Spring Is Around the Corner

Spring is in the air, at least it seems like. It seems warmer, sunnier, and greener here the past week, so much so I've made the bold decision to pack up the long underwear. My sources tell me the weather could change at any moment and that it could very well snow later this week, but I'm think they've had too much salami. People are starting to come outside more and do "outdoorsy" things, such as eating lunch in the park, playing soccer, and street merchants setting up their carts in the city center. I know I'm going to jinx it by saying this too soon and with my luck there will be a blizzard this weekend, but I'm betting Spring just around the corner.

Last week we went by the Serbian/Hungarian border to take care of some stuff, and it got me thinking: Can I now say I've been to Serbia? I was five miles from the border, and I know that I wasn't "technically" there, but I'm going to say I've been there because I don't know anyone who's been closer (except for Preston Curry, who lived there). We had a meeting on Saturday in Susani with all these funny, sweet kids who did a bunch of arts and crafts. They'll be some of the kids we get to do VBS stuff with in the summer, so I was glad to spend some time with them. It was weird, all of them looked like we could be related. Ovidiu asked me to speak on Sunday so I spoke on Luke 15, which I thought went well. I felt very priviliged that he would want me to do that and afterwards, like usual, we had some of Adina's heavenly cooking and hung out at the house sharing funny stories. On Sunday night we had a big meeting again in our apartment, which is slowly getting bigger.

On Friday we're going to the Gavojdia Orphanage for the first time, which is something I've been looking forward to for a long time. I'm eager to see what orphanages look like here in Romania and to have an unbelievable experience like that. One thing I love about being in Romania is that every day seems to be a great experience that I've never had before. I wake up every day and know that this isn't just a normal day, but a day in which I'll be living in a culture I never imagined I would ever experience.For instace, when we came in the apartment a little while ago, we saw our old gypsy friend digging through our garbage can for food. We gave her a loaf of bread and some encouragement, and as she was leaving I can't help but think that those type of moments are ones I won't ever forget. Some things just go beyond words.

Since it's been a while, I have two funny stories of the week: 1)My friend Raul told me on Sunday that he had a pet lamb one time. I thought it was funny because it was so random, so he tells me the story (without any pauses at all), "Yeah, it was great. I walk him on leash all the time and he pull me around and he was my friend. He was so cute and awesome, I loved it. But my Dad killed it and we ate it for dinner." That's a story twist for the ages. Raul's the man.

2) I was in the shower yesterday and about to start to get the shampoo out of my hair, and all of a sudden I see solid brown water all over my feet. I thought it was something in my hair so I started washing my hair to get it all out, but looking down I see Nesquick-colored water running down arm. The maintenance crew was working on the water pipeline outside and all this dust and dirt had gotten into the pipeline, so the water looked like Austin Power's coffee in "The Spy Who Shagged Me." No worries, though: early yesterday afternoon everything was back to normal. Danny and Ruben laughed at me and said they'd never seen it so brown in their life. No matter where you are in the world, brown water is never natural. Have a great week friends.