Whew.
This is the first time we've had internet access since being in Romania, so Marit and Julie and I are all sitting around in our apartment in Lupeni, catching up on the outside world. To be honest, I find all this emailing a bit overwhelming. I don't really like being tied to my computer for long periods of time. But at the same time, there are so many people I love all over the world, whose lives I still long to be some part of and whose stories I still want to hear. So email me. After these first three weeks, I'll be able to contact you back much more quickly. :)
Let's see. I could fill this post with stories of what we've been up to for the past few days--there are certainly a lot of good stories to be told. But to be honest, I don't feel like typing right now, so I'll stick with the brief summary. We arrived in Bucharest Monday afternoon and immediately drove to a gorgeous little mountain town called Sinaia. We stayed on the grounds of the palace (crazy, eh?) for two nights, then drove for one very, very, very long day to get to Lupeni. We dropped off our stuff and grabbed dinner, then headed up the mountain late that night to arrive in the ski village of Straja. We've been staying in Straja since Wednesday night, at a little mountain cabana where some of the campers from Viata stay. Our two days in Straja have been filled with orientation to Viata and to our semester here in Lupeni; next week we're coming back up to Straja and working at Viata for the full week of camp. I really love it at Viata, and find myself dreaming dreams of coming back to Romania next summer to work at this camp--but for now I need to reign in all that enthusiasm and focus on the week ahead of me. Viata is beautiful, though: it's an outdoor adventure education camp which works to develop the social capital of Romania through the empowerment of youth, especially through character- and team-building. It's really awesome. The staff is great; the high ropes and climbing and orienteering and hiking are phenomenal; the kids are adorable; and I never, ever, ever thought I would hear the Tarzan morning exercise anywhere but Summer's Best Two Weeks... but I definitely heard it at Viata. (It's hard to mistake "Now Cheetah is Velveeta.") But I think I like it better in Romanian.
Much love to all of you--I'll try to post more interesting stories some other time. For now, a few pictures!
The palace and mountains in Sinaia.
The palace in Sinaia again.
Flowers! Mountains! Romania!
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