, because I can’t imagine what it would be like to see one of these kids a year from now. Especially if they were just a newborn then. So then I met up with Melissa and Jenna (Shannon met us there) and took the tram to Dacie. Before we went up the stairs to the apartment, Jenna and I took a bunch of pictures of the area, because it was all foggy and pretty. Dacie is right by the gypsy village and it looked gorgeous in the middle of this huuuge field in the fog. At one point there was even a horse drawn cart that galloped past. It came from the fog and was going at full speed with the mad yelling and snapping the whip and then disappeared into the fog again. Soooo cool. Dacie was…different. Georgiana and Mihai got fostered, Marian goes to Penilla now and we got a new girl from Mickey Mouse. I’m glad that Georgiana and Mihai got fostered, because it’s sooo good for them, but I’m sad that I won’t see them again and that I didn’t even get to record their voices! I’m also sad that Marian isn’t there until the kids get back from Penilla. The new girls is really cute though! Her name is Andrada and she’s wheelchair bound, but you can pick her up and stuff. She’s really happy and smiley and pretty and she gives the cutest little laugh when you tickle her feet. I seriously don’t think I’ve met many sweeter little kids. It’ll be interesting to see how it all pans out for Dacie, with half of the kids being different. After Dacie, I actually really enjoyed the tram ride home. Jenna let me listen to one of her earpieces for her ipod and I just listened to whatever songs she played. While I listened, I just watched the tram move and looked outside and thought. It was great and I realized a lot of things about Romania and how I feel about this experience. One of those things is that I’ve discovered that I really do truly love this place and it really has become a part of me. I was thinking about how I’ll be upset when I get home and I can’t explain it to anyone so that they’ll understand the way that I do and I realized that it feels like it does when there’s a certain aspect of your personality that you can’t explain to someone and it was then that I realized that Romania, the Romanian way of life, all the silly things they do that are just caused by superstition, the mentality, everything are actually a part of my personality now. I will look at things the way I always did, but also in an added, different way. No, I don’t completely think like a Romanian now, and definitely don’t agree with a lot of things that they tend to think, but I can’t help but at least see some things the way they do. And when I get home and I see things that way there won’t be anyone to discuss it with like there is here. I also realized that traveling is very therapeutic for me. When I say that, I don’t mean visiting different cities and seeing all these great sights, I mean just the actual act of walking, flying or sitting in some kind of transportation vehicle is therapeutic. I loved just watching the tram sway as it moved. I find long car trips refreshing, etc. etc. So, maybe, the reason why I need to travel, is not that I need to see all these great things (though I like that too), but because the getting there and the getting back are so good for me. Well, tonight was really beautifully foggy (it has been for a couple days now), so Shannon and I decided to go over to the Palat and photograph it in the fog. It was soooo incredible! I felt like I was in a dream or something. I mean, there’s this huge, gorgeous Palace in the fog, with the turrets disappearing in the mist, not to mention all the beautiful melancholy trees and the Orthodox church with the mood behind it and the horse statue with the beams of light shining through it. Yeah, no explaining.